From 5 am the students are up and busy with tasks, such as breaking enough eggs to constitute a satisfactory breakfast portion for all 160 students. Everyone shares in the workload. By 6am they’re busy standing amongst the school grounds on the mountaintop, blasting their instruments and waking anyone who hadn’t yet been woken by the general bustling about.

I am grateful for the acceptance I have received from the teachers, as well as the students. They have such an extraordinarily strong community and musical ethos.

After a few days, I note that not only is their musical technique already incredibly advanced (sight-reading, scales and arpeggios, classical musicianship), they are also taught to have perfect pitch from the age of five years old! It is evident, however, that the art of music is a serious, practised  subject with not much room for fun and feeling.

At last, (and I think I speak for both Nick and myself) we found something that would help in their musical education (other than teaching subjects they have no teachers for). We’re going to get them having fun!

I have been utilising emotions and dynamics in my classes. Using these as the main tools for learning, which my students can use to improve their own ability with the instrument – rather than formally teaching them a piece of music and correcting their techniques. With my more able violinists, I am encouraging improvisation. Engaging them with listening techniques and creating games to play. Furthermore, with the help of the incredible piano teacher, Vladimir, we have had a few excellent musical improv sessions, which are opening up a process of learning that they have not engaged with previously.

This more facilitative style of teaching is more comfortable for me than being strict and regimented in my ways, and I am seeing it also allows students a more creative and relaxed environment for the process of self-exploration with their instrument.

That’s all for now.

Love and abundance to all,

N x x

On my first day, I taught 30 little kids; really little, from five or six years old, to about ten!

It was AMAZING and so funny. It’s hard core trying to teach 30 kids the violin who have never held one before, when you’ve only got seven violins to go around; three of which don’t even have all their strings!! After TWO HOURS of that (!#**!) I taught what I was told, would be a ‘one- to-one‘ violin class, which actually turned out to be over 60 of the school students – between 15 and 19 years old – still with only the seven violins!  So I very quickly scraped that idea in the last second and gave a vocal improv workshop instead, which was one of the funniest things ever!  In the end the kids all got really close together and started a competition between the two groups I’d put them in.  One person doing something and the other group doing it back, then another doing something harder etc…we have a moonwalker in the school!

When that finished, a few students sat down and waited for a violin lesson – including some teachers and the Headmaster of the school.  So, I gave a violin lesson straight after, which was great. At the end of the class, the piano teacher, Vladimir, started playing the piano and we had an improv session, which went really well. I think, for the two more intermediate level violinists, I’m gonna get the kids to learn how to improvise on the violin with Nick or Vladimir playing guitar or piano to guide them…that’s the plan…

It’s pretty hard. I’m using up my musical resources fast! But this is an unbelievably excellent challenge.

We’re eating beans, chilli and tortilla for breakfast; beans, chilli and tortilla for lunch; and last night we had beans, chorizo and spaghetti for dinner; followed by chilli beans and tortilla for breakfast!  I wonder what we’ll have for lunch…hmm…

I just went into town for the first time today with another teacher showing me around, and got three giant avocados, a huge papaya, a little watermelon and lots of, apparently, delicious mangos, so I can get a little break from all the beans!

Anyway, there you go…can’t think of more ‘stuff’ right now…

It’s great here so far. I hope you are all doing well back home; I send you lots of love and hope you are having good times where you are.

I love you all & lots of light and abundance,

Nava x x

What I was not expecting was the butt-clenchingly twisted, tragic and weirdly familiar mentality Brooker created in the first hour out of three black satires reflecting his opinion of our current social state.  He constructed a fictional situation, whereby the sweetheart of the nation, Princess Susannah, is kidnapped and her ransom is broadcast on YouTube.

The terms: the PM has to have sex with a pig.

Live.

On national television.

Until the very end.

If he didn’t, the Princess would die.  Not only would the Princess be dead but he as a person would be politically ruined and the Government could not guarantee his safety or that of his family.

If he did it.  He would have shagged a pig; live on TV.

What followed was ballsy, uncomfortable, shocking and nauseating.  The sociological study of modern media manipulation that twists from one extreme to the other; one minute the public were behind (no pun intended) and sympathetic of the PM and in a matter of hours, due to Twitter and social networking, the public all wanted him to suffer the extreme humiliation; it was fascinating.  Whether it was to save Princess Susannah or whether it was partly because of our society loves to laugh and poke fun at others who are humiliated publically, I was sickeningly hooked.

