Connecting Free Improvisation Performance and Drumming Gestures Through Digital Wearables.

ABSTRACT: High-level improvising musicians master idiosyncratic gesture vocabularies that allow them to express themselves in unique ways. The full use of such vocabularies is nevertheless challenged when improvisers incorporate electronics in their performances. To control electronic sounds and effects, they typically use commercial interfaces whose physicality is likely to limit their freedom of movement. Based on Jim Black's descriptions of his ideal digital musical instrument, embodied improvisation gestures, and stage performance constraints, we develop the concept of a modular wearable MIDI interface to closely meet the needs of professional improvisers, rather than proposing a new generic instrument that would require substantial practice to adapt improvisational techniques already acquired.

SUBMITTER: Pras A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8071876 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature