If you were lucky enough to have seen the BBC series Maestro with the DJ called Goldie, you would have seen a very inspiring demonstration of how it is possible to make giant leaps in learning in a short space of time.
Photo: Jude Edginton
Despite being a DJ Goldie could not play an instrument or read music, which meant his challenge to produce a piece of music and to conduct an orchestra to play his creation was an enormous challenge that would terrify the bravest of the brave. Goldie was given access to a number of creative people who provided him with tools and techniques to play with ideas and to mould a sound that would culminate in a complete piece of music fit for any venue.
A group of talented musicians showed Goldie what was possible when you are allowed to play sound with no clear structure to the process. Each musician demonstrated the possibilities with their particular instrument and how they could be used with one another in many unusual ways to produce sounds that maybe Goldie hadn’t considered possible. A computer wiz converted sounds that Goldie sang and hummed into a visual representation of what the piece looked like on a graph showing the flow and rhythms as the sound
progressed. This also gave other people the chance to see a map of the journey that Goldie was inviting us to join him on.
Clearly Goldie had a background in producing drum’n’bass music, so it’s not quite the same challenge for someone with no music background, but the programme producers still had to come up with very creative sessions to get the most out of the DJ in a short space of time. They had to tap into his preferred learning style, tuning into the human vibrations where he really naturally responded, to hit he heights needed to produce a classical piece of music and conduct an orchestra.
I believe it’s possible to take someone with no experience and to transform their understanding of a subject at a rapid speed, if you can combine the subject matter that really gets their juices flowing, and the learning style that works best. “No s***t Sherlock” I hear many of you out out there say, and I agree this is obvious to the trained education professional, but coming up with a learning environment that is stimulating enough to attract adults who are missing their vocation in life, a hobbie that will infinitely improve the quality and enjoyment of day to day life has to be worth developing, but is no easy task.
Much of what we set on the internet is isolated content, what we need is something that creates an ‘experience’ that connects us to what makes us tick, what resonates with our very being.