After school

Play Cuban, Latin American and Flamenco music and learn how to use traditional concepts and styles to create contemporary music. Improve your improvisational skills and deepen your understanding of these forms. The focus of the Latin-Flamenco ensemble will be on the development of advanced arrangements and the preparation of a cohesive group for public performances. This ensemble performs under the name Potingue, which means “an unusual mix” in Spanish. There will be winter and spring performances at CMC and other shows around the Bay Area.

Learn how to execute arrangements and improvise in a small jazz ensemble setting. Students will share improvisation concepts and learn how to improve and evaluate solos, group dynamics and sound. Players will be strongly encouraged to write original tunes and there will be various performance opportunities throughout the year.

Jazz musicians: this is an informal forum to work on improvisation and to develop your ensemble skills. This ensemble emphasizes improvisation, writing and arranging, the role of each instrument, and the development of musical interaction.

Take your playing to the next level by mastering the guitar fretboard. Learn how to locate chords easily and play melodies that sound good with those chords. The Guitar Fretboard Workshop guides students through a system that helps them quickly find triads, the building blocks of chords. Focusing on the top three strings, this system will teach students to find almost any chord on the fretboard. Learning the corresponding scales and their multiple positions will help students play melodies that fit within those chords.

Flute players: develop your playing with others in a relaxed and supportive atmosphere. This Flute Choir will focus on developing sound production, intonation and interpretation skills. There will be various performance opportunities throughout the year.

Learn to play Asian, Middle Eastern and Eastern European music, including Klezmer and Balkan styles. Music scale systems and maqams will be studied in the context of selected tunes. Improvisations (taqsims/preludes/doinas) will be attempted according to traditional practices. There will be various performance opportunities throughout the year.

Learn interpretation and performance techniques for playing western early music in Collegium Musicum. This class will cover the evolution of harmonic progressions, musical forms, and styles of ornamentation throughout different periods and countries. The ensemble performs in December in a concert themed “Winter Celebration” and in June in a concert themed “Baroque and Beyond."

Young singers: find your voice and learn to blend it into a group by singing in CMC’s Children’s Chorus! You will develop basic ear training, sight singing and performance skills in an environment that emphasizes cooperation, teamwork and fun. In addition to presenting three theme concerts each year, the Children’s Chorus performs in Spanish at CMC’s “Las Posadas” celebration each December.

Whether you are an advanced beginner or an accomplished amateur musician, CMC’s chamber music program offers an opportunity to develop your musicianship and technique as well as the chance to play with others. Groups are composed of two to five students of compatible levels. Advanced beginners and intermediate students will focus on developing basic ensemble skills, intonation, tone quality, and rhythmic accuracy. Advanced students will study important aspects of ensemble playing, including interpretation and performance techniques.

Learn how to play in the context of an ensemble while developing improvisational skills and learning basic grooves. Repertoire includes standard Latin-jazz tunes and pieces developed in the workshop. There will be performances each winter and spring quarter.