It was the modern excessive version of throwing rotten tomatoes at another in the public stocks.

When it came to it…I couldn’t watch it.  I think if this were to happen in real life, I wouldn’t be able to watch it either.

Would you?  Would you be able to watch a public figure having sex with a pig?  Even if it were to save the sweetheart of the nation?  Even if it was the biggest, most watched piece of live broadcast watched by the world?  Bigger than any concert, international event, anything experienced by billions of people across the globe, at the same time, in history?  I guess it also depends on who’s involved.  But I know I couldn’t.

What makes it all the more twisted for me, is that it wasn’t a terrorist act, it wasn’t done for any money, but some artist created the situation as ‘Live Art’.

The broadsheet media used to be hard-nosed.  Credible news.  Idealistic aspiring journalists being churned out of higher education looked to Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward for inspiration.  Always in search of the truth.

But Brooker’s Black Mirror: The National Anthem, certainly reflected, to me, a very literal mirror at the state of the media that we are now exposed to and a media that we (whether you agree or not) are actually directly responsible for.

Ultimately, it was a very satirical piece of entertainment on a Sunday night, however, it really struck a nerve at the back of my conscience.  This show highlighted a very large, dark part, of the society and media that we have created.  As a failed idealistic journalist who did look up to the legends of Bernstein and Woodward, it does make me wonder when will we finally turn against this mob culture served on the silver platter of social networking mediums?  Or will it never cease because we love to revel in others’ public humiliation too much?  The classic gossiping nosy neighbour.

Next Sunday’s part 2 Black Mirror: 15 Million Merits, satires the world of shows such as the X-Factor and is brilliantly being broadcast immediately after the X-Factor final on Channel 4.  I for one will have that recording on my SKY+ box whilst I am at our OneTaste 7th Birthday celebrations with the Noisettes, ESKA, Gideon Conn, Daniel Marcus Clark, Stac & the OneTaste Choir!

How about you?

It’s important to laugh at yourself isn’t it…

I don’t want to put a question mark in there because it’s more of a statement that I am prompting you to agree with.

There are so many serious aspects of life, so why would you choose yourself to be one of them?

Laughing at yourself allows you to be comfortable with who you were, who you are and who you are probably going to turn out to be, for however long that stage lasts and that’s the point really. If you aren’t chuckling at past mistakes, you probably aren’t changing and if you aren’t changing you almost definitely aren’t learning, and that’s what life is all about…isn’t it?

Polarbear‘s Old Me, to me, is a beautifully written and performed, funny, touching and clever hour of Polarbear explaining (to a soundtrack provided by the brilliant Daniel Marcus Clark) what being a human actually means.

That the ideal of life is, that it’s simple.

However, the irony lies in the fact that in order to understand and appreciate the simple, you have to go through the complex.  Much like when your Nan tells you to take your coat off or you won’t feel the benefit; you have to feel the cold to be able to feel the warm.  You have to be run off your feet to appreciate time.  You have to lose the plot to find it again, and that’s kind of what I’ve done here, because all I really want to say is: if you get the chance to, go and see this, not for PolarBear’s sake, but for yours!

Go and realise that life is simple. It is what you want it to be.  It’s the choices that you make.

But above all else; go and realise that in order for you to be an adult, you have to be a kid first and that’s ok.

More on Polarbear!

Being this busy has certainly helped to put into perspective what needs to be done next year.  December always seems to be a time of thinking about what the last 12 months has bought along the way.  So, this has lead me to think about some New Year’s resolutions.  Is it too early to think about New Year’s resolutions?  It is something I usually do 30 seconds before 12 o’clock midnight before the new year.

Hmm?

No, I’m going to say no, it’s not too early to think about it.

Often New Year’s resolutions are about what you will cease doing rather than what you will take on.  No, I will not be giving up drinking or smoking (well it won’t be a conscious decision if I do anyway).  I’ve decided I want to have more fun, see more live music and learn more!  Learning was never something I was very good at in my young age.  School, well it just wasn’t very me.  There were a couple of subjects I enjoyed but they tended to be more on the creative side of things.  It was something I never really enjoyed too much, that learning malarkey.  Then, it was on to the Brit School.  What can I say about that?  Generally it was finally finding something that I enjoyed doing, singing.  However, there really wasn’t much learning going on from my part yet an excessive amount of naughtiness in the park at lunchtime!

