Articles by Sarah Stiles
'In your own time' The StradImprovisation does not have to involve complicated chord progressions or wild, intricate fingerings with strange head-banging, hair-flinging gestures. And you don't have to have smoke and beer aromas exuding from your clothes the next morning after a session at some 'alternative' music scene. These preconceptions, while likely to motivate some musicians, inevitably discourage other potential improvisers. Improvising can be simple and fun. All that is needed is a gentle persuasion into this much underrated way of playing among classical musician...
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'Creative music for everybody?' Primary Music Today
To make a publication which encourages creative music-making for any combination of instruments, for all ages, for both individual and classroom teaching regardless of technical ability or experience sounds rather challenging to say the least. To expect pupils who cannot read music to play along with fellow classmates who can seems optimistic and to ask pupils and teachers who have little or no experience with improvisation to just ‘make stuff up’ seems improbable! But this is what I wanted to achieve with ‘Music in a Box’...
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'Is practise really necessary?' News & Views
Whilst the title of this article was meant to arouse the curiosity of readers, there is actually quite a serious undertone attached to the question of whether practise is really necessary. Of course if you are going to get on seriously as a player on any instrument, a certain amount of practise and groundwork in lessons is essential. But should we perhaps think through our objectives and attitudes to teaching and adapt them to different types of pupils and their unwillingness or in some cases inability to practise? What are our objectives and are they the same for both students and teachers?... click to read whole article
'Unleashed Passion in Free Improvisation'
Music Teacher International
I have sometimes felt the urge to try different music out with my pupils. There are those times when 'the usual' just does not suffice and it becomes a choice between getting the whip out or just trying something new. This is an ideal excuse to experiment on them and they are introduced to a completely different world where they can create their own improvisations, experience playing without music and also discover a wide variety of sound in the process. There are no limitations on them and they can play whatever they like... click to read whole article
'Creative Music for Everybody' Primary Music Today
To make a publication which encourages creative music-making for any combination of instruments, for all ages, for both individual and classroom teaching regardless of technical ability or experience sounds rather challenging to say the least. To expect pupils who cannot read music to play along with fellow classmates who can seems optimistic and to ask pupils and teachers who have little or no experience with improvisation to just ‘make stuff up’ seems improbable! But this is what I wanted to achieve with ‘Music in a Box’...
click to read whole article...
'Free improvisation in string teaching' News & Views
One of my favourite parts of teaching is to use improvisational elements in the lesson. How and why this came about I can trace back to my time spent in a post as peripatetic violin teacher in Wiltshire. This certainly came as a shock after my more relaxed private practice I had previously enjoyed, though I should add that it was also a great experience in itself. I particularly remember the bits in between lessons, bombing around all those country lanes as I travelled from school to school. When a pupil was ill this meant a rare sandwich and coffee in some scenic place by a river.
Most of the time, however, it was more like being on a rushed schedule, devised on the basis of 'pack as many in as possible in the shortest time'. Have things changed, I wonder, since I moved to Holland?
I had several categories of pupils, which I classed as:
1. Quick learners
2. Slow learners (but no less satisfying to teach)
3. Sweet pupils
4. Far from sweet pupils
5. Impossible pupils, subsequently labelled as 'challenging'... click to read whole article