Through an inclu­sive and expe­ri­en­tial lens, this project intro­duces Freestyle rap, par­tic­i­pa­to­ry music, and impro­vised musick­ing through group skill build­ing activ­i­ties for dig­i­tal artists, cre­atives, and the curi­ous. Our par­tic­i­pa­to­ry project brings togeth­er holis­tic approach­es to art ther­a­py, social con­struc­tivism, and non ver­bal com­mu­ni­ca­tion using improvisational/ freestyle cre­ativ­i­ty. Skillsets cru­cial to all gen­res and medi­ums of con­tem­po­rary art, with a spe­cif­ic val­ue to arts edu­ca­tors, per­form­ers, dancers, musi­cians, singers, poets, rap­pers, visu­al artists and all cre­atives. Rec­og­niz­ing the many artists, employ­ees and arts orga­ni­za­tions, and their loved ones whose health and liveli­hoods have been dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly affect­ed by the glob­al spread of COVID-19, this project can be facil­i­tat­ed ‘live’ in per­son, as a hybrid, ‘teacher live / young artists at home’ or asyn­chro­nous­ly — at artists own time via free, step by step work­shop down­load — avail­able in HERE. ‘At Home with Ira Lee’ is designed to resource BIPOC/Si2+LGBTQ cre­atives fac­ing bar­ri­ers such as; lim­it­ed access to mean­ing­ful edu­ca­tion­al expe­ri­ences and oppor­tu­ni­ties and rural/ remote artists with lim­it­ed broad­band access. 

*Please con­tact Ira Lee at lazers.are.sharpl@gmail.com if you’d like to know more about the project.*

Work­shop Breakdown

Dura­tion: 1 hour 

Lan­guages: EN/FR

Sug­gest­ed ages —  5 to 12 years of age, 13 to 18 years of age, Adults, Seniors, Intergenerational

Ped­a­gogy — Equi­ty Cen­tred Content/ appro­pri­ate for SI2+LGBTQ and excep­tion­al learners.

Work­shop Contents

SAM AND IRA WORKSHOP LINKS and PD DL (FREE)  for a more flu­id, dynam­ic and mean­ing­ful cre­ative learn­ing experience. 

(Ref­er­ence Slide 1/pdf.) 

Intro­duc­tion:  Who the fudge is? (Insert instructor/ artist/ educator’s name, bio, his­to­ry and high­lights  here)

(Ref­er­ence Slide 2/pdf.)  

What is Musick­ing? (10 — min sug­gest­ed, solo or in groups ) 

2.b Activ­i­ty Description

Goal: Group dis­cus­sion. What do you think par­tic­i­pa­to­ry music, ‘freestyle’, and impro­vi­sa­tion­al cre­ativ­i­ty means, why learn, and where to start? Build­ing on social con­struc­tivism dis­cus­sion points, ask group for exam­ples, opin­ions, and guess­es. Then pro­vide gener­ic def­i­n­i­tions, inclu­sive goals, and cre­ative applications. 

 (Ref­er­ence Slide 3/pdf.) 

A beginner’s guide: Top 3 most impor­tant tips to suc­cess­ful improvisation 

3.b Goal:  Review and dis­cuss.  (5 min­utes, group discussion)

4.b Goal, Review sam­ple  (3:00 minutes)

‘Do your­self, the cre­ators truth’s’ — Sam and Ira Lee’s (‘Do your­self’ freestyle sto­ry­telling vs instru­men­tal impro­vi­sa­tion) FREE DL/ ‘LINK HERE’ 

(Ref­er­ence  Slide 4 in pdf)

4.b Activ­i­ty :  Learn to Let go  (20 mins total sug­gest­ed time, solo or in groups, no ‘isms’ ie: sex­ism, racism, tokenism, ableism, etc. ) 

Activ­i­ty Description/ Goal 

• For three min­utes, try to rap, rhyme, sing, dance, or impro­vised — for 3 min­utes straight, out loud. If you make a mis­take, keep going, for 3 whole min­utes. Try your best, and prac­tice hav­ing fun, mak­ing hilar­i­ous mis­takes, and exper­i­ment­ing with ideas, the tone, rhythm and ener­gy of your voice, and try to impro­vise a sto­ry / con­cept that is com­plete­ly spon­ta­neous! (solo, no rhythm, beat)

• Now - For three min­utes, try to rap, rhyme, sing, dance, or impro­vise in groups of two or more — for 3 min­utes straight, out loud. If you make a mis­take, keep going, for 3 whole min­utes. Try your best, and prac­tice hav­ing fun, mak­ing hilar­i­ous mis­takes, and exper­i­ment­ing with ideas, the tone, rhythm and ener­gy of your voice, and try to impro­vise a sto­ry / con­cept that is com­plete­ly spon­ta­neous! (no rhythm, or beat) 

ADVANCED

For 3 min­utes, try to rap, rhyme, sing, dance, or impro­vise in groups of two or more — for 3 min­utes straight, out loud, to a rhythm or beat, or musi­cian, or even a beat­box!  If you make a mis­take, keep going, for 3 whole min­utes. Try your best, and prac­tice hav­ing fun, mak­ing hilar­i­ous mis­takes, and exper­i­ment­ing with ideas, the tone, rhythm and ener­gy of your voice, and try to impro­vise a sto­ry / con­cept that is com­plete­ly spontaneous! 

        c) Goal:  Review and dis­cuss favourite moments, fun­ni­est moments, best mis­takes, pain points and over­all feel­ings about the last two min­utes of impro­vis­ing in small . large groups.