No wonder so many people turn to adult education.  It’s not been until I’ve reached my 28th year that I’ve finally found a hunger for taking in as much information as possible.  It’s really quite enlightening!  I think next year I have decided is a time for me to stop and listen more to other people and ask lots of questions about things that I’m intrigued about.  I’ve realised that as much as I love the sound of my own voice (those who know me I’m sure will concur!) I need to hear the voice of others that have something interesting to say!

And as far as having more fun and going to more gigs is concerned, hit me up if you have any awesome recommendations!

I came to know Little Dragon through a compilation that featured Jamie Woon‘s Wayfaring Stranger and Midlake‘s amazing Rosco along with eight other musical gems.  Little Dragon‘s infamous song Twice was perfectly placed four songs in and was a stand out track on this beautiful compilation by the Sonar Kollectiv‘s called Secret Love 4.

Twice immediately gripped me as well as majority of the OneTaste crew at the time.  We found Little Dragon‘s album and that was it; hooked for life.  Magic and cool wrapped up in a zip file.  This was back in mid 2008.  A few months later OneTaste got the opportunity to host Little Dragon‘s first London showcase at the Jazz Cafe.  It was a mini dream come true amongst our friends.  Jamie Woon, Stac and Polarbear were also on the bill for this gig and all played to a sold out audience.  Since then they’ve played Hyde Park and The Garage with us and as we have watched their fan base and career grow and take them around the world. We realised that we had had the privilege of being a small part of the growth of one of the freshest and most original bands to come out of the ‘noughties’.

After their break with The Gorillaz world tour and getting Twice on US TV hit show Grey’s Anatomy, they have now officially started making international waves.

Proof for me was Sunday night.  I went down to the Shepherd’s Bush Empire (SBE), and again, it was sold out.  Having not seen them play in a year, I was shocked by the difference that time can make.  I guess that is what happens when you spend nearly everyday working and touring relentlessly, devoted to your craft.  Little Dragon are one of the hardest working bands that I have met and it shows.  So last Sunday, Yukimi, Erik, Fred, Hakan and a 5th additional mystery member, performed the most amazing show that I’ve seen.

What impresses me most every time, is their ability to tap into some kind of collective consciousness with their rhythms.  They were already tight, but this gig at SBE showed me how a band can go from ridiculously tight to masterful.  Each member has some kind of percussive role within the music and that rhythmical collaboration makes for a peak experience for the listener.  You find yourself flowing in and out of different head nodding, hand waving and hip shaking patterns, carving a language of your own that matches everyone elses but looks completely different.  No joke, every person I looked at in the audience had some kind of different movement going on, completely individual to them.

Little Dragon‘s live shows are special to me because somehow they seem to attune people to themselves and to each other.  That, in my opinion, is the core mission of music, and this band weave magic in a way that is as much mysterious as it is masterful.  I could swear they have been taking some lessons from Tool on sacred geometric drum patterns.

I am transported with every listen… I don’t even know where I go, but it is somewhere between this realm and a realm of space, beats, light, lasers and dragons… with magic binding every note.

So why a festival? Nearing winter? Are we maaaaaaaad?

Yes and No.

So WHY…? By the end of this Sunday we will have done six OneTaste Festivals and each year a new reason comes up as to why a festival is important and why we love it – here are a few:

1:  November; everything’s gone dark! We feel it is about the right time to raise a glass to the summer gone, remember what it’s like to go on an adventure from stage to stage but all from the comfort of a cosy pub that has so many rooms, nooks, crannies and medieval plaques that it can never get boring. The Bedford is literally the best venue in London for this…in my opinion.

2: We ask ourselves a question: How much inspiration can you feasibly stuff in one venue in one day? It was bonkers. You might think that the 50 acts that we got this year is a lot… the first few festivals I think there were close to 75 acts playing over 12 hours on 3 floors! Each year we have been trying out new formats, collaborating with new folk, adding art forms, workshops and adventures into the mix to find what really reflects the mentality of London life.

3: I’m trying to find a way to talk about it without sounding really…: “kum ba yahhhhhhhhhhhhh”! But there really is a strong sense of community! I use that word with a squeemish uncomfortable feeling in my belly, but whilst none of us I’m sure would want to subscribe to something, get all exclusive, and be like: “Yahhhhh, I’m a member of….”

