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Teacher Training:
Dr. Sera Smolen has been leading workshops in improvisation
for teachers around Europe, the United States and Canada. She has
studied with masters in this field with an aim toward offering classes
in pedagogies of improvisation for string players and teachers.
She also is the Assistant Director and education co-ordinator of the New
Directions cello festival. In her work with teachers, Dr. Smolen shares
strategies from leading practictioners and researchers from around the
world, how to incorporate world music, improvisation and composition into
any string program with current research on brain development through
creativity.
see Current Projects for dates times and places of upcoming
seminars
About Smolen's work:
"I have been witness to her teaching at major seminars for students
of all levels and she has exhibited a rare and unusual talent for communicating
the profound qualities of music and performance...It's quite unusual to
find someone like her who can be as diverse in teaching both classical
and improvisation techniqes...As an active performer and recording artist,
Sera's contributions have been included in our 1997 sampler CD "Improvising
Chamber Music"--David Darling, Artistic Director and co-founder
of Music for People
"By the time our first session was over, I was already anxious
to gather my cello students together and share what I had experienced"--Teacher
Trainee
"Sera's ideas helped the students to develop
deeper relationships with their principal instruments while also developing
their understanding of music, themselves, and their clients. Sera provided
a wealth of possibilities for the students to use in their sessions--many
of which I saw in clinical supervision. Sera sparkd the students' creativity
and enthusiasm for their profession".--Elizabeth Grovenstein,
Music Therapy Professor
"I will take parts of every workshop with me
throughout my career and life."--Music Therapy Student
"In your workshops I have seen nothing but truth
and honesty in your music, your love for others, and joy for humanity."
--Music Therapy Student
"Wow! Your always-present, warm soul has opened
up a jewel in me! I haven't felt this exited in so long. I can't wait
to begin exploring what you have shown us today."--Teacher Trainee
"You have made it so clear, approachable and
easy--I can't wait to introduce these ideas to my studio!"--Teacher
Trainee
When asked the question, "what did we do that you liked?,"
the 6-12 year olds said:
"everything"
"very fun"
"there's no such thing as a wrong note!"
"I never knew what we were going to do next"
Parents said:
" they used their ears and played music, not just notes.
Their instrument was more a part of them, not just something to play."
"I liked the creativity best and acceptance of any thing that was
offerred. The reinforcement of the need to know scales gave a practical
example of knowledge"
When asked, "what are the benefits of doing improvisation?,"
the 10-14 year olds said:
"no matter where you go in the world, you can make music with people"
" when you don't feel inspired to work on classical, you can go to
the the practice room and just play to get inspired"
"It's fun and you can share music that's spontaneous"
Parents said:
"This requires, in a group situation, a whole new level of listening"
"Improvisation engages huge realms of the brain and heart that don't
get
much of a work-out in regular lesson practice"
Performing Music as a Living Art
I began wondering about improvisation after I read an article on a
college faculty bulletin board which described improvisation performed
in
cadenzas of classical and baroque concertos. Before that, no one had ever
used the word improvisation in relation to any of the music I would be
learning. I did not know then that practically all the great classical
composers we love
were also great improvisers.
After that, I had a lesson with David Darling, which literally changed
the course of my life. He was unbelievably gracious to me. He took me
into
his studio and we begin to improvise. I remember being told that any and
all the notes would be right notes, and it is impossible to make a mistake.
The invitation to drop the obsession with right and wrong notes made my
hands cold and sweaty. Relinquishing this sacred password to all my
classical training took my breath away. Maybe if I were to try this radical
idea, no music at all would come out. I had a headache and felt like I
really needed to go to bed. I imagined myself stepping off the cliff into
"no mistakes land" and just making unimaginable bloopers in
front of this
extraordinary musician... He, however, was oblivious to all this and had
me
try more improvised pieces, one after another. Mysterious intervals were
struck, intimating truths, moods and colors which emanate from all of
life.
We seemed to be world travellers as well as time travellers. The music
we
created was, moment by moment, an outrageous and radical departure from
all
the music-making I had known. Life, while breaking sacred rules of the
classical music academy was intoxicatingly rich. I was unable to ever
go
back to who I was before I knocked on that door.
Since then, I have taken many trainings, and collaborated in countless
projects involving improvisation. For me, the world of the avant-garde
was a perfect arena for me to shed numerous compulsions and beliefs that
had to go in order for me to experience musical freedom. First, I had
to
give up on "doing it right" in exchange for sounding authentic.
I had to
unlearn sacred obligations to canons of our trade, remove myself from
certain prejudices, orthodoxies, and etiquettes of a "good"
musician. I
acquired in the process my own musical voice, musical "syntax",
vocabulary
and much much more.
In the old days, I used to say: ".....Oh, out of respect, I could
never
play the blues"...I said things like that, and gradually began to
realize
that this "respect" was really fear. I had the opportunity to
wrestle with
the feelings of internalized racism which run rampant in our world. This
was a most valuable lesson, and introduced me to the thrill of learning
more and more musics from around the world.
Now, musicians are seeing new musical opportunities as we take steps
toward becoming a world community. As we begin to learn musics from other
cultures and from around the world, we begin to become better citizens
of
that world. As I go on now to experience and create for myself the nuances
of beauty in Indian music, Turkish music, and Japanese music, I participate
in different aesthetic priorities and new ideals of beauty. The barriers
I
thought existed between myself and other people begin to melt away.
I have also learned a great deal from synesthesia: translating one
modality into that of another. For example, I have loved "playing"
paintings. Approaching sound the way a painter approaches a blank canvas
has
been useful for me. I have gone on to "play"poems, dances, landscapes,
and
improvised music for plays.
"Music has been highjacked from the community
into the
concert hall."
Michael Deason Barrow
It is very interesting to make music with more and more
people-- people who have never had a music lesson, people who play an
instrument I have never played along with before, people who are not my
age.
I have joined drum circles around the campfire with my cello, improvised
in
Hindu temples, in the woods, under the influence, in the dark, with a
Lakota
Chief, with my endpin in the river, at senior centers, in the woods, in
the
garden, at parties, with children, with people who do not speak my
language...and the cadenza in a concerto...and it has all been very
worthwhile.
--Dr. Sera Smolen
February 2003 |