Brosella’s Atypical Clinics: Harmonica - Steph Van Uytvanck

The Clinic is intented for who's playing, or intend to play, on the (Richter tuned) diatonic harmonca (meaning the usual bluesharp family) and on the chromatic harmonica (with the button on the right side, used by Toots Thielemans a.o.). Tremolo harmonica's and special tunings will not be covered.

Monday July 2

Arrival of the participants and musical introduction.
Every participant receives the assigment to prepare a presentation about her/his connection to the harmonica, starting from a number of concrete questions:

• Who am I?
• What’s my acquaintance to music?
• What’s my acquaintance to the harmonica?
• What’s my motivation?
• If no absolute beginner: a +/- 3 minute demo on the harmonica

Every participant will have his own practice room and will be questioned indivually about her/his goal setting. An individual schedule is drawn (with goals) for every participant in a personal workbook. The different intentions are discussed in group afterwards. It is the intention to learn the participant to work on an individual basis and to learn how to make progress in his harmonica playing in the future. Also, on what should be kept in mind at his/her goal setting.

Presentation “diatonic harmonica”: a session of 45 minutes
Presentation “chromatic harmonica”: a session of 45 minutes

During the evening, everybody has the choice to focus on self-study or to work on the first objective that will executed on Tuesday afternoon. This will be very valuable, especially for the participants who have no experience with playing in front of a live audience, even if they don't intend to play in public in the future.

Steph will be available during the evening for questions and advice.

Tuesday July 3

Seminar on how the harmonica is built (both chromatic and diatonic), how to maintain the instrument, how to repair, etc...
Guest: Alex Rossi, Brazilian harmonica player, expert in harmonica repair.

Afterwards, everybody will execute her/his first assignment and present it to the group.

During the evening, there's the choice between informally socialising, going out or focusing on self-study. Steph will always be available.

Wednesday July 4

Every participant is working individually on her/his goals. Steph will visit every participant individually to check how things are going. He will advice and correct, if necessary.

A presentation for the whole group about sound & human ear, about listening (including exercises) and about the history of the harmonica (video).

Some new tools will be introduced: how to define your own sound, the use of devices, ear training and the development of music theory basics, needed to perfectly understand how to improve your skills on the instrument. All these tools will be available for the rest of the week for individual use, through provided computers and musical hardware.

Again during the evening, there's the choice between informally socialising, going out or focusing on self-study. Steph will always be available.

Thursday July 5

Every participant is working individually on her/his goals. Steph will visit every participant individually, analize progress and define new goals.

Improvisation training "from scratch" and the search for melodies by listening: the participants will be explained how to develop their improvisation talents and how to analyze existing melodies. Followed by exercises to be executed by all the participants, but depending on their skills level.

Again during the evening, there's the choice between informally socialising, going out or focusing on self-study. Steph will always be available.

Friday July 6

A new set of exercises on different levels is explained to the participants . Everyone works individually and Steph will visit every participant for advice and finetuning.

Concert exercice: professional musicians will perform with the students in the music style, choosen by the participants, in an informal way.

To conclude the workshop, everybody will be asked to communicate to the group his sensations about the past week, his learnings and how she/he intends to keep working on the instrument in the future.

Practical

Where: Brussels, Chrysantenstraat 28 1020 Brussels - Phone/Fax : +32 (0)2 474 06 41

When: from July 2 till July 6, 2012

Number of participants: maximum 16

Lodging and meals: the participants will sleep at the dormitory of the Kunsthumaniora of Brussels. Lodging, breakfast, lunch and dinner are for free; water, coffee and tea included. All other drinks are to be paid on top.

Requisites: pen and paper, harmonica, pillowslip and sleeping bag or pillowslip, two bed sheets and blankets.

Price: 415 €

Subscriptions are to be made through the template on the website.Brosella will confirm the subscription to all participants. The payment has to be done within a week after receiving the confirmation. By non payment after a week, the candidate’s name will be removed from the participants list and will be replaced by a candidate on the waiting list.

Cancellation procedure: if the participant cancels before March 31, the original participation fee will be completely refunded. By cancellation in April, 75% of the original participation fee will be refunded and 50% at cancellation in May. There will be no refund at a cancellation after June 1st.

The transferring bank account must be owned by the person whose name is mentioned on the registration form.

Participants from Belgium:
Once the subscription is confirmed, the amount due is to be transferred to the account 001-2250260-33, owned by De Vrienden Van Brosella, Chrysantenstraat 28 1020 Brussels.
Participants from abroad:
Once the subscription is confirmed, the amount due is to be transferred to the IBAN account BE79-0012-2502-6033 with BIC code GEBABEBB, owned by de Vrienden Van Brosella, Chrysantenstraat 28 1020 Brussels.

The organizer is authorized to cancel the workshop up to two weeks before the start date, should there be not enough participants. If it comes to that, the entire subscription fee will be refunded.

Guidelines

The participants (or the representative of the participants) should address themselves at arrival at Brosella, Chrysantenstraat 28 1020 Brussels, at the start of the workshop.
The first day of the workshop starts at 10:00 AM.
There will be fresh cooking every day of the workshop, but for practical reasons, there will be no exceptions on the menu.
Participants who want to leave the premises in the evening, are to be back at 23:30
There’s no private parking space available.
The concerts, organized during the workshop, are only accessible to the participants.
Brosella can not be held responsible for any accidents
Some workshop sessions are subject to a minimum age for its participants.
Pets and other animals are not allowed.
The participants discharge the organizer of any responsability concerning eventual accidents.
The workshop leader is to be contacted for information on the content of the workshop (zon@skynet.be). For practical information or remarks on the registration, please contact +32 (0)2 474 06 41 or dianne@brosella.be.

It is not possible to register via mail for the Harmonica workshop (July 2 till July 6).
Please use the registration form.