Band playing

Teacher(s): Francesco Cigna

Lessons: 4/week

Love of music has a fantastic ability to unite people despite differences in age, gender, culture, and language. The social activity of playing music together with other people who share the same passion as you is one that can create great happiness and spiritual elevation when things work well, but also frustrations and anger when they don’t. Team spirit is therefore as important as music virtuosity.

The objectives of this Folk High School class is to challenge yourself by playing your instrument (or singing) in a band together with others. To prepare yourself to go onstage in front of an audience. To improve your ability to analyze a song and prepare it for a band. And finally: To have fun while doing it, but also to learn to handle the problems that might arise within a group.

We will play different music styles, such as blues, pop, reggae, rock, etc., and try to understand basic music theory, such as notes, harmonies, rhythms, breaks, scales, keys, and song structure, and get insights in the basic functionality of a mixer, microphone, speaker, and effect machines.

A few classes through out the term will be based on theoretical musical instruction, but most will take place in the International People’s College Band Playing Room, where we will analyze songs and rehearse them.

Important: This class is only for people who already have some experience playing an instrument or singing. The class can consist of maximum two bands, each containing: 1 drummer, 1 percussionist, 1 bass player, 2 guitar players, 2 keyboard players, 2 horn players (saxophone, trumpet, etc), and 3 singers (lead and backup.) Ideal size is 5 people per band, The final composition of the bands will be based on interviews with the teacher.