Image © Jose & MidJourney
Today I attended my beloved School of Honk Sunday session, I believe we had short of 60 students there. Though 50% of folks might know a bit more what they are doing, we are all students, and some of us, mentors. In a lot of ways, it was a normal session, with rituals and ceremonies that help anyone show up the first day and start playing. The choreography is detailed, the roles are clear, the community is generous, the joy is palpable.
The second phase, we split into 6 mini bands and went to practice composition, and then we met for each team to play their own, what they had come up with. There was some logic to split the large group, but the logic could not prevent the fact that some groups had 4 horn players, some 10 or more people with a good balance, some had a heavy concentration of drummers. There were group leads, but everyone pitched in, and they all had to deal with the fact that they had to work with what they had.
Beyond the compositions, this “work with what you got” mentality is what struck me as creatively fantastic. The resourcefulness of the teams to work with whatever set of instruments and players they landed was inspiring, the way to compose a short song with students, some of them joining for the very first time, allowing all to have a voice and some to lead though they were not mentors, reminded me why I love this project so much, and what I love about education when it is grounded in the right principles. You could see children confidently stepping up, you could hear first time adults exploring and experimenting, you could feel the support of the team throughout the sets.
A music purist would probably have a fit, there were clearly many more ‘wrong’ notes than right ones, in some cases there were unexpected breaks, and noises coming from all sorts of places. Forget about timely syncopation or perfectly tuned pitches, it was all each mini band could come up with 30m practice, as a team, for the first time. I can see some reminding me that this is supposed to be a school, and it is. I have seen many people evolve and progress beyond what the school can give them, and some may stay at the school, with a certain level of competence that renders them important in this context, perhaps not at the BSO. Learning by doing, learning by watching and listening, even without knowing how to read music, is a classic way to master many crafts, and music too. Practice, practice, practice, but do it with others as well as by yourself. Put in your 10.000 hours, if that is your goal, but do at least half of it with others, you will learn much more than whatever you are trying to learn in the first place.