Turning the Page

And so with China like the natural fading out of a rung gong, the next chapter has begun. Or rather a short four-day interlude before the next two-week Orff Course. 

 

It started with returning to San Francisco around 12 noon after some 20 hours of travel. Out into the refreshing brisk air and home to a welcome bed for an afternoon horizontal sleep. Another welcome of a pesto pasta dinner, resuming the Shetland TV series my wife and I had put on hold and miraculously staying up until 11 pm and sleeping through the night. 

 

Tuesday was another welcome of getting out to walk again after an exercise fast (minus standing and dancing while teaching) in Hangzhou. Errands in the neighborhood, a stroll through the park, lunch at my daughter’s house, piano playing at the Jewish Home— delightful all! And the sun even came out!

 

Today more taking care of business and starting to pack for the Orff Course and the most delightful surprise of all when I opened my e-mail!! Before leaving for China, I wrote a handwritten letter to Karen Bold in England— see An Extraordinary Tale: Parts I, II, III from my end of May Blogposts. So satisfying to feel this loop completed and looking forward to sending her some photos and sharing more news. Here is what she wrote: 

Hi Doug

 

I was so delighted to receive your letter. A real blast from the past. You are quite the detective!! I remember you both so well.

 

As Ann told you Jim & I moved back to Leeds & we did separate in 1999 but we remained good friends and lived close to each other. In fact during covid he needed a place to stay, as he was due to move, and ended up living with me for 3 months. Sadly in 2022 he had a massive stroke and passed away. The girls & I were with him.

 

Rachel is now 52, Jane 50, & myself 80. 

 

I wanted to acknowledge receipt of your letter & will write more later but have a hectic day ahead. I would also love to hear about your life in these intervening years.

Best wishes

Karen

 

So turning the page of the ongoing stories this morning, how satisfying to discover this ending of a book unfinished over for 48 years! Of course, sad to hear about Jim, but so happy that she is still with us and moved that she indeed remembered us! 

 

It is a strange and marvelous life indeed. 

Respect Your Elders—Still!

I love it when someone writes to me asking me to find a piece I’ve written that they remembered and wished to read again. But not always easy to find. Was it on this Blog or Facebook or an article in a magazine or an article I just wrote to write it? In this case, there was a request for something titled Respect Your Elders and indeed, I couldn’t find it in my Talks/Articles folder. But a search through the Blog (thank you, Search Engine!) dug up something I wrote in 2013 that referred to something else I had written that might be archived on an older computer. At any rate, I enjoyed reading it, felt it resonate with a negative experience I’ve whined about this past month and the healing positive experience that kept on keeping on in China. So might as well re-print it here, some 13 years later. I was a young 62 when I wrote it, but it holds up, maybe more than ever. 

 

Still working on a piece about elders and youth, but hey, it’s my vacation out on a lake and it’s a lot of work stitching together all the ideas into any semblance of coherence. Ideas that no one is asking for.  But I like some of the sentences and I promised to deliver something in the last blog, so between abandoning it all together and seeing it through to the end, I’m opting for select quotes from a longer article that is yet to be. And so:

 

• “Honor thy father and mother” was the first commandment Moses received. And for a good reason. No them, no us. 

 

• We are here by the grace of those who came before us and the proper etiquette includes large doses of gratitude. 

 

• Such gratitude is a lifelong conversation that walks the full peaks and valleys of a complex, treacherous and extraordinarily beautiful landscape that has no map. It properly should begin with respect and end with love and appreciation, but in-between is some rocky terrain passing through challenge, questioning, rejection, disdain, dismissal and some intense eye-rolling.

 

• The job of the young is to rise to the bar the elders set, to caretake as precious jewels the wisdom and culture and beauty they bequeath, to carry the lit torch further down the field. (The job of the old is to beware of mixed metaphors.)

 

• But it is equally the job of the young to question, to challenge, to untie the knots of prejudice or narrow thinking or dubious practice, to make contemporary a way of life that grew in one era and now needs re-adjustment in another. If you meet the Buddha on the path, kill him! Even loving guidance can be an obstacle to finding your own proper way.

 

• That’s where the path gets steep, negotiating the cliff’s-edge balance between  “thank you” and “no thank you.”

 

• As we grow into adulthood, much of what we dismissed and rejected from our elders comes back to us in a new understanding. Mark Twain says it best:

 

“When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years!”

