My main "blog writing" time has been occupied with theatre work (here's a clip) for the past few months.
In the gaps (and during the show!), I've been putting together workshop materials which I am going to begin presenting for The Song Room among others. I am working on 20+ different titles under the broad heading of "noise sound music".
The challenges I have set myself:
(1) no music "theory" or crotchets/quavers
(2) no clapping games
(3) no (un)tuned percussion or recorders
(4) no nursery rhymes or kiddie/animal songs
(5) no music that isn't ours
Everything will be recorded (..some recorders allowed!). Workshop titles include: Our Space, Dream Orchestra, Lips and Tubes, The Trance, Noise Pollution, and Code Breaking.
I am reading R Murray Schafer and Keith Johnstone, and will begin posting summaries and follow ups of the workshops as they occur.
I would be very happy to hear feedback, ideas and experiences on (non-traditional / effective ways of) introducing music and sound to (young) people.
2 comments:
What's wrong with a good old clapping game every now and then? Hours of fun and learning enjoyment.. :-) I think I have set myself (unconsciously) an opposite challenge, to discover and invent as many variations on the clapping game as I possibly can. I love the musical soundscapes that can emerge (with drama, humour, comic timing, contrast etc) with just claps and 'sshh's, and occasional 'Hiya!' and 'Bings'. I shall now add the challenge of converting you over time, by stealth.
I love the sound of this project you have developed. Particularly the way everything is getting recorded, and then worked on further by a smaller group of very switched-on kids. Keith Johnstone - what an inspiration this guy is. I love Schafer's writing too, but I find I come back to 'Impro' year after year after year. It is a bit of a bible for me. Even the first chapter - I learned a lot about the kind of teacher I wanted to be reading his introduction.
JOhn Paynter's Sounds in Silence' is also a good read with lots of practical suggestions. Actually, his writing came up at the Creativty Symposium I attended at the ISME conference in Bologna. Someone said, in praise of him, "So many of those great ideas don't really work in the classroom! but that proves not to be the point... because simply by trying them you start to open up people's ears and imaginations to approaching things in a different way."
I haven't approached many focused listening tasks at the language school, mainly because I am concerned that most of them wouldn't understand the task, wouldn't understand what the point of it was, and wouldn't have the language to contribute. But I will keep reading about the kinds of things you are trying, as it is definitely a gap in my program, I'd say, and would be good to fill.
Well, I might have been a bit harsh with the "no clapping games" rule! Last week's class consisted of lots of GH-style-copy-the-rhythm-in-a-circle exercises and it was one of the best classes yet.
So, by stealth, I may already be converted.
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