Post by Clouseau on Oct 18, 2006 13:30:47 GMT
www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2006/10/18/news/top_story/4aaa01turtle.txt
Learning to hear music’s backbeat
Students taught how versatile an instrument can be
By THERESA HOGUE
Gazette-Times reporter
According to some Native American beliefs, the Earth is precariously positioned on the back of an enormous turtle, and when the turtle stumbles, the world shakes.
There’s a lot of shaking going on in the world of the Turtle Island String Quartet, whose name pays tribute to the belief. The world-famous musicians can’t help but shake up any place they visit with their incredible improvisations on tunes ranging from jazz to rock to classical. While their roots are classical, the quartet has leafed out in many musical directions.
Some lucky young local musicians got a chance to experience the magic of the Turtle Island String Quartet and gain insights into their innovative techniques during a master class at Crescent Valley High School on Tuesday. Orchestra students from CVHS, Corvallis High School and Cheldelin Middle School attended the class and had the chance to ask the musicians questions.
Violinist David Balakrishnan explained that the underlying core of American music is the backbeat, and had the room get involved by snapping their fingers while other quartet members played the theme song to “The Pink Panther.”
“This is in all American music, whether it’s jazz, pop music, rap music, bluegrass music, anything,” Balakrishnan said. “You turn on the radio, you’ll always hear this backbone going on.”
Then, the group demonstrated how their sound goes far beyond the usual string quartet sound.
“We don’t have the instruments associated with playing American rhythm string band kind of style, what’s known as a rhythm section,” he said. “We don’t have drums, we don’t have piano, guitar, we don’t have bass.”
But, by training their ear to understand how popular American music works, the musicians can recreate most of those sounds on their violins, violas and cellos, which Balakrishnan demonstrated by playing a Jimi Hendrix-style guitar solo on his violin.
A violin can also substitute for a drum when struck the right way with the bow, while the cello can pretend to be a bass.
“This is cooking, and you’ve got two people,” he said, as violinist Evan Price and cellist Mark Summer showed off their skills, joking, “At a wedding, they can play ‘Pachelbel’s Canon’ and then the party afterward.”
The quartet took the students on a musical journey, from Charlie Parker to Led Zeppelin, encompassing gypsy music from Europe and bluegrass music with African roots, and showing the young orchestral students just what was possible and trying to inspire them to learn to listen, to improvise, and to write their own pieces, which each of the string quartet members do.
“We write everything we do,” Price said. “It’s a huge part of our job.”
“To be a Turtle, you have to be a composer,” Summer agreed.
The quartet members urged students to use their classical training as a core — and to learn not just to read music but also understand its complex pieces through listening. By doing so, they will become better musicians.
For orchestra teacher Charles Creighton, learning from professional musicians of the caliber of the Turtle Island String Quartet was a rare opportunity, one made more frequent by the help of Chamber Music Corvallis, which hosts many great artists.
“We have good partnerships with people in the community,” Creighton said. “Can you imagine being a high school kid and getting to be able to see this? It’s like planting a seed.”
Students taught how versatile an instrument can be
By THERESA HOGUE
Gazette-Times reporter
According to some Native American beliefs, the Earth is precariously positioned on the back of an enormous turtle, and when the turtle stumbles, the world shakes.
There’s a lot of shaking going on in the world of the Turtle Island String Quartet, whose name pays tribute to the belief. The world-famous musicians can’t help but shake up any place they visit with their incredible improvisations on tunes ranging from jazz to rock to classical. While their roots are classical, the quartet has leafed out in many musical directions.
Some lucky young local musicians got a chance to experience the magic of the Turtle Island String Quartet and gain insights into their innovative techniques during a master class at Crescent Valley High School on Tuesday. Orchestra students from CVHS, Corvallis High School and Cheldelin Middle School attended the class and had the chance to ask the musicians questions.
Violinist David Balakrishnan explained that the underlying core of American music is the backbeat, and had the room get involved by snapping their fingers while other quartet members played the theme song to “The Pink Panther.”
“This is in all American music, whether it’s jazz, pop music, rap music, bluegrass music, anything,” Balakrishnan said. “You turn on the radio, you’ll always hear this backbone going on.”
Then, the group demonstrated how their sound goes far beyond the usual string quartet sound.
“We don’t have the instruments associated with playing American rhythm string band kind of style, what’s known as a rhythm section,” he said. “We don’t have drums, we don’t have piano, guitar, we don’t have bass.”
But, by training their ear to understand how popular American music works, the musicians can recreate most of those sounds on their violins, violas and cellos, which Balakrishnan demonstrated by playing a Jimi Hendrix-style guitar solo on his violin.
A violin can also substitute for a drum when struck the right way with the bow, while the cello can pretend to be a bass.
“This is cooking, and you’ve got two people,” he said, as violinist Evan Price and cellist Mark Summer showed off their skills, joking, “At a wedding, they can play ‘Pachelbel’s Canon’ and then the party afterward.”
The quartet took the students on a musical journey, from Charlie Parker to Led Zeppelin, encompassing gypsy music from Europe and bluegrass music with African roots, and showing the young orchestral students just what was possible and trying to inspire them to learn to listen, to improvise, and to write their own pieces, which each of the string quartet members do.
“We write everything we do,” Price said. “It’s a huge part of our job.”
“To be a Turtle, you have to be a composer,” Summer agreed.
The quartet members urged students to use their classical training as a core — and to learn not just to read music but also understand its complex pieces through listening. By doing so, they will become better musicians.
For orchestra teacher Charles Creighton, learning from professional musicians of the caliber of the Turtle Island String Quartet was a rare opportunity, one made more frequent by the help of Chamber Music Corvallis, which hosts many great artists.
“We have good partnerships with people in the community,” Creighton said. “Can you imagine being a high school kid and getting to be able to see this? It’s like planting a seed.”