The following was originally written in 2003. It recently emerged during an ‘archaeological dig’ through a stack of papers and notes. I THINK it was published in Music for People’s Connections newsletter, which we used to snail mail out, but, truth be told—I’m not sure.
As I read it for the first time in more than twenty years, I was struck by what has remained true about Music for People and Art of Improvisation over the years:
- the wide variety of people who come to MfP workshops
- the similarity, over the decades, in why they decided to attend
- the similarity, over the decades, in the experience WOW and AHA!
- the deep transformations that occur over a week.
Sprinkled throughout are italicized comments from Music for People’s co-founder, David Darling, as he was teaching. Some of you will ‘hear’ his voice as you read; others will sense the deep, rich presence and soulfulness of his unique approach to music making and living from which we all continue to benefit.
Enjoy!
Sharon Little, MLP Grad 2000
(Edited 2025)
In August, a classically trained violinist turned rock musician systems engineer at the Harvard Business School, a Freudian psychologist ukulele player, a wholistic therapist solo pianist, a choral conductor ‘baby’ jazz vocalist, a Suzuki teacher violinist, a Montessori pre-school teacher-kids’ CD artist-singer-violinist-guitar player, a retired civil servant jazz musician, a computer programmer guitar-playing mom all found their way to Art of Improvisation (AOI) for the first time.
What impels a first timer to make the journey to AOI from Quebec Ontario, Massachusetts, Ohio, or Texas? What happens to them during the five days? What learnings and new skills do they take home with them? Does it make a difference in their lives?
What makes us jump ?
The limitless possibilities of making our own kind of music, from the inside, in the moment, can appear as a vast, scary abyss to musicians of all levels of experience.
We seek a new challenge when “something” in our life isn’t quite right or when we’ve come to a place of ‘now what’. Our quality of life is compromised in some way. We feel stuck in a pattern that no longer works for us or an inner voice moves us from the familiar to the unknown.
Sometimes the call is a subtle tap on the shoulder. Sometimes the call is a ferocious scream. We need to make a change.
Many of us find MfP at this fork in the path. The new participants expressed, too, that they had come to a point in their music making where something more was needed.
“I felt blocked towards performing that I hoped MfP would help me with.”
“I had an intuition that this was right at this time.”
“I was more and more interested in working on my own improvisation technique.”
“I wanted to break out of the classical box, free up my voice, improvise more.”
“I needed some guidance in my music. I had recorded a CD of piano improv and wondered, what next?”
“It was time for a shift. It seemed like fun.”
Whether they discovered AOI through a flyer, a catalogue with David’s workshops in it, from a workshop more than a decade ago or, more often, through a friend who always ranted about MfP, they arrived on a Friday evening to meet the MfP community.
“I can’t get over how friendly the people are,” remarked Betty, a systems engineer at Harvard.
Simone, a choral and orchestra conductor, wrote, “It was welcoming and warm. I felt like they’d been waiting for me to arrive and were thrilled to see me.”
As participants came into the main space, they entered a vibrant environment; chairs, three pianos, rhythm instruments of all description – and beyond description– and people meeting, playing, grooving, tuning, and finding their places. A percussion groove boomed through the room. Chaos? Perhaps. Music For People? Definitely.
David gathered the group.
“Let’s shake something… Play something… I’m David- hello. Shake something, play something, sing something, make something up… We need a piano player over there. We’ve already begun… Don’t just sit there… This is all about playing. Let’s warm up.”
David began with some Brazilian scat singing and then moved to Call and Response. The group was there with him.
“Release…
“Shoulders… Neck… We don’t care whether you stand up or sit down, it’s up to you. This time together is totally up to you. Someone might suggest something, but you don’t have to do it. But right now we’re working the body…
“On the left are two mantras that belong to this wonderful organization—Quality and Quantity— and we’re hoping, of course, that you’ll be in the top one the whole time that you are here, because most of us spend a lot of time in that bottom one down there.
“That’s full of negativity— thinking you don’t have all the right stuff. If you’re a classic player you think, ‘Oh, I’ll never be as good as anybody else’ and that’s negativity attitude. And what we’re trying to do at Music For People is change that.
