CornoColombia: Days 8-10

Our last days working in Colombia were spent at the National University's conservatory.  I worked with a variety of students through two afternoons.  On the first day, we warmed up together, and completed various technical exercises, such as on articulation, scales and arpeggios, and other standard concepts.  Then two student ensembles played for me.
First, a fairly advanced group sight-read a quartet.  We discussed together what could be done to improve the performance and then after some work on having the same articulations and intonation, they gave a mini-performance.  In addition to discussing how to fix these things in this situation (as in, in a rehearsal setting), we also talked about how to fix things in the context of an orchestral rehearsal in which you don't know the other players in the section and don't have the opportunity to rehearse independently from the ensemble.  So we discussed how to adjust your intonation to match other people's, and how to make the same stylistic choices without having to discuss anything verbally.  Watch this video of their second reading!

Next, a group of less advanced students played.  They told me they are the basic level, which I believe means they were in kind of a conservatory training program for older teenagers who weren't yet ready to enter the university.  In this group there was a huge range of levels, from some who could only play a few notes to students nearly on the level of the university players.  They played an easy quartet for me, and then we practiced making the note lengths the same across all parts and registers.

Coaching the intermediate group

To finish the day's work, a number of students then played for me in a master class format.  I tried to give general comments, however, so the students observing the class could also benefit from the ideas that I presented.  The horn professors at the University were watching my class and asked that I continue discussion of two specific ideas in my class the following day.
The second day, I worked with all the students on these two ideas.  First, there is an exercise that my teacher loves called Path, which aids you to find the center of the note and play with more stability, without missing notes.  It also allows you more flexibility, since it develops smooth transitions between registers.  This easily segued into the second idea, about adjustments in mouthpiece angling between registers.  The teacher asked that I work on these ideas because he was not familiar with these exercises, though of course he had been working on the problem with his students in other ways.  At the end of the class, I answered lots of questions from the students, about everything from my personal warm-up routine to who my favorite horn players are, and what I think about different alternate fingerings.
With the work in Colombia concluded, we were able to embrace Colombian culture by going out on the town that night. The next day we traveled back to our respective countries.
I am extremely grateful for the opportunities doing this project presented for me.  I feel like I was able to help a variety of students in this country, not just by teaching, but also by just sharing my ideas with them as a contrasting viewpoint to what they had been exposed to before.  I was also able to bring many books about horn playing to them that they had never seen before, or that were nearly impossible to find there.
I learned that in the first two programs I worked for, the main problems are difficult family situations, which make it difficult for the students to focus on their music making; and an inadequate student/teacher ratio, so that some students had major technical problems that had not yet been addressed on a personal level.  At the Universidad Nacional, the students were not publicly funded so some of them had difficulties buying things like oils to maintain their instruments.  Overall, however, the biggest problem was the lack of access to sheet music and high quality recordings.  Everywhere I went, everyone was amazed by the music that I brought and begged for the chance to copy them, even some books that were entirely in English.  The most popular books were the horn ensembles; Yuli, my host, told me that it's nearly impossible to find good arrangements for horn ensemble in Colombia.
I hope that I can continue my work for CornoColombia in the future.  I will seek further grant funding to buy books and other materials to send to these programs and the teachers that I met there, and possibly to return to Colombia to work more with all of these programs.  While I was there, I also learned about an international horn festival that will be taking place in Bogota this September or October.  They will invite a variety of international faculty members and guest soloists and I hope that I might be able to attend!

CornoColombia: Days 5-7

After two days working in Tocancipa, we had a day off on Monday because it was a national holiday in Colombia.  However, we weren't really able to do anything because the weather was terrible, so instead we went to see a movie.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, we worked at Tocar y Luchar.  This is a nucleo modeled after the Venezuelan "El Sistema" pattern.  In Venezuela, however, most of the program's funding comes from the government.  In Colombia, the way the government is set up makes it very difficult to receive sufficient funding.  Therefore, this program is instead funded by CAFAM, a corporation devoted to social growth.  CAFAM sponsors a number of secondary schools (called colegios), providing the students with everything they need, from uniforms and shoes to paper and pencils.  Located in a pretty impoverished neighborhood of Bogota, the colegio we worked at is one of the CAFAM schools expanding into the sphere of music education.  Most of the students had been playing a little less than a year, though there were also a lot of complete beginners.  CAFAM provides the students with the instruments and music that they need, as well as all the supplies needed to maintain their instruments in good playing condition.  Though the program was started about a year ago, they have only been playing together in orchestra for six months.
Because the students have school in the mornings, we were only working in the afternoons and evenings of two days.  On the first day, I began the workshop with breathing exercises.  I know from my own time learning in group classes in elementary and middle school that often fundamental problems of playing come from being rushed into playing without sufficient warm-up time for beginners and early intermediate students.  After about half an hour of work on expanding lung capacity, articulations and how they relate to respiration, and taking rapid but full breaths, we then moved on to playing with a very thorough warm-up routine designed from a variety of early method books.  Afterward we spent the rest of the day going through one by one and fixing any problems they might have in their playing.  The problem is that at this program each teacher has on average five or six students of sometimes very different levels, so it is very difficult for them to give much individual attention to any one student.  Each played one or two notes (or a scale if they were advanced enough) and then the whole group discussed what strategies could be used to fix the problem. For example, one student had a somewhat muffled tone. Some of the more advanced students hypothesized that it could be from a closed position with the right hand, but we soon established that the real culprit was a raised tongue.
The second day, we again began with a thorough group warm-up.  Then one of the teachers took the beginning students to do some work with them, while I worked with the intermediate students on more difficult flexibility exercises and range extension.  In the third part of the afternoon, we worked on their orchestra music.  They were studying an arrangement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 1, which is originally for two horns, and it was really difficult for them because three people were doubling every part, which made the intonation extremely difficult.  Finally, I worked a bit with the beginning students, on how to change notes, and how to control whether they move up or down in pitch. (Like I said, they were very much beginners!)   Then, as a surprise, the whole orchestra gathered to present a performance for us of Beethoven! It was their first time playing this piece together. I was impressed by the quality of their performance for such young musicians! Because of privacy concerns, I was asked not to post photos or videos of the students in a public forum, such as this blog or on YouTube, but I have uploaded an audio clip of their Beethoven.  Enjoy, and check back soon for information about the rest of my trip!

