In this treatment I am proposing practice-based Post-Doctoral research aiming to apply and further

develop a method of music improvisation I have been working on and teaching for some years. This

will involve an introduction of a number of undergrad or postgrad-level students to a method of

improvisation via a practical course. Thus, a post-doc by creative practice, which should at the end

yield results both for myself as a researcher and pedagogue, for the students’ creative practice, and

also importantly, for the institution - establishing a very strong new tradition in music pedagogy.

The students will be of undergrad or lower-postgrad level, though it is possible to later adapt this

method for high school students also. The students will have proficiency in instrumental, vocal or

electronic music making, and their main interests should be Composition, Songwriting, or

Improvisation-based Music Performance. Ideally the method taught will eventually become a

foundation for students to approach self-directed practice as independent music-makers.

The course will have four main stages:

• learning foundation concepts, practical/theoretical.

• Series of practical exercises for solo practice and groups, as the main body of work.

• Reflection/documentation by students.

• Performance.

Premise of Method and Foundation Concepts.

The method “To Kyma” is based on a new treatment of time and its perception and teaches the

musician to regard the present moment in a new way. The student will learn to position her/himself

in time mentally before harmony, texture and the rest of compositional aspects are considered.

This is rooted in thorough teaching of many types of listening, internal and external, teaching the

“To Kyma” approach to rhythm cognition and time cognition. Rhythm and arythmicity will be taught

as paramount elements in creating form. Multi-pulse work, “free time” and being able to mentally

embrace several time-treatments will be important. In short, the musician will be taught how to

position their mind in time not just relative to what they play, but also relative to what the ensemble

as a whole has, is, and will be playing in the “long Now”. Below is an extremely condensed

description of some (not all) of the central foundation concepts that will be spoken about before

initiating practical exercises.

• “The Long and Short “Now”” – a treatment of the present moment as a fiction created by musicians.

The “short Now” is literally as close to the “present” as we can get - in this method it is a place of

expression (see “Constructing vs. Expressing”) rather than thought. The “long Now” incorporates

several other concepts which I will not elaborate on fully here. However, it is a period in time which

includes the recent past (memory) and the imminent, or sometimes more distant future. The “long

Now” incorporates a buffer zone of the future, but also is a “service lane” for the musician to process

what happened. The concept of the “long Now” incorporates ofhte things I will speak of below,

including “Future Listening” and others. The important part of this idea is that the musician is to be

mentally present both in the Short and Long “Now” simultaneously. This is a skill which we will

develop.

• ”In Time/Out of time” these are simply terms to apply to practice - they refer to the presence and

absence of the obvious pulse. “In time” and “out of time” are spheres for practicing different things,

and also mental states to use for creating different types of swing, or any other structures where

rhythm and arythmicity meet. They are also opposing directions on the compass of improvisation.

• “the Compass” (or the improvisation Ba-Gua) – a multi-dimention shorthand for different aspects

of music the musician can control in the moment. The compass includes many opposing pairs such

as “Acting-Reacting” or “Stasis-Change” etc. It also acts like a set of elements.

• “Constructing vs Expressing” – another pair of opposing directions on the Compass, but possibly

the only one where the musician needs to be constantly aware of both extremes. These two

directions are the central line I teach students to draw that divides their playing (more so than

listening) attention. Expressing and Constructing are chicken-and-egg, and Expressing often leads

the way to Constructing, as in this method there is an “opening” of attention that is based on what

kind of emotion/expression is looked for in the music, before this is translated into a construction.

This concept deals with partly dissecting how we see intuition, how to let go of control (fully or

partly) and how not to allow oneself to get stuck in “intuitive” habits.

• “Future listening” and other types of listening. No need to go into depth here – enough to say

musicians will be taught to integrate different types of listening into their practice, as, in this method,

listening is far more important than playing. “Future listening” also refers to specific uses of memory

in music and how it affects our expectations.

• “Momentum” – another concept that is to do with pulse/arythmicity, memory work, using swing

and processing things in the “long Now”. The word Momentum here means something a little

different from what it conventionally does.

There are many other concepts to be taught – a quick mention of some: types of swing, and what

swing is; fiction and non-fiction in music, musical metaphor and challenging conventions of the

literal; multi-pulse work and linearity; thinking of musical form and arythmicity as a type of speech;

parallels between speech and music improvisation; and many others.

The Exercises..

The exercises will be divided into two dichotomous categories. Moreover, there will be exercises for

performance or compositional techniques that are separate.

• Exercises for solo work at home as opposed to working in groups

• Exercises “in time” and “out of time”. Some of course will use both.

Moreover, there will be exercises for performance or compositional techniques that are separate to

the rest of improvisation exercises. I will not make a list of exercises here, as they are quite

numerous. I will however mention that specific types of rhythm, types of swing, arythmicity work,

diverse scales and work with pitch material, and some more conventional practices such as building

momentum, creating a solo, improvising accompaniment-style rhythmical riffs, forming basslines

etc. will be taught. There will also be a large listening list. Many of the exercises are also situation-

specific and student-specific, I have been constantly inventing new ones as I have now been for

some years teaching this method.

The Aims

The method “To Kyma” aims to create a generation of musicians whose approach to music-making

will be fundamentally different, more broad, creative and spontaneous than what is commonly being

offered. Whilst some of the things the method deals with seem familiar to many musicians who have

a broad skill base, especially in improvisation, street musics, rap freestyle, and world music

traditions - these concepts are advanced, not often spoken about, left to be discovered by musicians

intuitively. We do not aim to take intuition out of the process by creating a method - on the contrary,

we encourage the intuitive; however, by creating a method many of the concepts that are familiar

to mature musicians will be articulated clearly and introduced to them earlier in their development.

We are still in a pedagogical environment where classical musicians have a very weak grasp of

rhythmical structures as a way in to the rest of music’s aspects. Jazz teaching is still, generally

speaking, obsessed with harmony, and treats other aspects of music less seriously. “To Kyma”

teaches us that the transparent fluid of time is not just a canvas, but a central character in the

narrative of music; our treatment of time is fundamental to expression.

Here we aim to start a tradition in alternative listening and instrumental teaching, which will give

students a strong backbone of instant composition, as well as new tools for songwriting,

performance, that were previously not commonly available. I sincerely hope this method will make

its way into the midstream and be commonly applied.

Written in May 2019