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Prova på and Återträffen
The Eric Sahlström Institute has an event in January each year, in which prospective students can come try out the year-long course and meet the teachers (Prova På) and former students come back for a playing workshop and reunion (Återträffen). There were 65-plus people on Saturday January 24th and a lot of positive energy for workshops, lunch, build-a-taco dinner, and a dance. I think this is a brilliant strategy to combine these groups of people. We current students were involved in making and serving food, and attended the prospective student workshops.
I really got a sense that we are a community associated with this institute — former, current, and future students and teachers.
Current students helped prepare the taco components. I sautéed 5 kilos of ground beef.
One of several evening jam sessions.
Olov playing for dance.
Ditte playing for dance.
Building tacos
Happy eating.
Mind the Gap!
I’ve been feeling acutely aware of the gap between how I want to play and how I actually play on the nyckelharpa, and this has been discouraging. Interestingly, Olov discussed this very issue in our class shortly after I told him about my frustration. He drew this diagram on the board:
Olov initially drew the person with a small ear, then erased it and put this very large ear.
Olov discussed his experience studying at music school, how when he started he thought the other players were all very good, but came to realise the differences between them over time. His ability to hear and discern those differences was growing.
He pointed out that our ears are growing while we are experiencing this education. and that the growth in our ability to hear better playing can happen well ahead of the growth in our playing ability. This can lead to a frustration with the gap between our ability and what we want. But if we persist, growth in our playing can occur at any time, and even be a big leap. I found this very encouraging.
Ira Glass
- Here is this quote from Ira Glass (host of This American Life) about this topic: “Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
Re: The title of this post: In London, they tell you on the Underground to watch out for the gap between the train and platform by saying, “Mind the Gap!”. [In Sweden on the Stockholm commuter train they announce, “Tänk på avstånd mellan vagn och plattform när du stiger av” (Consider the distance between the train car and platform when you get off). Many more words,]
Julbord!
On December 18th, our final day before the winter break, we had a big day of festivities including a beautiful Julbord feast. All three of our music teachers came and we played together all morning. Then we had a lovely spread of food and enjoyed each other’s company. It was a lovely end to the first four month period of the course.
Here I am with each teacher, Sonia Sahlström, Olov Johansson, and Ditte Andersson.
We baked earlier in the week for this event. Here is Lirica with a platter of chocolate balls and caramel candies.
Setting the tables, and admiring the mural.
Preparing for the festivities, getting in the mood.
The dance class and teachers.
The Julbord spread.
Eating!
Re-entry, in both directions
We had slightly less than three weeks vacation, from December 19th through January 6th. I flew home to Maryland (the Washington, D.C. area) on the 19th and back on January 4th-5th. It was wonderful to go home and I am glad I did it, but it was surreal to suddenly be back in my “regular” life. I had a great time seeing my daughters and dog and friends, and playing tennis and driving my car, and just being at home.
I bought a second nyckelharpa in Sweden, after testing many, to bring back and leave in the U.S. and rent out to a student. I brought it home (and payed duty at the border, which took a lot of time but was not expensive, 3.2%) and practiced it while home and left it there. It is by Elof Jansson, purchased from Leif Alpsjö. In the meantime, I had my Harry Hedbom nyckelharpa repaired by Harry while I was gone. It needed revarnishing on the back, and it was a good opportunity to have it done while I was away.
I also took home and left my hard case (with the homemade cover) that is very heavy, 12 pounds by itself. I had been hesitant to use a soft case because it seemed so much less protective than the hard case. But after attending Oktoberstämma with over 1800 people, 800 of them musicians and ~600 of them nyckelharpa players using soft cases, I decided to get over it. I bought a new soft case in Sweden from Kjell Lundvall; he gets them from Spain (bag luthiers.com).
i took home books and CDs, clothes I am not wearing and gifts, and brought back sweaters, essential foods (Bob’s Red Mill 7-grain hot cereal, chocolate chips), medications, more yarn, and products for curly hair.
I am glad to be back in quiet Tobo, working hard again and being with this group of delightful people. I am at a frustrating point in this journey — highly aware of the gap between how I want to play and sound and how I actually sound. But I am trying to practice my way through it.
Observations:
- My computer, iPhone and iPad, which were working only very slowly in Sweden, were just fine back in the States. I installed the new Yosemite operating system on my computer, and it is now working much better, including back in Sweden.
- There are things at home that i really miss when I am in Sweden: my daughters, friends, dog, playing tennis, book group, driving my car wherever I want, taking a shower with no shower curtain trying to wrap around my legs, a really good bed, ice cream and gelato, Starbucks, Norwegian dances, bright sunlight.