“Chig-ga Dig-ga Duh-ga da Dug-gah…”
The noisy support and encouragement, the cheers, the oo’s and the applause, the mantras, and the notion that our personal music and sound are sacred, can be very new and either disturbing or exciting!
Anna, a classical pianist, had driven from Montréal. “I was frazzled when I arrived after the long drive, but as soon as the class started, I felt very comfortable and enjoyed it immensely.”
“SAAAAAAA…AAAAYYYYYY” David sings, one palm over the other, singing SA on one note, opening his palm, singing up a semi-tone, stepping forward.
“David’s energy was amazing. I love the atmosphere he created in the room from the very beginning.”
Betty recalls Lynn Miller leading.
“I got all my equipment straightened out and Lynn looked over and said, ‘Oh is that a five-string violin? Let’s hear it!’ I stood up and played. There wasn’t time to be afraid and think I couldn’t do it. The response was a little overwhelming. At first, I wondered if it was just being nice, but then realized that the response and applause were genuine.”
“It’s not how many notes you know how to play; it’s the quality of the notes that you do play and whether you are present, totally inside those notes.
“Anyone who does that, no matter whatever they do play, can have a wonderful experience in life with their music. You become a composer, an orchestra, a singer, a poet.”
“You do not need anyone else. We come into this world alone, and we go out of it alone, so you may as well get used to the fact that God really wants us to be sacred unto our own sound. Sacred unto our own sound. You know, I’ve been playing this instrument for so many years. I love it so much, but it’s not about the technique. It’s about just being present enough to play.”
Simone said she “felt tearful the first hour or so— all that David was saying about the sacredness of music and our own personal sound really resonated with me on a very deep level.”
“It’s really about being inside the sound. It’s not about showing off and trying to make money. It’s not about money.
“It is about what human beings were created for, which is the highest level of spirituality, which is called music.
“It is the highest, most profound entity on planet Earth—music— that is the highest level of spirituality.
“There’s nothing as powerful as vibration. We are vibration. All the great thinkers say this… Every one of them. They all say the same thing… Which is why you are so lucky to have chosen to come here…”
“I wasn’t expecting the spiritual bent of the first evening,” said Laura. “I grew to appreciate and look forward to it. The intense ‘spirituality’ was appropriately and realistically balanced by the sincere humour of David and the rest of the staff. No one took themselves too seriously while always respecting the process and all the participants.”
Tom plays in the number of jazz bands in Toronto. He found AOI online when he wasn’t able to attend his usual summer jazz camp. He was surprised and put off by what he called the ‘televangelist ra ra feel’ of the evening rather than music and wondered, initially, if he was going to survive the week. He went with the flow, though he said, as he met some interesting people at dinner and wanted to continue the conversations.
Fear and AOI
Fear limits us. Fear restricts and binds us to the past. Fear paralyzes and holds us in a limited universe. At AOI, the invitation is to acknowledge these fears, be present with them and play or sing anyway.
Fear of failure.
Fear of success.
Fear of the wrong note.
Fear of what others think.
Fear that we won’t be as good.
Fear that we weren’t lovable.
Fear that we aren’t good enough.
Trained musicians are an interesting group. Most musicians start as youngsters. What other group of trained specialists practise five, six, or seven days a week— from childhood? A unique bonding occurs between the young musician and her instrument, as does a unique self-identity.
A musician’s sense of who she is as a human being can be intimately and inextricably wrapped up in how well she plays her instrument. Not in how she feels about her playing, but how well her teachers, conductors and peers tell her she plays.
The supreme importance of the ‘right notes’ becomes part of a musician’s DNA. One ‘wrong’ note as a professional can make crater a career.
Imagine coming to a workshop for the first time, after all that “right note” training and hearing this:
“There are no wrong notes.”
It’s hard to square the MfP philosophy with a musician’s training in the beginning. All that focused practice on getting the ‘right’ notes and sound come right up against the personal freedom MfP allows.
Fear and the inner critic tapes
It’s inevitable that at some point during the week, something will press PLAY on those inner critic tapes.
“This time together is totally up to you. Someone may suggest something, but you don’t have to do it.”
