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Picture the sound… #MUS654

One of the elusive topics in music learning and teaching is expression and meaning. How can we work in one medium (sound) and have to explain it in another (words?)? Often the intention of the teacher and the experience of the student can be so far apart, and we may never know it. This week I got creative and a bit silly and set my class loose with the project of picturing the sound. Really – I gave them all sorts of dried pulses, pasta, rice, seeds, nuts, bits of cotton wool, cake decorations, big sheets of paper and asked them to create the picture they heard as people performed to them. This sort of invitation is usually met with two different reactions, often in close succession, excitement followed by a tentativeness and doubt.

Oh WoW!

and then…

but I don’t know what to do?

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When concert meets app

It is great to come together at a concert or other event with other people and spark. Oh I know ‘spark’ is not the most academic word, but it’s the right one – talk, think, laugh, experience new people, experience something that transcends people, and connect it in a way that is electrifying. SPARK! (4 min read)

I had the privilege of being invited to a concert by the Castalian String Quartet that was part of the European String Teachers Association summer school. One of my former students (a graduate who is now a teacher herself) was in attendance at the summer school and I know some of the people involved in ESTA and was fortunate enough to be invited to the concert. It was fantastic. The atmosphere reminded me of being back at Meadowmount and just breathing in that atmosphere was invigorating. Read More »When concert meets app