After arriving in the camp two days ago, it was really relaxing to have some time to get used to the new environment. But still, personally, I am really glad that the workshops started today and there was actually something to do now.
For me, it was really hard to choose one workshop, because I was interested in all of them. I decided not to choose the drawing workshop because that’s what I am doing all the time anyways – I needed something new! So I chose the workshops Songs & Sounds, done by Rick and Danilo.
We are a very loud workshop – loud people doing loud stuff, but that’s exactly what’s necessary for being musically creative. First things first, we started with a little game where we would all stand in a circle and introduce ourselves – musically, giving our name a special noise or melody. At first, most of us were a bit shy, but soon enough, we would realize that nobody was making fun of us or find us ridiculous, that this group, this new environment welcomes us and our little weirdnesses with open arms and we were free to do everything, even if it was unusual. So, for example, a boy named Vuk, made a barking noise of his name, and explained afterwards, that Vuk means wolf. We, his newly won wolf pack, would howl at him and stop immediately when he was barking his name again.
Afterwards, we started improvising, stepping from side to side and making noise again, starting with a single beat, growing into a rhythm and erupting as a fully grown melody sung by 14 voices. We did the same thing several times today in different ways, for example, we were looping – one person makes a beat or a rhythm or a little melody and continues to repeat it on and on and on and with every new person joining a new layer gets added to the whole.
Rick also showed us how to use the loop machine and the different microphones. The most interesting one was probably the smallest one, a simple circle you would tape to a surface like your chest and it would record there – in that case, your heartbeat. We started experimenting with the different gadgets until it was time for lunch and todays workshop was over.
So, overall, today it was all about melody. Tomorrow, the topic will be lyrics, and we will probably start to produce a real song all together.
Lisa Lenz
DOING MEDIA 