Voces8 Education Day at Bedford School (5.10.09) - Preamble

This turned out rather longer than anticipated (I suspect this pattern may continue for the rest of this blog, so apologies in advance) so I have decided to split it into parts. So that which follows is the preamble:

Voces8 did an education day (well, afternoon) at Bedford School the Monday after the first session of Take the Lead!, followed by a free concert, and we were invited to observe the afternoon (workshop and/or masterclass) and of course to attend the concert. Initially I hadn't been sure – mainly because I was scared, I will confess! - but after being so impressed by Paul and Charles I decided to Google Voces8 and was blown away by what I discovered. So I decided I ought to at least give it some serious consideration, and eventually decided to go (if the invitation were still open – happily it was). I am so glad I did!

Monday morning I wasn't feeling too well. My IBS had been playing up over the weekend and was still giving me grief; all the while I was in Luton I was quite apprehensive about the afternoon. I also had no appetite whatsoever, so was feeling a bit dizzy but could manage barely more than an inch of baguette. So er, I was altogether not feeling great and quite scared still about the afternoon. My two main fears were that I'd get to Bedford School in plenty of time but end up finding out that the location of the workshop had changed and end up being there ~only just~ on time; and that I'd be the only one there observing.

Well, I got to the Erskine May Hall at 2.40pm (the workshop to start at 3pm) ... asked a few teachers if they knew where Voces8 were but nobody had a clue. It got to ten minutes to ... five minutes to ... almost 3pm ... and nobody came for the workshop. Eventually I noticed a stream of boys (most of whom looked young enough to be in the Prep School) plus teachers going past, so I decided to enquire. It turns out the workshop was in fact in the Great Hall. Stupidly somehow I got to the main building but was totally disorientated; I had NO IDEA where the Great Hall was (had totally forgotten since the BYO concert 2 ½ years ago) so ended up feeling a wally before having to wait to ask the secretary for help. Oops. So, fear number 1 was realised!

Fear number 2 was realised when it became evident that nobody else was coming to observe. Where I'd chosen to sit (whilst simultaneously flustered and trying to work out the best place to stand a chance of being able to lip-read whomever was leading) I felt hideously exposed but got myself too flustered to move. Gha, I hate being a phobic wimp! (I also hate the way being a phobic wimp makes me self-centred so my apologies to whomever may be reading this. I just find myself having to mull things over.)

However, I survived. And had a jolly fun time too! It was also exceedingly useful, as both Paul and Charles used warm-ups that were almost identical to what we'd done the previous Wednesday, so we could see how it works with the children.

Workshop to follow ...

Take the Lead! session 1 (30.09.09)

{I wrote this partly from memory and partly with the aid of notes from a following workshop and Paul's notes about session 1. I apologise for rambling a bit but I wanted to try to get down everything I could.}

(Lee and Malcolm are participants; Lee is the wider opps provider for Bedfordshire Music and I don't know anything about Malcolm yet.)

Introduction: Paul introduced the project; he, Charles and Aga introduced themselves.
Ice-breaker (Aga): Our name, what we had for breakfast, then a rhythm for/with our names. We'd all repeat the rhythm. Next person, then repeat previous rhythm plus current, und so weiter going round the circle. So:

Lee, what he had for breakfast, rhythm (all repeat);
Second person, what they had for breakfast, their rhythm, all repeat their rhythm. Then Lee's rhythm & repeat + second rhythm & repeat
Third person, what they had for breakfast, their rhythm, repeat, Lee's & repeat + second + third rhythms with appropriate repeats.

If that makes any sense whatsoever.

The 'final performance' was from Lee round to Paul, and back again; we'd naturally fallen into a pulse which is useful for a real workshop situation. It was good because what people had for breakfast was interesting (on the face of it that statement may sound a little inaccurate but it's surprising!) and people's rhythms serve to reveal something about them too.

Warm-ups:
Paul's:
-”Copy me” [gets their attention]
- small hand movements
- stretching
- introducing noises to fit gestures
- up and down + pitch
- rubbing shins/thighs
- rhythms
- different consonants/vowel sounds
- sequences
- [Σ = characterisation, warming up the whole body, getting the mouth/tongue/vocal cords/everything else working, introducing sounds to be used later.]
- I can't remember exactly how we got to it, but we ended up doing something rhythmic in parts ... will have to get back to that. ( ... or not; I have totally forgotten. How frustrating. I do know there was an extended version in the Bedford Prep workshop – to be written up.)

