Musical notations of your live performances

[ivarin]

been thinking recently of the ways to organise my notes for a performance on the OT (escape 4 bar loop if you will, hopefully getting something considerably more complex)

the way the arranger works is a good start, even using similar notation on a piece of paper.

anyway, there’s a lot of you guys who plays live, so i figured you must be doing some sort of “sheets” or just notes to follow along the set, or just to organise stuff better.
what are your best practices? tips-n-tricks, personal know hows, divine revelation…?

[Landings]

If you notice groups have stickers or sheets attached to their equipment for each track. Maybe some simple post it notes to jog the memory may help?

[ivarin]

i’m trying to think about it more like a “composing” rather than something to put on a post-it card. i mean, if it’s an hour long live set it’s gotta be lots of post-it notes)

[Dr.K]

The lesser the better. I started with a whole sheet of paper until i had no notes at all anymore.
If you really need notes than definitely practice the set with your notes (with bad lighting). Then you’ll probably see if it works.

[Jukka]

There is this older thread :

Notating Elektron Gear Performance

Do you ever notate your performances? Have you created a written or drawn system of notation for electronically synthesized music? It doesn’t have to be for Elektron gear only, although there is a structure to Elektron gear that makes some sorts of organized notation possible. And i realize that your performance is likely improvisational. But even regular jazz improvisers will write down basics; a title, the tempo, a head riff, basic instrumentation, a chordal melody, and overall organization o…

[Tchu]

@Dr.K

with bad lighting

The key.

[FiveTenFiftyfold]

[ivarin]

this is exactly how i imagined that)

[nickl]

I sometimes scribble the following form of performance notation on my iPad:

This is for Analog Four, I have four tracks on the top and performance macros on the bottom.

You can see pattern A05 playing an 8-bar loop for 4 times, first time with tracks 1 and 4 muted, second time with only T1 muted and so on. In yellow above the patterns I also show when the kit changes. Small “notches” above that are bar numbers.

As for performance parameters, blue line means no changes, and when it’s white - it’s time to turn the knob. Thick blue bar - when the FILL button is pressed.

I use the Concepts app, it’s very easy to copy-paste stuff and edit what you have already drawn.

I don’t really plan everything and then play, more like the other way around, and I go back and forth. Writing it down is annoying but gives you another perspective on the big picture, let’s you know when you’re trying to do too much, let’s you plan things (like switching the kit, which might be abrupt if you’re not careful).

[TheWhistler]

Not at home ATM but for sure will send you a picture of my bands notes for a live set with a looping cello player and 2 keyboarders (lots of electron machines).
I had the backbone of our set on the OT and the drums on the Digitakt.
Very structured set and very stressful to perform.
I used the OT as a stem player and had risers and fx that were started via crossfader.

[VibKo]

I make note of intended key and modality for each “track” to not waste time on deciding during the performance. I would say that it’s nice to not have to rely on a lot of planning and documentation of this for the performance as it tends to make it harder to be completely present. It depends on how you would like to perform of course.

If I were to have notation of some kind I would probably go for some kind of graphic notation. Could be interesting.

[Tchu]

This is the sheets that I use for my Live performances :

Cheat Sheet Setup (DT, ST, DN).pdf (137.5 KB)

Then, I have a color and number system. As an example, my starting Tracks for each device are marked with a yellow marker.

Edit : I would say, though, I only use the starting Tracks and go from there.

[ivarin]

this is so cool, thank you! it’s neatly looking, very clear at a glance and beautiful. is this Freeform app you used to make this?

@nickl

Writing it down is annoying but gives you another perspective on the big picture, let’s you know when you’re trying to do too much, let’s you plan things (like switching the kit, which might be abrupt if you’re not careful).

couldn’t agree more. that’s what i’m hoping to achieve as well

[ivarin]

@VibKo

some kind of graphic notation

that’s what i’m most interested in. otherwise it’s just a list of patterns octa arranger style, which is not bad, but not that insightful to me. i’m still not sure what perspective exactly i’m expecting to get though…

[nickl]

The app I use is called Concepts - for me it’s absolutely essential on an iPad. None of the other drawing apps I tried could come even close to Concepts. The most important features for me are its vector graphics (so all the lines are easily selected and edited), infinite canvas (highly performant even on literal walls of text), grids, quick access palettes.

[ivarin]

even Drambo hasn’t made me to buy an ipad WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?