In Peques and Más we bring an interview with Walter Geromet, director of the WS Big Band and comes to explain that music has a vital value in the education and development of a child. Walter is going to explain to us that for him music has a power that he may never understand because it helps us develop mental and sensitive abilities, favors visual and auditory integration, helps us learn from mistakes, evaluate us and also enhances listening ability and lets connect with our emotions.
Walter explains that emotions have a fundamental function in our lives and you have to learn to perceive them, to train them, to live with them, to accept them, to keep them awake. And, as Walter explains, emotions influence our actions and our decisions, they have the power to define in some way the destiny of our lives and music, as an enriching source, allows us to stay connected to them. It is important that children understand that any musical composition has its own life: all kinds of music have a beginning, an evolution, a development, an end and that each sound is capable of transmitting certain sensations. Within a beginning and an end there is music and outside these two extremes is nothing, the unknown. Making music is like trying to discover a universe.
What ages are the most recommended for children to start in music
I make musical meetings for children from a year and a half and I have been able to verify their abilities in recognizing and differentiating the dynamics, the rhythms, the sounds of the instruments to move and dance to the rhythm of a song.
As for recommended ages to start playing an instrument, the child of one and a half years can make a succession of sounds to the piano, create rhythms with the hands or with a percussion instrument, make sound to a flute or try to imitate some note singing, but you can't play a saxophone. There are instruments that require physical strength and it is better to wait for the child to be a little older or in the case of wind instruments, to have more breathing capacity. For example in the case of my instrument, the saxophone, it is advisable to start playing it from 7/8 years of age.
At two years it is a good age to approach music, if not with a specific instrument, with activities designed for children (music and movement, introduction to music, Feldenkrais method, etc.) At approximately four years they can be approached to some instrument such as piano or violin 1/8. Meanwhile, the important thing is that they listen, sing, and dance!
Why music helps you express yourself and how you can help children do it
In my personal experience, when I was little, I always felt like a "weird", lonely child. I had the feeling of not reaching people, of not knowing how to communicate. It was as if the world was "cold" and did not want to understand me. It was thanks to music, which I approached for the first time at age eight in the band of my village in Muggia (Italy) where I could create my own space. It is my natural way of communicating, I can feel free to say what I feel in each moment.
For me, music is a means of expression, a more important language than words because it allows us to express ourselves at deeper levels. In my long years of student at the Conservatories of Trieste (Italy) and Madrid (Spain), I have never thought of becoming a professional musician: I have always been doing it because of a need, because I had nothing more important than this to feel good. For me it's like eating or drinking water.
Which instrument do you mainly teach children?
I am mainly a saxophonist and I usually develop most of my activities and courses around this instrument: alone, in a duo, in a quartet, a quintet or with the whole Big Band playing and explaining the secrets of the saxophone, breathing and sound through Stories, examples, games. However, I also like to play the guitar and sing with them. In that case we usually compose: we decide the title of the song, then I make a series of chords for them to choose which ones they want to use to build the song, associating them with an emotion, a color or a situation. Each child then invents some lyrics that we translate into music within the succession of chords they have chosen. Children sing, play percussion instruments and if anyone has any instrument of their own, they do it alone.
In the end, when the piece is assembled and well rehearsed, we record it so they can be heard playing and singing and hear what they have created.
For them it is an immense illusion: they have made music, they have created a song that they will continue humming throughout the week. It is magnificent!
You plan to make musical meetings for children soon
In April we will hold a series of educational / musical meetings with the Big Band at the Sanpol Theater in Madrid aimed at children and parents. The Theater is the headquarters of the Walter Sax Big Band, of which I am the musical director and the cycle that we will organize is entitled “Enjoy a big band”. It will be divided into four parts:
- The birth of a big band, April 6
- The repertoire of a big band, April 20
- The rehearsals of a big band, May 11
- The big band in concert, May 25
These are theatrical performances of our concerts, focused on the kids and in which, in addition to acting, we will tell our own stories: how we have decided to create a big band, why, what instruments are composed, how each section sounds. We will also stop playing to explain to the children and parents how to rehearse and how to work in a group, how the pieces are nuanced and how they are assembled. We will also talk about the history of jazz, explain what the swing is and present what repertoire we have chosen and why.
