A course on music improvisation and creativity, focused on finding one’s “voice” as a musician.
Stand Out! Find your musician’s voice.
Here’s an open secret about performing live music: there’s more than one way to play the same thing! That’s what distinguishes Yo-Yo Ma from any other cello player, when playing the same notes of Bach’s suite no. 1.
In this course, we’ll discover and refine what makes you sound unique, as well as learning what to look out for when identifying the voices of other musicians.
This will happen in a collaborative environment, in which we create and perform music together, all the way to composing and even setting-up the stage as a group.
Be ready to search for the joy in dealing with the unexpected, and in being vulnerable enough to risk putting your most characteristic traits out there.
The course will include listening and discussing how each of us sound like, playing musical pieces with various degrees of improvisation (some that you have had access to in advance, some that are fully freely improvised), and preparing and performing a show.
Schedule
Day 1 | Saturday, August 30th
- 11:00 – 13:00: Introduction, getting to know each other and how we play
- 13:00 – 14:00: break for lunch
- 14:00 – 16:00: Small group exercises/composition
- 16:00 – 16:30: break
- 16:30 – 18:30: large group exercises
Total: 6h
Day 2 | Sunday, August 31st
- 11:00 – 13:00: Stage setup, warm-up
- 13:00 – 14:00: break for lunch
- 14:00 – 16:00: rehearsal
- 16:00 – 16:30: break
- 16:30 – 18:00: show
- 18:00 – 18:30: de-briefing and goodbyes
Total: 6h
Prices
You’ll be charged €20 now, and €80 in early August.
Starting August 1st
Practical Info
If you register until (and including) July 31st, then you’ll benefit from an early-bird discount, making the price of the course €100. You’ll only be asked to pay €20 until August, and the remaining €80 will be charged during the first week of August. If the course is cancelled due to lack of registrations (minimum of five), then the pre-registration amount of €20 will be refunded during the first week of August.
In early August (or as soon as you register), you’ll be sent some material to listen to and practice before the start of the course.
The course (and its show) will be held at the Parlour Amsterdam. We ask to please respect the schedule of the course, in order to make sure that everyone takes the most out of our time together. Please aim to arrive earlier than the scheduled start in each day.
This course is open to ages 14 or above, and any degree of familiarity with music theory and with playing an instrument. It’s a course designed to bring something new both to full-time professional musicians and to those who have never played in their lives.
It’s open to all instruments. The space at the Parlour will make available to was a PA system, vocal microphones, guitar amplifiers, a drum set and a digital keyboard.
The course’s show will be open to the public.
Our approach
In Jam With Humans, we believe in starting where the student is already at, and teaching tools to expand their creativity from that point.
Our teachers like teaching material which wasn’t taught to them in music school, and we are very careful to make sure that we don’t end up teaching how to play like our teachers, but instead teaching the students how to play like themselves.
Our courses, albeit rooted in theory, are mostly practical, as we trust the best way to explore an instrument is by playing it.