 

• The beginner in any field of endeavor should be properly awed by their seniors, but not intimidated. They must have enough humility to recognize their accomplishment and learn from them, enough courage to question them and enough confidence and audacity to think that they can surpass them. And the wise elder welcomes it all.

 

• When we live in “the sibling society,” all equal peers sharing our opinions, we live in a flat, horizontal world and lose the vertical dimension of spiritual blessing. Worse yet, when we look to the youth for guidance in matters more profound than how to download an ap, we place too great a weight on their narrow shoulders. They are properly terrified when granted power to decide things too large for their tender years. (When a school I know was  hiring a new head, the hiring committee gave the point of view of an elder staff member, a point of view formed by over 35 years of teaching, the same weight as the opinion of a 7^th grader who thought that this candidate was “cool,” that candidate “not as cool.”)

 

• A culture that looks to youth for guidance and bypasses elders is a confused culture. All have something valuable to contribute, but the greater weight must come from above, from those with ample experience. 

 

• Elderhood is a state of being that mere years alone cannot grant. It is achieved through certain kinds of experiences married to a refined practice, a mindful sensitivity and a storehouse of knowledge. The elders are the ones who have walked further down the path and noticed the important things. As such, they carry the power to guide those coming up the path, to beckon them forth and bless them. Not all old people are necessarily elders, but all elders are old enough to have earned their status.

 

• Some young people have an enlarged sensitivity, an alert mind, a dedicated practice that grants the necessary experience to contribute, but there are certain kinds of knowledge that simply need the long gestation of the years to come to full bloom.

 

• Some old folks talk on and on when instead they should be swimming on a hot summer day. And so today’s wisdom from this wannabe elder: Go jump in the lake!

 

Post for a Rainy Day

And so. A farewell dinner at a lovely vegetarian restaurant I ate at twice. The miracle of packing my suitcase and actually fitting everything (new gifts included) in! 5:15am awakening and farewell to my lovely hotel room, quick airport breakfast with my hosts, a fond goodbye waving as I passed through the four levels of security to the inner chambers of the airport. 

 

Now at the airport in Seoul with a three-hour layover before the final leg. Amongst other wonders, the ability to get online without a VPN— amazing!

But as these posts testify, China has been mighty good to me and I’m quite happy with the handshake deal to return in October of 2027—especially with cooler Fall weather. 

 

Meanwhile, three final comments from one of the students that mean the world to me and may be a future chicken soup for a rainy, under-the-weather day. Both impressed by the eloquence and insight of noticing what I value in both myself and others and the generosity in sharing it with me. 

 

• Before the workshop began, I already knew you are a world-renowned master of Orff Schulwerk. I assumed such a top-tier expert would run strict, distant classes with rigid standards. But stepping into your classroom completely changed my preconceptions. You carry yourself like a kind, forgiving elder, patient, sincere and fully accepting of everyone without judgment.

 

• Countless educators claim to put humanity at the core of their teaching, yet most of them treat it as nothing more than an empty slogan. In contrast, you fully embody inclusiveness, ease, respect and equality in every single detail of your lessons. 

 

• True masters simplify complexity. You possess profound and sophisticated professional knowledge, yet you make the beauty of music accessible to every single person. This is the highest level of teaching, and it is exactly the kind of educator I aspire to be.

 

As good a way as any to bid the fondest farewells to China and the beautiful people I’ve encountered.  Once again, 谢谢.  Xièxiè.

There's No Place Like Home

In one of last night’s posts, I wondered how much longer the love fest could continue. Here at the end of the third (and final) day, the answer was definitive. 

 

The day began with a re-showing of the video (another unexpected surprise) honoring my 20^th year anniversary since first coming to China, as many of the Jazz Course participants had not seen it. Lovely speeches beforehand by my two translator friends and host, complete with funny stories. And a chance for me to praise the group for their openness, musicality, expressive movement, happy spirit, provocative questions, hard work and joyful play. After the video ended, I turned around to see everyone with a flower in their hand which they then came forward with to make one big bouquet. A group photo and finally, over an hour later, the class I had planned could begin!

 

Off we went, dancing the Lindy Hop, singing all the parts to Jumpin’ at the Woodside and on to my way to teach Charlie Parker’s My Little Suede Shows beginning with echoing three do-re-mi phrases and 45 minutes later, ending up with a full-blown arrangement of the tune complete with improvisation and a Latin version in the middle of it. One of the jewels in the crown of how I try to develop the hand’s ability to play, the ear’s ability to hear, the mind’s ability to understand and the heart’s ability to feel side-by-side. 

