Dr. Mary Kertzman of DePauw University invited me to do a presentation over Skype for a group of students she is leading on an intercession tour to Morocco. This is what it took to get me up to speed on Skype. The whole experience was amazing in terms of what we could do. With Dr. Mary being willing to run my powerpoint and cue up Youtube music video clips, it worked like a charm. She aimed the video camera on her end toward the class, so I could see them, and they could see me too. If she wasn't so fantastic with the audio visuals, no way would this have worked!
The topic was an introduction to music of the Arab world, and to the music of Morocco. All this was to help them prepare for what they were about to hear on their trip. I was even able to teach them how to do zaghareed (women's trilling cry of high emotion) over Skype, and I could hear them doing it back!
I'm grateful to my friend Mary for the opportunity to try out this new (to me anyway) way of speaking to a group, and to use video clips to bring things to life. Youtube really has revolutionized this kind of lecture - rather than talking too much about a given music tradition, you can show the musicians playing and hear them. For example, below is a clip of an Andalusian ensemble from Tetouan, Morocco. They are seated in a half-circle, knees touching, wearing traditional costumes. Very distinctive - the way they play the violins and rebec and the way the percussionist holds the little tambourine.
So enjoy the video clip. And thank you, Dr. Mary for kicking me into the Skype age!
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