Monday, April 23, 2007
The Way That I Teach

The books that I write provide a simple and straightforward way to progress on the kalimba, but this tablature-based method of learning is mainly an intellectual endeavor. At least it starts out as an intellectual thing but, hopefully, it transcends the intellect and, as you internalize the instruction, you develop intuition and come to a place where you can play by feeling.

On Saturday, I had the pleasure of teaching a large group of Arizona Music Therapists about the kalimba in an all-day kalimba workshop. We did start off with some tablature work to make a major injection of knowledge into these folks' brains, i.e., the scales, the chords, the note layouts of several different types of kalimbas.

However, the way that I teach in person is more intuitive, my goal being to tap into the deeper source of musical knowledge within... By the end of the day, I was delighted that most everyone was jumping into the flow, with body and mind in unity, responding to the NOW of the music.

 

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