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Luiz Henrique Mueller Mello

BMus Guitar (1st

year)

ICP Statement

For the first time in my academic activities I had a subject as Introduction to Collaborative

Practice. It does not mean that I have never done team work before, but the approach to this

practice was totally new for me here. First of all, I have never dealt with such a big group and with

people of so many different specialities. On the top of this, in my previous experiences, the subjects

of the spectacles were chosen by the group and not picked up amongst a range of given subjects.

Professionally speaking, I think this experience very productive, because in the real life we cannot

always work on projects selected by ourselves. In the case of being in charge of create a project on

demand; we need to be able to work in group efficiently, to divide tasks, to be pro-active, to use

wisely the different skills of the people in the group, to be creative, does not matter the subject. The

best example of collaborative practice that I have ever taken part is the project Waves in time,

presented during the last Bridge Week. In this project, I played theorbo in a baroque cantata, but theproject itself was about the contrast between baroque music and contemporary music, as the first

part of the spectacle was a composition of one of the RCS students. We worked with a director

also student of the RCS and we had coachings with specialists. Another interesting collaborative

practice experience was the Music in Society assessment. In this assessment, my group should

create a small spectacle to be performed in cancer hospital for terminal patients. I think we students

will need to deal with this kind of project in a near future.

I really enjoy the idea of mixing the groups with students of totally different areas. We can

do a richer and lively performance combining music, dance, drama and being well conducted by

professional directors. It was a good experience to see each one acting on their own field, but with

the same idea in mind. Despite I have done some collaborative practice before, it was the first time I

worked with non-musicians. I realised how a project can get better with different points of viewabout the same subject.

Maybe it would be a good idea to divide the ICP class in smaller groups. In this way, our

tutors could be more participative, giving more advices and critics and the groups could create

bigger performances, getting closer to true professional experience. All the projects could be

presented in a kind of Bridge Week and we could make one full spectacle as assessment, instead two

small presentations, bearing in mind that we will have more time to build it and we will be better

coached to do so. We did not have time enough to build a real project, what I think it would be more

constructive. We could be more assisted in our projects as well, like a step-by-step of how create a

project. I saw some examples during the classes, but it was not enough to get a picture of how to

build a real project from the beginning. It would be great if we could have those groups in a kind of

workshop, assisting us in our work.I could not really see the point of the first work. It was a team work, but I could not see any

artistic purpose in it. It is interesting to know how some people work with collaborative practice, but

I think it could be done in a more constructive way. I think it would be better to analyse some

different cases and observe different kinds and levels of collaborative practice, but I would not

spend too much time in it. The presentations of last part of this module were quite constructive in

this sense. We have great teachers, very creative students and an amazing structure. I think the best

way of learning something still is doing something.

The second work we were asked to do which I consider way more relevant than the first

one was just a tiny demonstration of what would be a professional work. In this work, we really

combined our different skills towards a common goal. However, we did have no time enough to

make this works as good as it could be and we did not have space enough to develop it in a proper

way. Fifteen minutes is too short time to make something really relevant and communicate a

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consistent message.

I enjoyed the presentations of last part of this module. It was good to see more examples of

collaborative work and to have the opportunity to ask to them how they did so. It was interesting to

see the large range of subjects which they approach. I am more interested about works which have

some relevance for the society in general. One of the noblest characteristic of art is its potential to

help people and to contribute for a better world. We musicians use to be too enclosed in our tinyworld and quite often we more concerned about the next gig than with the impact of our work or

our role in the society. When we work in team, our potential to do something relevant and useful

increases a lot. The presentations about the Human Rights were very interesting and we could do

this kind of work aimed to some campaign.

If we are coached to create a spectacle in a professional level, I think the natural

development of this would be start presenting it outside the RCS. I have mentioned before the

experience with Music in Society. We could create projects on demand, for specific audiences and

specific subjects. To transform class presentations into real gigs would make the students be more

excited and get more involved with the projects. I believe that making the Introduction to

Collaborative Practice experience a real professional experience is the key to make this subject even

better.