Got this in an email the other day!   Looks like something I’d like,  hopefully it will interest  you, too!

Improvisation Master Classes

The following master classes are part of the Bienen School of Music’s four-part series, Music Education for the 21st Century. The series, which takes place between February and May 2009, is designed to spark discussion and fuel thought on new and innovative ways to move music education forward.”Improvisation, Creativity, and Consciousness: New      Pedagogical Horizons in Music and Beyond” Presented by Ed Sarath Wednesday, February 11 6 – 7 p.m. CST Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, or the Pick-Staiger webcast page This master class, for instrumentalists and vocalists alike, will explore improvisation as both a means for musical creativity and a vehicle for examining the mind’s creative process. The session will serve as an introduction for musicians with little or no background in improvisation as well as a method for expanding the horizons of experienced improvisers. Ed Sarath will guide participants through rhythmic exercises, movement, and meditation practices. Participants – and online viewers – are encouraged to bring their instruments to put the concepts of the class into practice. “Free Play: The Art of Improvisation” Presented by Stephen Nachmanovitch Thursday, March 5 6 – 7 p.m. CST Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, or the Pick-Staiger webcast page In this hands-on master class, Stephen Nachmanovitch will help participants to strengthen technique through improvisation; overcome fears; take advantage of mistakes and accidents; create coherent, well-formed music without a plan; contact the creative process while performing; and renew the pleasure of play. Special attention will be given to ideas for bringing these techniques into “school music” settings.

Internet2 Viewing
Institutions with access to Internet2 can view the high bandwidth mpeg2 multicast feed using the VLC media player or an mpeg2 decoder. Details are available at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall’s webcast page.

Almost at the end of the first part, Lanois says:

“…and as performers, we witness the raising of the Spirit, you know, the capacity the music has to change the feeling of a room. So we can’t help but be spiritual people…”
and

Near then end of this clip, Lanois says:
” Heart and soul is probably what’s most important in the “center of the matter”, and especially within an education system that we’ve sorta been brought up in, we are led to believe that if you’re interested in a subject matter, then you should study. But in fact, Passion is probably your greatest teacher, because even as a kid, if you’re passionate about something, you can learn how to do it through looking at books, asking friends, listening to records…whatever you’re interested in.”

Passion. That’s what I’ve gotta book.

I heard an interview on NPR the other day and found Victor’s views on music education incredibly interesting(and he has a book available now!  I just ordered my copy!).  I still can’t find the audio, but I found this text from:

Bass Musician Magazine

Jake /Kot (Editor)/: In my interview with Alain Caron, he had very similar things to say about his playing being a language of its own, right down to comparing syllables to phrasing.
 
Victor: Right! You can move people with this language. The difference is that it’s rare that I’ve ever met a musician that actually treats music like our first language, English. We agree that’s it’s a language, but for some reason we treat music totally differently. Most of the time when it comes to learning music, I would go as far to say that we go about it backwards, in reverse. I’m not saying that any approach is wrong, that’s not my point. Realizing that English, and I only say that because it’s my first language, and music are both forms of communication, it’s easy for me to see that I’m still much better and more comfortable with English even though I’ve been playing for a very long time. So when I look at the approach that we use to learn and speak, and even teach English, and compare it to the usual approach we take to learn music, I realize, wow, it’s a drastically different approach, to the point where I say that we’re learning music backwards. Let me explain what I mean by that.

Lets say that I have a child that I think wants to play piano. My first thought is going to be who can I send her to for lessons—nothing wrong with that. But if I take that same approach—if I have a child that wants to speak English, for me to think, ok, who can I send them to for lessons is an odd thought. We just surround the kid with people speaking that language. We talk to the child and allow them to talk back, uninhibited. They can say whatever they want, and we hardly teach them anything for the first few years, and what I mean by ‘teach’ is teaching in the classic sense of the word as in sitting them down and giving them instructions. We don’t do that for the first 3 or 4 years at least. We let the child fend for itself. We more or less throw them in the deep water when it comes to speaking English. They have to figure it out themselves. I recognize a few key factors when I look at what allows us to get good at speaking English quickly, really quickly. I want to present these factors because as far as learning music goes, we seem to be looking at what, 15 or 20 years to obtain that same skill level communicating on our instrument.

