Raj Nplaim Private Lessons

Service Description

This is a private course designed to be given in 5 separate sessions (outlined below) to prioritize individual learning—each session is booked and paid for separately for your convenience. This course, when taken in its entirety, will get you from zero experience playing the raj nplaim, to a high-intermediate level: able to read and play HMoob raj nplaim tsib nti songs, understand themes and motifs within HMoob music, and write your own music. Though not required, it is highly recommended you know how to read and write HMong RPA beforehand—this will speed up your learning ten-fold. Topics covered during this course will be as such, but can change depending on your desire as the student: Class Session 1 will cover raj nplaim basics, holding the instrument, troubleshooting, posture, hand, and finger placement, and beginning to play. You will leave this first class with 10 raj recordings for you to listen to: this is designed to get you familiar with the rhythm and flow of HMoob raj tsib nti songs. Class Session 2 will cover the musical structure of the HMong language, linguistic tones vs. musical notes and intervals, patterns and irregularities in HMong music theory, introduction to a full raj song, and most importantly, how to LISTEN to a HMoob song and understand it. You will leave this class with at least 5 songs written out for you to practice as "homework." Class Session 3 will be spent reviewing the 5 songs assigned to you after class 2. You will play any/all of your choosing and receive feedback from me. We will also break down these songs to analyze their structure to understand why and how they are written as such. Class Session 4: We will spend this time writing a song to understand the musical and linguistic changes that must happen when composing a raj song. We will also talk about how creative freedom (or lack thereof) in the HMong musical languages is affected based on the "rules" that govern (HMong) music and language. Class Session 5 will serve as a closeout to this class series. We will spend this time reviewing what we learned, tying it to HMong music at large, and addressing any lasting questions. Please feel free to email me if you have any question on whether this course is right for you, ua tsaug ntau: now@nengthao.com

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