Harmonic Analysis and Improv Workshop with Jennifer Curtis
Saturday, April 11,
-
DUSS Youth Symphony students will learn tools to apply immediate harmonic understanding via ear training so that you will know what key you are in at any given moment, can create a melody on a basic harmonic progression, and fundamentally have more fun with standard classical repertoire. We will use the Elegie and Finale of Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings as the jumping off point for an afternoon of learning how to improvise and think of music beyond the page.
Clinician: Jennifer Curtis
FREE for YS students to play in. Open to the public for observing.
Musicianship and the Art of Interpretation: An approach to classical repertoire through harmonic analysis and improvisation
This master class offers students applied theory and ear training both within the context of Tchaikovsky's Serenade through an exploration of improvisation.
For many musicians, music theory is a task learned and practiced away from their instruments. This gap in music education can lead to a lack of harmonic recognition while playing. Yet through live verbal harmonic analysis and improvisation games, we can discover both the science and the meaning of the music, the latter of which is unique to every individual. But how do we discover this meaning? In this workshop, we will choose key areas and modulations of particular relevance in the pieces students are working on, and then together improvise between the chosen key areas. In this manner, we will discover the music’s distinguishing characteristics by articulating the emotional qualities or psychological moods per key and discussing the best way to technically achieve these ideas through the instrument. By the time we return to the repertoire, the music will have transformed to a more personal level for the student, who can then play it with more confidence. A more specific and therefore sophisticated interpretation thus emerges.
