Inside a CBS Workshop

Q. What do you do in an improvisation workshop?

A. How long is a piece of string!!

Firstly, for me, it's really important to convey that improvisation and group music-making generally, is a really enjoyable, creative thing to do, regardless of experience level. Often in a workshop I'll be seeing younger people and what I say may leave a lasting impression with them - it needs to be a good one. If the only thing that they get out of it is 'this is a lot of fun' that's a success. They need to know that improvisation is not an activity owned by a highly-experienced elite, they should be involved, regardless of genre or instrument, even if they've only been playing a fairly short amount of time… These are key messages that educators have been trying to pass on for a long time, but they are well worth reiterating!

Sessions often end up being 2 to 3 hours - enough time to talk, get into playing groups, make some music, then have a short discussion about it. I'm looking to give some input, but also give chance for people to try out what is being discussed through playing, see how it works for them. Sometimes I'll play a music clip as an example but I'm wary of doing this, especially with people who haven't been playing very long. Confidence is key and it might simply say to them 'this sounds really hard'. If people ask for links to follow up, I'll happily give them links.

A recent example was a very enjoyable trip to Blackburn College to work with circa 15 FE students. At the start of the session I spoke for about 20mins about what CBS is/does, some different ways to define and use improvisation, including asking people in the room what they thought it was. Then we broke into groups and the students took on an exercise 'Instant Arrangement' - this being a good way to get people listening to each other and musically joining in.

I took 4 CBS members with me and they joined in with the playing - it was clear that the students responded very well to that! NB A careful balance has to be struck in such involvement between helping and taking over. Typically, I'll spend some time listening in the rooms, giving occasional bits of guidance and positive feedback either individually or to the group, not being afraid to stop the music, or to say where something needs to change. In this session there were some really good ideas and people seem to immediately get into it. That meant they could move swiftly onto thinking about how they might improvise changes in the music – Advanced stuff!

Importantly, at the end I always bring everybody together to listen to each other's music and give some positive comments on it. I also ask what the students found useful about the session. There were some really insightful comments on both topics and a good buzz in the room at the end of the workshop - Job Done!

Thanks to Kyle, Sam, Joe and Sean for supporting the session and to Leah Eccles of Blackburn College for inviting us and the picture.