Merton Does Chatroulette

The internet phenomenon meets improvised piano

Chatroulette is a recent internet phenomenon that has quickly risen to cult status. In Chatroulette, you are paired with a random partner for a chat, using both text chat and your webcam. When you've had enough of that partner, you click next to move on to someone else. When the creator launched it in November 2009 there were about 500 users in total; by December he had 5000 users, and a few months later in March 2010 he has 1.5 million users.

Probably the thing that makes Chatroulette famous (infamous?) is the anonymity of participants - and people will do just about anything when they are anonymous. I'll be honest, I haven't tried out Chatroulette. It sounds like a great many chat partners are extremely NSFW. Friends who have tried it have said they've met some quite interesting and engaging people (and not just freaks).

So... What does this have to do with Improv?

Merton

A very clever singer/musician going by the name Merton (real identity unknown) decided to take requests for songs over Chatroulette for fun... but it quickly morphed in to improvising songs about his chat partner, for as long as they would stay on the line. His video immediately went viral on YouTube, with about 1.5 million views to date.

When I first watched this, I laughed and laughed. Genius! Merton pummels his piano Ben Folds-style, similar enough that folks thought perhaps Ben Folds and Merton were in fact the same person. Just to make it interesting, Ben Folds released 'Chatroulette Piano Ode to Merton', surprising unsuspecting Chatroulette partners with a concert hall full of people!

I love seeing improvisers create stuff that is obviously improvised, stuff that is lots of fun. Keep an eye out for more stuff from Merton; his YouTube channel is the #1 most subscribed channel this month. Good work!

Photo by Mauro Luna

The Return of The Thunderbirds

I am so easily amused.

In Thunderbirds are Go, we explored having actors puppet the musician around the keyboard. Since then, I've again found myself in that situation a few times... one of them with a twist.

A few months ago, on stage for Prognosis: Death!, my friend and fellow improviser Dan Beeston sang a lovely song as his character Ludwig LeStrange. The hospital staff were on a staff retreat, camping in the forest. LeStrange strode on stage with a mimed-guitar, and sang a countryish love song to his estranged fiancee. (OK, so the guitar didn't look like a guitar. Hey, it's impro!) Ha har, says me, I'll play a guitar patch and it will be lovely.

Now, Dan's a great musician and songwriter (check out his songs Superhero and Car Zero), and he knows his way around a guitar. I realised while he was strumming away on his mimed guitar that his left hand was moving around in a somewhat realistic fashion... he was making chords! Straightaway my brain clicked in to that "you must follow the action on stage" mode, and followed Dan's lead. Now, I can't say I copied what he was playing exactly. I'm sure, however, that (whatever key he was in) I had the distinct impression he was playing 1sts and 4ths and 5ths. I could see how he timed the changes, so I mapped that to 1sts and 4ths and 5ths on the keyboard in whatever key I was in. In effect, he was really driving me around the keyboard.

Now that he knows he can do this, I'm a bit worried about how he'll use this power next time. If he decides to make me bust out Achy Breaky Heart, I'm outta there.

Photo by Wanda Anderson

Seduction in Song

Music makes seduction easy. No, not that sort of seduction.

A seduction is a pretty common impro technique, where one character works to change another's mind. It is rarely a romantic seduction - usually it starts with two characters with polar opposite views on something, and as the seduction continues one of them changes their position. Examples might include a meat-eater convincing a vegetarian to eat meat, a red-handed criminal trying to get a cop to cut them a break, or a gust of wind trying to dislodge a stubborn leaf from a tree.

A good improviser won't fall in to the trap of not being seduced; resisting a seduction is just a massive block. "No, I'm not going to eat that steak, and that's final." "OK, I give up. Let's watch TV." What a fun scene. You want to move the story forward and change things, not stall it. In the short form game Seduction, the entire scene is about the work character A is doing to change character B; the ongoing story doesn't matter. But sometimes the seduction is just a small component of a scene or story.

As an audience member, I feel a bit cheated if person A manages to convince person B with only the slightest argument. "I've been a vegetarian for 20 years." "Hey, steak is really tasty!" "OH, ok. Chomp chomp chomp." You want to see them work a little bit, right?

I was listening back to one of our Prognosis: Death shows. We leave a bit of room for songs in these shows; if they happen, that's great, and if not that's ok too. In any given show sometimes we'll have one song, sometimes three, sometimes none. One of the songs from our last run of shows taught me a great lesson about songs and seductions.

