Students of Music Learn by Doing
A practicum course for graduating seniors at a Traditional Music Academy
2019
Program Designer
In Zanzibar, access to musical education, resources, and practical skills are scant. Professional musicians and students of music struggled to find collaborative spaces where they could play their original tunes, connect with other musicians, and be taken seriously.
In 2013, one beach-side bar in a small fishing village changed that.
Since 2013, every Monday night crowd of 200+ have gathered at a beachside bar on Zanzibar’s East Coast to witness extraordinary, spontaneous collaboration between musicians from all walks of life. Over the years, the event--Crazy Mondays Jam Sessions--have welcomed more than 500 musicians and 20,000 spectators from 30+ countries, including internationally renowned acts.
But what’s now a must-see weekly event for tourists and locals alike began as a much-needed opportunity for local artists. In 2019, it became a learning space for students of traditional music.
Students from Dhow Country Music Academy—the oldest, and most revered school of Traditional Music in East Africa—are classically trained in instruments found nowhere else on earth. In spite of the reverence attached to these ancient arts, students at the DCMA struggled, like all of the island’s musicians, to find places to gig professionally, where their original compositions would be welcome in an increasingly-touristy market. Many students who graduated had never performed for a live audience. Students were ill-equipped to enter their professions, since they had never experienced what would be a critical aspect of their lives: live performance.
In 2019, students from Dhow Countries Music Academy were presented with an appealing proposal: earn credit, from a real-time, hands-on learning experience.
The course? Learning how to gig from an expert sound engineer and professional musician for one full semester.
Each week, DCMA students crossed the island to learn about the art of performance. But it wasn’t just theory, it was practice, real-time. All of the students were slated to perform with artists they’d never met before in “jam sessions” each Monday evening, in front of a large crowd.
Each week before the show, musicians arrived two hours prior to sound check to learn about “hard skills” such as lineups, sound and stage management, use of microphone and amplification equipment, tuning, and instrument techniques. The participants were held to extremely high standards by their supervisory, grading faculty. Participants were also held to high professional expectations, learning, in the process, “soft skills,” such as the code of ethics between musicians, the importance of effective communication, listening, and timeliness. Participants maintained a strict schedule, and were required to navigate the nuances of collaboration with fellow artists, production managers, artistic consultants, stage managers, and MCs diplomatically and effectively.
The curriculum and grading were simple and flexible. They had to be if they were to adequately capture the ever-changing environment in which the students were learning.
Tracking Real-Life Curriculum, Real-Time
The curriculum was broken down into two arenas: “hard skills” (identifying instruments, genres, and compositional techniques; tuning and handling instruments, communicating sound needs, the mechanics of sound engineering, creating a lineup, conducting sound check, dealing with equipment on and off stage; playing improvisationally, and applying previous weeks’ feedback in subsequent weeks) and “soft skills” (punctuality for all timed aspects of the module, professionalism, respectfulness, handling instruments with care, receptivity and implementation to constructive criticism, adaptability to change, stage awareness, taking turns soling and supporting, and teamwork).
Simple, Dynamic Grading
Keeping track of college kids is difficult. The grading system needed to reflect the dynamic space in which students were learning. It was imperative that the grading system be flexible enough to articulate and track changes, and simple enough to be undertaken and differentiated while observing a group. Hard skills were detailed by skill, by week, and by month. Each week, faculty members could mark the skills that were covered, so that the faculty were able to gauge the students’ overall saturation of the skill set over the course of the module. The faculty members tracked the students soft skills in terms of yes / no inputs, to identify what the students did. Each module incorporated written feedback for the students, and the specifics of the hard skills they’d learned.
What people are saying about Hannah
We had the pleasure to work with Hannah on a long time existing cultural project in Zanzibar, Tanzania.
Her consultancy helped us to clearly identify areas of need as well as implementing newly created standards. Hannah's totally independent and self organised work allowed us, without unnecessary meetings, to finally define a structured workflow. We particularly appreciated the communication with her which was always strictly to the point, while delivering tangible results within the deadlines set.
Without any second thought, we would work with her again on other projects if the opportunity presents itself.
— Mark
Project Manager