Cuban Music -
Secondary School Workshop with Asere
June 2007
Asere is a lively, high-energy, high-quality 7-piece Cuban band who perform son; a traditional style of music from Cuba which combines features of Spanish and African music; mainly instruments and rhythms. As part of Asere’s visit to Dartington to perform in the Great Hall, the group led a one-day Cuban music workshop for students in Devon, ending with a school performance.
Dartington Plus worked in partnership with Colin Spencer of Knowles Hill School, Drum of Humdrum and John Hollis of Astar Music to arrange this event.
Date
6th June 2007, one day workshop
Venue
Knowles Hill School, Newton Abbot, Devon
Participants
29 students from years 7-10, 2 students from Dartington College of Arts.
All students were instrumentalists or vocalists of various standards. The group included string, woodwind, brass, guitar, keyboard and drum players as well as singers.
Aim
To develop knowledge, understanding and practical skills in Cuban music and to inspire young musicians through the exploration of a new and exciting musical form.
Objectives
- To enable access and inspiration for young musicians through working closely with excellent professional musicians.
- To provide opportunity for young musicians to take part in creative work and share new work with others
- To provide opportunity for young musicians to perform with professional musicians.
- To provide opportunity for students across different year groups to work together.
- To develop understanding of Cuban culture in relation to music
- To inspire and motivate students in music with enjoyable activity
Activity Report
Asere’s line up includes guitars, bass, trumpet, vocals and a wide range of percussion including congas, bongos, claves, cowbell.
The workshop began with a presentation by the band introducing their instruments, the style that they use for Cuban son, and how their part contributes to the ensemble. This introductory session incorporated rhythms, melodic motifs and harmonic ideas which are traditional to Cuban son music and gave the group some of the material that they would be playing later in the day. The breakdown of the band into solo parts also allowed an insight into how the music is structured.
For the second session the class split into smaller groups to explore Cuban rhythm, melody and harmony on instruments and to rehearse parts of the well-known Cuban piece Guantanamera.
The afternoon involved moving the groups to the theatre at Knowles Hill School, setting up the stage and final rehearsals for the end of day performance. Being part of the performance gave the students the opportunity to be part of an ensemble conducted with Cuban direction style which is similar to that of big band jazz but with the Leader directing with hand held percussion.
The performance programme included two big band pieces in which Asere and all the students performed together, with additional pieces performed by Asere. The gig was full of energy, volume and great fun for the players and audience.
Dartington Plus is a partnership between The Dartington Hall Trust, King Edward VI Community College and University College Falmouth – incorporating Dartington College of Arts. Funded by Arts Council England