SEARCH & REFLECT

Introduction

This manual is designed to document the pieces used in our workshops. The value of these pieces is in their practical application - you cannot get the same experience from reading about them as you can by actually playing them. For organisational purposes we have divided the manual into two sections -a 'rhythm' and an 'improvisation' section. Obviously, in the rhythm section, the emphasis is on developing skills necessary for playing rhythmically both as an individual and as a member of a group, These skills are as central to improvisation as those looked at in the improvisation section itself, because rhythm is fundamental to the language of music. For instance, when two people converse while walking down the street, both must move at the same pace in order to communicate. Even if the people use different step-lengths, these steps must be synchronised rhythmically in order to converse. In music, the best conversations are those where the participants are saying what they want to say, at the same time paying full attention to what the other person is saying. Rhythmic awareness allows an individual to be dynamically creative within a group whilst remaining sensitive to the other members of the group.

Our aim is to encourage more people to actively participate in music-making. Our workshop pieces are therefore designed to cater as much for the musically inexperienced as for those who have already developed skills in the area. Since they are meant for mixed-ability groups, most of the pieces do not assume any previous musical knowledge or training. The main requirement is to have an open-minded enthusiasm for music.

The society in which we live is becoming increasingly specialised, and naturally enough, the music which we play or listen to has also become the area of specialists. There have always been musical virtuosos, but the tendency nowadays is for the ordinary person to be overawed by the 'perfection' of the music they hear through the media, although there have been reactions against this, notably the skiffle movement of the '50s and the punk movement of the '70s.

Pitch is a property of sound - all sounds have a pitch, We view harmony in its broadest sense as being the sound created when people play music together - when more than one pitch sounds at a time. We do not deal with any specific harmonic forms or systems, firstly because this would exclude people with little or no theoretical background in music. Secondly, different harmonic styles characterise different musical cultures: our workshops are open to anyone, regardless of their musical background and influences. Our methods are based on aural teaching - players make their own harmonic choices, learning from experimentation rather than academic instruction,

When trying out the pieces, it is important to remember that their true value lies in the actual process rather than in the end result (what they sound like). They aim to pick out and magnify specific ingredients inherent in music making, while at the same time providing an environment where people feel free to listen, experiment, interact and make mistakes. We celebrate mistakes because they highlight innocent human failings ie: lapses in mental concentration or in physical control. Our aim is towards the near impossible task of synchronising within the moment - a basic ingredient of interaction. Spontaneous group improvisation will inevitably produce discrepancies. 'Mistakes' are an inevitable result of the process of improvisation. The pieces are open ended (having no fixed conclusion) - there is therefore no perfect end result. The process of playing them is itself the product.

Another important part of the process of learning about music is learning how to participate in a group. One function of the workshop pieces is to encourage confidence and independence in the participants, showing that everyone can have a creative role in the music that the group is making. Any sound can be a material used in music making. If a sound is conceived of as music, then it is music. Generally when a judge bangs his gavel it is not a musical gesture, but exactly the same gesture or sound could be part of music if it was conceived as such. The person who uses a sound as a musical statement is the only possible judge of whether it is musically valid or not.