{"id":1726,"date":"2020-09-08T14:25:26","date_gmt":"2020-09-08T21:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southwhidbeycommunitycenter.org\/?p=1726"},"modified":"2020-09-08T14:26:21","modified_gmt":"2020-09-08T21:26:21","slug":"rubatano-building-community-through-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southwhidbeycommunitycenter.org\/rubatano-building-community-through-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Rubatano – Building Community Through Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jack Penland<\/p>\n

If you wander near the South Whidbey Community Center at the right time, you\u2019ll hear a most unique kind of live music.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a performance, but students practicing the marimba.\u00a0 Forced outside by the social distancing pandemic rules, students of Rubatano jam together and make joyful music.<\/p>\n

Perhaps no other community center partner embodies the diversity of programs at the center like Rubatano, which teaches marimba to young and old, alike.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Moffett and her students practicing outside.<\/h3><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Dana Moffett oversees this happy school of music.\u00a0 She says she had always loved percussion when, in 1994 in Seattle, she first heard a marimba band playing in a park and thought, \u201cI have to find a way to play this music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learning the music meant connecting with the larger marimba community and the Zimbabwean teachers that sometimes travel the U.S.\u00a0 In 2003 Moffett started teaching the marimba.\u00a0 She held classes in various locations around South Whidbey before moving into the community center.\u00a0 She calls that move, \u201cthe best thing ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond simply\u00a0teaching marimba, Moffett is also teaching the music from\u00a0Zimbabwe. \u00a0She teaches via what she calls, \u201cthe old tradition.\u201d\u00a0 There is no sheet music.\u00a0 The students learn by listening and playing.\u00a0 The music is not like traditional Western music, but instead has a complex \u201cpolyrhythm\u201d or cross-rhythms, created from layering multiple rhythms together. <\/p><\/div>

Visit the Rubatano Website<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Pre-COVID practice in the Rubatano space in the center.<\/h3><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Typically, students play as an ensemble, each with a different part that contributes to the entirety of the song. \u00a0The students have to listen to each other, as well as play their own part.<\/p>\n

But as students work out the notes, Moffett says they\u2019re also, \u201cbuilding a community around the...passion of learning the music.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cThey bond as a family group,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

When COVID-19 cancelled in-person classes, she tried teaching via Zoom. But, she says that after a couple of months, \u201cpeople were zoomed out.\u201d<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Sunshine and music!<\/h3><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
When social restrictions were eased, Moffett pulled the marimbas out of the classroom and onto community center sidewalks.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span> Students were, \u201cready to come back and do something\u201d says Moffett and that when they started playing together again, \u201cit was very joyous.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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To get classes going again, she\u2019s trying different time schedules and possibly organizing people by level of experience.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span> Also, as fall moves in and the weather turns wet, she plans to erect tents so that the music can continue.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Moffett looks forward to the day performances are again possible.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span> \u201cIt\u2019s been hard for musicians,\u201d not being able to perform and be part of the communities, she notes.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span> But someday that will change back, because as Moffett notes, \u201cthe world needs music.\u201d<\/span><\/div><\/div>
Learn More<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jack Penland If you wander near the South Whidbey Community Center at the right time, you\u2019ll hear a most unique kind of live music.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a performance, but students practicing the marimba.\u00a0 Forced outside by the social distancing pandemic rules, students of Rubatano jam together and make joyful music. Perhaps no other community center partner embodies the diversity …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1728,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19,18,5,3],"tags":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"","source_text":"","source_url":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southwhidbeycommunitycenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1726"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southwhidbeycommunitycenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southwhidbeycommunitycenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southwhidbeycommunitycenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southwhidbeycommunitycenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southwhidbeycommunitycenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southwhidbeycommunitycenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southwhidbeycommunitycenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southwhidbeycommunitycenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southwhidbeycommunitycenter.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}