Why become a musician?

Why become a musician? Or anything else for that matter?

My father always wanted me to get a steady job; he often mentioned banking as a suitable career because of the security it offered. His own path had led him into an unexpected life in the military via the second world war, going back in after de-mob when he discovered teaching wasn't for him. The stable peace of the cold war made for safe and secure employment.

Today I wouldn't associate safety and security with either of those fields. But they obviously appeal to some for all kinds of reasons. The important thing is to follow your heart. I was told the following at a party last night:

Confucius said "find a job you love and you'll never do a day's work in your life".

Now doesn't that sound like good advice?

Five Rhythms

I have just returned from a week-long camp held annually as a celebration of the midsummer solstice. It takes place in a beautiful meadow full of clover, buttercups and a variety of grasses as well as some wonderful mature trees including oak, beech, hawthorn and pine. There is also a tall conifer I am told is a Wellingtonia.

There were about seventy people in total and we camped in three circles, each with a fire pit in the middle for communal cooking and social focus. It was a closed camp (no visitors) increasing the sense of a shared experience. The beautiful setting and perfect weather made for an idyllic few days.

A prominent feature of the camp is Five Rhythms dancing. This is a new age dance form devised by Gabrielle Roth. Imagine good old fashioned 'freaking out' (for those of us who danced to prog rock in the 70s) combined with little bits of Chinese five element theory and a smattering of other ideas. Some describe it as a spiritual journey, others as a dance form for people who can't dance.

Playing music for it is surprisingly demanding. Each of the five movements can last fifteen minutes or longer, depending on the whim of the teacher. Our ensemble comprised three musicians playing, between them, djembes, balafon, assorted percussion and guitar. I dabbled in most of these, except the guitar, and added clarinet, alto saxophone and both bamboo and orchestral flute.

The music was entirely improvised but we agreed on keys and time signatures before hand. Although the dances took place in a marquee, our rehearsals were held in a mud structure based on an iron age round house which had a wonderfully warm acoustic. Each movement presents its own challenges. The first movement, Flowing, is usually played in 5:4 or 7:4 and this can take some getting used to when playing a melody instrument. The third movement, Chaos, is far more ordered than its name suggests and needs to build to a crescendo. however, building to this over several minutes requires both concentration and strong communication between the musicians.

I am pleased to say that we played for a total of five waves (each dance through the five rhythms is called a wave) and played something different each time, even when the teacher sprang a second one on us in the last session. Our three part singing on one rendition of Lyrical (the fourth movement) went down particularly well.

Afterwards the wonderful sauna on the field, built in the shape of an icosahedron, beckoned.

Five Pentatonic Scales

April's free Game of the Month at playwithsound.com is for two players at a time, sharing a xylophone. It's based on a West African balafon playing technique and is very good for developing rhythm and co-operation skills as well as exerting a calming influence on players and others in the vicinity.

Here are five scales that can be played on most 'school' instruments. Nearly all of these come with extra keys for the notes F# and Bb intended for substitution of F and B as required. Obviously, if you have a fully chromatic xylophone you have more possibilities but I think you'll find a lot to interest you in these scales:

C Major pentatonic: CDEGAC

D Minor pentatonic: DFGACD

'Japanese' pentatonic: EFABCE

C Lydian pentatonic: CDEF#AC

E Blues pentatonic (with passing note): EGA(Bb)BDE

To avoid wrong notes, remove from the instrument any keys that don't figure in the chosen scale. Also, extrapolate the scale over the range of the instrument using the high A key etc.

Oh, and what is a pentatonic scale? Any scale containing only five (different) notes. Many have no semitone intervals, making them easier to sing in than diatonic scales. You don't need a xylophone to try these out. Play them on whatever you have to hand.

Balafon fun in the Plantation Garden

Last week, with other artists and teaching staff, I took a group of nine and ten year olds to Norwich's Plantation Garden, a former quarry transformed by a Victorian gentleman. We were exploring, very loosely, the concept of sacred space and contrasting the Garden with the Roman Catholic Cathedral in the adjacent plot. The former represents one man's vision while the latter is more corporate in its design and execution.

We had a great time in the Garden, playing with mirrors, pinhole cameras and magnifying glasses. (This was about seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary.) There is a gothic fountain with frogs and fish and we took samples to view through microscopes.

So what was a musician doing there? Well, partly it was about cross-disciplinary exchange and I very much enjoyed that. But my own contribution, besides a magnifying glass grabbed as an afterthought as I left home, was an old wooden xylophone. I brought two pairs of beaters and just the notes C D E F# & A as well as the same notes an octave higher. I could have chosen any other pentatonic scale: the beauty of pentatonic scales is that there are no 'wrong' notes and it is easier to generate sonorous harmonies.

When the time feels right I sit in the sun playing the instrument until it catches a child's attention. I then teach them to play a simple game based on West African balafon technique which needs two people. By now someone else wants a go so I relinquish my beaters and help them get started. From here on in it's just a matter of making sure everyone gets a turn. Occasionally I remind them of the game but they are often happy just enjoying the sound, making up their own games or playing random notes in time with each other. The sound drifts around the garden.

I have yet to play here officially but my friend Andy Kirkham, whom I play with in Eastern Straynotes, has played in the Plantation Garden for weddings. I look forward to my own turn. Oh, and the balafon game will be Game of the Month at www.playwithsound.com in April. I'll describe it and suggest some possible applications.