 

Our afternoon farewell to the instruments was half playing Jumpin’ at the Woodside and have dancing Lindy Hop with their own choreography. Fabulous! Then bring the lights down and play a recording of Ella Fitzgerald’s Embraceable You with strings while all did mirror and shadow movement. Perfect contrast to the short-phrase percussive Count Basie tune to show how jazz embodies these two basic human qualities and needs— the earth and fire elements of dynamic percussive energy and the water and air elements of long sustained legato tones. 

 

I noticed earlier that in demonstrating the AABA form of the Jazz Standard, I played a bit of Somewhere Over the Rainbow and the group sang a long a bit. So for the finale, I rolled the piano into the middle of the room and had them all gather around closely. I have a variety of “shticks” for the closing moments of a workshop or course but had never done this one and it felt perfect. Before playing and having them sing without words, I gave this little talk.

 

Our closing song comes from a famous movie called The Wizard of Oz, where the young girl Dorothy is torn from her home and lands in a strange land. There she meets three friends and together they search for what they think they’re missing. A scarecrow for a brain, a tin man for a heart, a lion for courage and Dorothy for her home. They’re told there’s a wizard who will solve their problems, but like so many politicians who give false promises, he turns out to be a fake. Looking back on their journey together, they realize that the lion showed great courage, the scarecrow contributed good ideas and the tin man showed love in his heart. It was there all along and they just needed each other to bring it out.

 

So I hope that you have found some love, courage and intelligence in these three days, perhaps more than you thought you had! I’ve seen it in the risks you took trying out a new style of music and improvising, the wonderful questions and insights you’ve shared with me, the great love that came out as you laughed and played and created things together. I am no wizard but I have spent my lifetime learning how to unleash the magic that can happen when people gather together with respect, curiosity and good fellow feeling and am happy if I was able to help move all of that along. 

 

But what about Dorothy? After I finished teaching in New Orleans for 10 days, I have five days at home before getting on the long flight to China. My daughter asked me if I wish I was staying home and I replied (here sweeping my arm around all the people circling the piano), “This is my home. Wherever there is love, intelligence and courage like the kind I see here is my home.”

 

And so near the end of the movie, Dorothy puts on the ruby slippers, taps her heels three times and chants “There’s no place like home.” She had to go over the rainbow to find it, to discover that she had all the colors of the rainbow inside of her. And so she sang this song. (I play the intro on piano and we all sing.)

 

So there you have it Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, it did. 

Immense gratitude to all. 

The Theft of Wonder

Truth be told, dinners here in Hangzhou have been a bit difficult, with everyone speaking Mandarin and having such a good time (the Chinese love  to laugh and there is such a healthy enjoyment between the women away from their husbands) that no one is particularly concerned about translating the conversations to me. 

 

But last night, with just three of us, I got into a serious conversation with Chen Ro, my translator and she translated to the organizer Tonny to get him involved. The question on the table was why he was interested in starting an Orff Levels training in China. Tonny is mostly a businessman, an excellent organizer, the force behind all these surprise parties the last three years and simply a fun and stellar human being. I did wonder whether his motivation was financial and a way to upgrade the status of his organization amidst three other competing Levels training in China. So his answer surprised me. 

 

He was sincerely concerned about the future of Orff Schulwerk in China. It turns out that he was at the first training I did in 2006. (He says he was not in that famous photo of over 100 people because he took the photo!) It was a time when there was a great deal of energy from young people excited about this whole new approach to music education and indeed, both Chen Ro and Cao Li (friend and translator from last week’s course) were at the course and in the photo. He now is worried that young people simply look at short videos of an Orff lesson on WeChat and think that’s enough to try to copy and call themselves Orff teachers. They don’t know what they don’t know and don’t seem interested in finding out. 

 

Then Chen Ro confirmed that the students in Shanghai Conservatory where she teaches are so different than the ones she taught 20 years ago. They have no passion, no curiosity, no twinkle in their eye. They show up to class because it’s on their schedule and do the bare minimum work. Yet another confirmation of Jonathan Haidt’s (The Anxious Generation author) perception that a phone-based childhood/ teenage-hood/ young adult-hood, robs people of a healthy curiosity, sense of wonder and inner drive to follow a vision wherever it might lead. They just go from sensation to sensation, distraction to distraction, with no through line of considering how they might evolve and what they must do to get further down a path. The opposite of the “enduring dedication” noted in the last post.