Charles':
- Shrug and release
- As small and tight as possible / as tall as possible
- Wide / small
- Starjumps / spotty dogs [sequence / watch for change]
- Boom-chica-boom: 'Say Boom-chica-boom (+Repeat) – say Boom-chica-rocka-chica-rocka-chica-boom (R) – oh-oh (R) – eh-eh (R) – one more time (R)' (different characters: normal, BIG, Time Warp,The Queen -> 'no more times')
- Black holes / supernovae (noses are black holes; everything getting sucked in / supernovae: BANG!)
- Shake self from top to bottom – voice, go down. And vice versa.
- Voice starts in centre of earth ('eee' – 'He, not she') very slowly, following Charles' hand, ascends way out to outer space. mf; take breaths whenever necessary. [Pharynx lift]
- At some point there was brain gym: left index finger on nose/right index finger on left ear and swap, getting faster. Can be developed infinitely; gets the brains warmed up, learn quicker, respond better, etc.
- At some point there was the: stretch both arms up, left hand round to right side, give selves tight hug, breathe in / breathe out – feel the lateral support muscles working / ribcage / abdomen working, etc. Possibly at the beginning, or somewhere in the middle. I forget.
- Cowboy (~grin~):
> Cowboy posture
> 'Wah-wah waaah, wah wah wahhhh ... '
> Cowboy toffee – really chewy; have to chew noisily and with whole face
> Cowboy toffee makes us so happy we go 'YEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAA!' whilst swinging lasso
- [Σ = complete deconstriction, characterisation ( -> emotion), all being totally loony => safe environment; wearing selves out => breathing properly; also physically awake translates to mentally awake.]
- Also did something in parts (probably, but not definitely, from the cowboy); leaders change on pharynx lift sound. [Already familiar with sound – right from beginning actually, with shake from top to bottom; re-enforced with actual pharynx lift exercise.]
- At one point early-ish in the warm-up Charles asked who played an instrument, asked us what, then proceeded to explain that a singer's instrument is their entire body, hence necessity for full warm-up.

We then went onto 'Rivers of Babylon':
- Charles got us to sing (using his hand to show the shape) - I think this was also using the 'eee' sound.

(Not sure about the time sig, as the song is in 4/4. Oh well, will modify if necessary.)
- Then he gave us some context about the song we were about to sing: some people were made to move to a place that wasn't their home; they were very sad about it and wrote a poem so we know how they felt. [Gets the kids suitably sombre, to get emotion into their singing. He says it works, even though they may have wound themselves up and be bouncing off the walls, they can still find themselves feeling sufficiently sad for the song.]
- Charles says the words; children repeat [emphasis and emotion – plus diction].
- Same melody - well, similar – plus words (diction!)
- Add harmony! Hand shape. Similarities / differences between melody and harmony.
- Parts:

I can't remember the order exactly of the warm-ups, especially Charles' (alas I really can't remember many specifics of Paul's; I've no idea why) - I'm wracking my brains but sadly my memory rather fails me.


The summary of points then (plus additions):
> Begin with movement: gets attention and obvious start for warm-up
> Add sounds: musical ideas, rhythms, anything will be needing later in the workshop / project
> Characterisation: emotion; easy to relate to obvious characters
> Absurdity: (to quote Paul: “I cannot emphasis enough the absurdity!”) safe environment, lose inhibitions (I'll vouch for that!)
> Deconstriction: warming up entire instrument.
> Brain gym: get the synapses firing!
> Technique: don't be afraid to use technical vocabulary – children are like sponges (especially with those synapses at full speed!)
> Use warm-ups to gauge ability: zum Beispiel, doing something in rhythmic parts reflects the group's ability to sing (or play) in parts. Even at a basic level it shows their natural rhythm – or lack thereof; highlights areas that may need improvement before progress can be made; conversely, strong areas which may need less attention.
> Work backwards: What are the goals for the session and for the project? What skills will be required? Even something as simple as, what will the words be: what consonant and vowel sounds will particularly be required? Perhaps percussive sounds. Use this to plan key exercises throughout the warm-up (more to follow in session 2's write-up). (Ties in to an extent with gauging ability.)
> Ownership: allow the group to contribute ideas. Steer the workshop in the right direction for the objective(s) but along the way allow the group ownership – they're more responsive for a start than if they felt the leader were dictating everything. (Again, more to follow in session 2's write-up.)

Additional, miscellaneous points (This is almost long enough for this section to be an appendix, isn't it? Oops!):
- Malcolm provided us with an interesting quote from Chinese Philosopher Lao Tzu: “To lead others, walk behind them” (in relation to ownership)
- Q: 'How long ought the warm-up to be'? A: Depends on how long the workshop is, whether it's a one-off or part of a project - and if so, how long the project is, and how far into the project the workshop is, age, etc. In other words, it's entirely left to the workshop leader's discretion! If part of, say, a set of 10 workshops, the first could be almost entirely warm-up techniques, but by the 10th only 10 minutes may be required.

Next post: my ramblings from the education day at Bedford School.