Metals: Exploring the World of Musical Metals

Facilitated by Mike Tamburo Contact Roberta - +39 380 189 9107

This immersive course explores the musical possibilities of Metals- gongs, singing bowls, bells, chimes, and other metal instruments, with a focus on how these instruments interact and relate to one another in terms of timbre, pitch, and overtone structure. Participants will investigate how individual sounds combine to form rich textures, evolving soundscapes, and coherent musical forms.

Through attentive listening, guided exploration, and loose composition, the course emphasizes the relationships between instruments—how differences in material, tuning, and resonance shape the overall character of the music. A central focus will be on blending and layering instruments, as well as transitions and the general movement of a piece: how metal music unfolds over time, how textures shift, how density builds or recedes, and how one sonic state transforms into another.

Topics may include: • Deep listening and perception of overtone structure • Timbre, pitch relationships, and resonance between instruments • Building and refining sets of metal instruments that work well together • Transitions, phrasing, and the movement of a composition over time • Improvisational and compositional strategies for metal-based music • Integrating metals into modern drone- and percussion-based contexts • Solo exploration and collaborative ensemble work

Hands-on sessions and group-based music-making, offer participants space to experiment, listen closely, and develop sensitivity to nuance and change. The course encourages both personal expression and a deeper understanding of how metal instruments function collectively within a larger musical arc.