4.2.7 Exercise 7 Hidden Grooves and Signalling

Task Objectives

Building on the concept of starting simultaneously as seen in First Idea and Remember What Was Played - Two Duos, Hidden Grooves and Signalling differs as participants are actively listening for evidence of grooves emerging from the group sound while playing a groove of their own when commencing the improvisation. As such, this exercise examines the notion of equally dividing one’s attention between listening and playing. The emergence of grooves reveals preferences of stylistic indices adopted to generate grooves and what characteristics are more prevailing than others. The unsolicited signalling component in stage one of this exercise requires participants to pay close attention to all parts in order to decipher who has changed their part and how this part has changed in order to decipher the groove in stage two. This component examines the handling of transitions in short time frames and thus exercises the emergent properties of the group. The pictured cogs are a reminder to pay attention to how all parts engage as stage one is to be revisited in stage three. The exercise also highlights participants who are more likely to instigate changes and the methods of signalling they choose to adopt. The groove element of this exercise emphasises intersubjectivity in regard to stylistic indices while the simultaneous start and changing grooves focuses on emergent properties.