Return to Child: Music for People's Guide to Improvising Music and Authentic Group Leadership. Philosophy, Games, and Techniques Developed by David Darling, Bonnie Insull, and Participants in Music for People Workshops
Review :
Improvisation is the dynamic tool for learning to be creative, flexible and healthy. Music for People's new book is a guide for innovative expression and musical exploration. Every musician and teacher will savor the power and ease of music making with Return to Child.
- Don Campbell, author of Introduction to the Musical Brain and The Mozart Effect for Children
Return to Child shows how to practice improvisation individually and collectively, how to teach such practice, and how to encourage it to flourish in the world. James Oshinsky's compilation of David Darling's work is a lifetime of beneficence in a book.
- W. A. Mathieu, composer, author of The Listening Book and Harmonic Experience
Return to Child is full of activities that are clear, concise, and easy to conceptualize. David Darling frees musicians from the archaic educational tactics that have corroded how the process of making music is experienced, and corroded a quality relationship to self. Darling is a modern-day Pied Piper. Follow his melody and you will rediscover your soul and remember how to connect to the sacred, profound act of making and sharing a music that is truthful.
- Julie Lyonn Lieberman, improvising violinist and author of Planet Musician
Return To Child is packed with a lifetime of personal learning, personal growth and personal leadership skills. It puts the reader into the heart and feeling of a Music for People workshop. For me personally, it is a great eye opener into the inner workings of the Music for People teaching process. Return to Child is both accessible to beginning beginner trainers and challenging to the advanced facilitator at the same time. The "Leaders Speak Out" section gives some of the most basic scenarios that challenge facilitators in any training, and the book offers multiple solutions and points of view to consider from a variety of senior trainers. It is the basic operating manual for anyone who is on the musical empowerment mission, and a powerful gift to your community.
- Arthur Hull, author of Drum Circle Spirit and Drum Circle Facilitation
Music for People transformed my relationship with music and my work as a teacher. Many of my students at DePauw have told me that learning MfP approaches and techniques have changed not only their music making but their lives as well. Return to Child truly captures the essence of the powerful work of David Darling and his colleagues. This is one of the most important books on music anyone can own - it holds the keys you can use to unlock the extraordinary potential within yourself.
Dr. Eric Edberg, Professor of Music (Cello), DePauw University School of Music
Return to Child is definitely in the top 10 of "the books that changed my life" - maybe the top one.
- Jonathan Best, Bubble Music
Return to Child is a fabulous companion to the ingenious techniques used by David Darling at Music for People workshops, where both amateurs and professionals come for inspiration. With special magic, these techniques go right to the source of improvisation and lead to transcendent performances. It takes a "Zen" mastery of English to capture the simplicity and grace of these pathways to great music making, and re-create the generous attitude of Music for People Mentors whose guiding allows very personal music to come alive. These are the same principles I have been dedicated to in my own work with the Inner Game of Music. I applaud and recommend Return to Child to everyone interested in their own journey into the soul of the musician and the spirit of music.
- Barry Green, double bass soloist, teacher, author of The Inner Game of Music and The Mastery of Music
