David Dolan's guest appearances

David Dolan

Countercurrent: conversations with Professor Roger Kneebone

Nikhil Hogan Show

Alan Alda

Paul Smith

David Nott

Raul Midón

Chris Peters

Christian Howes

Peter Erskine

Emily Miller

Antony Gormley

Barry Smith

Bruce Broughton

Robert Levin

Jason Vieaux

Jeremy Monteiro

Adam Rutherford

OwlTail

Roger Kneebone

David Dolan is a concert pianist, teacher and researcher who has spent much of his career reintegrating classical improvisation into his performances. This is in the spirit of what was standard practice in musical performance up until the twentieth century. In this podcast we explore the idea of improvisation in classical music and in conversation. 

David Dolan is a concert pianist, teacher and researcher who has spent much of his career reintegrating classical improvisation into his performances. This is in the spirit of what was standard practice in musical performance up until the twentieth century. In this podcast we explore the idea of improvisation in classical music and in conversation.

David Dolan in conversation with Roger Kneebone

Henrik Jensen

We have a very special show today, returning to the show the master classical improviser Professor David Dolan, from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Also joining the program is Professor Henrik Jensen, from the Department of Mathematics at the Imperial College of London. He leads the Centre for Complexity Science, which engages in a range of research into the applied and fundamental aspects of complexity science. For today’s show, we’ll be diving into the fascinating collaborative research that my two guests have doing for the last 10 years, involving studying the brain with improvised and non-improvised music and how it functions during each activity, quantifying improvisatory behavior, improvisation and communication between brains. ----- 1:13 How did you come up with the idea of the project? 2:35 Talking about levels of synchronization 4:43 Deriving information from the EEGs 7:01 Were the musicians from Guildhall? 7:36 Talking about the instrumentation of the players 7:51 Did you need a harmonic player like a harpist to provide structure? 8:55 Talking about the selection of the music 10:55 Million dollar question: Is the brain radically different between improvising and non-improvising musicians? 13:09 What does the index mean? 14:06 Talking about the Strict phase and the Let Go phase 17:02 In the Strict phase, was the music sight read or memorized? 18:12 How is memory different between the two phases? 19:11 Talking about sustained attention 22:58 Is the brain being used more when improvising or less, is the brain more relaxed during improvising? 25:46 Discussing levels of comfort and familiarity with improvisation? 27:20 The difference in brain function in the speed of the improvisation 31:26 What is happening when the brain is undergoing a “magic moment”? 32:39 Did you tell the audience that the improvisation was a secret? 33:07 Talking about the listener’s experience during improvisation and non-improvisation 34:42 The Let Go portion had more interest in the listeners 35:29 If you could re-do the experiment with unlimited funding, what would you do? 36:48 If you had told the audience there was improvisation, would it have affected their answers? 38:19 Is the idea that Strict a left brain thing and Let Go a right brain thing a myth? 39:52 Is it just more fun to improvise? 41:53 What can you recommend people check out to follow up on this research? 45:21 Any other key takeaways from this research that we should mention? 46:30 What hypotheses do you suspect are the possible conclusions of this research? 49:37 Wrapping Up

We have a very special show today, returning to the show the master classical improviser Professor David Dolan, from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Also joining the program is Professor Henrik Jensen, from the Department of Mathematics at the Imperial College of London. He leads the Centre for Complexity Science, which engages in a range of research into the applied and fundamental aspects of complexity science. For today’s show, we’ll be diving into the fascinating collaborative research that my two guests have doing for the last 10 years, involving studying the brain with improvised and non-improvised music and how it functions during each activity, quantifying improvisatory behavior, improvisation and communication between brains. ----- 1:13 How did you come up with the idea of the project? 2:35 Talking about levels of synchronization 4:43 Deriving information from the EEGs 7:01 Were the musicians from Guildhall? 7:36 Talking about the instrumentation of the players 7:51 Did you need a harmonic player like a harpist to provide structure? 8:55 Talking about the selection of the music 10:55 Million dollar question: Is the brain radically different between improvising and non-improvising musicians? 13:09 What does the index mean? 14:06 Talking about the Strict phase and the Let Go phase 17:02 In the Strict phase, was the music sight read or memorized? 18:12 How is memory different between the two phases? 19:11 Talking about sustained attention 22:58 Is the brain being used more when improvising or less, is the brain more relaxed during improvising? 25:46 Discussing levels of comfort and familiarity with improvisation? 27:20 The difference in brain function in the speed of the improvisation 31:26 What is happening when the brain is undergoing a “magic moment”? 32:39 Did you tell the audience that the improvisation was a secret? 33:07 Talking about the listener’s experience during improvisation and non-improvisation 34:42 The Let Go portion had more interest in the listeners 35:29 If you could re-do the experiment with unlimited funding, what would you do? 36:48 If you had told the audience there was improvisation, would it have affected their answers? 38:19 Is the idea that Strict a left brain thing and Let Go a right brain thing a myth? 39:52 Is it just more fun to improvise? 41:53 What can you recommend people check out to follow up on this research? 45:21 Any other key takeaways from this research that we should mention? 46:30 What hypotheses do you suspect are the possible conclusions of this research? 49:37 Wrapping Up