One important element is realizing that basically, we don’t teach the kids anything. That’s a key one, and what I mean by that is when you teach someone, lets say music, the first day of lessons a child, or I should say person, learns what’s right and what’s wrong as far as our approach and how to do things. That immediately cuts part of our creativity off. The fact is that nobody wants to be wrong, especially a child. They do not want to be wrong. So in essence, it cuts part of our freedom of expression off. We are immediately afraid to really express with our instrument because of the fact that we might be wrong. And if we’re wrong, the teacher will let us know immediately, and we tend not to feel good about that. Where with English, as a child, for quite a few years you’re rarely if ever told that you’re wrong. You’re just allowed to say and express totally how you choose, with your own voice and your own choice of words, or even sounds. The interesting thing is that if you do it wrong, enough, you’re not told that you’re wrong; you’re made to feel good about it until you get it right. So with that kind of freedom, the freedom to explore without being shut down, you learn quickly. By the time you are 2 or 3 at the most, you’re freely improvising, putting it together your own way, right or wrong, and everyone gets it. In music, we don’t have that as a general rule.

Now, here are a couple of other examples. In English, basically, we’re allowed to, and almost forced to jam with other people immediately, from day one. You’re actually encouraged to jam with other people. I’m using musical terms now as far as “jamming” goes. You’re just communicating, freelancing—free expression with other people. When you think about it, the people that you’re jamming with are already pros; they are professionals in this language. They understand their instrument, that being English. We’re encouraged to jam as a baby. As a very beginner, you’re jamming with professionals. That’s an amazing thing right there that we don’t provide in music. You’re told you’re a beginner from day one, and you have to stay there for quite a few years, and then you’re allowed to advance to the next level. After you actually get good, where you’re good enough where someone’s not going to teach you anymore, we send you out to pay dues. You have to go out there and learn the ropes—we don’t do that in English. The similarity between the two languages is that we are surrounded by both of them at all times when we are learning. There is never a time when you are not surrounded by music, music plays everywhere. Even when it is not playing, the silence, the space “is” a part of music. You learn to understand what silence does with English, and silence as being a part of music, so that’s why I say you’re surrounded by music all the time.

So that’s a commonality between the two languages. But that’s not the factor that makes it different, that makes us learn one of them quickly, and one of them slowly. So here’s the thing—-everybody learns English quickly. If you’re not speaking good English by 3, we know there is a problem. There is some kind of misfiring or misconnection in your brain. So not being a pro by lets say 4 or 5, not being a professional like us in English indicates that there’s something physically wrong with your brain, and that’s not the exception, that’s the norm. We expect you to be like us by 5. Now in music, it’s the exception that lets say by 10, if you’re really great, and sound almost like a professional, maybe not quite a professional, but close, you’re considered a prodigy, or a genius. So that’s the exception, and again, totally backwards. But here’s the guarantee, here’s something I can promise you 100% of the time—-if you find a child prodigy, you’re guaranteed that someone else in that household is doing the same thing. Someone else is playing that same instrument, or something close to it. So that means if we treat music like a language, and surround the kid with it, allowing him or her to jam with the pros, allowing them to freely express, uninhibited, they become a child prodigy. They pick up this language as quickly as they do English, and that’s how I learned it. I was learning English and music at the exact same time, in the exact same way, and that lets me know that our approach to English does work in music, and you can learn it just as quickly.

/…/

 We, the teachers, are just a signpost, another piece of direction on your path. If your driving down the road, you don’t stop at the sign, the sign is just pointing you where you want to go, and a good teacher knows that you’re headed somewhere, and a good teacher will make it not about him right away. This is what the book is about. The teacher is strange—questionable. He answers most of your questions with a question to get you to answer your question yourself, so you can’t rely on him.

From www.potluckcon.com:

The Pot Luck Audio Conference is a yearly gathering of people who are passionate about signals, sounds, music, and recordings.

Formerly TapeOpCon, we are now moving into our seventh year. There will be three days of fun and informative workshops and panels. We will be featuring three different working studios, four main panels, and over thirty-two workshops.

 Our panelists are chosen for their insight and accessibility and always include today’s top minds and ears in the recording scene. This year, the entire conference will be centrally located at the Sheraton Hotel, New Orleans on Canal Street. We have negotiated an amazing rate of $109.00 a night for this beautiful four star location.