Which classics are the most accessible for children
We adults think that they like classical music, whichever is "simple" or "accessible". I can cite among thousands of names Mozart, Bach, Vivaldi, Dvorak, Brahms, Shubert.
It is true that he likes this type of music: who would not like to hear for the first time such amazing works, conceived by such great geniuses? We can put some classic work to relax or fall asleep but I don't know if you can still talk about tastes or accessibility. Keep in mind that children do not have cultural prejudices of any kind and for them everything is music: the voice of the people around them, the sounds of the street, the sound of the wind, the singing of the birds, a door That squeak, the barking of a dog, the sound of the microwave, the noise of shoes when walking, etc.!
The music that we define as such is nothing more than a mixture of all of the above, merged with the use of some techniques that we have learned and concepts of form and composition that humans have been developing over millions of years of existence, Listen, study, evolution. I don't think there is a music or a style that suits them better than others. Everything is language (music, word, movement) and you have to stimulate them by putting on any type of music. Over time they will show a predisposition for one style or another or for one or another song.
What activities do you do in the Music Outreach Orchestra?
They are educational activities designed for another type of public and for situations different from that of a concert. For example, in the cycle of didactic concerts that we will perform at the Sanpol Theater, children and parents can discover the secrets of a big band and see and listen to the orchestra from another point of view. We also conduct open rehearsals: the rehearsals of the big band are open to the public and anyone can participate as a listener. On the other hand we have started a collaboration with several schools in Madrid: the last one was with the Ramiro de Maetzu where we have given three educational concerts for children of different ages.
We are always amazed to see their reactions: it is a gratification to see the enthusiasm and interest they show in this type of activity.
Something we usually do is invite them to the stage and encourage them to participate as orchestra directors, after having explained the role of the director within the team or how he manages the baton. Must be seen to be believed…
What are the training needs of teachers in music education
Training is essential for a musician and more for someone who then wants to teach others. In general, I believe that "paper" or "title" is not essential to be able to teach: you need a series of skills that are not always learned in school. There are very good musicians, who besides being great performers and having made important careers, know how to teach very well even without having a Conservatory or Teaching degree, in fact I believe that teaching is also a vocational issue.
I started playing the soprano sax in the band of my town at age eight, but I decided to start the Conservatory relatively late, in the last year in which I could have introduced myself: I was then 18 years old. When I was 20 I started teaching my first sax lessons.
The beginnings are always difficult because you do not feel safe, sometimes you do not know how to help the other person, you do not know if what you are going to say is correct. But the fact that I could relate to people who were excited to learn to play this instrument loved it: I was able to help others learn and motivate them to continue studying, to continue improving.
After giving and receiving many classes I was accumulating experience. The students were improving with me and I was improving with them. Five years later, without having finished my studies, I was a professor at several municipal schools and gave my first international sax courses in Italy, alone or with other invited saxophonisters from various countries of the world with whom I had the honor of sharing musical experiences and extraordinary didactics. In 2007 I was invited for the first time to give a MasterClass at Stanford University in the United States where I was also lucky to present some of my compositions for saxophone alone.
On the other hand, I don't think you can teach music without having given many concerts before. The concerts are the vital lymph of the musician. It is at the concert where music takes shape. In the concert are the interpreter, the public and the music: there cannot be one thing without the other. The concerts are also the test moment, the test that allows you to see if what you have studied has helped you or you have to re-consider everything again from the beginning. It is a continuous learning and unlearning; A build and destroy without end. This is why I think the concerts are so important and I encourage my students to play live often.
How you encourage Academy students to play live
The main idea of the Academy is to make students, apart from teaching, participate in group activities: that way they can accelerate learning times, interact with other musicians and act as soon as possible.
Students can play in duet, trio, quartet, quintet, etc. We have a dozen groups with different levels and repertoire giving concerts, two big bands and some combos. The main formation is the Walter Sax Big Band that started three years ago as a big band of students and recently became a big band of professionals.
On the other hand we have set up an event company, so that the formations that are formed within the academy have the possibility to play live and develop professionally.
Where do all these activities take place?
We have our own rehearsal rooms located in the Center of Madrid area and at the same time we collaborate with other authorized spaces in Madrid and Barcelona. For the rehearsals of the big bands, the didactic concerts and other activities, we have established a collaboration with one of the historical theaters of Madrid: the Sanpol Theater.
