This short video was created to help young children learn primary and secondary colors. “Red is hot -so LOUD, like trumpets when they blair. Add some blues to cool it off, and purple’s in the air.” The song ends with the notion that we are all people of color with an infinite number of “lovely blends.”
Using technique found in both Indian classical music and American jazz, DoSo teachers are able to show classically trained musicians how to improvise. This next video is an excerpt from “Ahmad Jamal with the Assai Quartet,” a 10-minute documentary that aired on PBS during the Ken Burns jazz series.
In the next video David plays opposite Cristian Ortiz, one of his high school guitar students. Cristian, who was somewhat suspect of playing without structure, took refuge in staring at David’s hands, yet his musical responses were his own individual sound and touch.
The next video features three DoSo Freestyle Duets with Elementary students.
The students have the freedom to play whatever feels best in their hands. There are three genres presented: European classical music, Indian classical music and “free jazz.” In the end all play together the classic rock song “She’s Not There.”
At the Cooperative High School for the Arts and Humanties students often enroll with no previous music experience. The two women in this next video are sophomores who have been playing violin and cello for only one year. They are a testament to what talented people can achieve once given the opportunity.
David Mills has been known to write songs with children who are healing in the hospital. “Dance in the Light of the Sun,” a song in the DoSo Loog Song Library, was written with a young girl who was due to be released the next day.
Patrick W. Smith, the head of the band department at the Cooperative High School for the Arts and Humanities in New Haven CT, has developed a unique method of rhythmic scale practice and melodic exercises. Even students with little instrumental experience are performing at a high level within several months at Coop HS..
Patrick Smith is a virtuoso percussionist. Here he improvises in an unstructured DoSo Freestyle duet with David Mills.
Below is another DoSo Freestyle duet with Istvan B’Racz on piano and David Mills on guitar.