'Sing, sing, sing!’ Not what you might expect to hear from a percussion lesson, but in Trinity Laban's percussion department we foster a more holistic approach, focusing on the entire musician and not simply the dots on the page.
I'm a cross-arts collaborator and my passion for collaboration extends to teaching, and believing it's my responsibility to help our percussionists understand how best they can learn music, develop their sound and, ultimately, explore what type of artist they want to be.
It is often said that some of the most impactful lessons are not necessarily from your own instrument. So, over the years I have taken inspiration from disciplines such as dance and voice and experimented with the relationship between body and breath, and with how percussionists – who are normally detached from their instruments with a stick, unlike the inner-bodied experience of dancing and singing – can strive to be ‘at one’ with their instrument. In my lessons, students learn to vocalise the pitches we play, but also understand the association between the voice and conscious or unconscious tension across the body. They learn how to access large muscle groups to help create full and resonant sounds, all of which help shape the music they're performing into enthralling musical phrases.
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