- It was really nice in the States to be surrounded by a language I understand and be able to talk to anyone in English.
- This gift of time to focus on Swedish music and dance and study with amazing teachers and fellow students is wonderful. I’m glad I am doing it, but it does come at a price.
- We are now half-way through this course.
- I AM getting better at Swedish. It feels comfortable and I understand more and more and I am dreaming in Swedish. I’m working hard to speak more in Swedish.
Scandia DC group, annual Christmas party and photo, December 20, 2014.
Book group luncheon at Keswick Hall in Virginia.
Gingerbread house at Keswick Hall.
Chanukah candles at home, with my dog observing in the background.
We finally got beautiful snow in Tobo. This is the view from my bedroom in the morning.
Julkonsert!
Our Christmas concert was Friday December 12 (2014) and was quite an experience. Again we learned an amazing amount about putting together performances. This time the dancers were part of the process. We began and ended with singing, and ended the first part with a långdans with singing and danced out of the salon to the fika. We again baked cookies and cakes for the fika and produced some wonderful treats.
Hee is the concert program. Tunes without a dance listed were played without dancing. Some tunes had everyone participating, especially to begin and end each set. Others had as few as three musicians. Two dances had only one musician.
| Lanzens Julpolska – song |
| En, to, tre – schottis |
| Flödens Död |
| Jag Var Full |
| Här Dansar Jag – slängpolska |
| French Mazurka – cut due to illness |
| Olof Andersson |
| Senpolska – polska |
| Ståbi Polkett |
| I denne søte juletid – song and playing |
| Lasse Leile Diu – minuett |
| fika |
| Uti gröna lunde/Fålen – långdans |
| Kaker brö’ – polska, musicans and dancers dance |
| Bison Polska |
| Clog Dance – dance |
| Första Gången |
| Dorotea/Stenselepolska – slängpolska |
| Gåsvikarn |
| Vill du flyga |
| Risinge |
| Leipzig’s Krigsmarsch |
| Harjedals Schottis – schottis |
| extra |
| Gumman – polska |
| Emma’s vals – sång |
Här Dansar Jag – slängpolska
Dorotea/Stenselepolska – slängpolska
Dorotea/Stenselepolska – slängpolska
Some of the treats we baked for fika. My moon cookies are to the left of the candles.
I was able to photograph a few dances in which I was not playing
Warming up together before the concert
Here we are singing I denne søte juletid
Henrike and Lucy are playing Vill du Flygga. Andy was supposed to join, but was sick, so his cardboard image is on stage!
Långdans, leading to the fika break.
And thanks to Klara Andersson for photos that include me!
ESI, a serious education in music and dance
I will try to explain what our schedule is like and what this education is like. What isn’t captured in the schedule is the fact that the content is very intense and thorough, and our teachers are really superb at educating us in this way.
We have classes daily M-F, 9 AM to 4:20 PM:
8:10 breakfast
9:00 lesson
10:30 fika
10:40 lesson
12:10 lunch
13:00 lesson
15:00 fika
15:20 lesson
16:20 end
For the dancers, they generally go every day until 4:20 PM. They have little homework, and aren’t practicing musical instruments.
For the musicians, one or more days a week we are scheduled to work on our own, usually at the end of the day. We spend a lot of time practicing in the evenings and weekends, and it is very helpful to be able to begin that earlier in the day. We also have a weekly, scheduled hour for us to exercise together as a class.
Musician “lessons” consist of:
- Regular lessons: work with teachers, learning techniques, learning tunes, discussing the music. We have three main teachers, Ditte Andersson, Olov Johansson, and Sonia Sahlström and will usually have all three each week. They teach one at a time, not together, but are very well coordinated. We also have guest teachers, some regularly and others just once per year. A regular guest teacher is Mia Marin. All of the teachers are wonderful. They each bring something different and interesting.
- Individual, private lessons, two each with each teacher in the fall, again in the spring. They are spaced two weeks apart with each teacher, so we can follow up on whatever we worked on in the first lesson.
- We play solo for the class, and discuss what that is like, what could use improvement, etc. We also play solo for the dance class, and as a group.
- Arranging, including chords, compositions, making a second voice or accompaniment. There is usually homework in arranging, usually transcribing a tune and adding a second voice or accompaniment. We then turn that in written on paper, and play it in class and discuss.
- Concerts involve a very thorough planning and rehearsal process, teaching us very important things about performing.
