Sarah’s Blog
Hi, I’m Sarah. I absolved the preperatory course ‘Filmscoring and Production’ at Musicube Academy and now I am a second year student of Composition for Film and Theatre. In this blog I’m gonna share my personal experience as a student at ArtEZ in Arnhem.
Any questions: sarahs_blog@yahoo.com
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The April weather once again lives up to its reputation. From snow to bright sunshine we had everything so far. At the ArtEZ we continue to work hard, no matter what happens outside. And so last week there was again a study group.
About three times a year the complete class of Jazz&Pop students meets for this event. Each time there is a new topic, so at the last meeting Soundcheck was discussed with a competent ArtEZ staff member and this time the topic was Research.
For this occasion a guest lecturer was engaged: Oene van Geel, a composer and violinist. First Oene told us a little about himself and his work and showed us a few of his pieces. He also taught us some complex rhythms that he had used in his pieces.
You could clearly see that he has a lot of experience in rhythm. He also told us about his visit to India and the way they learn rhythms there. The rhythm exercises we did together sometimes took me out of my comfort zone, but in the end it always surprised me how well it actually worked, even when we were asked to improvise to a 7 and a half/8 rhythm.
Oene is a very creative person and also showed us a completely different method of creating a piece of music. For this, he had recorded a story in the form of an artistically painted picture and taken this as the basis for one of his works. This fell more into the style of modern music and was therefore not quite my cup of tea, but I still found the approach very inspiring.
In between, when Oene noticed that our concentration was slipping, we were asked to stand in a circle and do some exercises that moved our bodies to wake us up a bit. Some found this very uncomfortable and didn’t really want to get into it, and yet Oene didn’t let it get him down.
This lightened the mood even more and when we finally sat in a circle on the floor, I once again had that comforting, personal and relaxed feeling, which I have already encountered very often in this study. The atmosphere that allows you to just let go and communicate and learn in a very personal and intimate way.
At the end, Oene played something for us on his violin. He didn’t know himself what he was going to play and played out of the moment. You could see how he and his instrument became one. He trusted completely in himself and his ability and created something unique and beautiful.
To be honest, I didn’t have very high expectations for the Study Group and actually thought I could use the time better doing other things. But once again it turned out that it is worth getting involved in things.
All the best,
Sarah