It is something rare to find and personally for me, after living in London nearly all my life, it is the one thing that I would like more of, to make this metropolis a bit more manageable. Knowing that I can turn up somewhere and have a great time with friends and strangers alike.  So before I launch into a rendition of the Cheers theme tune, I would just like to say that I have observed that this festival for the past 6 years has created a space where people can talk to anyone and make those weird and wonderful moments and connections that seem to only be saved for the festival fields of June, July and August.

4: On top of that of course there is also the fact that this festival is packed with more talent than Stevie Wonder’s little finger (I refrain from identifying a larger body part as in my opinion Stevie is GOD…any more and I’d be in fear of dishonouring my Deity)…

So why we must remain humble about all we do and present at OneTaste?  The artists, the talented people that you come to see and who live to create beauty on this planet, are the BEST of what we have seen and experienced all year on our travels.

We desire to inspire your cold winter Sunday and warm your London lifestyles with more music, more poetry, more theatre, food, cabaret, laughs and dancing than is safely recommended for any persons sanity.

Dannii x

I may be surrounded by musicians, creative and very talented folk a lot of the time.  But for me, music is simply entertainment and if I have anything to do with making it, it’s more like torture!

So I abstain.  It’s just not humane! (I can however, rhyme! HA!)

Jazz is not something I would choose to listen too, however, it is something I can appreciate. So to expand my musical braincells, I skipped along to the magnificent 606 Club.

Why one has to ‘buzz’ in through a very heavy metal gate to get in, in the heart of Chelsea I don’t think I will ever understand, but after a little sniggle I entered my first proper Jazz Club *jazz hands*!

I ended up experiencing the delights of Theo Jackson and his band and then also (bonus!) Steve Melling feat. Andy Cleyndert and Miles Levin.  I must say Jackson was rather cheesy but thank goodness it was up-tempo!  Saving grace for him was his brilliant MOBO award-winning saxophonist Nathaniel Facey; wow!

Afterwards, I certainly felt more learned with regards to the experience alone. Do I understand it any more than when I first struggled to open that metal gate? No. But I will certainly be back and you never know – I might actually recognise something at some point!

Now back to social media and email purgatory – I bloody well hope some of you at least are reading them!!

See you on Sunday for our OneTaste Festival – I have a special outfit in store….oooooooo!

Jess x

Well it was a wonderful weekend and a welcome break from the hecticness of having two jobs and a little restbite before the crazyness that is the OneTaste Festival.

One thing that I must tell you about whilst I was in gay Paris was that I re-discovered an old love of mine.  Ooh La La!

I wish I could say that it was a beautiful tall, dark, handsome French man but alas, no, but maybe something better!?! (Is that possible?)

My long lost friend that is FIP radio!

FIP and I had a wonderful love affair during my days in Brighton. For some reason you can only listen to it on the actual radio in Paris and Brighton, what’s that about?  Anyway, I implore you to check it out.  You can listen to it by streaming from their website!

The reason I love it so much is the wonderful diversity of the station.  One minute you are listening to some crazy Jazz, the next French Hip-Hop, after that a beautiful classical piece and then a typically French style ditty.  Anyway, check it out, if you don’t like it then hey, don’t listen again!

Much love and until the next time…

Au Revoir,

Debbie x x

I’ve been here just over 24 hours and I’ve already been to Macy’s!

This is something that has shocked me since I very much dislike shopping.  Macy’s is not exciting.

It was the opposite actually, but my friend Katie and I both needed tights and it seemed appropriate to kill two birds with just the one stone. Site seeing and essential hosiery purchasing.  There was one redeeming feature though…

The 1930s wooden escalators.  They are amazing!

I had no idea they existed, so they actually made trawling up and down un-signed and overly complicated and confusing floors a treat! They look ace and they make the most wonderful mechanical noises. Wood on wood is one of my favourite sounds.

Last night we stumbled upon Smalls Jazz Club. We were greeted at the door by who we later found to be the owner, who told us that The Stones saxophonist was playing and that we should go down and have a look, but we mustn’t be disappointed as there was no likelihood of Mick Jagger turning up.

He was right. Mick didnt turn up but we weren’t disappointed.

The saxophonist was duetting with a pianist and it was exactly what my jet-lagged and excruciatingly tired ears wanted to listen to.

Tonight we are off to Soho House to play Musical Bingo with Jess Indeedy.

I’m gonna get a full house.  I can feel it!

Stac x