Inside Whole-Play

A piece begins

I pick up my guitar and start improvising. There is no piece to play along to. What I do right now will become the seed for the music that emerges.

Whole-Play is listening. A virtual composer takes in aspects of my playing and makes decisions of its own: where the music might go, how the energy changes, what the structure should become. And its virtual band turns its will into sound. I hear their contributions and respond. The conversation has started, and a composition unfolds in real time.

Inside the engine

The idea is simple to hear, but there is a lot happening underneath. Whole-Play can notice things in an improvisation: a rhythm, a harmonic direction, a melodic fragment. Its composer can use that material, develop it, or place it in a new context. The virtual instruments have their own ways of interpreting the composer's intentions.

That gives the music both a memory and a direction. A phrase I play now might matter again later. The band can become sparse or dense, restrained or unruly. Different virtual composers make different choices; they have musical personalities of their own.

Who is composing?

That question is part of the pleasure of developing and playing with Whole-Play. I bring my intuition, my sound, and decisions made in the moment. The virtual composer brings its own structure and possibilities. Each can affect what the other does next.

I started Whole-Play because I wanted to create improvisational situations I couldn't enter on my own. It lets me explore all sorts of compositional ideas while I'm still inside the act of playing. Composition and improvisation intertwine in a fascinating dance.

An open world

Whole-Play began with a guitarist and a virtual band, but the project reaches way further. Gesture, data, and other kinds of input can also become material for composition. Sound, visuals, movement can become the manifestation.