Gig Description

Kirtan Flight School with Dave Stringer, Daniel Paul and Sheela Bringi. May 18-23, 2014
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DESCRIPTION:

If you can’t teach me to fly, then teach me to sing.

-from Peter Pan by Sir James Barrie

When you participate in a kirtan, the call and response form of mantra chanting, you’re not just listening to the music: you are the music. In Dave Stringer’s Kirtan Flight School, you have the opportunity to explore and redefine the edges of what music can be when the crowd is itself an instrument.

Both experienced musicians and those rediscovering their own musical selves will walk away with a working body of knowledge about how to move a crowd to participate, and how to employ different musical devices in order to deepen everyone’s experience. No previous musical experience is necessary.

Participants will be organized into small ensembles. Each ensemble chooses a chant, rehearses it together, and presents a kirtan to the rest of the groups. Dave and his musicians rotate through the groups, working closely with the participants to develop rhythmic and harmonic concepts, solve problems, and answer questions. The history and philosophy of kirtan are also intensively explored, so participants learn how to present and discuss the mantras.