Sounds like fun, doesn’t it?  Learn tape machine alignment, try a DIY kit project, find out about studio insurance and electrical grounding…  These guys have a good slate of workshops and the price is $150 for students, $295 for NARAS members.  It’s too bad that I’ll be on vacation that weekend, but I’ll have to put this on the calendar for next year!  Sweetwater is setting up a studio inside the hotel and they plan to do some real recording and mastering onsite.  Did I mention they’ll have some music showcases and exhibits?  Compared to other ways of networking and learning new tips, this event is really worth the money!

Yesterday she arrived 10 minutes before time to start playing.  Her name was Joyce and she was a “hotshot” soprano from a cathedral in Virginia.  Usually she sent music well in advance, but today she just showed up and wanted to sing.  I bumped the communion hymn off the hymnboard to make room for her solo and she handed me the copied pages of music;  –music I had not seen before.  I had only 5 minutes to prepare to sightread this piece.  What did I do?

1.  With pen in hand, I examined the page to make sure the notes were there.   Soloists are infamous for only paying attention to their part and trimming the lower clef off the other parts.

2. I made sure everything was legible and dark.  I will write letter names for notes more than 3 ledger lines above or below the staff.  Copies made too dark or light can spell trouble when sightreading.

3.  I examined the solo for 1st & 2nd endings, Da Capo al Fine, and Coda marks and highlighted these with attention-getting symbols of my own design (I favor frowny faces).

4.  I looked for courtesy accidentals.  Upon finding none, I inserted my own.  Many publishers use courtesy accidentals to help you realize that the preceding accidental has been cancelled.  The more accidentals a piece has, the more brainpower it requires.  Once there was an old TV game show called “Concentration” where contestants had to keep remembering where the pieces were.  If you don’t appreciate key signatures, go pick up a copy of some Paul Creston.  I’m sure Creston was smart enough to use key signatures;  –the problem was that he modulated so much he figured he didn’t need them.  Most of the time he probably didn’t know what key he was in!

OK, enough of the accidentals rant.  It’s important to know when accidentals are there and when they are cancelled.  Do what you have to do.

5.  I decide tempo and sing (”audiate” i.e. hear in my head) through the most complicated part of the soprano line.  She may be the soloist today, but I’m driving the parade;  –I’ll set the tempo and we can argue about it later.

6.  Finally, I study the most important notes in the bass (i.e. reduction or Schenkerian analysis, for you music theory buffs out there).  If the right hand should get lost in a sea of accidentals, I’ll jettison its part and will momentarily become a one-handed bass player. 

The important things I keep in mind are:  keep the steady beat (unless it’s colla voce),  drive the music defensively (i.e., –act like the soprano drops a beat out of every 3rd or 4th measure and you’ll win a million dollars if you jump in the music with her) and don’t lose your cool.  

Salvation is only a half-step away.

 There you have it:  my 5 minutes of prep.  The performance was fine, btw, and Joyce said ”it’s so nice to work with a real accompanist that’s always ready to go” as  she ambled off in search of food.  Thanks, Joyce. 

Whether  you’re preparing for a studio session or live show, there are some interesting rituals that take place. 

If possible, I also remove my wallet, checkbook, keys and spare change (when I have any) and hide them away in a safe spot.  Sometimes there are no safe spots.  Oh well.

If you have a moment, why not share one?

Thanks,

J  

 Michael’s headed to the studio in a few weeks to begin work on a new project.  He writes regularly for Guitar World magazine (Time to Burn column) and his fans just began a petition to get him included on the next version of Guitar Hero. 

 If you’re a fan, please visit this link and add your voice to the crowd!

Batio mentions on his official website ,”I am left handed so my right or “picking” hand was overall, the weakest part of my playing. I worked for 2 years in my early teens to master alternate picking while later working on tapping. Basically, anything and everything I could to strengthen my right hand. I started out being a purely legato player. You would never know that now. I concentrated on my 2 weakest areas- Alternate picking and tapping and perfected those. I am a firm believer in working on something you are deficient in. Once you master a technique that gives you “trouble”, other areas of your playing improve dramatically.”  (Wilkipedia).

Wanna know what he’s up to now?  Find out more at:  www.angelo.com

(I wonder how old he is now...)

Beyond the break there are 2 videos that prove my point.

Stevie Wonder in the studio in 1973. 

A really old video of young Stevie Wonder playing a mad drum solo.

If it won't play, try clicking here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SCZv7786KY