 

By contrast, my colleagues James, Sofia and I have lived our working lives by the motto “Whatever it takes.” Follow any teacher who has that spark that will ignite our flame, even if they are far away and it would be more convenient to study with a local one. Read the next book, listen to the next piece of music, study the next instrument or musical style, plan the next class with the driving question “How else can we do this?” behind it. It’s the force that drove us to work so far beyond any job description— renting theaters, driving U-haul vans that we pack ourselves, shopping for deer-horns or bamboo poles or whatever other props we need for a dance or a play or a class we have in mind. Flying 17 hours across the world to discover what we can learn from teaching a workshop in a new place. And so on.

I have been so moved by the 80 people who showed up to my Jazz Course here and couldn’t help but feel the contrast with the 8 or 10 in the U.S. who came to a Jazz Workshop I offered for free. Not the least bit of awareness that this opportunity to study with a “world-famous” Orff teacher with 50 years of experience behind him might be worth their precious time. 

 

So once again, damn these machines that are robbing us of the needed human understandings, passions, and commitments to grow beyond who we are at any given moment. We all know their conveniences but are far from understanding the dire consequences of how they diminish us. Young people, get thee to an Orff workshop and open your eyes and hearts to a lifetime of joy, connection and constantly renewed sense of wonder. You won’t regret it!

Enduring Dedication

What happens when each day feels like a steady diet of epiphanies? Yesterday was signing a hundred books, some eighty of which the participants bought. Back in the good ole U.S.A., I often have an hour book-signing at one of the dealers at the AOSA Conference when a new book comes out. If I’m lucky, four people come by to get a signed copy. 

 

Then today, with one day left to go, the gifts started piling up. An instrument called a Hulusi, various scarves, two beautiful scrolls with profound poems inscribed with gorgeous calligraphy. Alongside, notes from a few people that felt like they captured an essence of me that I’m almost too flabbergasted to claim, but hope is true. With an eloquence that comes once or twice in a lifetime, if that. My cup is running over into flood proportions. 

 

Then today, before breaking for lunch, I demonstrated a jazz-rock drum rhythm for our next blues pieces, Watermelon Man. Coming back into the room, I heard someone killin’ it at the drums and imagine my shock when I saw it was an 8-year-old girl who had been in the workshop! Playing while the 10-year -old boy showed off his considerable hip dance moves. Amazing! When it came time to actually play the piece, I of course, hired her on the spot and him also as the “go-go dancer.” People, it doesn’t get much better than that! 

 

But it might! Given the general energy of the two groups I’ve taught, their fabulous musicality and quick learning, the sincere appreciation for both the music they’re learning and the way they’re learning it, anything can happen. I’m not expecting it— enough is enough. But I wouldn’t be surprised. 

 

The woman who gave me the scrolls gave rough translations of the two poems and compared her experience of my teaching with their meaning. Need I say how extraordinarily touching it is to feel seen and known for what I’ve attempted to be and do in this life? The two meanings:

 

• Lasting impact is not built overnight; it is achieved step-by-step through consistent, mindful and enduring dedication over a lifetime.

 

• The ocean becomes vast because it embraces every single stream, no matter how small. It represents a heart big enough to hold all cultures, ideas and people. 

 

 It seems like my enduring dedication, an effortless affection for that which makes me happy, has indeed paid off beyond my wildest dreams. To which I can only say 谢谢.  Xièxiè. 

Technology Manifesto

A fellow Orff teacher sent me a message asking me if I had anything to say to her adult (or college?) students about the use of technology in the music classroom. Somewhere I have written something called the Technology Manifesto, but darn if I could find it. So even though I’m done with jet lag, I found myself wholly awake at 3:00 am and just decided to write something about it. And here it is:

 

“Should computers be used in contemporary music classes?” One way to answer that question is to begin with a few others. “Why should they be used and when and at what age and for how much time and for how much money in my limited budget? What is my vision of music education? Which technologies— xylophones, whiteboards, recorders, Powerpoints, Youtube, etc. — best support that vision? And again, precisely when and why and how much?”

 

My personal vision that I’ve put into practice for over 50 years now is that the human body, heart and mind is where all learning begins and ends. Before we learn how a tool can extend their capabilities— from a leg pat to a drum stroke, from a voice to a flute, from a dreamed choreography to a videotaped one—we first must wholly embrace that which is closest to us— muscle and heartbeat and ideas in the brain and images in the mind. 