- We do an individual project in the winter, intended to take 3 hours a week over 10 weeks to put together. We produce a written document, and present the findings or results to the class in 20-30 minute presentations that include playing 5 tunes for each other on our main instrument.
Together with the dancers, we also have:
- Dance: every other week we spend a day dancing with the entire class
- Music theory: reading music, chords, rythms, transcription of tunes. There is often homework in music theory class, e.g. transcribing a tune.
- Singing
- Voice training, including vocal presentation, e.g. announcing tunes at a concert
- Occasional history, including a trip to a local church with medieval paintings of nyckelharpa-playing angels, and discussion of Swedish Christmas traditions
- Dancer-musician interaction: We have had some sessions playing for the dancers and discussing the interaction. There is a regular blog post about this very interesting phenomenon! Musicians are also taking turns playing solo for the entire class, with critique and suggestions for improving at this particular skill.
- The Winter and Spring concerts are done together with the dancers (the autumn concert was musicians only).
Our time in the evenings and weekends is free, but our location is remote so getting to other events is done mostly on the weekends. For example, my trips to the Norrköping dance group are on Sundays. If we do go to other events, for example Sunday evenings at Skeppis in Stockholm, we get back to Tobo very late.
This year we have 11 dancers and 9 music students. We are a very international group this year. Of the 9 music students, 6 of us play nyckelharpa and 3 play violin. Four are from Sweden, one Norway, one Switzerland, one Japan, and two from the USA.
Of the 11 dancers, five are from Sweden, one USA, two Britain, one Finland, one Denmark, and one Germany.
Seventeen of us live here in the annex to the main building. We each have our own room and bath. The others commute from Stockholm, Upplands Väsby or Uppsala. The school provides breakfast and lunch Monday through Friday, but we shop, cook, eat, and clean up our own dinners, and all food on weekends. We have a shared double kitchen in the annex. It can be a lot of fun, but can be quite crowded if we all try to make our dinners at the same time.
We have three weeks off during the term, one each in the fall, winter and spring. And we have a 2.5-week break over Christmas-New Years. These breaks are much-needed and very refreshing!
Our amazing teachers, Olov Johansson, Ditte Andersson, and Sonia Sahlström.
Dance teachers Ami Dregelid and Andreas Berchtold.
Skansen in November
We took the ferry to Djurgården from Slussen, and back again. Here is photo with Ginny. This was a lovely way to get there!
Ginny Lee and I visited Skansen in November, and it was wonderful. I had only been there in the summer before, and had spent my time mostly dancing rather than visiting the exhibits. So this time we focused on the exhibits. 
Bonde söker fru: reality television and bonding
Bonde söker fru (farmer seeks a wife) is a Swedish reality television show, and our Tobo class is hooked! On Wednesday evenings at 8, we gather in the TV room to indulge. It is a show about 4 different farmers, different ages, each looking for a wife.
Here are Erik (24), Peter (52), Sebastian (33) and Jonathan (27) from left to right.
They each started with 8 women, and gradually winnowed them down to one each. The shows switch between the different story lines of the four men and their women (the women do not cross over to other farmers!), and between live action and interviews and commentary by the participants. This is the 8th season, so we are late to the party, but each year has had different participants. There have definitely been surprises about who went home and was eliminated. For one farmer, two women left the show voluntarily, but then he contacted one and convinced her to come back.
What is fun is that we are watching together. We began with a few people watching on computers out in the kitchen/sofa area, and then have moved into the TV room as our numbers have grown and it has become a regular event for us. As many as 12 of us (out of 16 living here) have watched at once. The computer streaming version had Swedish subtitles, which I liked because it helped my comprehension, compared with the televised version without subtitles. But it has been frivolous fun to follow this show together and talk about it, and useful for learning Swedish words other than those for music and dance.
I provided links to the show above (photo and title) so you can check it out, and get the recipe for Sebastian’s banana smoothie!
Seasons
The Christmas or Jul season in Sweden is really beautiful. We attended a Jul market in Tobo, which transformed our very small and quiet town into quite the marketplace.
Our own institute was a major site of sales.
Candy is really big here.
I couldn’t resist this little mouse at the Jul market. She even grows taller if you pull her up.
Some of our students are very knowledgeable about mushrooms that grow very plentifully here. They bring them back and clean and eat them. Here is a pan full. They are very delicious!
On the way to the train station
And the winter season is quite beautiful. We haven’t had much snow, but there is a beautiful frost when the fog freezes on tree branches and grass.
