Violinist urges students to feel the beat
By CURT BROWN, Standard-Times staff writer
 JACK IDDON/The Standard-Times Nationally known violinist Mark Wood plays one of his electric violins during an instructional visit to Dartmouth High School yesterday. |
"There's no pulse in your playing unless your body is moving," Mark Wood told the students at a workshop held in the school's auditorium.
Mr. Wood is a nationally-known electric rock 'n' roll violinist. He's played in concert with the likes of Celine Dion and Lenny Kravitz and toured Europe with his band Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
Through a friendship with Heather Church, the director of the Dartmouth High School Orchestra, Mr. Wood performed a concert for about 300 elementary, middle and high school students yesterday morning and then gave a workshop for orchestra members.
"Move to the rhythm of the music," he urged. "Your music won't be as good and you won't enjoy it as much unless you let yourself get into it."
The lesson of improvising the music, although initially a foreign concept, gradually won acceptance with the students.
"That was interesting. I've never improvised before," said Felicia Dupras, a 17-year-old junior, who has played violin for nine years. "I've never played rock 'n' roll on the violin before."
Louisa Pugh, a 17-year-old senior, likes the challenge of improvising and feels that "being put on the spot" generally makes a better musician.
She enjoyed not having to read music for once but admitted to having some difficulty playing and moving to the music's beat at the same time.
"Everyone who's spectacular moves with the music," she said, conceding this is a lesson she has to learn.
Ms. Church, the orchestra director and a violinist, said meeting Mr. Wood two years ago was a music altering experience for her.
She's now in Rune, "a rock 'n' roll band with a Celtic twist," which started last November.
"I think they realize how much fun they can have with their music," she said of her students.
"That we're not stuck in our classical world. In the classical world, we're told exactly how to play and in rock 'n' roll, you're taught to improvise.
"You can play anything and it's cool," she added.
And the lesson in musical diversity was appreciated by many of the students.
Doug Bedard, a 14-year-old DHS freshman, said until yesterday he though the only music that could be played on a violin was classical and fiddle.
"I didn't think you could play songs like that," he said of the renditions Mr. Wood did of the Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby" and Jimmy Hendrix' "Purple Haze." "I like rock 'n' roll."
Mr. Wood explained he just wants students to put their own mark on the music.
"Speak from your experiences and don't mold yourself or try to imitate people around you," he said. "Sing your own song."
He has spoken to about 45 schools across the country, including schools in Florida, Utah, New York and Massachusetts the last few years.
He said classical musicians love the energy and beat of rock 'n' roll but wonder where they fit into the big musical picture.
He said young classical musicians value Beethoven as much as John Lennon.
"There's nothing like Beethoven's Fifth. There's also nothing like John Lennon's 'Imagine,'" he said.
This story appeared on Page A7 of The Standard-Times on September 21, 2004.