The Gaudium School organised a music workshop on 18th January 2020 for the Geckos of Grade 8 to Grade 11 in the Multi-Purpose Hall situated at the preprimary block of our school campus. The workshop was conducted by ‘Tinctures’- a musical band of piano-guitar duo who are focused on the development of contemporary improvised music in India.

Tinctures is a musical band based out of Bangalore and Berlin, a piano-guitar duo who comprise of Aman Mahajan on piano and Nishad Pandey on guitar who compose and perform their original repertoire with ‘tinctures’ of various musical influences such as jazz, Western and Indian classical music and contemporary influences. They not only perform but also conduct workshops and talk about their music. The duo has performed at many prestigious international music festivals all over the world and they teach music through masterclasses and workshops.

The workshop began with a brief introduction and a presentation by the facilitators as they introduced and interacted with the Geckos about Music. The workshop helped to foster an awareness of improvised music in the young minds, and focused on unlocking creativity, helping the students to be more open, elastic and responsive. Their focus was on musical improvisation as they believe it helps in interacting in a way that transcends language. The workshop saw several musical games which were interactive as the Geckos immersed themselves in the musical composition process. The duo shared their unique approach to improvisation, harmony and composition and the Geckos got the exposure to the creative interplay of jazz and Indian classical traditions. Apart from the interactive talk, they also performed their original music while demonstrating how they use the concepts that the students learnt playing the musical games in the workshop. A general question and answer round was done before concluding the session, where the Geckos fulfilled their curious minds asking questions and knowing more about the duo. The facilitators were very impressed with the Geckos being engaging and interactive all throughout the session.

The ‘Tinctures’ music workshop helped all the participants to be enriched through the various key learnings of musical improvisation, musical traditions from around the world, the ‘Tinctures’ process of music-making and a variety of skills with resonances beyond the domain of music such as team-building, expression, enabling focus and immersion. The Geckos and the teachers have reflected with significant take-aways from the interactive musical session.

 

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