Toby Tenenbaum is a teacher whose ideals of music education not only involve the standard lessons of practice, history, theory and composition, but also fun. And that may be the most important piece of mastering the music puzzle.
In the realm of education, the stress that accompanies tests, recitals and the memorization of information required to master any field often take the fun out of whatever you’re preparing for. For a writer, the organization of words and phrases into paragraphs and essays is the entertaining part of the craft; I get joy out of putting it all together, even though the act of gathering material often leads to forgetting the reason why I write in the first place.
Fun is part of the teachings of Tenenbaum, a Boulder-based pianist and composer who will teach a master class for students and the Durango community Saturday in Roshong Recital Hall at Fort Lewis College. He’ll then perform in the same space that evening.
The fun comes from what Tenenbaum enjoys about music; writing original pieces.
“I’m coming down to teach the master class to encourage and really just have some fun with these kids that are into writing piano music,” Tenenbaum said from his home in Boulder.
The theme for this class is “Sparks from the Wheel: Finding, Refining and Offering our Creative Musical Expressions.” Tenenbaum based the concept on what he learned from one of his teachers who referred to preperformance jitters as “sparks on the wheels of work.” It’s really just an idea behind not getting bogged down on all the aspects of music that aren’t writing or performing.
“Part of my trying to inspire kids who are writing music now or wanting to be composers is to not get too hung up on comparing and despairing over the results, but realizing it’s really about the process and having this wonderful opportunity to work at music,” he said. “One lifetime doesn’t even begin to give us enough time to explore and know all there is to know about many different kinds of music, including your own.”
Still, music can be work, but Tenenbaum wants his students to share his love of writing original, notated music. He recognizes there are successful musicians such as George Winston or Paul McCartney who have written hundreds of original songs but hold a general disinterest in writing music. It is a craft that has interested and driven Tenenbaum his whole life, as if he’s trying to crack the code of musical symbols on paper. He’ll have written scores of original music for sale for students ready to interpret what he’s written.
“When you give someone a score, it gives them a wonderful freedom because they get to interpret music. There’s something very different about tracing those lines yourself and entering into the mind-set of the composer, taking it into your own body and learning how to play it, he said. “I want to show them not only how fun and wonderful it is, but it’s really a worthwhile pursuit.”
Liggett_b@fortlewis.edu. Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager.
Bryant’s Best
Today: Otto Mobile and the Moaners play rock music, 8 p.m., no cover, Derailed Pour House, 725 Main Ave., 247-5440.
Saturday: Composer-pianist Toby Tenenbaum, 7 p.m., $15/$5 (free for FLC faculty and students), Roshong Recital Hall at Fort Lewis College, 247-7657.
