By Paul Roberts
Special to The PREVIEW
Join musician and music therapist Paul Roberts for a free hand-drumming class at the Pagosa Lakes Clubhouse on Tuesday, Jan. 15, at noon.
The class offers a welcoming environment that encourages fun, creativity, playfulness and connecting with others.
Rafting on a river of sound, following a stream of consciousness, riding a flow of feeling: musical improvisation expresses the ineffable, allowing imagination and intuition to lead the way.
In his book, “Man and his Symbols,” Carl G. Jung wrote, “Imagination and intuition are vital to our understanding. And though the usual popular opinion is that they are chiefly valuable to poets and artists ... they are in fact equally vital in all the higher grades of science ... Even physics, the strictest of all applied sciences, depends to an astonishing degree upon intuition.”
Music provides a key for unlocking imagination and intuition.
“There, now I’ve got it,” Albert Einstein would often say, after playing the piano or violin. His son, Hans, explained that whenever Einstein felt that he had come to the end of the road or into a difficult situation in his work, he would take refuge in music, and that would usually resolve all his difficulties.
It’s fascinating that Einstein, one of the greatest physicists of all time, valued music so much to inspire his imagination and intuition.
“If I were not a physicist,” he said, “I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music … I get most joy in life out of music.”
Rhythm, dynamics, melody, harmony, tone color, texture, form — the world of music can awaken our intuition and get us traveling in creative directions. The hand-drumming class offers an opportunity to explore the art of intuitive music; free improvisation without any rules beyond the logic or inclination of the participants involved.
Designed as an opportunity for people of all ages to unleash their creativity, the class is a family-friendly activity. No previous experience is necessary. Drums are provided for those who do not have one.
For more information, call 731-3117. The Pagosa Lakes Clubhouse is located at 230 Port Ave.
