Django in June 2018 Artists

AndrewLawrence

Hi Folks:
This is just to let you know the Staff and Artists page of Django in June has been (mostly) updated for 2018. This year's guest artists include:

• Angelo Debarre and his son Raangy (who will be our rhythm specialist)
• the Mathias Lévy Trio -- which includes Sébastien Giniaux and Jean-Philippe Viret -- and their Revisiting Grappelli program
• Tcha Limberger and Renaud Dardenne of Les Violons de Bruxelles
• Fiona Monbet...on violin, of course
• Christiaan van Hemert, who will offer a day of workshops for guitarists on the TUESDAY before Django Camp gets going, then work with violinists for the rest of the week
• pretty sure Gonzalo Bergara will be back this year...stay tuned
• Sonny Barbato and Alicia Baker dividing up accordion duties
• Lisa Liu and Sara Labriola joining our teaching staff for the first time
• Don Stiernberg back on mandolin
• Giacomo Smith back on clarinet

All them...and a bunch of other familiar faces. You'll find everyone here:
http://djangoinjune.com/artists/

Early Bird registration is open through February. Come join the fun!

~Andrew
Django in June

wim

Very excited to see Angelo Debarre on the list

Buco

Imagine leaving the dorm around 8 PM to step out on the lawn and seeing Angelo jamming!!!

PS to me personally (and I said that several times to people who ask about DiJ or think about going), one of the best things about Django in June, maybe ahead of learning in the classes, is this opportunity to be so close to these people while they casually jam.
You're talking about some of the best players on their instrument period. And here you have a chance to stand a few feet away, cold beer in hand on a 72 degree evening, on a green grass lawn of Smith College and observe everything you have ever wondered about the technical side of their playing to a sheer joy of just listening.
To me that's just musical heaven on earth.

richter4208

Angelo, could you play that again just a bit slower?

Buco

Now more then ever you'll be faced with that question "who's class should I go to?".
Go to Angelo's and be in the room as crowded as the metro train car at 5:30PM or go someplace else to get a private lesson?

AndrewLawrence

Buco wrote: »

Now more then ever you'll be faced with that question "who's class should I go to?".
Go to Angelo's and be in the room as crowded as the metro train car at 5:30PM or go someplace else to get a private lesson?

Hi Buco! That's one of the tricky things about having someone so well-known on staff, isn't it? The plan at present for dealing with that does not include asking Angelo to teach 60 people at a time. No one will get what they want from that.

Instead, Angelo will be teaching only Level 4 classes, and by definition there is a small percentage of people who will be able to participate at that level. We will set up chairs for people who want to audit those classes -- observing, but not actively participating. (Or noodling -- observers should leave instruments in their room or in the case.)

We have an incredibly strong teaching staff at every level this year, including several former DiJ headliners teaching at Level 3. Folks who are here to learn and play won't have any trouble finding opportunities.

Cheers, brother!
~Andrew

wim

AndrewLawrence wrote: »

Instead, Angelo will be teaching only Level 4 classes, and by definition there is a small percentage of people who will be able to participate at that level.

This has not worked well in the past. I've repeatedly seen the headliners inundated with a confused mixture of levels, making it hard for them to teach their class in a focused and coherent way.

I'm beginning to feel the opposite approach may be better - the headliner(s) should hold classes at a variety of levels, perhaps holding a class at each level (though the same amount in total). I think it will be more fair to the majority of participants that way.

Regardless of the class periods, DIJ is always a blast anyway - always looking forward to it and counting down the days

dennis

Angelo , as many people know, is not the kind of guy who can explain what he does, and he s also not someone who can pull tons of licks out of a bag. If u want musical ideas from him, you have to give him some sort of actual musical context.

The people who would benefit most from him and other players like him are people who are able to learn fast.

It s tricky organizing workshops and dividing up the levels. Actually, after doing 2 years worth of homestay teaching, i ve come to realise that i shouldn t categorize students by how musically advanced they are but by how fast they learn and understand

Using DiJ’s level system, i ve taught level 4 players who took a lot of time to process information and therefore i had to use a more analytical approach with them. I ve also taught level 1 beginners who just understood things quickly. Then you find everything else in between.

So if people are slow learners, they can best contribute to the workshop environment by recording the lesson or just taking notes, regardless of level. The faster learners can pull out their guitars and try the ideas in class

Now the question is: is it possible to learn how to learn fast? I definitely think it is, it can be taught!

