In Vienna, Austria:

~ Don't alienate with too much theory. Sometimes people are just looking to sing.

~ "You sing fine, just not enough!" - in response to a student who asked me whether she sings well

~ If you ask a child if they can sing, they'll say "of course!" - but if you ask a teenager or adult if they can sing they say no way.

~ Encourage bringing instruments.

~ Use more bricolage - stimulates extra-box cognizance. Seeing things a different way.

~ Games are essential.

~ Resist the impulse to use more words to be understood, think instead about meeting eyes, creating rhythm, sounds, conversation.

~ Don't be afraid to abandon the strategy. Learn what to do from the questions present.

~ All stories are important.

~ Fake singing is real singing.

~ Allow talking only if someone really wants to talk. This means they want to communicate and it should be allowed.

~ Human beings are drawn to music in the same way we are drawn to light.

~ Usually a table or a porch is the best place to sing together.

~ Listening with your eyes makes everything better.

~ Oftentimes when you make a person aware of the thing he does naturally, it comes unnaturally.

~ Just when words get in the way, Begin Singing.

~ In most places, I reckon music isn't taught - it's just learned.

 

In Pakse, Laos:

~ Instruments should be available - people enjoy just holding and touching them.

~ Pop music is a "gateway drug" to more critical listening - let them learn the songs they want to learn, not the ones you want them to learn.

~ For guitar students - play a different instrument while they learn chords - forces listening.

~ For piano students - teaching modes helps enormously with teaching other major scales.

~ On Piano: Teaching black keys encourages use of the Pentatonic Scale, common to Asian, African, and Celtic folk music...

~ The pentatonic scale is comforting and familiar.

 

In Spokane, WA, USA:

~ In general, who I am is much less important that what we're doing.

~ Oftentimes, the worst troublemakers are the most musical, creative, and daring.

~ Taking non-verbal suggestions from participants enhances participation.

~ The groove is a critical lifeline.

~ Establishing a non-verbal relationship with people using music is very similar to establishing trust with a dog or a child - but where the dog brings you his toy, a choir will ask if they can sing you their song.

~ An average person is much more rhythmic and musical when he is detached from his exhibitionism.

~ Everyone is a participant, even if they only watch. Spect-actors (Boal, 1992).

~ In jamming, familiar melodies are also improvisations.

~ If their foot is broken, they have hips.

~ Patterns are powerful because they're simple.