In St Love And The 1001 Books You Need To Read Before You Die, Doctor Melody Carmichael (Amy Currie) accidentally spilled magic liquid on her collection of childrens' books, opening up a mysterious portal allowing fictional characters to come through to St Love Hospital. Earlier in the story, Melody caught her fiancee Ludwig Lestrange (Dan Beeston) kissing her best friend Nurse Lotte Buble (Natalie Bochenski). She is sad and angry - she's lost her fiancee and her best friend. She's been hanging out with Captain Hook (Luke Allan). Captain Hook's first mate Smee was killed earlier in the story, leaving Hook similarly sad and friend-less. Melody needs a friend, but the bloodthirsty Captain Hook is just not a good match. Or is he?

In Best Friend/First Mate, Amy and Luke do an amazing job of rhyming and lyrical construction; Amy sets 'em up, and Luke jumps right on board. I love the setup for the chorus - "I want a best friend / I want a first mate" is just classic. Even though the first verse seems to set Melody as low-status and Hook as high-status, that chorus brings them together with a shared problem.

The singers do a far better job than I do on music; I lost time at least four times in the song. Luke and Amy keep rock solid timing, and I generally get back on track, but I have to say it was a pretty sloppy effort on my part. One very nice musical technique shows up at the end when Luke sings "That sounds great". Just taking his melody line and repeating it a few times in the music gives a really nice wrap up to the song.

(If you're curious about what the underscoring sounds like for this show, you can listen to a chunk of the pure piano recording from the scenes immediately following this one. Just head over and listen to Revenge on Uncomposed.)

The moment of seduction comes right near the end. And it's a pretty weak seduction.

Melody: You're just not a friend
Hook: I'm the best friend you'll ever have, my dear

Yep, that's it. Seriously, that's right up there with "Hey, steak is really tasty!" Not much of a clever argument. But I bought it as legitimate; it didn't feel lightweight, even though the words on their own kinda were. That's what grabbed me about the song - a significant emotional shift was made without much clever dialog, just some nice singing.

Right at the end, Nurse Buble is shown to be eavesdropping, so the audience realises she overheard Melody deciding to kill her - that's the source of the big "Awwwwh!" at the end. It scored pretty high on the Awwwwh-o-meter, which for me is an indication the audience is really engaged with the story and characters.

In the space of two minutes, Melody goes from missing her friend and thinking that Hook is a bad person, all the way making Hook her new best friend and agreeing to knock off her ex-best-friend. Can you imagine doing that as quickly and convincingly with just dialogue?

Photos by Wanda Anderson

Review - Zoom H4n Handy Recorder

The Zoom H4n is a compact digital field recorder, perfectly suited to recording live performances.

The Hunt

I used to use my trusty Yamaha 4-track recorder (hissy, even with dbx) to record live impro songs. A year or so ago I got the bug to start recording again, this time digitally. I hunted around to find a cheap MiniDisc recorder on eBay, and hey presto, found one. It worked nicely, too, as a 2-track digital recorder - except that the digital audio is trapped on the MiniDisc, and you can only get analog audio out. (Well, with my unit, anyway.)

I decided to go on the hunt for a new digital recorder for gigs. The requirements were simple:

• Built-in stereo microphone
• Stereo line-in
• 4-track simultaneous recording
• Record to digital media

Oh yeah, and

• Affordable

There are a whole slew of recorders out there that meet most of these requirements... but very little that could do simultaneous 4-track recording while keeping a lid on the cost. I only found one device that met my needs: The Zoom H4n. I've used Zoom equipment before; a lifetime ago, in a covers band, one of the guitarists had a little Zoom belt unit for effects. Very cool, very versatile, a little hokey. Should I take the plunge and buy some Zoom equipment?

Yes.

Introduction

The Zoom H4n is a digital field recorder, recording to SD media. It has two primary input sources: twin mics and a twin 1/4-jack/XLR input. The twin microphones (arranged to provide an excellent stereo field) can be set to cover either a 90-degree or 120-degree spread. There's a headphone/line out jack with an independent volume control.

Recording and playback

There are three recording modes on the H4n. The stereo recording mode takes audio from either the microphones or the 1/8-inch/XLR input, recording to WAV or directly to MP3 format. The 4-track mode takes audio from both the microphones and the jacks, recording two distinct WAV files. There's also a "MTR" mode where you can record individual tracks and do overdubs, bounce tracks, that sort of thing; I use this primarily for recording live gigs, and really haven't ventured in to that side of things. (Even if I did, I'd probably use PC-based tools instead of the device.)

Recording is straightforward - no manual required. Choose the recording mode and tap the record button once to prime it. The record button flashes to let you know it is waiting, and at that point you can check levels. Tap record again to start recording. Tap stop to stop. Simple.

A rocker on the side of the unit is used to set the recording level. In 4-track mode you can adjust the recording level of the microphone and jack inputs separately.

Playback is slightly more complicated; press play. You can use the track forward and back buttons to cycle through the recordings you've made. If you don't have headphones handy, there's a speaker in the back suitable for the "did it really record that?" test, or for quick previews.