 

And since my vision is not limited to the success of each individual learner, but the way that music creates a community of learners, the ways that bodies, hearts and minds can connect with each other, support and entrain and amplify our sense of belonging to each other, is crucial to every decision made about the use of various technologies. To give just one example, students in rows staring up at a two-dimensional screen without touch, taste, smell and the ability to look back at them in hopes to know them creates a markedly different—and in my experience, severely reduced— version of community. Teacher and students holding hands in a circle, throwing out a dance move or gesture or sound or song and collectively shaping it, is a far superior inroad to community. 

 

The broader question in all parts of our life is not whether electronic technology is “good” or “bad,” but what vision does it serve,  what are its particular gifts, what are its limitations, what are some unintended consequences that we are now seeing and documenting with some technologies?  For example, the way phone-based childhoods have replaced play-based childhoods has been proven to be to the great detriment of our children’s mental and physical health. We know this in our bones simply by noticing our children, but if we need some documentation, Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation, amongst a growing collection of other books, will give us the details. So somewhere between continuing to use these technologies—or rather, be used by them— mindlessly,  and throwing them out is the important work of regulating their use. We understand this in other areas— a glass of wine or sip of beer can be lovely, but we understand that alcoholism is a serious problem. Pain killers after surgery are a blessing, but the opioid addiction crisis is a nightmare. As such, we limit children’s access to them and try to educate adults as to their proper use. 

 

A sensible policy of regulation begins with the adults in charge understanding the issues at stake and acting accordingly to protect both the children and themselves. I have created a little Technology Manifesto that helps frame the discussion, a series of questions to consider when wondering what to buy and how to use it. As follows:

 

Is this the right tool for the right job for the right reason for the right age group for the right amount of time for the right cost? 

 

• The right tool for the right job: Is there a simpler tool that can do the job as well? Like writing rhythms on a whiteboard instead of a flashy, glitzy display on a screen. Or notating rhythms with cups on the floor. Might it be worthwhile to wean kids from screens when something else serves the purpose as well or better?

 

The right reason: A  Youtube clip of Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie performing together on the Jackie Gleason Show or Nina Simone playing and singing I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Freeat the Montreaux Jazz Festival needs a computer/ Youtube/ screen and sound system. I want my students to know these geniuses and see them at work. A solid reason to use this technology (Youtube and a screen) that does this in a way no other technology can do as effectively. 

 

The right age group: Teachers should be clearly knowledgeable about child development and the young child’s irreducible need to touch, taste, explore, play and interact with the three-dimensional world using all senses. If screens rob children of those foundation experiences through their use at too young an age, nature’s window for building a firm foundation for all future learning is slammed on their fingers. Like all child-raising, screens need the same kind of consideration that sleep, behavioral boundaries, safety, protection, sugar and later alcohol, sex, driving, curfews, etc. do. Instead, tech companies purposefully addict young children to screens for the company’s profit, without considering for one moment the child’s mental, physical and emotional health. Therefore, it is the job of parents and teachers to agree on the developmentally appropriate times to connect children with these technologies. 

 

The right amount of time: The music class in general and the Orff Schulwerk class in particular can be a healing antidote to the greater school culture’s over-use of screens, an oasis where they can be wholly children, playing, exploring and learning with all their senses, their body, voice, intellect and imagination. Given how little time we have with children, consider using it sparingly. 

 

The right cost:  54 years after a school parent bought a set of six Studio 49 Orff instruments for The San Francisco School, the children are still playing those same instruments! Meanwhile, the garage is filled with computers with non-recycleable and dangerous materials that were obsolete after one or two years and cost five times as much as the xylophones. Don’t forget to factor in hiring a tech person (or two or three or more), making space for the machines, the cost of fixing them and upgrading, the cost of increased security measures to that they’re not stolen, the time spent on training teachers to stay up to date with the next incarnation of the machine. Again, it’s simple math. Is there enough bang for the buck to justify these expenses? And where is the proof that they’ve actually enhanced student learning, helped teachers teach better, created a more connected human community? 

 

So next time you’re reaching for the Powerpoint switch, consider all of the above and make a wise choice. The children are counting on you. 

 

P.S. For more,  listen to X Is for Xylophone  on my Spotify ABC’s of Education podcast.