The Sanpol Theater is the only theater in Spain that dedicates most of its programming to children and youth. This year they celebrate 30 years of uninterrupted activity, receiving more than 100,000 young children every year who discover the pleasure of theater and music. Throughout the week, he focuses his activity on the “Theater Campaign for Schools”, and on weekends and holidays it is the parents, who fill their seats with their children.
As a resident orchestra of the Sanpol Theater, Walter Sax Big Band is worrying about helping to reach and expand the aims and objectives of the theater, endorsing the philosophy of this space in terms of the dissemination and promotion of musical activities among the youngest.
What technology is contributing to music for children
Technology has its good side and its bad side and honestly I would not know which of the two sides is the strongest. A child or an adult, without having musical training, is able to compose a melody, record a disc, edit a song, play a virtual instrument with few resources.
But, according to what music represents for me, none of this comes close, but rather it takes us away from its essence. We are surrounded by distractions of all kinds, which prevent us from concentrating and advancing our goals. Music needs concentration, time, patience and silence.
My Composition Master taught me that music is born from silence, not from sound: it must be recreated to compose or perform music with freshness and freedom.
Unfortunately, these are values that we are forgetting. It is necessary to educate ourselves to the method, to the coherence, to the constancy but we will not be able to become good instrumentalists, just as in real life we will not be able to reach the goals that we set ourselves.
From your teaching experience in Italy, what are the differences between musical training for children between Spain and Italy?
My experience with children has been much longer in Italy than here. There I have been working for years with companies that were dedicated to the dissemination of music for kids. In Spain I have been living relatively little. In the first years I have been more focused on my concert activity, I taught at several Academies in Madrid and continued traveling outside of Spain. Lately I have focused on the creation and development of WS Academy (Music Academy focused mainly on the teaching of saxophone), and on the direction of the Walter Sax Big Band, a group composed of 22 musicians of different nationalities, among which I was fortunate to have from the beginning the collaboration of a great Italian musician and saxophonist, Costanzo Laini.
Pushed by the birth of my daughter Luna who will soon be two years old, I am resuming the discourse of music addressed to children here in Spain. For all those who want to take a look at our educational proposals you can visit us at WS Big Band.
What goals do you have for the future
Give the Academy a good projection, especially from the point of view of the value we bring to our students and expand the teaching to more instruments. The main objective is to train people so that they can develop as musicians, make art an important part of their lives and that musical experiences help them to improve themselves personally every day.
As for the Walter big band, we would like to be able to offer the public a show that is always better, more complete, more attractive and more worked both from a scenic and musical point of view. We also want to publish our first record work as soon as possible.
In addition, we have just created the “WS Association of musicians”, an association that among its objectives wants to offer certain services to all musicians and affiliates such as grouping, representing, defending and promoting the economic, social, cultural and professional interests of all music performers
Walter ends by thanking us for having left him the space to interview him and thanks us for collaborating on such an important project as Peques and Más. I believe that the pleasure is ours for allowing us to know so much information about music, emotions and the options offered to The education of the kids.
I want to finish by indicating that Walter, after finishing cum laude in 2005 his studies of saxophone in Italy with Professor Massimiliano Donninelli and expand them in several fields (composition, jazz music, vocal imposition, theater and singing) has obtained scholarships to continue his training in the Royal Higher Conservatory of Music of Madrid and to participate in several Festivals and international training courses in Europe where he has had the opportunity to share experiences with great jazz and classical performers such as A. Bornkamp, P. Broaquart, C. Delangle, V David, J. Petit, O. Murphy and JM Londeix, B. Sands, K. Gesing among others.
Walter currently directs in Madrid the Walter Sax Big Band, which we will be happy to see soon in the Sanpol Theater. The Big Band is composed of more than 20 musicians, has in its ranks the international saxophonist Costanzo Coco Laini and one of the best drums in Spain, Pepe Acebal. In the voices are Ana Momplet and Aurora Mayo, who sing in the most genuine way, to inspire and reach the heart. Also noteworthy are the soloists: Gabriel Palacios (Alto Saxo), Daniel Cardoso (Soprano Saxo), Julio Mendéz (Tenor Saxo) and Luis Zamorano (piano).
