One of the most difficult things to teach an absolute beginner student (of any age) is the difference between the beat and the rhythm of music. I find that initially they mostly think that the two are the same thing. This is probably because many people mistakenly use the word 'beat' instead of rhythm.
While a metronome is ultimately the best way to keep a steady beat, it can be very daunting (and annoying) for a beginner to use. I usually explain that a beat is the constant pulse in music, such as a ticking clock or your heartbeat. It is usually constant throughout the piece (as a ticking clock) but can be changed by a tempo indication (as your heart can speed up when exercising or slow down when at rest). As a clock cannot function without a second of movement, and you can't sustain life without your heartbeat, so too music must have a constant beat that the rhythms can relate.
Rhythms are the alternation of different lengths of sound. These have to relate to some sort of constant beat in order to be classified as a rhythm and in order for our brains to interpret it as such (I am aware that John Cage has his philosophy on the heartbeat of life etc. but this is not very applicable for this teaching concept).
I find that clapping can be a very useful tool when teaching someone who is struggling with this concept. I will get the student to clap the beat with me. Then I will ask the student to keep the constant beat, while I will clap a rhythm. We will then swap and I will keep the beat as the student creates their own rhythm. With the little ones we also use various percussion instruments
I find it fascinating how some people pick up on this concept so quickly, (usually younger students). They are able to play rhythms on the instrument in perfect time and with relative ease, while others really struggle with the concept (usually beginner adults). We sing, we clap to the metronome, we walk around the room to a beat and yet when it comes to counting a steady beat and playing a different rhythm the co-ordination goes out the window and the student feels they don't completely understand what a 'beat' is and how long a beat should be.
So it has been quite a fun exercise for me to come up with new creative ideas about teaching the beat vs rhythm.
I would live to know if other people struggle with this. Please let me know if you do or if you have managed to overcome this?
I am truly grateful that I have been blessed to meet some of South Africa's finest musicians and Shane Cooper is certainly on the top of that list. Bass player, composer and producer, Shane, is definitely someone to watch in the South African music industry. He has recorded with many other well-known South African musicians including Melanie Scholtz, Kyle Shepherd, Bokani Dyer, Rus Nerwich, Zim Ngqawana and Dan Shout (to name a few). He was a member of the Indian fusion quartet 'Babu' and South African quintet 'Restless Natives' (both were based in Cape Town).
After watching Shane play numerous times at the Standard Bank National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, it was then no surprise to learn that he was selected as the Standard Bank Young Artist for Jazz in 2013. I have not heard any other player make a double bass sing like he does, and when he plays his solo's you will involuntarily sit up and watch his every move. Being at the Grahamstown jazz festival specifically, you are inundated with jazz music (obviously that's the point) for almost a full week, it's easy for a person to become overwhelmed and for their ears to get 'tired'. But every time Shane plays, it is almost as if the audience is awakened by his tone and style, then entranced and taken on a musical journey of the story he is 'telling'.
Thankfully those of us living in Cape Town are privileged to see him play at venues such as www.thecryptjazz.com and Straight No Chaser Club and occasionally the Nassau Centre.
Check out what Shane had to say about wining the Standard Bank Jazz Young Artist award (2013).
If you are following my blog, then you will already know that I have been trying to get an understanding of what is 'Behind the Music'. I am asking musicians about what they have to say about their career's, especially within the context of the South African music industry.
This is what Shane had to say in answer to my questions:
When and how did you start playing your
instrument/s?
I started playing piano when I was very young, and
eventually switched to guitar. When I
started high school I was asked to play bass in the school jazz band so I
started learning to play bass for fun. I
developed a love for the instrument very quickly and it became my main musical
focus after that.
Did you
have any formal training, and if so where?
I studied jazz performance at UCT.
What
inspired you to take up your art form as a career?
Playing music became my favourite hobby when I was still in
school, so I decided to try make it a career.
What does
your current career entail? (Can you give an idea of a day in your life?)
It's a mixture of practising my instrument and practising
with bands, composing music, recording / producing, playing shows, and doing
lots of boring admin stuff too.