84: Henrik Jensen and David Dolan

I’m so happy to introduce my guest today, Concert Pianist, Researcher, and Teacher, Professor David Dolan! In his solo and chamber music performances, he incorporates improvisation into the relevant concert repertoire in repeats, cadenzas, as well as in preludes, fantasias, and improvises on themes provided by the audience. In addition to performing worldwide, He is the Professor of Classical Improvisation and its various applications to solo and ensemble performance at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, David has been heading the Centre for Creative Performance &amp; Classical Improvisation since 2005. He also teaches at the Yehudi Menuhin School. Since 2011 David is running a programme of classical improvisation applied to performance at the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) in Melbourne based on annual intensive residencies. ----- 1:46 what’s your musical background? 2:14 When did you start playing the piano? 2:48 What were you improvising when young, what kind of music was in the house at the time? 3:06 Did your parents improvise? 3:25 Did your first teacher teach you the basics of playing the piano? 4:37 Do you have Absolute or Perfect pitch? 4:54 Did you still maintain your improvisation while doing your standard piano training? 6:02 Did you listen to traditional Israeli or Arabic music growing up? 7:04 What style of Classical music did you predominantly play in your training? 8:12 Were you the only one growing up that could improvise among your teachers and peers? 9:00 Did Haim Alexander hear you improvise? 10:40 What materials did Haim Alexander use to teach you? 11:20 What was a typical lesson with Haim Alexander look like? 13:24 Was his music theory conventional or did he have his own method? 14:13 Was the ear training Fixed Do or Moveable Do 14:52 What were your Masters and PhD studies about? 17:08 How would describe angry speech in music? 19:01 What year was this research? 19:22 Did you have peers or colleagues that you could relate to and talk to regarding improvisation as a professional, or were you alone? 20:01 Do you know Robert Levin? 20:15 What was it like meeting Robert Levin for the first time? 20:40 Is it very rare to meet another improvising musician? 21:39 Is the scene much different from what it used to be? 22:00 The reason that you’re in the UK is because of Yehudi Menuhin? 22:47 What did you play at that concert, that Yehudi Menuhin watched? 23:54 What did Yehudi Menuhin mean by,”Survive this quartet”? 24:37 What did you make the quartet do, to teach them to improvise? 25:33 Given that you had been teaching classical improvisation since 1990, were you ready for any ensemble teaching situation? 26:41 Do you have set Classical forms or harmonic progressions to get students to improvise with? 27:34 What is a periodic structure? 28:38 How do you tell your students what notes to choose in the response portion of “Call and response”? 29:20 What do you mean by wrong notes? 30:00 Are the bass lines fixed or do you ask them to come up with their own? 31:03 Is this connected with basso continuo? 31:54 Is that how a string player can learn to improvise, by having the bass in their ear or mind? 32:39 Does that enable you to have multiple musicians performing at the same time? 33:34 How would a brand new student, who’s never improvised before, learn to improvise in their first year of Guildhall? 35:07 Let’s say they have no fear in improvising, what would they work on? 38:00 Is this all ensemble or solo? 38:34 Is the singing in solfege? 39:23 How do you distinguish between improvisation and composition? 40:42 What are some differences among the different classical eras? 43:02 So that is a lot of vocabulary to internalize? 44:15 Do you incorporate teaching other non-classical styles of music? 46:54 Has music changed and become more difficult from earlier eras, harmonically? 47:59 As an example, is Messiaen more complex than earlier music? 48:47 What are some common mistakes to learning classical improvisation? 51:38 If a parent is about to start their child learning music, how should they start? 52:52 What would you say to the thousands of children who are practicing for their graded music exams about the pieces they are playing? 54:40 Are there other things culturally that have changed in the music culture compared to previous eras? 56:55 What classical improvisation resources can you recommend for interested people? 58:43 If you could reform music education around the world, what would you do? 1:00:41 Wrapping Up