Interface

The device has a big screen (with amber backlight), and a whole slew of buttons, rockers and wheels for driving. I've seen small devices that try and overload lots of functionality on buttons to conserve space. Thankfully, the folks at Zoom didn't do that; buttons typically have one clear use, which makes it easier on the brain. The recording/playback interface is pretty easy to drive.

To access system settings (of which there are a lot), you use a menu button and wheel on the right side of the unit. The wheel lets you scroll through options, then clicking the wheel (similar to using a mouse wheel as a third button) accesses that menu item. It's quite natural to access those settings using your thumb if you are holding the device in your right hand. The only problem I have is that sometimes, if you're not careful, you can actually scroll the wheel one notch as you click it, taking you to a menu you might not have expected.

Several of the buttons are backlit. The record button blinks when primed, and is steady red when recording. When using the mic or the line inputs, other buttons are backlit to show those inputs are active. The backlight on the input buttons flicker when the levels get close to peaking - a really nice touch.

Placing

The mounting options are very thoughtful on the H4n. The device screws in to any common camera tripod. It also comes with an attachment that screws in to the bottom, then fits neatly in to the claw on a microphone stand. If you're doing hand-held recording, it has a rubberised grip, but I still find it is slightly prone to squeaks.

At a theatre venue, I try and place the device where it will get the best stereo spread of the stage without obstructing the audience's view. The backlit buttons can create an issue here; at our Brisbane Arts Theatre shows, the device is right at the foot of the roughly one-metre-high stage, in the centre, so those backlit buttons look really bright. Nothing a bit of gaffer tape can't solve.

I tend to start the recording well before a show starts, and stop it after the show is finished, just to save multiple trips to the device or drawing attention to it.

Microphones

The twin microphones do a great job for all of the applications I've tried, including recording of live stage shows and close-up voice recording. By twisting the individual mics a half-turn, you can set the device to record either a 90-degree field or a 120-degree field. I haven't experimented much with that, but I certainly do find the wide 120-degree field to be sufficient to pick up a stage show when the device is placed at the foot of the stage, front-and-centre. All of the recordings from One Bride for Seven Brothers used the device with a 120-degree field, and it was still wide enough to pick up the piano (at 9-o-clock to the recorder).

The H4n comes with a custom wind sock to protect from pops if you're close-up vocal recording. (I find it also makes a great first line of defence from the fake blood we squirt around at Prognosis: Death!.)

If you want to bypass the built-in microphones for your own set, there's a 1/8-inch stereo jack underneath the device used for essentially replacing the microphones. Again, I haven't experimented with this, but it seems like a pretty smart way to extend the flexibility of the H4n; for example, you could record four line-level tracks simultaneously (as long as you're willing to accept the same recording volume for tracks 1+2 and tracks 3+4). The placement of this jack is awkward; if you have something plugged in, the device no longer sits flat on a surface.

As an added benefit, the two microphones make the thing look quite a bit like a taser. I wouldn't recommend carrying it around as a security device though ;)

Battery life

Although the device comes with an A/C adapter, years of errant there-despite-best-efforts hum in sound equipment make me use batteries. The H4n takes two AA batteries. I have found that recording 4-channels simultanously (so WAV format, without any compression), I get about five hours of recording. When I record a show in mp3 format, after about 150 minutes of recording the battery meter drops from 3 bars (full) to 1 bar. I haven't pushed the device to its limits with battery life yet; I'd rather not gamble on missing part of an improvised show I'll never get back again.

File structure

When you format an SD card in the device, it places three directories at the root of the card, one for each recording format. Under those it places 10 directories each, cleverly named "FOLDER01" through "FOLDER10". When you're ready to record, there are buttons on the front of the device that let you pick the destination folder. I've experimented a little with renaming those folders or creating sub-folders undneath them, with mixed results; a few times the device has complained that it couldn't save data, at which point I switched it to use one of the folders I hadn't fiddled with.

I have a 16 GB SD card in mine, which is lovely; recording in mp3 format, there's room for days and days of recording. I have found the H4n takes longer to start up with a high-capacity card; mine takes 10-12 seconds to start from an off state.

PC Connectivity

The H4n has a mini-USB input on the side for plugging in to a PC. When you plug it in, the device asks you if you want to use it as a storage device (giving your PC access to the directory structure), or as a sound input device. As I am writing this, it occurs to me that it might just function as a 4-simultaneous-channel input if you have the right software; I must try that out!

Accessories

As well as the bundled USB cable, wind sock and microphone stand holder, the H4n comes with a snazzy plastic case. This thing is almost perfect; I really like the idea that my precious recorder has a rigid case to protect it from the stuff rolling around in my gig bag. It secures closed with a small plastic clip, and I find that clip opens just a tad too easily for my liking.

