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!
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