Improvisation and Contemporary Styles for Bowed String Players
Presented by Christian Howes and Victoria Yeh
This intensive mini-conference will include masterclasses, group lessons, and chamber music coaching for performers and teachers on bowed strings seeking transformative growth and professional development.
A Focus on Creative Musicianship– Free Improvisation, Arranging, Composition, Modal, Harmonic, and Rhythmic internalization, Contemporary styles, and related subjects.
Students, professional performers and teachers are welcome, including advanced jazz players and those with no improvisation training.
Watch this video for a sample of Christian’s teaching:
Location:
Tuition:
2 Day String Bootcamp (May 18-19), $500 CAD
Introduction to Improvisation Session (May 18), $125 CAD
Schedule:
May 18th:
- Introduction to Improvisation: 10:00am-1:00pm
- Learn and practice the first principles of Improvisation in this essential introductory class, that’s suitable for everyone!For ALL ages, experience levels, and string instruments
- Creative Strings Bootcamp: 10:00am-6:00pm
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A comprehensive 2-day intensive for advanced players, covering high-level topics including contemporary styles and harmony.
For Pro Players, Teachers and Advanced Students
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May 19th:
- Creative Strings Bootcamp: 10:00am-6:00pm
- Closing show with Christian Howes and Victoria Yeh
Benefits:
- Become creatively self-expressed and develop your musical voice.
- Internalize harmony, voice-leading, scales, modes, and apply them.
- Become fluent in contemporary styles so you can jam with musicians outside of classical music, create YouTube covers, and more.
- Be able to use amplification and effects.
- Get gigs and take your creative musical career to the next level.
- Teachers: Gain age-appropriate sequences to share with students
- Gain comfort in improvisation, composition, and arranging.
Detailed Curriculum:
Improvisation, Contemporary Styles, and Related subjects for classically trained string players.
- Also see online curriculum, school visits, and other multi-day workshops.
Tonal Improvisation, Arranging, and Composition
Through a series of easy playing and reading exercises, participants will learn how to create functional melodies over chord progressions. Melodic improvisation and composition are demystified as we discover how to easily construct melodies, bass lines, and accompaniment parts.
Throughout the session, participants will improvise over chord progressions in bluegrass, reggae, waltz, rock, latin, and classical styles.
* This session teaches composition, voice leading, harmony, arranging, and improvisation through an integrated and comprehensive approach.
Amplified strings, Looping and Effects In The Classroom, Practice Room, And Stage
Short/description: Using loop pedals and effects with amplified string instruments is cool! It also allows teachers to easily engage students in group exercises related to both traditional and eclectic styles. This session presents an overview of how to use loops and effects as a tool for teaching, practice, and performance. Gain insights into the basics of looping technology, how to create loops, common issues with looping, and how to go beyond the basics to get your students excited about creative practice.
Related Video:
Blues
- As literary and musical form – Harmonic, Melodic, and Rhythmic applications.
- Insider tips including how to combine the major and minor pentatonic and/or blues scales
- How bass lines and inner voice patterns show up in common iterations of 12 bar blues
Free Improvisation and Non-Tonal Composition ? ?
Participants will compose in small groups using “composition games.” During this interactive session you will feel empowered by the end of the session to perform your compositions and apply what you learned in your daily practice or teaching.
Related Videos:
Conducted Group Improvisation
Using cue cards and a system of hand signals, Christian conducts a large ensemble in group improvisation. Engage in call and response, looping, “musical wrestling”, vamps, modal grooves, occasional musical chaos, with a multitude of stylistic applications. Students can also conduct the improvising ensemble.
Conduction is a popular practice among contemporary ensembles worldwide, including small groups and even orchestras. Christian’s approach to conduction borrows from a variety of sources and caters to the skill set of classically trained string players.
Modal approach to improvisation: Advanced and/or Intermediate. How to apply a modal approach as an improviser, arranger, or composer.
Internalizing Harmony on the Violin, Viola, and Cello (advanced only)
An exhaustive approach to internalizing harmony on bowed string instruments. Including voice leading arpeggios, scales, and double stops and triple stops. Internalizing chord progressions via bass line, inner voices, and sequential patterns.
Related Videos: “Anatomy of a Groove” Playlist
Music Business – (For professionals and college students)
The Music Biz Mastermind seminar is based on the program Christian has used to help many professional musicians attract more projects, gigs, students, and clients, as detailed in testimonials from graduates HERE.
Most freelancers lack a fundamental orientation towards basic sales and marketing. These skills, combined with clarifying goals, are at the core of this module.
Partners: D’Addario Canada
Creative Strings is a non-profit cultural organization with a mission to support and transform music education through outreach, summer conference, and online curriculum.