“I am scared to participate in activities where others are better than me,” said Margaret, whose daughters participated fully in the children’s program.
“I’m entirely sure that my daughters are musicians, but not so sure about myself. The tapes I’ve heard have to do with people being unkind because they have an advantage.”
“We just say you have to be doing this… Breathe in, breathe out.”
Karyn, a violinist and a Reiki master, Betty, and Don, psychologist, all expressed their fears about using their voice.
“It’s OK if your voice is not in tune – It’s the authentic expression of an emotion that is real.”
Don attended an MfP workshop in 1993 but hadn’t been to another workshop since then. He said the major obstacle preventing him from going to another workshop was his fear of being embarrassed. In elementary school he was told he was a “listener” rather than a “singer” and should, therefore, “remain silent during the singing of a song.” Although he recognized the teacher’s remark was misguided, the effect had been long lasting.
“Your sound is sacred.”
Laura expressed eloquently what many musicians feel.
“I felt myself constantly battling my inner critics. It was so hard to ignore the tape loop telling me that I play out of tune, that I won’t really improve, that I won’t ever impress that idiot conductor, or concertmaster back home, that I’m a fraud and I really don’t have a beautiful vibrato or tone. The inner negative tapes prevented me from volunteering to play. I have a fear of putting myself forward. I was afraid my inner critic would get tired of criticizing me and start on others or make it hard for me to trust those around me and the process that was underway.”
“It’s about being totally inside the sound. It’s not the number of notes you know, but how you play the ones you do know.”
Simone tried to ignore the negative tapes. She said she “enjoyed myself and everyone around me in spite of them.” She has used journalling to deal with her inner critic. She was more successful at turning them down at AOI. “The ‘No Wrong Notes’ mantra is the most helpful thing,” she said.
Laura constantly talked back, telling the inner voices that she can learn and that she does have a beautiful sound. As she became more busy with doing rather than thinking, she could better ignore her fears, especially since “many extraordinary things were beginning to take shape with regards to my playing and my connections with others.” For her, hearing the studio session was a tremendous help in reinforcing positive tapes about her playing.”I was truly surprised.”
Margaret found that “when I went ahead and performed, I was so caught up in the moment of music that I didn’t have space for fear.”
Laura was thankful David pointed at her to play. When she got his encouraging response to her playing she felt OK and the inner critic was quieted. Betty also noticed that having no time to prepare when David pointed at her helped.
“That was incredible! Yes!”
WOWs and AHAs
WOWs are those moments when we come face-to-face or ear-to-ear with something so amazing we can only shake our heads in ecstasy. We’re in the Zone; It Works. We experience pure Joy.
Something seeps into our lives and—AHA. We GET it. Maybe it’s been simmering inside for years, but some switch is turned and—AHA.
Those lightning bolt moments along the path stay with us; moments where we can identify something from which we will never (thankfully) recover.
AOI was filled with WOWs and AHAs.
Jam sessions: “Wow happened just from the joy of sharing music with others.”
Playing in small groups: “I’ve been solo for so long that sharing music in that way there was a revelation to me. I loved it.”
“I managed to complete a duet on guitar with a cellist – a fantastic blessing about not giving up.”
“Solos I did because of the response to my playing.”
“Improv conducting – beyond thrilling.”
“I played drums for the first time – and with almost no instruction – I just seem to know how!”
“I sang and played simultaneously for the first time – shocked myself!”
“I composed my first song since I was 13.”
“Meeting amazing, wonderful, full-hearted, talented people who just love to play music and listen to one another!”
“Felt like I was in an altered state of consciousness – hearing music everywhere, and weeping at the drop of a hat – or a shoe or a raindrop.”
“After the second day, everything had a groove or was a drone – dripping faucets, people, walking, lights, fans, dogs barking.”
Tom, whose low point was the “rah rah feel” of the first evening, wrote “I usually play jazz with changes as a guide, not gospel, but picking up a key almost instantaneously can be difficult. The big WOW was the near instantaneous ability to do that and then create from a single note or two or three.”
“We say in the western world that the only way to get anywhere, you have to take your power and put it forward. In the east, they say, take your power and step back and open up to the experience. You just receive.”
