Home
Home

Home

Deconstructing the Gatekeeping of Music

We host a free online, monthly fluency in music session that explores a variety of concepts

Curious?

You are invited to join us!

Without a firm understanding of harmonic chord progressions, triads that match a chord, rhythm, rests, major and minor pentatonic scales, it takes many years to improvise (self-directed noodling) convincingly.

 

With respect, we acknowledge this perspective, and with compassion, disagree.

Pattern recognition (which can be achieved in a variety of manners suited to the individual), and curiosity, are the indicators of the option for one to experience a deeply satisfying, and significantly functional fluency of the language of music, and its use. This experience can be immediately realized with a small amount of shared insight (sometimes nothing more than access to sound making devices-including hands and voices), and when one wishes to, they can play with it as much as their curiosity encourages.

 

When we work with children who hold no awareness or training of the following for example, AND when requirements and conditional approval are not present:

    • harmonic chord progressions
    • triads (though they might have discovered the enjoyment of them tonally)
    • notes that match a chord, or rather that work within the framework the chord offers,
    • rhythm (I have not yet met a human absent a relationship with rhythm)
    • rests (I also don’t know any humans that really require “educating” in terms of rest-we all breathe)
    • major and minor pentatonic scales, or any scales for that matter…
…amazingly, they create music. They speak in music to one another, all by themselves. They even let me join the conversation.
It’s glorious!

Cause, effect, analysis, reflect, repeat.

Play.

Our approach with music does not conform to, nor confirm the ideas that promote the exclusivity that surrounds music in our society. We see no value in the gatekeeping that robs humans of the language in which we all can communicate, and creates so much trauma that would otherwise be joy and awe. Our preference is to offer a safe, open, and connected space that can generate the capacity within the individual to  own and celebrate their own process. 

No longer reliant on external delivery of a commodified “method” NOR external approval, this perspective intends to deconstruct the exclusionary, transactive, and prescriptive mindsets that we have devised for ourselves surrounding music creation, production, and even appreciation.

gallery

Fluency in Music

Fluency in Music Project - Join free sessions online and in person

Online Sessions

In Person Sessions

 We create opportunities for musicians to gather, share with one another, gain insight from each other’s experiences, and share a conversation in music.

REACH OUT FOR THE SCHEDULE OF UPCOMING ONLINE SESSIONS

Hear a new tune, pick up your instrument & join the conversation!

ROTATING SESSIONS

Pitch, Rhythm, Harmony, Communication

__________________________________

Some of the conversations you might find happening during open studio sessions include: 

  • Using the Circle of Music to Build Melody & Stories in Sound
  • Exploring the beauty and power of musical entropy using various creative resources, including musical dice, geometry, wave theory, and color
  • Playing with music/songs that you’ve never heard before, and some that you have (developing improv, accompanying, and soloing skills)

In Person Sessions 1st & 3rd Fridays, 3pm-6pm @
~ The Church Project Community Arts Center ~

Come with a question that is currently relevant to your experience with music.
We’ll explore your questions together, and weave them into the session.

256 S Broadway Street, Monte Vista
Upper floor Atrium
Come and go as you like, bring an instrument if you would enjoy exploring or playing with others, simply observe, join in the  discussion, learn, create, chill

  • ~ Continued discussion on how music works
  • ~ Refining use of fundamental concepts of harmonic intervals to create an enjoyable improv session with the whole group
  • ~ Spontaneouse Play: Improving the skills which allow you to play with any music, without having to first learn and/or have the dots

You’re encouraged to bring an instrument if you’d like. If you’re just learning, or if you’re a pro, you’re welcome just as you are. We collaboratively support each other, learn from one another, and create the open space, welcoming and embracing us all. 

Music is a part of everything and everyone

Our hope is to encourage everyone to dance with their instruments, learn to express fluently in music, and relish the energy unique to creating music in a supportive and accepting group

The Value of Fluency: Improv, Composition, Jamming, Re-creation, Appreciation

Fluency allows us to play without the dots, or having to learn the piece ahead of time
 
Learning to speak Music fluently is most successfully achieved in the same way a new human acquires spoken language. The thing is, we all understand music intuitively; it’s humanity’s first language. Some of us just got so focused on learning our second language (spoken word) that music stepped back for a while.
 
Like our spoken languages, music is comprised of frequency in sound, and we label those sounds just like we do in spoken language
  • Music’s words are tones. Tones are specific frequencies: sounds.
    When we bring those tones together in various combinations, we get sentences (melodic sequences).
  • Connected thoughts are simply, harmonic. When we create a sequence of harmonies, we get a complete thought. When we string these thoughts together, ideas emerge, and sometimes we call those ideas songs.
  • Songs (melodic sequences) can discover and share a concept, and weave details of feeling into understanding.
When we communicate in music, we spin our stories with melodic threads, sharing our experiences of life, across time and space. 

Interested in joining the conversation?

Come make music with us!

[wpforms id="1258"]
gallery

Communicate

The language of melody, the sensuality of harmony, and the complexity of stories, coalescing in a pulse that resonates across all of time. Create.

Energy’s Voice

Authenticity, Curiosity, Empathy

Music is Energy's Voice
- and we all are, simply, energy

In the moment the edges unfurl, there is the opportunity to discover the else, and music is found. 

 Fluency is freedom to exist-within, without, among, beyond, in form, and in *unform*
It allows, and persists, in expansion.
It is in motion.
Unstagnant.

Fluency is flow, whether one has any conscious idea what they are doing.
It is the freedom to be part of the unfolding, beyond what can be named or planned.

  • Fluency is the experience of effortless flow, not the mastery of rules
  • Fluency is to participate fully, with or without conscious understanding
It is energy in intent. Consciousness.
It is the current. It is the force.
It is the genesis of the flow.
…and to share the story, we have music.

“Wow, this is for everyone.” Music is for everyone. There’s no line between “I’m a musician; I’m qualified” and “You’re a person; you’re not qualified” that doesn’t exist. All people need is to feel part of a group, part of a community, and just be given permission to give it a try.

Jacob Collier

Can you sense the moment you remembered it was ok to trust your own impulse to create?

gallery