Special thanks to my friend, Lennie Peterson for his beautiful

artwork; !my wife, April Hall for her endless hours of design and
layout, and my mother, Barbara Hall, for the unending
support she’s given to all my creative endeavors.

Bee Boy Press

Published by Bee Boy Press
Bee Boy Press (USA)
117 Roslindale Avenue
Boston, MA 02131
www.beeboyrecords.com
www.freeimprovisation.com

Copyright © Tom Hall 2009

All rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Hall, Thomas
Free Improvisation: A Practical Guide
p. cm.

Includes references and index

ISBN 978-0-615-32862-1

Printed in the United States of America

Written by Tom Hall

Designed by April Hall
Cover Art by Lennie Peterson
www.lenniepeterson.com

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 Free Improvisation: A Practical Guide 97

INDEX OF EXERCISES

1. One Sound, pg. 17

2. One Sound at a Time, pg. 18
3. One Sound, Anywhere in the Beat, pg. 18
4. Any Sound, Anywhere in the Beat, pg. 19
5. One Sound, Change Tempo, pg. 19
6. One Sound, Different Feels, pg. 19
7. One Sound, Together, pg. 19
8. More Than One Sound, Together, pg. 20
9. Ostinato Groove, pg. 21
10. Mutating Groove, pg. 21
11.! Dueling Grooves, pg. 22
12.! Mirroring, pg. 23
13.! Ending, pg. 24
14.! Awareness 1, pg. 25
15. Hearing Relationship, pg. 29
16. How Many Relationships Can You Find?, pg. 30
98 Tom Hall

17. Staying in a Relationship, pg. 31

18. The Same, But Different, pg. 31
19. Other Potential Relationships, pg. 31
20. Choose Before Playing 1, pg.32
21. Choose Before Playing 2, pg. 32
22. Choose Before Playing 3, pg. 32
23. One Voice Changing, pg. 32
24. Coming Together 1, pg. 33
25. Coming Together 2, pg. 33
26. Coming Together 3, pg. 33
27. Musical Relationships, pg. 33
28. Human Relationships, pg. 34
29. A World of Relationship, pg. 34
30. Starting a Groove Together, pg. 37
31. The Primary Rhythm, pg. 37
32. The Primary Rhythm +1, pg. 38
33. Awareness 2, pg. 38
34. Take It to the Bridge 1, pg. 39
35. Playing Over a Groove 1, pg. 39
36. Playing Over a Groove 2, pg. 39
37. Playing Over a Groove 3, pg. 40
38. Playing Over Two Grooves, pg. 40
39. Role Playing, pg. 41
40. Ending a Groove, pg. 42
41. Ending on a Riff, pg. 42
42. Awareness 3, pg. 43
43. Varying Your Part, pg. 44
 Free Improvisation: A Practical Guide 99

44. Break It Down 1, pg. 44

45. Break It Down 2, pg. 44
46. Break It Down 3, pg. 44
47. Break It Down 4, pg. 45
48. Playing With 1, pg. 46
49. Playing With 2, pg. 47
50. Coming Together 1, pg. 47
51. Coming Together 2, pg. 47
52. Improvising a Texture, pg. 51
53. Lots of Textures, pg. 51
54. Take It to the Bridge 2, pg. 52
55. Playing Over a Texture 1, pg. 52
56. Playing Over a Texture 2, pg.52
57. Playing Over Two Textures, pg. 53
58. Awareness 4, pg. 54
59. Varying Dynamics in a Texture 1, pg. 55
60. Varying Dynamics in a Texture 2, pg. 55
61. Varying Density in a Texture 1, pg. 55
62. Varying Density in a Texture 2, pg. 56
63. Breaking It Break 5, pg. 56
64. Playing Within a Texture, pg. 56
65. Moving to Each Part, pg. 57
66. Silence and Sound, pg. 61
67. Together, pg. 61
68. Apart, pg. 61
69. Together Blind, pg. 61
70. Apart Blind, pg. 61
100 Tom Hall

71. Together and Apart 1, pg. 61

72. Together and Apart 2, pg. 62
73. Together and Apart 3, pg. 62
74. Wanting to Play, pg. 62
75. Groups Within the Group 1, pg. 65
76. Groups Within the Group 2, pg. 65
77. Groups Within the Group 3, pg. 66
78. Groups Within the Group 4, pg. 66
79. Groups Within the Group 5, pg. 66
80. Groups Within the Group 6, pg. 66
81. Groups Within the Group 7, pg. 66
82. Groups Within the Group 8, pg. 66
83. A Simple Melody, pg. 69
84. Melody and Accompaniment 1, pg. 69
85. Melody and Accompaniment 2, pg. 69
86. Melody and Accompaniment 3, pg. 70
87. Melody and Accompaniment 4, pg. 70
88. Improvising With Melody, pg. 71
89. Group Melody, pg. 72
90. Awareness 5, pg. 72
91. Melody With a Second Person, pg. 72
92. Dynamics, pg. 75
93. Opposites, pg. 75
94. Form, pg. 76
95. Scales, pg. 76
96. Emotions, pg. 79
97. Visual Stimuli, pg. 79
 Free Improvisation: A Practical Guide 101

98. Words 1, pg. 79

99. Words 2, pg. 79
100. Movement 1, pg. 79
101.!Movement 2, pg. 79
102. Movement 3, pg. 80
103. The Sounds Around Us, pg. 80
104. Conducting, pg. 80
105. Group Groove + Group Texture, pg. 83
106.!Solos + Conducted Group Interludes, pg. 83
107. Short Textures!+ Dynamics, pg. 84
108. Form + Anything, pg. 84
109. Say Hello, pg. 87
110. Sound Ball 1, pg. 87
111. Sound Ball 2, pg. 88
112. Sound Ball 3, pg. 88
113. Human Machine, pg. 88
114. Free Association, pg. 89
115. Digits, pg. 89
116. Monkey See, Monkey Do 1, pg. 89
117. Monkey See, Monkey Do 2, pg. 90
118. Naming Things Wrong, pg. 90
119. Awareness 6, pg. 90
120. Alien Instrument, pg. 93
121. Listening to Others, pg. 94
122. Listening to Yourself, pg. 94
123. Long Tones, pg. 94
124. Patterns, pg. 95