CLICK PIECE

The aim in this piece is to produce the shortest, most precise sound possible.

I START from the group's silence. Working totally individually within the collective, attempt to produce the shortest sound that you can, using instrument OR voice It is unlikely that you will be satisfied with your first attempts - keep going for a short, punchy or 'weighty' click.

II YOU are aiming for the most satisfactory click that you can get, in the same way that you would aim for a bullseye on a target. Don't aim for speed, or try to play in time; the overriding aim is to get your best click.

III THE real challenge is to be able to reproduce the physical process that produces this sound. For example, if playing a drum you will find that you need to hit exactly the same area of the drum with the same intensity in order to reproduce a satisfactory click. Even the most skilled player will find this challenging.

IV GET into a cycle of reproducing your click, still playing independently of the group environment.

CHECK

When the piece starts, the clicks are disparate - they sound scattered. As the piece develops and people become more consistently repetitive with their clicks, the clicks of the group seem to draw together, as though by a magnet, sometimes to the point of the whole group (particularly a small unit) coinciding on a click. The excitement and attractiveness of this event disturbs the concentration of the players, and once again the clicks become disparate. Clicking together should not be a conscious aim.

As with all the pieces in this manual, this is a performance piece - an appealing, colourful and everchanging piece of music results.

The 'weight' and volume of the clicks must be chosen with the overall sound balance of the room in mind. For example, an acoustic guitarist should aid the rest of the group by playing as loud and punchy a click as possible, while a trumpeter may have to hold back or use a mute.

Another version of this piece can be found in the initial stages of SEARCH & REFLECT.