Hi everyone! I don't have time to go really into depth about anything but I wanted to give a brief update about my experiences here at the Bang on a can summer music festival at Mass MOCA. One of the biggest things I must mention is the incredibly supportive, friendly, and humble attitude of everyone here. That includes the fellows, faculty, guest artists, and Mass MOCA staff.
We all do plenty of bonding activities here outside of the days work, almost everyone goes and hangs out with each other every night. We are all exhausted, but we are all taking advantage of being around all these wonderful people.
Everyone comes prepared. Musical works that would normally take 3 months to learn, dissect, and fit back together are locking together after a week. And that gives us time to have some random fun! And everyone wants to work together and pick up extra projects despite our crazy busy schedules.
I'm learning a lot about technology, and people are willing to share their gear! I currently have 2 loop pedals on my person lent to me for exploration by others. Todd Reynolds will be giving a presentation on Ableton live tonight.
The African drumming was amazing. Lamine Toure of Senegal came in and taught us some calls and rhythms. It was really interesting to learn by ear and to move and dance around. He had a great spirit and made everyone feel his music, not just listen to it. During our performance he had almost everyone up and dancing.
Ok, one last little tidbit. A handful of us participated in Kids can too! on Saturday. Led by Todd Reynolds and Philippa Thompson, we focused on the relationship between color and sound. They had a few people demonstrate some of the cool different things they could do on their instrument. They had a painting projected on the screen, kids picked a shape/color and the performer who would play the shape. We did some group sing/play alongs. Philippa forced me to improvise, which was good since I'm a chicken about it! I was in a game where you have a colored poncho and kids get a matching swatch, when they wave it you play, when they stop you stop. And we ended with a big group play along/jam with Lamine soloing and us playing the beats he taught us, but now on our own instruments, and then jamming out off of that. Although there are a lot of amazing things occurring here, the kids show was definitely a highlight that will stick with me.
We all do plenty of bonding activities here outside of the days work, almost everyone goes and hangs out with each other every night. We are all exhausted, but we are all taking advantage of being around all these wonderful people.
Everyone comes prepared. Musical works that would normally take 3 months to learn, dissect, and fit back together are locking together after a week. And that gives us time to have some random fun! And everyone wants to work together and pick up extra projects despite our crazy busy schedules.
I'm learning a lot about technology, and people are willing to share their gear! I currently have 2 loop pedals on my person lent to me for exploration by others. Todd Reynolds will be giving a presentation on Ableton live tonight.
The African drumming was amazing. Lamine Toure of Senegal came in and taught us some calls and rhythms. It was really interesting to learn by ear and to move and dance around. He had a great spirit and made everyone feel his music, not just listen to it. During our performance he had almost everyone up and dancing.
Ok, one last little tidbit. A handful of us participated in Kids can too! on Saturday. Led by Todd Reynolds and Philippa Thompson, we focused on the relationship between color and sound. They had a few people demonstrate some of the cool different things they could do on their instrument. They had a painting projected on the screen, kids picked a shape/color and the performer who would play the shape. We did some group sing/play alongs. Philippa forced me to improvise, which was good since I'm a chicken about it! I was in a game where you have a colored poncho and kids get a matching swatch, when they wave it you play, when they stop you stop. And we ended with a big group play along/jam with Lamine soloing and us playing the beats he taught us, but now on our own instruments, and then jamming out off of that. Although there are a lot of amazing things occurring here, the kids show was definitely a highlight that will stick with me.
Bang on a can: Kids can too! I'm the one in the white "poncho" on the left.
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