Pain the Musical Project

Pain is an Industrial Metal musical project that was started in 1997 by the only band member: Peter Tagtgren, who literally plays every instrument for his band. When he is touring or recording however, he has a number of people sit in with him, one of them being the new lead singer of Nightwish, Anette Olzon. Peter does rehearse with the people he is playing with however, he usually changes the artist/the people who play with him. He does improvise, but eventually he does get structured and eventually songs are created. Currently, his band is supporting Nightwish on one of their tours. Peter has made music videos for the songs:

• End of the Line
• On and On
• Suicide Machine
• Shut your Mouth
• Zombie Slam
• Same Old Song
• Nothing
• Bye/Die
• Just Hate Me
• Follow Me

(Wikipedia was where I got the list)

Here's one of the music videos, Follow Me: Featuring Anette Olzon:



It is a duende for anyone that plays with Peter for the first time but I think when Anette started playing with him for the first time, it was more of a big change for her because she was still adjusting, and even now is adjusting, to being Tarja's Nightwish replacement. However, I don't think Tarja would have been suited for this type of video because her voice is more operatic. It's interesting how Peter tries to improvise by playing with people who are not permanent members of his band and in the end how things are created.

Special Guest!?

Playing with Corey last time made things really interesting because we had not played together before and we really had no concept or structure to follow, not that it mattered. Together, he and I managed to create something, which I thought turned out to be filled with a lot of different emotions and feelings. I was all ready for the final performance but I found out something that would make this duo into an interesting trio: Steve asked to join us. How could you say no to that? Corey and I let him in and the two of us also found out a way to make it easier to compliment each other: anger. My timing was off in a few places and I noticed Corey getting mad about that so instead of being a good girl and trying to fix the tempo, I continued to make him angry because the sounds that resulted turned out to be pretty epic. What really added to it as well was the fact that the two of us were on opposite sides of the room. With the addition of the distinguished timpani maestro Steve, who would be at the back of the room, I suspect this final performance will be something that nobody would forget. I'll admit, before hand I was hoping to play with Matt H and Dan again at the final performance, because I worked really well with them, and in a way we bonded and got used to each other. In fact, everyone I played with ended up forming some kind of connection, yet due to them being the most frequent, I got closest with Matt and Dan. It is too bad I did not get the chance to group with everybody however I am glad that I am learning all of these things. This class has meant a lot to me, and now to have the chance to play with my professor in an improvisation sequence, well, that's just going to be a duende within a duende...

Custom Notations System: Created by Yours Truly

I was messing around on Photoshop last night when I stopped and looked at this picture that I made (above). For the record, yes that is an original. But when I stored it away in my folder of random pictures, I stopped and went on a flashback of the cardboard box notation system that Dan, Matt and I went through. To think, the squiggly line, the weird circle and the spork could be the directions of a musical piece. And then I asked myself, If the cardboard box went over really well, how would this picture do? With the group I'm in, I would imagine that the result would be pretty intense, especially since it's four guitars and the piano (that would be me). And I'm not talking about four guitar players that play the same exact thing: I'm talking about four players that I've worked with and enjoyed listening to this entire semester. DJ, Andrew, Jack and Dan are talented musicians (so is everyone else in the class, but this is the group I'm in) and I think we'd be able to pull it off as a group. But then I saw another picture that I created.

What kind of sounds would this one invoke? Both pictures are very different and were not originally created to become notation systems. However, in a moment of nostalgia, I decided to turn them into just that. My group does not know about this, nor have I played on them yet. I am waiting for when the time is right to experiment with the pictures that I have made. There are a few others I have created, and I will post them here. If you ever run out of ideas or anything to improvise off of, feel free to use my pictures.

Structure in Improv?