 ( Ref­er­ence Slide 5.pdf.)   

       5.  I wish my favourite pop­u­lar artists weren’t racist, sex­ist, homophobes.

 Activ­i­ty sample/ review/ video — Sam and Ira Lee’s (‘Dig­i­tal Lit­er­a­cy vs. Com­put­er Sci­ence) FREE DL/ mp4/wav ‘LINK HERE’ 

 5.b Activ­i­ty Descrip­tion : Group dis­cus­sion. Respon­si­bil­i­ty, account­abil­i­ty and per­son­al pow­er in art. Dis­cus­sion points, ‘appro­pri­a­tion, racism, sex­ism and dis­crim­i­na­tion, and how taste/ style/ orig­i­nal­i­ty, and hon­esty serve to grow artists beyond stereo­types, and remove bar­ri­ers for all to create. 

Thought starters — 

• Ask the group for exam­ples of favourite dancers, singers, writ­ers, poets and artists.

• Ask  the group to name their favourite under­ground Cana­di­an artists.

• Ask the group for their favourite local/ artists in the city.

• Dis­cuss–  if and how dig­i­tal lit­er­a­cy and STEM can play trans­for­ma­tive roles in both skills devel­op­ment, access to edu­ca­tion and pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment tools, brand­ing and reach skill sets, and how to cre­ate more oppor­tu­ni­ties to use your art to make a sus­tain­able dif­fer­ence in your com­mu­ni­ty — dig­i­tal­ly and in person. 

    5c.  The Fugue State vs. The Flow State  Review and dis­cuss slide (5 min­utes, group discussion)

(Ref­er­ence Slide 6 in pdf)

6.  No BS Chal­lenge  (20 mins total sug­gest­ed time, solo or in groups, no ‘isms’ ie: sex­ism, racism, tokenism, ableism, etc. ) 

 What you need — Any kind of record­ing device ie: PC, Cell­phone, com­put­er mic, etc) and 

your favourite beat, rhythm, instru­ment, or song! (to dance, paint, or par­tic­i­pate with)

 Activ­i­ty Description

• For thir­ty sec­onds, try to rap, rhyme, sing, dance, or impro­vise — a sto­ry. With at least one char­ac­ter, one loca­tion, and one prob­lem — not using any deroga­to­ry lan­guage. Don’t be afraid to make a mil­lion, a bil­lion mis­takes. The only goal is to do your best, and not stop impro­vis­ing for 30 seconds. 

• Now - For 1 minute, try to rap, rhyme, sing, dance, or impro­vise — a sto­ry. With at least one char­ac­ter, one loca­tion, and one prob­lem — not using any deroga­to­ry lan­guage, while record­ing it. Don’t be afraid to make a mil­lion, a bil­lion mis­takes. The only goal is to do your best, and not stop impro­vis­ing for 30 seconds. 

• Final­ly! —  for 2 full min­utes, try to rap, rhyme, sing, dance, or impro­vise — a sto­ry. With at least one char­ac­ter, one loca­tion, and one prob­lem — not using any deroga­to­ry lan­guage, while record­ing it. Don’t be afraid to make a mil­lion, a bil­lion mis­takes. The only goal is to do your best, and not stop impro­vis­ing for 30 sec­onds. Then, lis­ten either in small groups, or pri­vate­ly. GOAL: Learn to get used of your voice, find your favourite parts, favourite moments, and hear your­self the way the world does. 

6.b   Non Ver­bal Com­mu­ni­ca­tion in freestyle rap, par­tic­i­pa­to­ry music, and impro­vised musicking

Activ­i­ty Description

 Watch Sam and Ira Lee’s (I had a pret­ty weird week) FREE DL/ mp4/wav on the CMC youtube chan­nel ‘LINK HERE’  

• Break into groups of two and prac­tice telling a sto­ry with no words. Using facial expres­sions, space, actions, move­ment and emo­tion! Tell a sto­ry, with no words!

Dis­cus­sion point — How did this activ­i­ty make you feel? Was it more dif­fi­cult to par­tic­i­pate? Do you feel all peo­ple who com­mu­ni­cate dif­fer­ent­ly deserve a chance to com­mu­ni­cate how they choose? What are some of the ways we can learn to lis­ten, and lis­ten to learn?

At home with Ira Lee END 

Freestyle rap, par­tic­i­pa­to­ry music,  and impro­vised musick­ing —  Skill build­ing for dig­i­tal artists,  cre­atives, and the curi­ous.

Thank you for your time and for hav­ing fun learn­ing and doing with us!  For more free arts, cul­ture and devel­op­ment resources, please see therealplains.com.