The H4n also comes with a copy of Cubase LE 4 for editing your work. I've only just scratched the surface of Cubase; for the moment a simple tool like Audacity is sufficient for my needs, but I can see that something more powerful like Cubase will be useful.

You can buy a remote control device to drive it from a distance; all of the front panel controls are replicated, of course minus the big screen. Because the device is somewhat sensitive to noise if you are holding it or pushing buttons, this gives a nice way to access features and change settings without introducing noise.

Recording quality

Arguably the most important aspect of the device is the quality of recordings. The jack/XLR ins are as clean as you would expect. You can check out an example: Esteem on Uncomposed was recorded this way. (Contrast that to Blink, which used the Minidisc taking a straight line-level out. Far more hiss.)

The verdict

I'm absolutely ecstatic with the H4n. Physically, the unit is compact, tidy, and easy to use. Sound-wise it is nice and clean. It provides a heap of great features for a pretty reasonable price - the US street price is about $300, often packaging in a few free accessories. If this one were to meet with an untimely accident, I'd replace it with another H4n without a second thought.

Photo by penmachine. Written by Kris Anderson.

Villains' Duets

Luke wraps up his series on Duets

Welcome to the final instalment of the Duets series. Today we will be looking at The Villains Duets and how we can approach them in our improvised songs. As discussed in previous articles, Villains duets are not always just done by Villains but as a style tend to lend themselves more to the dramatic.

Lovers' Duets focus on emotion; Fools' duets focus on events; so, people, where does that leave the Villains in this equation? Well, the Villain focuses on themselves: their plans, how brilliant they are and how ridiculous everyone is going to feel when they triumph. This can still be very funny (see Bring Me My Bride from Fools Duets) but often tend to be darker in nature.

Never Complain, Always Explain

Traditionally in musicals, any villain’s henchmen are either incompetent or stupid or both. Their songs are often part denigrating the henchmen and part explaining their evil plan. A good example of this is in Be Prepared from The Lion King. Scar explains to the Hyenas his plan to be king while constantly insulting them all the way through. And this probably brings in the most important part of the villain - It’s not so much a style or approach to song as an attitude. Villains don’t whinge or complain, because nothing is impossible for them to do; they are narcissistic and self centered and are willing to show just how damn good they are. Villains ‘monologue’ at subordinates and heroes, answering their questions with disdain.

On the plus side there is strength of purpose with the Villain. They speak in declarative verbs, use action words and take decisive action.

The villain doesn't sing:

Might it be a good idea to kill the king?

They sing:

I have a great idea. I’ll kill the King!

Now, my poor lyric writing aside, it does demonstrate the point: The villain is a person of action and plans, not someone who dithers in emotion (Like the Lovers) or silliness (like the Fools).

A great example of this attitude can be found in the character of Javert in Les Miserables. He is on a lifelong mission to recapture Jean Valjean, an escaped criminal. It doesn't matter to Javert that Valjean has become a good man, who has helped many, and that he will willingly come with him in a few days. This singularity of purpose is demonstrated in the final lyrics of his song “Stars”:

And so it’s been, and so it’s written
On the doorways to paradise
That those who falter and those who fall
Must pay the price

Lord let me find him
That I way see him
Safe behind bars
I will never rest
Till then
This I swear
This I swear by the stars.

It practically oozes purpose and action. The constant uses of 'I' and clearly stated goal are key points we can use from this song.

Something you can try at home

As a general rule, as Australians we do tend to mitigate our language when expressing ideas. So, in this exercise we are going to focus on being more forthright in our language. Get a friend to help you, and choose a scenario of villainy you feel comfortable with, eg stealing all the lollies in town. Someone chooses to be the Villain and the other the henchman. (Think a Baldrick/Black Adder dynamic.) The henchman must ask a question about the plan and the Villain must insult the henchman and explain starting with the word 'I'. If the Villain cannot do this the roles reverse and the scenario continues until the scene plays out. Try a few different scenarios until you feel comfortable with the concept and then you can try it out with either made up songs or using the music for ones you both are comfortable with.

Conclusions

As I said right at the top there are no hard a fast rules for what makes a duet a lovers duet or fools duets. They were just a way to break down songs into different types to help differentiate the purpose of a song in the musical format. Lovers can be villains and villains can be fools, they are just different ways to approach a song. If you are looking for some examples of some good musicals that demonstrate these duets and solo songs I would recommend in no particular order Sweeney Todd, Company, Evita, Into the Woods, West Side Story, Phantom of the Opera, Chicago and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the forum. None of these are particularly hard to find; many have been made in to major motion pictures. Good luck in exploring the possibility of duets in musicals.

Photo by Katie Cowden