Taking it home: post-workshop .
When going through a transformational process such as AOI, we hope the insights and skills learned will translate into action at home. When we get home, we hope something will have changed, that our music will be different, that we will be different in a real and enduring way.
“Just to be present for a day would be a beautiful thing… Just Present… Like a fool… Standing in the middle of the road… Just…heh heh…”
Repeated themes of being kind to oneself, of releasing fears, or realizing the possibilities flowed through these first-timers post-workshop comments. They are common in an MfP experience.
“I have the confidence to know that there is the ability. I CAN improvise.”
“… Being kind and generous to myself, the musician.”
“I want to do more.”
“I was able to face the most terrifying of musical demons and go through it.”
“Turn off my head.”
“Being more tolerant, less critical of myself and others in general.”
“Release the fear I have around performing, focus on the wonder of sharing music with others.”
“All the vocal freedom gained.”
“Things that might have registered as ‘risky’ in other environments didn’t seem as risky here, both because of the lack of anticipation time (David just points and says ‘you’) and because of the supportive environment.”
Using MfP out in the world.
David unceasingly encouraged us all to gather a few friends and just start to share. It need not be big or perfect or formal. You’ll see from these responses that the possibilities for taking this approach out into the world are endless.
“I work with children. I want to take some of this to them.”
“My boyfriend is a percussionist. We can get together with others.”
“Not allowing interruptions during my practice.”.
“Not wasting time instead of practicing.”
“I think my current ongoing reflection will come to express itself when I start teaching in the fall.”
“I stuck Post-it notes with RELEASE all over the house.”
“I have skills that I can use to improvise with myself.”
“I want to learn to automatically intervals from any note.”
“Lots of games to play.”
“The four and a half days produced a continuous flow of new material and skills to use in a performing environment.”
“Various techniques – playing faster, more fluently, improve my harmonic ear, and my harmonic violin playing; doing some recording FINALLY.”
“Playing different styles, playing fast.”
“It was the single most incredible experience in my life so far.”
“What struck me the most was the wonderful spirit of total acceptance, encouragement, comradery among the musicians. It helped me release those bad feelings that brew in that place of competition and comparison.”
A month after AOI, I contacted these first timers and asked what had happened in the interim. It was no surprise to learn that Life was happening. For some, there had been no time to bring the new learnings into the daily practice.
Anna wrote, however, about some positive changes. “Things have shifted in my life. When I improvise now there is a lot more vocal stuff happening as I play the piano and I find it very moving to bring my voice into it.”
Margaret had signed up for the Musicianship and Leadership Program. She wrote, “The AOI workshop was a profound experience of being listened to. I’m practising and improvising and working on ignoring the critical voices.”
She also added the house was filled with music. One daughter has begun cello lessons, and the other, drum set. For those of us who were there and watched these two young musicians during the week, this comes as no surprise.
It may be comforting to know that we don’t have to get everything in the five days of AOI. In fact, it’s impossible to get it all and make it fully immediately applicable.
Learning to keep the WOW of NOW alive takes time. AOI is not a quick fix! Like enjoying a gourmet, five-course meal, we need time to sit back and digest before turning it into useable energy. We all access it in our own time.
“I’m glad I got the works – there’s a lot to take in.”
Information from multiple sources bombards us constantly. We receive the higher impulses as we get out of our own way, clear out the static and strengthen the connection to our authentic self. Our collection of emotional dust bunnies gets cleared away each time we say yes to life.
Karen’s realization was this. “At AOI we are showered with knowable things. If we stay in our Center, all the personality emotional stuff falls away and we come in contact with the larger group possibility.”
We don’t have to do anything but Be Who We Really Are—Spirit in Form. We are enough; all we need to do is breathe. Everything we need is available the more we are able to listen with clear receivers and offer our gift without hindrance.
“Listen to the sound of the space… And that is the most profound music… Inhale, exhale…”
We go to AOI to make a change in the way we make music. In the process of making our own kind of music, we find out that it’s not so much about the music. It’s about who we are within our own sound.
“It’s about YOU! No, no, sorry, it’s not about me, it’s about YOU!