Musical Food

Tomorrow the Luminescent Orchestrii is playing for our students here at Hungry Monk Music.  Next week Stevie Coyle will be here teaching and giving a concert.  I’m starting to get really excited.  The “can’t sleep, butterflies in tummy excited” kind.  I’m ready for some musical food.  I have been playing a bunch for people and students and I’m ready to take in some great music. 

A student of mine last week really improved.  There was something different about how she played the piano.  It was even more than just the playing.  It was a look on her face, posture, hand position and confidence.  She was louder and more accurate than she had ever been in her two years of playing music.  Now keep in mind she is only 6 yrs old. 

I happen to mention to her mom that she really made a jump this past week and here is what her mother told me.  My little student and her family came to see me play with the Monks at the Daily Dose two weeks ago.  The day after seeing us she got up first thing in the morning and started practicing!  Real practice.  Maybe the first real practice she has done considering she is only 6.

So, I got to thinking.  My grand musical performance so moved this child that she found her musical voice – NOT.  However, she did watch her teacher get up and make music.  She saw me not in the classroom or practicing, but really playing with and for other people.  The idea of what we do in class and practice suddenly became clear.  

If your music study is a like a balanced healthy diet then watching someone perform or jamming with others is your musical food.  You cannot survive without it.  You cannot progress or even begin without it.  Lessons are like a visit to the chiropractor or doctor – you get an adjustment or check up.  Practice is exercise.  Practice can be fun like a game of tennis or just plain boring like the exercise bike – unless you like the bike  – you get the idea.  Our food is hearing music – live music.  Pam our violin teacher at Hungry Monk says that seeing a concert is worth 3 hours of practice.

So get out there and see/hear some live music.  Students and parents you need to see the spit come out of the trombone and here how loud flute players breath.  You need to watch a singer fill a big room with no microphones and see the bow hairs get fiddled right off a bow.  Watch a guitar players fingers move in ways you never thought possible and pianists make that big box shake.

Good luck and good listening!!

All for now

Hazel 

  

Echo Early Music Festival ‘08

It was a cold week in Asheville, NC Jan 28 – Feb 1.  Christopher Berg and I (Rossignol Duo) braved the cold winter to play our lutes for the Echo Early Music Festival.  This was the first every early music festival in Asheville so we were very excited to go play.  It was an impressive festival and organized very well by Eric.  We played continuo for the Monteverdi Opera Orfeo.  I played baroque guitar and lute and Christopher played  arch lute.

Playing continuo is one of those skills I’m proud to have, but I don’t get to use very much.  It is basically just like playing bluegrass guitar only with a different kind of chord chart.  One reads from the bass clef and fills in the chord according to what the bass note and symbols ask of you.  It is very improvisational.  You also coordinate this playing with the other continuo players ( string band ) - harp, harpsichord, organ, cello, violone and viols.  Then you all listen for the singers as they interpret what it must be like to go into the underworld and loose the love of your life.  Needless to say Orfeo sings mostly in a minor key which I would too if I went to hell and back.  It was great to meet all the musicians and singers.

Christopher and I then gave a lute talk and concert downtown Asheville.  There was a great audience and some special old friends that came to the concert.  Doug James brought some guitar students all the way from Boone, NC and Robin Sholder a friend from University of Southern Cal days was there. 

Robin was my hostess for the rest of my stay.  We survived an ice storm, lost power, played pool, walked uphill, ate good food, saw Malcolm Holcome at the Grey Eagle, played banjo, had homemade waffles (thanks Jack), visited with Dan, Mike and Wanda and family and generally had a good time. 

To check out the festival their web site is www.eemf.net 

Rossignol Duo also had a myspace page now – lutes in cyberspace!!! www.myspace.com/Rossignolduo

All for now

Hazel 

Hungry Monk Music Concerts & Workshops

Hungry Monk Music has been active in music education and performance since its inception in 1992. With the purchase of our new larger facility in 2005, we have a lot more room for our activities. Our performance space is not that big, but we have a nice little stage, some lighting, and a sound system. We can seat up to 50 people comfortably and when the weather is nice we can open the large garage door to the outside parking lot and the crowd can spill out into it. Over the past few years we have had several performers and teachers come through Hungry Monk Music and enrich our musical environment. We have monthly coffee houses for our students to perform. We have had songwriter nights featuring Shannon Whitworth, George Fox, Hazel Ketchum, and many others. In the past year we have had two great traditional musicians come throught and give workshps and concerts. Dan Levenson was here in early 2007 giving a banjo workshop and a fiddle workshop, as well as a great performance. This past December saw Mary Cox giving a banjo workshop and a concert. Upcoming events by The Luminescent Orchestrii (Romanian Gypsy punk and all that conjures up) will be here for a workshop/performance in February, Stevie Coyle (formerly of The Waybacks and a great fingerstyle guitarist) will be here for a series of lessons and a concert, and our friends Ian and Sarah Morris and their group Your Sparkle Heart will be at Hungry Monk the beginning of March.

All of this adds up to a great place to be for music for all our friends and students, not to mention ourselves! We have always wanted to create a musical environment that is exciting and educational where we could do our musical thing and encourage others to do theirs.  

Rossignol Duo

On February 9, 2008 The Rossignol Duo gave a performance at Hungry Monk Music as part of the Fabulous February series of events taking place here. The Rossignol Duo consists of Hazel Ketchum on lutes, early guitars, and voice, and Christopher Berg on lutes. Their program included lute duets, lute solos, and lute songs. It is a rare event to see the Renaissance lute played here in Charleston, or anywhere for that matter, let alone two lutes playing together. Rossignol has been performing together for several years and their concerts have been well received here in South Carolina, Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina, and several other of the lower 48. Christopher Berg directs the Classical Guitar Program at The University of South Carolina and Hazel Ketchum runs Hungry Monk Music and is the Regional Coordinator of Music For Young Children.

Their program on this evening included music from Renaissance England, France, and Italy. Their two lutes entwined together to produce a sound that seemed to be made up of more than just the two instruments. The lute songs perfectly captured the longing of unrequited love so vividly protrayed in these great classical songs. Christopher played a series of virtuoso solos by the French composer Pierre Attaignant from a collection first published in 1530. Hazel played a few solos and accompanied herself on several Spanish songs. The self-accompanied lute song is a very unique and wonderful talent that Hazel has.