The most recent assignment was to start getting some structure when improvising, or at least get a rhythm or a sound that you could remember for Wednesday's class. That made me think back to the discussion we had about improvising in history and the true nature of coming up with things as you play along. In history, improvising was not widely accepted in the classical world, as it was thought to be too free-spirited and didn't stick to the elegant traditions of proper written form. The one thing that most anti-improvisation composers and critics failed to realize was the fact that most of the pieces that have made themselves famous today started out as a series of improvisations that came to a composer while he (or she) was writing. They mostly wrote them down because the composer thought that the improvisation that they did had a very rich sound to it and thought it should be preserved. There were a number of improvised pieces that did not end up getting written down, which could have been made famous today. Improvised music can be hard to record through any means because since it is usually a spur-of-the-moment thing, meaning that after one time, part of the original creation is likely to be forgotten and something new would take its place, hence the nature of improvising. But actual structure? Like a set key, a set rhythm, a set anything? I personally find that to take away from the fun of playing with so many different sounds. However, there are some times that I feel it is useful, especially if you're in a large group that you have never played with before. In this case, it could help all of the musicians get used to each other by limiting what they can and cannot play because it would force them to stay in sync with each other more. However, if musicians are fairly comfortable with one another, then I think the structure should die down a bit because while it would help everyone get used to each other, it significantly limits the work that can be created because of the limitations. The concept of improvising, as I have learned, is very strange because it itself seems to be a paradox in the fact that it requires structure sometimes and other times nothing matters.

Surrealist!

The surrealist salon went great!

There was a slight complication because Nate didn't show up on time *cough* so I had to share a keyboard with the other keyboard player in the class. I had no idea who was supposed to be doing what so I just jumped on the keyboard and started playing. I was definitely not dressed for the 1920's, more like dressed for a death metal concert. However I was having so much fun playing, and anyone who saw me could tell I was having so much fun with it. I got a little crazy too, played with my eyes closed, played with one finger, and played backwards. I didn't do that just to show off, I did it because I was just trying to cut loose, especially with all of the things on my mind recently.
I didn't know what was going on for part of it so I just started playing just to "blend in." However one time I got too carried away and almost totally overshadowed the other players (Oops!). The other keyboard player had to quiet me down.
There was this one part where we got into playing a song, Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana. I literally was like to the other keyboard player "let me on let me on!" because I really wanted to jam with everyone. Being one of the only keyboard players, I get kind of overshadowed by the louder guitars. But I had a lot of fun with it.

Upcoming Surrealist

My group and I are all psyched for this upcoming forum. We're planning on meeting again before next class, even though it's not till this next week after this upcoming one. My group consists of both Matt's, Dan and Sarah. Having played with Matt H the most, he and I work together really well because of the time we spent practicing. I'm also familiar with playing with Dan a bit because he sat in with me and Matt H. one time. I am not as familiar playing with Sarah and the other Matt as much but nevertheless it worked out really well last time we performed.
I'm going to be playing on a keyboard which is going to be different, because I am usually used to playing on a piano but nevertheless, I can adapt easily.
I've been trying to listen to completely random music so I could get into the mindset of improv, after all strangeness is what improv usually turns out to be. However, I'm just planning on showing up at the forum with absolutely nothing prepared.

I don't have much to say now but I am sure I'll have more after next class.

Back to Improv.

I apologize about the last few entries and how off topic they were. I had recently gone through a rough event that I must say, scared me, and it's a bit personal too. However I will continue to get back to my original purpose, as this blog was made for music.

So the last few weeks of improvisation turned out to be very interesting from using the system of unusual notation. The group that I was in decided to create a notation system using a cardboard box, which we coincidentally found in the garbage can of the E.A. lab. The three of us then proceeded to draw a few random pictures onto the box and we decided to play from that. However, there was no set note pattern and if anything, the images were only used as a base, otherwise we had to completely pull out the sounds from out of nowhere. It turned out to work very well, especially since towards the end, my groupmates Dan, Matt and I all ended up pretty much on the same chord. I had played in a group with them for three weeks now and although we had to change groups, I felt that the three of us worked really well together and I even sent an offer to them that I'm free whenever if they want to jam in the future.
This week coming up however, I have two new people that I have never played with and once again, I am the only pianist. Whereas both Dan and Matt were guitarists, I am not 100% certain as to what my new cohorts play, but frankly it doesn't matter to me. After all it is improvisation. Anyway, this coming week, we also needed to find some videos to work around, without using the video's sound of course. Being the nerd that I am, I immediately went on youtube and did a search on the most random things I could find. I am still waiting to see what my group comes up with and hopefully we will have enough to work with. In addition, I decided to take a look at my groupmate Ed's blog, to see if there was a way I could clean mine up a bit. I love how Ed has a number of different links to websites, songs, and all these other things, not to mention he had an entry for a lot of different videos, which I thought was really cool. I am planning on doing the same, and in addition, I might be making my own notation system as I found that to be really enjoyable. We'll see how things go!