Report on Naby’s Workshop

To my two subscribers (and my thesis supervisor): sorry that it’s been so long since my last post. I have been practising, and indeed, I feel that I’ve learned a lot over the past few weeks about how to practice, but I just haven’t put those things online yet. I’ve been making a lot of notes to myself, though, so more posts will definitely trickle in before too long.

One of the first things to report, however: Naby’s workshop went well. It wasn’t particularly well-attended (partly on account of the paucity of information I was provided until the very last minute), but those that did attend had only good things to say. Here’s a picture from that event:


Unfortunately, aside from helping to clarify the cadence of one accompaniment pattern (a basic accompaniment for Soli), for lack of time, Naby wasn’t able to do any private lessons with me. Since the workshop, he and I have spoken on Skype several times and he offers glowing praise for what he hears me play into the mic, assuring me that he’s looking forward to spending a few days teaching me the next time he comes to Toronto, but until that time, I’ll be working exclusively with the video-lessons—both his and Famoro’s.

Tomorrow however, I head to Montréal where I’ll spend the weekend with some friends (Trevor and Nadia) who are also students of Naby’s. In addition to spending a heavy block of time together, sharing information and playing like crazy, Trevor has also arranged for the two of us to meet with Robert Lépine, a classically-trained, professional xylophone and marimba player, long-time student of Naby’s, and founding member of the award-winning group Takadja. I’ll have some pretty specific questions for Robert (and for Trevor and Nadia), mostly about rolling and "vocabulary" acquisition. I sure hope some of those questions finally get answered!