Violectric is committed to music education and has created programs ranging from master classes to performances combining Violectric with student string groups. Our educational programs have reached domestic and international students throughout the US and in Asia.
Those interested in Violectric’s educational offerings have an extensive list of workshops to choose from! The following choices were created to cover a wide range of musical, music business, technique, and performance topics, or we can create a custom program tailored to the needs of your students.
Electrify Your Sound!
Guitars aren’t the only instrument that can be electrified. Pedal effects, looping and other electronic effects can be used on stringed instruments too! While this hands-on experience allows students to journey into the electric world usually dominated by guitars, it’s not only about how to amplify, but also about how to change your sound.
Destructuring Modern Music
Have you ever heard a piece of modern music and wondered how they wrote and recorded it? This workshop breaks down modern songs, identifying the sections collected (instruments, chords, sounds) and reconstructs it. Students end up with a restructured song of a completely new composition.
Nerves
Performance jitters are a problem for almost everyone. With the focus on nerves, this class speaks in depth on descriptions, psychological and physiological explanations, and controlled uses for them. Through games and role-playing, attendees come to understand how and why nervous energy affects people and begin to develop personal techniques to make that energy helpful and useful in performance.
Useful Vibrato
This hands-on session teaches a step-by-step approach to vibrato development. A lecture and discussion component delves into the desirability of a variable, controllable vibrato and identifies stylistic, communication, and musical benefits.
How Sound Works
This is a workshop designed for young musicians or, perhaps, non-musicians. A whimsical approach is taken to explain the basics of sound generation and the function of the human ear. Participants see and hear a soda bottle flute, a trumpet made from garden hose and kitchen funnels, a finger piano made with tongue depressors and a bread baking pan, a wastebasket drum set, and traditional instruments. The attendees learn how to make musical instruments from everyday “found” materials. During the session, participants form a “kitchen” band and perform a piece.
Stage Presence and You
This interactive session deals with nerves, audience engagement, projecting sound and personality beyond the stage, and making an individual mark within a group. Attendees hear descriptions and explanations, play games, perform, and role-play to aid in developing their personal style and comfort levels.
Tour Logistics
You can’t get there if you don’t start here. This lecture-discussion workshop details the many necessities involved in putting a group on the road such as management, travel arrangements, Visas and other travel documents, legal considerations operational cash, contracts, money, and equipment.
Creating a Show
A basic live band performance is different from a “stage show.” Participants in this workshop are guided through the process of creating a show format as opposed to a concert or background type of entertainment. Through lecture, discussion, and improv games, the attendees learn the ins and outs of making a show work for them and their audiences.
Promotions – Using Social Media and Websites
This workshop, executed in a lecture-discussion format, explores the online world of social media and websites in the marketing of a band. The session deals with many aspects of an online presence from its value for a group to the process of using the internet for promotion.
Booking Gigs
Playing the gig is just one part of the picture. You first have to find and secure the job and then be sure you are treated properly. This workshop, performed in a lecture-discussion format, is designed to give participants a structured understanding of the steps needed to successfully find and maintain music performance jobs from the business end including contracts, riders, agents, promoters, venue communication, and gig follow-up.
Contracts and Riders
Through lecture and discussion, this session works with participants to understand the place that contracts and riders have in their working lives. The workshop gives step-by-step information on the necessity of, creation, legalities, and enforcement of written performance paperwork.
Creating a Brand
In this workshop, the attendees become familiar with the concept, creation, and uses of “branding” in the business of music. The lecture-discussion explores what a brand is, how to create and protect a unique brand, how to market and promote that brand, and the responsibilities of all members of that band to the brand.
Introduction to Arranging
Attendees learn the basics of arranging and correct voicing for a given instrumentation using scores and piano music. SATB or String Quartet is used as an example.
Basic Improvisation
Attendees learn the basics of improvisational skill, observe the same, and demonstrate the skill(s) during the workshop session. Using a variety of scales and genres, students create their own improvisations even beyond the timing of this workshop.
Pitch Singing
As performances can be “made or broken” by intonation issues, this workshop focuses on the necessity of being able to identify pitches and tune internally in an ensemble. Participants have the opportunity to hone their skills in pitch recognition and production by working with the facilitator as individuals and as a group, mimicking notes and sounds in the correct octave, paying close attention to intonation.
Emotion and Music
Through lecture, discussion, demonstration, and personal experimentation, participants become aware of the visual and musical significance of being able not only to play a piece, but to PERFORM one. Discussion of and exercises in such simple things as balance, breathing, using the body efficiently, and shortcuts for prevention of nerves and mental mistakes enhance the attendees’ understanding. Application of the tools given and discussed apply to all instrumentation including voice.
Rhythm and Movement
In this workshop, attendees are introduced to the functionality of the body in response to specific rhythms and subdivisions of beats to assist in properly identifying simple to complex rhythms. Given choreography to music of varying speeds and rhythms, students mimic the facilitator, moving with the music and doing simple motions to reflect similar musical passages. Special attention is paid to movement as a value in playing as well as creating a stage persona. This session is particularly suited to the younger or less experienced performer.
Advanced Arranging – String Techniques
Through lecture, demonstration, and discussion, this session focuses on the arranger’s use of advanced string techniques illustrated by performed and printed examples. Attendees explore and identify skills which can be used to mimic audio examples of music for further composition and arranging.