{"id":276675,"date":"2014-03-07T10:23:45","date_gmt":"2014-03-07T15:23:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newmusicbox.org\/?p=25850"},"modified":"2022-04-13T18:24:25","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T22:24:25","slug":"challenging-tradition-why-classical-musicians-should-learn-folk-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newmusicusa.org\/nmbx\/challenging-tradition-why-classical-musicians-should-learn-folk-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Challenging Tradition: Why Classical Musicians Should Learn Folk Music"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>About a year ago I stepped into a new world of music and it changed my life. Every Sunday night the Quays Pub, a small Irish bar in Queens, plays host to a group of some of the friendliest musicians I have ever met. They are there to play bluegrass and they are there to drink Jameson. It\u2019s a lot of fun, but it\u2019s also serious music. It was a totally new world for me.<br \/>\nThough a classically trained violinist, I had begun playing folk music in college and continued collaborating with folk musicians after moving to New York City. It was always a lot of fun, but I never really knew what I was doing. My initial contact with folk music had come primarily from the notated tradition: the music of Dvor\u00e1k, Mahler, and Bart\u00f3k for example.<br \/>\nSo when I stepped up to take my first solo at the Quays Jam, I was as nervous as I have ever been before a performance. I still have absolutely no memory of those first few months of breaks. I would go to play and 20 seconds later I would regain consciousness, not knowing what had happened. I was following my ear and attempting to improvise, but I was only just beginning to understand the musical traditions behind fiddle playing and folk music making in general.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_267786\" style=\"width: 260px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newmusicusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/EthanPlayingBluegrass.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-267786\" class=\"size-full wp-image-267786\" src=\"https:\/\/newmusicusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/EthanPlayingBluegrass.jpg\" alt=\"The Idiot Brigade\" width=\"250\" height=\"312\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-267786\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ethan (center) with The Idiot Brigade. Photo by Michael Weinstein.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Now, after a year\u2019s worth of discovering this music, many late-night jam sessions, and countless gigs (I did learn how to fake it quickly enough), one thought comes to mind upon reflection. Though I play an instrument with an enormous American tradition, it was not until I arrived at my first bluegrass jam that I actually began to investigate that style. Why is it that children learning to play the violin in America don\u2019t learn about the rich traditions of American fiddle music?<\/p>\n<p>From the perspective of technique, I suppose I can answer my own question. Playing old-time, Texas-style, Cajun, or bluegrass fiddle requires a slightly different approach to technique, particularly bow technique, from the Western classical tradition. But on a purely musical level, there is so much to be gained from exposure to the sounds of fiddle music, particularly in the realms of harmony and improvisation.<\/p>\n<p>I honestly don\u2019t think this would be that difficult. Even teachers who know very little about traditional music could assign interesting fiddle tunes to their students as a break between scales and etudes. It would be a moment in the middle of a practice session to reflect on just how much musical tradition exists in America. It would be a moment to recognize that most, if not all music comes, in some way, from folk traditions. It would be a way to connect the study of music to a greater understanding of the time, place, and manner in which it is created.<br \/>\nBluegrass music changed my life by forcing me to challenge my concept of the folk. Rather than understanding it solely as musical material, I now understand it as living and breathing tradition. Incorporating folk music into the process of teaching notated music could breed a better understanding of other musical traditions as well as an openness to improvisation and composition. It could further the understanding of a musician not as a technician but as a creator, and of concerts not as galleries but as singular musical events.<\/p>\n<p>How do you teach creativity in the process of teaching music?<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">***<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/newmusicusa.org\/profile\/ethan\/\">Ethan Joseph<\/a> is a musician and arts administrator. He serves as New Music USA&#8217;s Manager of Individual Giving where he focusses on building individual support for the organization at both the grassroots and major gifts levels. A classically trained violinist, Ethan currently performs with the experimental pop group <a href=\"http:\/\/www.noiseandrhythm.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Noise &amp; Rhythm<\/a> as well as the bluegrass band <a href=\"http:\/\/theidiotbrigade.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Idiot Brigade<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Though I play an instrument with an enormous American tradition, it was not until I arrived at my first bluegrass jam that I actually began to investigate that style. Why is it that children learning to play the violin in America don\u2019t learn about the rich traditions of American fiddle music?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":892,"featured_media":434639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[1668,1087,151],"nmb_categories":[6],"how_to_category":[],"nmb_tags":[],"internal_taxonomy":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Challenging Tradition: Why Classical Musicians Should Learn Folk Music - New Music USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/newmusicusa.org\/nmbx\/challenging-tradition-why-classical-musicians-should-learn-folk-music\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Challenging Tradition: Why Classical Musicians Should Learn Folk Music - New Music USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Though I play an instrument with an enormous American tradition, it was not until I arrived at my first bluegrass jam that I actually began to investigate that style. Why is it that children learning to play the violin in America don\u2019t learn about the rich traditions of American fiddle music?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/newmusicusa.org\/nmbx\/challenging-tradition-why-classical-musicians-should-learn-folk-music\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"New Music USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NewMusicUSA\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-03-07T15:23:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-04-13T22:24:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/newmusicusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/EthanPlayingBluegrass.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"250\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"312\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ethan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@newmusicusa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@newmusicusa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ethan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newmusicusa.org\/nmbx\/challenging-tradition-why-classical-musicians-should-learn-folk-music\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newmusicusa.org\/nmbx\/challenging-tradition-why-classical-musicians-should-learn-folk-music\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"ethan\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newmusicusa.org\/#\/schema\/person\/484e154c25bf216f7aafb51db88a14dc\"},\"headline\":\"Challenging Tradition: Why Classical Musicians Should Learn Folk Music\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-03-07T15:23:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-13T22:24:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newmusicusa.org\/nmbx\/challenging-tradition-why-classical-musicians-should-learn-folk-music\/\"},\"wordCount\":663,\"commentCount\":8,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newmusicusa.org\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newmusicusa.org\/nmbx\/challenging-tradition-why-classical-musicians-should-learn-folk-music\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/newmusicusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/EthanPlayingBluegrass.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"American folk traditions\",\"bluegrass\",\"music education\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Columns\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/newmusicusa.org\/nmbx\/challenging-tradition-why-classical-musicians-should-learn-folk-music\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newmusicusa.org\/nmbx\/challenging-tradition-why-classical-musicians-should-learn-folk-music\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/newmusicusa.org\/nmbx\/challenging-tradition-why-classical-musicians-should-learn-folk-music\/\",\"name\":\"Challenging Tradition: Why Classical Musicians Should Learn Folk Music - 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