Humdrum

The workshop participants were the facilitators and the parents of Mirra. It was for two hours on two days. Rzhude, the creator of the Humdrum, began with his background information and the intent for which it was designed. He shared his experiences of playing the humdrum with children and familiarized us with his first module – Time.

He took us on a journey of reading and explaining from the first page to the last. We all began by committing ourselves to practice lessons with our loved ones. We got acquainted with the metronome and used our hands to get the hang of the rhythm. It was fun to follow and the dynamics were made comprehensible. The participants’ queries were clarified as the lessons moved from beating the right and left hand to understand the symbols of the western notation. This transition for most of us was unbelievable, but doable as it presented to us in a very possible way. By the second day, vocal sounds were added to our beating and tiny steps were taken in creating notations. All of us sang out our own beats and some courageously resonated others creation. This ended with laughter and appreciating each one’s composition. By the end of the workshop the unknown symbols were becoming known and keeping time was a key aspect while we practice our lessons for 21 days. Everyone carried a set of two different sized humdrums in a bag and thanked Rzhude for this wonderful experience.