(You can download a pdf copy of this document: Darol String Improv Clinics [500k] )
- For string teachers
- Teaching methods and nomenclature for improvisation.
- For young students
- Contemporary string styles and vernacular and pop styles for chamber groups.
- For orchestras
- Coaching in techniques required to perform contemporary blues and jazz compositions and arrangements for string orchestra.
Clinic formats
All clinics may be customized to your group or instructional objectives.
30 min to 1 hour lecture/demonstration
All Experience Levels. A demonstration of fiddle, blues, rock and jazz styles, tailored to the level and needs of the group. Contrasts and compares phrasing, vibrato and rhythm styles. Includes question and answer.
1 to 2 hour clinic
Intermediate to Advanced Players of Any Age. Uses call and response, direct example and printed handouts to explore the principles of improvisation. Provides tools for improvising in any style. Includes ways to approach unfamiliar and difficult keys, methods for improving intonation, a step-by-step method of playing rhythm fiddle, as well as bowing and phrasing techniques. Includes discussion of blues changes and an expanded concept of the blues scale, which is the basis of modern roots and pop music. All participants are expected to play, and tape recorders are welcome.
One-day clinic
Intermediate to Advanced. Expands upon material presented in two-hour clinic, with more in-depth discussion and drill on rhythm exercises, harmonic analysis and applied theory.
Two to four-day clinic/residency
Intermediate to Advanced.
In-depth study of rhythm, with recorded examples and historical background of styles. Each day focuses on one or two music pieces that broadly illustrate the day's theme:rhythm, applied harmony, the blues, improvising strategies and vocabulary. Some opportunity for individual playing. Students may be divided into small ensembles to work on improvisation.
Residencies may include coaching ensembles and/or orchestra on particular works. Ideally, the clinic or residency concludes with a public performance.
About Darol
Darol Anger holds the string chair of the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE), and is a founding member of IAJE's String Caucus, which helps string educators teach improvisation by providing training, curriculum an other educational resources. He has led seminars at the Stanford, Oberlin and Amherst jazz workshops, and he teaches frequently at the Berklee School of Music and the Mark O'Connor Fiddle Camp. International workshops and clinics include Campo Do Jordao in Brazil and the Music Conservatory at Bremen, Germany.
As a contributing editor for Strings Magazine and a member of the Editorial Board of the American String Teacher's Association, Darol Anger writes about the innovators in string performance and composition;the new violin makers;issues of string education and the development ofviolin synthesizer technology.
Darol Anger's recordings span 25 years. He has produced dozens of releases for his own groups and has been featured on hundreds of others. The recipient of a California Arts Council composer fellowship and a Rockefeller composer grant, his compositions for fiddle, string quartet and orchestra are available from his own publishing company, Fiddlistics Music. He was nominated for the CalArts Alpert Award in the Arts and was a frequent winner of the Frets Magazine readers' poll for best jazz violinist.
Darol Anger has performed and recorded with some of the world's great improvising musicians, including Stephane Grappelli and Mark O'Connor. His groundbreaking work with the Turtle Island String Quartet, the Montreux Band, and the David Grisman Quintet introduced new musical styles to contemporary string performance and repertoire. Most recently, his innovative bluegrass bands Psychograss and New Grange, and the jam-jazz group Anger Marshall Band explore the future of the string band.
Contact
Fiddlistics Music POB 19297 Oakland, CA 94619 510.832.0111 www.darolanger.com
Educational resources, books and music available here.
Raves
Darol Anger is the quintessential improvising violinist. Dr. Billy Taylor, CBS Sunday Morning
Darol Anger is the preeminent freelance improvising string music teacher in the USA. No one else has Darol's wonderful combination of knowledge, charts, flexibility and depth. So please, do yourself and your students a favor, and get him to come to your school as soon as humanly possible. Matt Glaser, String Dept. Chair Berklee College of Music
After an hour, the students were improvising over blues changes, as well as accompanying the soloist. The expression of joy was evident on the students' faces. One student commented that she … felt a sense of freedom she had never felt musically. I have not seen such excitement from students in 20 years ofteaching. Ron White, Orchestra Director A&M Consolidated High School College Station, Texas
Working with Darol Anger in the Chamber Music Institute gave our students an inspirational benchmark for their artistic development, and an introduction to new worlds where their musical careers might take them. Scott Hosfeld, Executive Director, Icicle Creek Chamber Music Institute
Darol puts students in direct contact with the concepts he talks about. He creates a very positive environment in which collaboration between students naturally develops. Nathalie Bonin, Student
Selected Repertoire
(All works composed or arranged by Darol Anger)
Orchestra
- Angles: Three Movements for Solo (original)
- Violin and String Orchestra
- Street Stuff
- Blues for Oaktown
- Grant Wood
- Jaco (P. Metheney; arrangement)
- Lil'Darlin'(Neal Hefti)
- Crossroads (Robert Johnson)
String Quartets
- Blue Book Blues (original)
- Street Stuff
- Grant Wood
- Jaco (P. Metheney; arrangement)
- Cheek to Cheek (+ rhythm section) (G. Gershwin)
- Blues on the Corner (MCoy Tyner)
- Fascinatin' Rhythm (+ rhythm section) (G. Gershwin)
