This is a class I offer to play with our voices, develop a polyphonic repertoire of simple songs and build upon them to improve our understanding of the musical language through games and movement.
The 3 main teaching formats:
1 - Stand alone 2 to 5 hours workshop to discover a new way to feel the language of music
Discover a new way to perceive harmony and rhythm, to link them to body movements, through application on simple songs and games... Exploring music as a language.
2 - Weekend and week-long workshops
Establish the building blocks of how to speak the languages of rhythm and harmony and apply body movement to further integrate these concepts.
A 5 days (25 to 30 hours) is the right place to integrate more repertoire, variation, play and practice on the concepts we explore during the class.
3 - Workshops combining the use of Thai Massage with the development of vocal technique and/or polyphonic singing
After years of working on vocal technique and facing many walls in my progression, I discovered that sometimes adequate human touch can bring the right amount of relaxation to create the space needed for new coordination habits to fall into place.
Thai massage will not teach you how to sing of breathe, but I might very well allow you to feel new easier and healthier sensations that you will then be able to make yours.
In practice:
- A shared repertoire of simple folk songs, with a gradually increasing complexity in the polyphonic arrangements.
- Practices of improvised polyphonic singing, as a group.
- Basic vocal technique.
- Games to understand and speak the language of music, between melodies, chords and harmony.
- Body percussions, blending movement and dance with singing, and other body approaches to heighten our rhythmic sensibility and creativity.
Goals:
- Master the most commonly used notions of music and be able to improvise, compose or play with a simple melody.
- Create a repertoire of simple songs and gradually develop more ambitious arrangements using the power of games and our understanding of the musical language.
For whom is this course?
Each class can focus on different subjects, and therefore might be a good fit from different levels.
For complete beginners > starting to recognise, visualise, and reproduce melody and rhythm, then play with our first scales and chords, introduce variation and improvisation
For experienced musicians and singers > we play with harmony and chords, poly-rhythm, advanced body percussion, more challenging games and repertoire...
It can also be useful for musicians who already play an instrument and want to get deeper into their discovery of the musical language through the use of the singing and movement in a polyphonic context. This to develop more freedom in expressing themselves through music with their instruments and voice.