Involve the audience in composition

The “Solutions” page at the right of the blogsite is updated. Hope to have updates every Monday. Thanks, as ever, to Douglas Laustsen, for maintaining the page.

And here’s a terrific contribution from Xavier Losada, a composer and producer in Caracas, who just sent it as a comment to my “Something to talk about” post:

I try to involve new and more people in my creative process so they can own and sell part of the story. Designers, editors, writers, painters, etc.

My first two CD’s “Escritorio” and “acantilado” were overwhelmed with my name in almost every activity: design, mixing, recording, almost everything. Now, I don’t design, I don’t do final mix, I’m asking people to write about my next work and I’m asking the designer to quote them on it.

My point is that we should do it on web, yes. But we can do it from the start of the composition process too. Get inspiration on a living writer and tell him about it. Look for a painter that transform your work into colors and do the same for him.

On my last show I used a looper and asked the whole audience to play a note on the piano so I can start an improvisation over their music…

I don’t know the real impact of it but I believe it’s going to be a nicer one than continue by myself without involving anyone. I believe those people involved in the process are the strongest part of your audience and the strongest replicators too.

For more on Xavier, go here for a site in Spanish, and here and here for English.