Mud to Music: Introduction to the Ocarina

×

Expand

Melissa Foss

Bird ocarina

Join Melissa Foss for a fun and fascinating workshop on the history and making of traditional Native American clay instruments.

Musical instruments have helped us to communicate and express ourselves since the dawn of human culture. Learning to build and play our own musical instruments slows us down, connects us to our bodies and to our self-expression, and helps us to awaken a sense of wonder, curiosity and play. In this workshop we will get an introduction to musical instruments that have been made across Central and South America for thousands of years and learn to build our own clay flutes using ancient pottery-making techniques. All are welcome, and no previous experience with clay, instruments or music is necessary. Everyone can enjoy turning mud into music!

What to expect:

~ I will share live demonstrations with a collection of hand-built instruments

~ Participants will be guided through simple hand-building techniques in order to build their own ocarinas, which are clay flutes that have been made for thousands of years across Central and South America

~ Each instrument will be unique to each one of us; we will tune them intuitively and decorate them with traditional iconographies of the ancient Americas

~ Instruments will be fired locally and available for pick-up 2 weeks after the workshop

Ages 16+

$75 per person includes all clay, tools and firing of instruments after the workshop.