recovering violinist we talk about music
as a form of artistic expression a
creative impulse an emotional release
but the way that we teach instrumental
music to young people is actually quite
rigid I started my classical violin
lessons when I was six years old and my
experience was typical I was taught how
to recognize notes on a page and play
them accurately on my instrument
ultimately the goal was to reproduce
music that had been conceived by someone
else it was a decade before I started
learning about making my own music when
we do teach kids how to improvise it’s
almost always through jazz and that was
my introduction to improvised music now
jazz instruction is available if you
play the trumpet or the piano but as a
violinist finding a jazz teacher was
almost impossible I ended up taking
lessons from a bassist who had played
classical violin when he was in high
school and I learned a lot from him but
what I found is that jazz is also
extremely regimented you’re presented
with a pre-existing harmonic structure
and taught how to navigate it
so as a student you’re not so much
drawing as you are coloring inside the
lines what I do now is that the complete
opposite end of the spectrum
after years of learning different styles
and playing in different bands trying to
find something that felt right for me I
now play completely improvised music
basically I make it all up as I go along
but that doesn’t mean that what I play
springs into existence without a
foundation every piece of music that I
ever learned every album I’ve listened
to every other musician that I’ve played
with is a part of my improvisation when
I can achieve the right kind of clarity
and focus and that is a big if pieces of
my musical biography start to surface as
they’re needed and merge into an organic
and evolving whole as I’m played more
than anything else I do improvising
reflects Who I am where I’ve been and
what I know now I’m not saying all this
to bash classical music or jazz I still
love both and I still play both when I
have the chance nor am I saying that we
should do away with music literacy it’s
still important to know what a quarter
note is but wouldn’t it be nice if we
taught children that sometimes it’s okay
to make it up as you go along wouldn’t
it be nice if we allowed young musicians
to use what they learned as a
springboard for the authentic expression
of self now I’m gonna play a bit for you
so you can hear what my self sounds like
I’m gonna have a friend come and help me
with that please welcome John Paulette
on the clarinet
[Applause]
now what we’re about to do is completely
unplanned
and unrehearsed we have never played
this before and we couldn’t repeat it if we wanted to