CornoColombia: Days 1-4

Hi, everyone!  I've just returned from my trip to Colombia! Unfortunately, because of extremely limited internet connectivity, I was unable to post on this blog as I had planned to.  So now I will attempt to recreate the blog posts that would have been here if I had had internet access!
I arrived in Colombia on March 17 early in the afternoon, and was met at the airport by Yuli, my host and my main aid in organizing all the activities of my trip.  I was also met by my boyfriend, who traveled there at the same time to work with percussion students, though he of course was not sponsored by the grant.

We're excited to be in Colombia!

After a long taxi ride to Yuli's home in a suburb on the other side of the city from the airport, we spent the rest of the day relaxing, getting used to our surroundings, and planning the types of materials that I should use to work with each group/program.  I brought about 30 books with me on the trip, including method books, technique exercises, and works for horn ensembles.  I went through all of them with Yuli to determine which were appropriate levels for each group, and to become further acquainted with the purpose and organizational structure of the programs.
The next day, Friday, was a free day.  We slept in a little to get over the fatigue from the previous day of traveling, then went into downtown Bogota to do some sight-seeing.  I knew before I arrived in Colombia that I would be staying outside the city, but it was pretty far to go in.  Some days we took taxis, but usually we traveled via TransMilenio, Bogota's public transportation system.  The TransMilenio is a system of buses, which drive in their own lanes on all major roads so as to avoid the problems of traffic.  Also, it is not a dangerous place to be, even for someone who is obviously North-American, like me.  Since it's so safe, we were able to use it almost all the time, except very late at night when I had my instrument with me.  So into the city we went! We spent most of the time in La Candelaria, the historic center of Bogota, where most of the museums and many historic churches and cathedrals are located.  We visited nearly all of the museums, many churches, and we even took some pictures outside the president's house!

With Yuli in the Botero Museum

 It was a good thing that we went back home pretty early on Friday, because Saturday was the first day of work.  We were working at Sabana Centro, a music program for children in Tocancipa.  Tocancipa is a Colombian city outside of Bogota (see map below), but since it was on the opposite side of the city from San Mateo, where we were staying, it was a pretty long trip to get there.  We spent about 2 or 2 1/2 hours on different buses on our way there.  We arrived in a small town that seems to me fairly typical of rural Colombia from my experience there last July.  The town was very small, with a few restaurants, markets, and one large building that is the music school.  Students go there from all over the area to play with the youth programs.  They have an orchestra and a few bands.


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I worked first with a variety of students, from beginning (one with just 1 week of  playing!) to high intermediate.  First, we warmed up together and discussed  basic means of sound production.  I then went student by student through  the group, correcting problems of position, technique, and breathing.  After lunch, the beginning students left and I worked with the intermediate level students on basic ensemble.  I played a horn quartet with the other teachers while the students watched, then the students sight-read an easier piece.  We discussed the types of markings that come up often in scores, such as tempo markings, repeats, articulations, and dynamics, as well as how to play together well, including how to coordinate fast notes, match note lengths and articulations, and cue or follow someone else's cues.  After one more run-through (watch the video below!), it was time to take the long trip back home.

The next day, Sunday, we again spent working in Tocancipa.  In the morning, I worked exclusively with the beginning students, on technique (including basic fingerings and long tones) as well as reviewed the concepts of positioning we had talked about the previous day.  To culminate our time together, we worked on a very simple trio from one of the method books I brought, which involved just stepwise motion and differentiating between similar-feeling partials on the horn.  Below you can watch a video of their final performance!

In the afternoon, I worked with the staff members at the program, as well as the more advanced students, on some more trios and quartets, and we finished off by playing some orchestral excerpts and discussing the excerpts' stylistic difficulties.

Working on ensemble playing with intermediate students

Altogether, I had a fantastic time working at Sabana Centro Tocancipa with the students and teachers there, and check back soon for information about the rest of my trip!