NylonDave

dennis wrote: »

Now the question is: is it possible to learn how to learn fast? I definitely think it is, it can be taught!

Depends on whether your teacher is a real musician (and that might be your dad who doesn't read a note or know the names of the chords) or uses empowerment as an excuse not to call you on your bull and potentially lose the gig.

dennis

Not quite sure what that meant but the whole mainstram commercial pedagogical culture is highly politicized and flawed , where inefficient learning systems are being marketed and people are convinced that the inefficient ways of learning are the best way despite overwhelming proof that there are far more efficient ways.

The far more efficient ways involve a lot of self analysis, and there are no shortcuts so people get turned off because others are selling shortcuts to them and have been doing so for several decades (often repackaged to look shinier and cooler)

I myself am reluctantly forced into the world when i make transcriptions for my online school. The only person truly benefitting from the transciptions are the people making them

Anyway, when people do come study w me and really want to progress as much as possible, then i show them the no-shortcut way!

ANyway i dont want to stray from the original topic. What i said earlier is still valid. Those who feel they can learn quickly can benefit from studying with anyone.

Those who need more analysis/intellectualization should just audit or find someone that can do that for them. Quite frankly, in GJ, that disqualifies almost all the best players in the style... something to think about ;-)

AndrewLawrence

Wim Glenn wrote: »

AndrewLawrence wrote: »

Instead, Angelo will be teaching only Level 4 classes, and by definition there is a small percentage of people who will be able to participate at that level.

This has not worked well in the past. I've repeatedly seen the headliners inundated with a confused mixture of levels, making it hard for them to teach their class in a focused and coherent way.

I'm beginning to feel the opposite approach may be better - the headliner(s) should hold classes at a variety of levels, perhaps holding a class at each level (though the same amount in total). I think it will be more fair to the majority of participants that way.

Regardless of the class periods, DIJ is always a blast anyway - always looking forward to it and counting down the days

Hey Wim:
First off, I'd appreciate it if we could have a phone conversation about this at your convenience. <413-320-8154> I've seen pictures of you out among the dunes somewhere on facebook recently, which tells me maybe you're not in Chicago just now! I'd love to hear more about your experience of this and kick around some ideas with you regarding how we can get it right.

My two cents...there are at least two different broad questions we have to address in the organizing of classes:

1) Are we going to offer classes at different levels? Not all events do. My belief is that everyone benefits if we do so. That still leaves open the question of what exactly constitutes a level. Denis' comments are interesting in that regard. Suffice it to say it's tricky -- so many variables -- and that we'll never get it perfect. Still, it's worth trying.

2) Who's going to determine a student's level, and police their participation? Up until now we've opted to leave that up to our participants. The underlying belief informing that decision is that *most* people are going to opt for what serves them best. It's no fun being in way over your head, and no fun being far more skilled than everyone else in a class. There are always going to be those who either ignore the level system because they have their heart set on working with a certain teacher, or who are still figuring out where they belong. At present, we leave it to the teachers to deal with those folks, whom we hope make up a small fraction of any class or jam. Some teachers are probably really good at that; others, not so much.

Can we do better? Nobody has more interest in that than me. I want people -- everybody! -- happy and well served by their experience at DiJ. For several reasons, though, I don't think having all the teachers circulate through all the levels is the answer. (We used to do it, by the way, back when DiJ was a smaller event.) How many people are going to attend a Level 2 class by Angelo Debarre? Lots, yes? So how participatory is that class going to be? Not very, right? And do you think Angelo is equipped to understand our level system and teach appropriately to a new level every day? (See Denis' remarks.) The questions go on and on like that -- believe me, I've followed the thread many times! -- and at the end of the day I think we'd just have traded one set of challenges for another...including huge classes by "star" artists. Lots of events already offer such opportunities. At Django in June, I'd rather not.

If someone really wants to hear what Angelo Debarre, or Seb Giniaux, or Gonzalo, or Tcha, or whomever has to say, and those artists are teaching a higher level class, that's what the audit option is for. (Denis' suggestion of people taping such classes for later, slower review is a great one.) That way the class goes on at the appropriate level, but folks still have access to all the teachers.

Like I said, I'd like to talk with you directly about this. Who knows, maybe we can tweak the system a little this year. You're one of the people I want happy!

Cheers,
~Andrew