How did
you (and do you) approach being in the music industry in South Africa?
It's very difficult in South Africa because we don't have a
lot of venues to perform in, and we only have a few big cities that we can tour
to. Also travelling within the continent
is very expensive, so we are limited in terms of performance options. As a result we have to work hard at trying to
get international exposure so that we can get gigs abroad and keep performing
as often as possible.
What do
you most enjoy about your career?
I get to make music everyday, it's the best!
If you
could, what would you change about the music industry?
I wish we could still make money from selling records in the
digital age. That money goes back into
making more albums, but it's very difficult to have that cycle running these
days. I'd also like people to be more willing to pay proper cover
charges for live shows. In 2014 I still
see people complaining about paying R40 to watch a live band, which is
crazy. I also wish music equipment was cheaper
in SA, most products are almost double the price they are in Europe and the
USA.
Do you
enjoy what you do now?
I'm loving it.
What are
your plans for your future?
I'm writing new music at the moment, and also producing
tracks for some singers.
Disclaimer: Please note that non of the images in this post belong to me and they have been credited as far as possible.
This blog post is going to be two-fold. My thoughts before and after I attended the SAJE Jazz Workshop. The workshop was aimed at classically trained teachers who are now expected to teach jazz by the South African education department. I attended because even though I studied jazz, my knowledge is not ingrained in my playing. So I feel that I am not fully equipped to teach jazz to the best of my ability, especially when it comes to improvising (I will explain more about that below). But when we learn how to teach something we often improve on that skill. So it's really a vise-versa kind of situation.
My thoughts that I wrote down before last weeks workshop
Below are two things that I have learnt about myself recently:
1. I get bored very easily, keep me busy.
2. I want to be busy, but I don’t want to use my brain too
much.
These too conclusions are the reason, I have decided, that I
can’t really improvise. I have the knowledge of how to do it, but I don’t have
the patience, to firstly listen to other people improvise. Secondly, I don’t
want to actually practise the stuff. I get bored. Even though I know that there
is so much exciting stuff and I really want to be able to play the stuff, I want to shred, but I don’t want to have to memorise stuff or do the work. It’s too taxing on
the brain.
So, who cares!?
Well, I WANT TO BE ABLE TO IMPROVISE!!!!! I want to be constantly stretching myself and developing as a musician. So, this
is my mountain. How do I climb it? I don’t know.
I’ve decided that going to this workshop is my last attempt
at getting to this. I need motivation, and I need a programme, but I don’t have
anybody to be accountable to and it’s much easier to clean the house and do
laundry than think. Either, I have to banish the dream of being a competent improviser,
or, I have to get over myself and come up with a plan. I am going to have to
climb this mountain with one foot in front of the other and not take any steps
back. I have to refuse to let my brain get tired and rather take bite size
chunks that I can manage, and then see what happens. Maybe this blog will help
me be accountable? We’ll see, watch this space.
My thoughts after the workshop
Below are two things that I learnt at the workshop:
1. Jazz is constantly changing.
2. So many other people haven't got a cooking clue what jazz really is.
So I always look at people like Dan Shout, Mike Rossi and Marc De Kock. Those cats play a mean horn and they can certainly improvise! I know they have done the work, but I look at them and think, "sho, I have a long way to go". After hearing the questions that some of the people asked and hearing what Gordon Vernick had to say, it was like "sho, I actually know this stuff...I just need to go home, LISTEN to more music and practice". And really is that such a difficult thing?
So I have been listening to so much jazz this week and it has been so incredibly refreshing. My brain has not gotten too tired and I realised that this really is the kind of music that I want to play. Gordon also gave us all a whole lot of really useful material, which I'll definitely put to good use. I also found it encouraging (although intimidating) that Dan Shout, Marc De Kock and Terrence Scarr were at the event. Saying that you are always able to learn more and also learn new useful ways to teach.
I would like to write more about Gordon Vernick, but that will have to wait for another post. He really is an inspirational man.
Gordon Vernick (please not that this picture does not belong to me)
