Cut, Crossfade, Hold by Tom Duff

Cut, Crossfade, Hold
Beta Test Version
by
Tom Duff

Cut, Crossfade, Hold is a system for coordinating improvisation in a small group without a conductor. It ought to work well for a trio or quartet or quintet; in a duo most of the system would be redundant, and in larger groups it may be hard to avoid everyone trying to lead at once. The performers use hand signals to coordinate their music making. There are signals to remember moments in the piece and recall them later, to change who's playing and who's not, to end the piece in various ways and to veto previous signals.

The system does not prescribe any sequence of actions and certainly not any musical material. You can think of Cut, Crossfade, Hold as a simplified version of John Zorn's Cobra without the prompter and the silly hats and flags, or as my take on ROVA's hand-cue systems.

At the beginning, of course, nobody is sounding. At any time, any player, sounding or not, can request a change in the course of the music by giving appropriate hand signals.

Signals are divided into three groups: Remember, Setups and Actions.

Remember

The Remember signal is given by pointing 1, 2 or 3 fingers at the temple. All players should remember how they are sounding at the signal, so they can recall to it later. The fingers are to allow for three separate group memories. When the same (1, 2 or 3 finger) Remember signal gets given again, it overrides the previous memory. (I didn't specify a 4-finger Remember signal because it might be confused with the Hold action, below. Also, it's hard enough to keep track of three memories, let alone four. But, if you think you can manage it, I don't think there's any other reason not to do it.)

Setup

There are two Setup signals. Neither of these causes any action to happen, they just prepare for a subsequent Cut or Crossfade action (see below.) The setup signals are

Recall. Hold up 1, 2 or 3 fingers (not at the temple, just in front of you.) At the next Cut or Crossfade players should return to how they were sounding at the most recent Remember signal with the same number of fingers.
Select a group of players by pointing at them. These players will be the only ones playing after the next Cut or Crossfade.

Action

The action signals are

Cut. A vertical chopping downbeat with the fingers together. On the downbeat, players immediately (subito!) switch what they're doing. If the preceding Setup was a Select signal, only the selected players continue sounding. If it was a Recall signal, all players resume sounding as remembered.
Crossfade. A slow horizontal sweeping motion with the fingers together. (The motion is just to signal that the crossfade is starting, not to `conduct through' the crossfade -- after all, you may need both hands to play, yourself.) Players gradually transition to whatever the preceding setup signal indicated. Players who are silent before or after the action fade in or out.
Hold. Place the hand vertically with fingers together, palm forward, next to the temple. Players should cease forward motion. This is a `dynamic' hold; any internal motion in your sounding should continue, but forward progress should cease. For example, trills, drum rolls or single sounds with changing timbre should keep going, but scales, arpeggios and rhythmic playing should cease. Use your judgement.
Endings. There are three possible ways to end:
- Cutoff, a slicing motion across the neck with the forefinger. Players stop immediately (subito, again.)
- Fadeout, a slow top to bottom sweeping motion with the palm of the hand. Players fade out very gradually, dropping out one by one, in the classical free-improv manner.
- Hit, a jabbing motion with a fist. Players hit a loud sforzando together.
Veto by a circling motion with a raised forefinger followed by a downbeat (cut downward with the finger). On the downbeat, players resume what they were doing before the last action. If the last action was a Cut, Crossfade or Fade, players cut or crossfade or fade back to what they were doing before. If the last action was a Hold, Cutoff or Hit, players resume what they were doing before it.
You can Veto a Veto. (Doing this repeatedly goes back and forth between doing and undoing the previous action.) Endings may only be Vetoed three times.

Notes

Try not to have more than one person signalling at once; if someone else is signalling, let them finish before stepping in.

Make sure you have everybody's attention before you give an action signal. Hold up your hand in an appropriate position to prepare them.

When you give a Cut, Cutoff, Hit or Veto, make sure it has a good downbeat to help people synchronize.