This week, JustArts had a conversation with Professor Thomas Hall (MUS), who directs Brandeis' Improv Collective. Hall shares his fervor for musical improv, sources of personal inspiration and the projects that he takes on to share improv with budding musicians.
Hall has been an active professional musician since he was a teenager, and moved to Boston to attend the New England Conservatory, where he first studied free improvisation. Hall has since played in and toured with several successful musical groups that range from jazz to country swing. In recent years, he has been teaching music at the college level as well as special workshops in the Boston area. 

JustArts: How were you first introduced to improvisation?

Tom Hall: Like every human, I was introduced to improv when I was born, and it has been a part of my life ever since.

JA: The Improv Collective is open to musicians and vocalists regardless of their experience or skill in improvising. What sort of tactics do you use to make sure all of the performers are on the 'same page'? How do first-timers adjust to the improv experience?

TH: One of the keys to this is creating the right kind of atmosphere.
I use a series of improvisational exercises to gradually bring people into group musical improvisation in a safe and structured way, and work with each student to help them overcome any blocks or fears they may have about improvising.

By the end of the first semester most people are comfortable with the idea of freely improvising music with other people. My book Free Improvisation: A Practical Guide is a good practical look at the methodology that I use to teach group improvisation and a lot of the philosophy behind it.

JA: Why do you think it is important for musicians to gain an appreciation for improv and to be able to enjoy performing without an agenda or plan?
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TH: Every moment of creation is a moment of improvisation. Even in the most highly structured classical music, what gives the music its life, what makes one performance different from the next, is the improvisation of the performer in the moment. If this was not true, we could just have computers play the music perfectly and be done with it.

Learning to more easily and fluidly access and more intelligently process our creative intuition is a valuable skill, no matter what it is we are choosing to do in our lives.
Improvisation is a process, not a product, and no matter what you are creating with it, the process of improvisation remains the same.

So anything you learn about the process of improvisation itself is directly transferable to every other time you improvise. When someone becomes a better improviser, they are not only getting better at playing music, they are getting better at improvising their lives!

JA: Would you share with us one of your favorite memories or moments with the Improv Collective?

TH: There are many moments every semester when an experience we have shared in class has inspired someone. It has made a difference in their lives, a difference in how they experience the world or themselves, whether just for that moment or forever.
Those moments are my favorite moments, and they are what makes the experience of teaching this class so exciting and rewarding.

JA: Your career has taken you all over the world and into the company of other prestigious musicians. What is it about the musical atmosphere at Brandeis that keeps you inspired?

TH: I am continually inspired by the students at Brandeis; by their openness, their curiosity, their willingness to try new things and to share what they have learned with others.

-Rachel Hughes