I’m so happy to introduce my guest today, Concert Pianist, Researcher, and Teacher, Professor David Dolan! In his solo and chamber music performances, he incorporates improvisation into the relevant concert repertoire in repeats, cadenzas, as well as in preludes, fantasias, and improvises on themes provided by the audience. In addition to performing worldwide, He is the Professor of Classical Improvisation and its various applications to solo and ensemble performance at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, David has been heading the Centre for Creative Performance &amp; Classical Improvisation since 2005. He also teaches at the Yehudi Menuhin School. Since 2011 David is running a programme of classical improvisation applied to performance at the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) in Melbourne based on annual intensive residencies. ----- 1:46 what’s your musical background? 2:14 When did you start playing the piano? 2:48 What were you improvising when young, what kind of music was in the house at the time? 3:06 Did your parents improvise? 3:25 Did your first teacher teach you the basics of playing the piano? 4:37 Do you have Absolute or Perfect pitch? 4:54 Did you still maintain your improvisation while doing your standard piano training? 6:02 Did you listen to traditional Israeli or Arabic music growing up? 7:04 What style of Classical music did you predominantly play in your training? 8:12 Were you the only one growing up that could improvise among your teachers and peers? 9:00 Did Haim Alexander hear you improvise? 10:40 What materials did Haim Alexander use to teach you? 11:20 What was a typical lesson with Haim Alexander look like? 13:24 Was his music theory conventional or did he have his own method? 14:13 Was the ear training Fixed Do or Moveable Do 14:52 What were your Masters and PhD studies about? 17:08 How would describe angry speech in music? 19:01 What year was this research? 19:22 Did you have peers or colleagues that you could relate to and talk to regarding improvisation as a professional, or were you alone? 20:01 Do you know Robert Levin? 20:15 What was it like meeting Robert Levin for the first time? 20:40 Is it very rare to meet another improvising musician? 21:39 Is the scene much different from what it used to be? 22:00 The reason that you’re in the UK is because of Yehudi Menuhin? 22:47 What did you play at that concert, that Yehudi Menuhin watched? 23:54 What did Yehudi Menuhin mean by,”Survive this quartet”? 24:37 What did you make the quartet do, to teach them to improvise? 25:33 Given that you had been teaching classical improvisation since 1990, were you ready for any ensemble teaching situation? 26:41 Do you have set Classical forms or harmonic progressions to get students to improvise with? 27:34 What is a periodic structure? 28:38 How do you tell your students what notes to choose in the response portion of “Call and response”? 29:20 What do you mean by wrong notes? 30:00 Are the bass lines fixed or do you ask them to come up with their own? 31:03 Is this connected with basso continuo? 31:54 Is that how a string player can learn to improvise, by having the bass in their ear or mind? 32:39 Does that enable you to have multiple musicians performing at the same time? 33:34 How would a brand new student, who’s never improvised before, learn to improvise in their first year of Guildhall? 35:07 Let’s say they have no fear in improvising, what would they work on? 38:00 Is this all ensemble or solo? 38:34 Is the singing in solfege? 39:23 How do you distinguish between improvisation and composition? 40:42 What are some differences among the different classical eras? 43:02 So that is a lot of vocabulary to internalize? 44:15 Do you incorporate teaching other non-classical styles of music? 46:54 Has music changed and become more difficult from earlier eras, harmonically? 47:59 As an example, is Messiaen more complex than earlier music? 48:47 What are some common mistakes to learning classical improvisation? 51:38 If a parent is about to start their child learning music, how should they start? 52:52 What would you say to the thousands of children who are practicing for their graded music exams about the pieces they are playing? 54:40 Are there other things culturally that have changed in the music culture compared to previous eras? 56:55 What classical improvisation resources can you recommend for interested people? 58:43 If you could reform music education around the world, what would you do? 1:00:41 Wrapping Up

73: David Dolan