Talleres - Workshops

My Talleres - Workshops. Are the result of years of studying, traveling, and experiences of everyday learning where the participants inter act and participate 100% in the arts of making different kinds of instruments - all with materials that can be found around in nature, recycling places and sometimes discharged items such as boxes, cans, etc.

Back when I was a child.- my grandfather, a sheet metal worker, used to make all kinds of toys and musical instruments with scraps found around his shop. I was fascinated by all of the things he could create and make and, it is thanks to him that I acquired the itch to look around and make handmade instruments.

I do my best in keeping with his ideas and using simple materials found all around us to create music - sometimes I have to add some modern items but just as life is... we go with the times but I do my best to keep the old fashion idea of using our imagination and ingenuity in all of our workshops.

Self Knowledge (talks/seminars)

Age: Adults
In this workshop we work in looking into what we see around us and how all of the information affects us in one way or another.

The participants bring their own views, ideas and questions of many subjects relating to the thousands of different approaches for the reaching of spirituality and self knowledge. Shamanism, Esoteric Practices (Card Reading, Cold Reading, etc.), Native American beliefs and many others, are then discussed among the participants, canalizing where reality begins and the myth ends. I don't pretend to have all of the answers and for sure will not imply I have the one and only truth, this workshop gathering is meant to analyze and to conclude what is inside of all of us and how can this be used in a way to find internal peace and union with the environment around us.

Ask yourself the question: do you have special skills or callings in your life? or;.. are you influenced by others to follow their ways of thinking?

Drum Circle and Wind Instrument playing is included as means of meditation.

These workshop can also be included as part of a Concert or a Craft Workshop making this a very special gathering (one, two or three day?)

Ocarina Workshop

Age: form age 10
In this workshop we learn to make an Ocarina with Air Dry Clay (no need to bake or to later on look for a place to bake your future creations).

The Ocarina is a very ancient Mexican Instrument used in many ceremonial rituals all over the meso American world.

All materials included with extra supplies to take home and make more.

Great for Camps, Elder Centers, and Fund Raising Clubs!

Click here for a very cool flier (German)

Native American Style Flute

Age: from age 10
This is a very special workshop where the participant will learn to create a wonderful Native American (Style) Instrument. This flute, sometimes called Cherokee Flute, Lakota Love Flute or simply The Love Flute, is one of the most unique created instruments from an old time when Nature was the teacher of all sound and music.

All Materials are included: Cedar Wood, Tools and DVD.

From Trash to Music

Age: ALL Ages
One of my Favorite Workshops...

from Trash To Music Workshops are designed with the purpose of teaching children the origins of music, the art of instrument making and the awareness and benefits of recycling.

The workshop will:
Teach children HOW sound makes music and how the instruments work to create the sound(s) we call notes.
Give the children in an illustrated way (video and slide show) the origins of instruments from different parts of the world.
Children will make a musical instrument using material found around the house and usually ready to be discarded.

All Materials are included and participants are encouraged to bring their own boxes, cans, etc.

Instruments will include:

Didgeridoo (Australia).
Rain Stick (Africa and South America).
Maracas or Rattles (Caribbean).
Flutes; Kena and Native American (Peru and North American Indian).
Hand Drums (Asia and North America).
Finger Piano (Africa).
Box Guitar, (Arabian).
Castanuelas and Panderos (Spain).
And many other fun instruments.

At the end of the workshop the new luthiers (Instrument Makers) will participate in an improvised concert using their newly made instruments.

EVENTS VIDEO

Luis Alfonso Alba (also known as Koli) lives in Lagos de Moreno Jalisco Mexico. A 450 year old town in the most beautiful area of Jalisco. His family (from both sides) relocated during the Mexican Revolution to this town in the earliest 1900s when Lagos was still a small community and people knew each other. His family roots go back to the first Spanish Settlers that came to the new world way back in the 1600s mixing their blood with local Natives and creating what is now the large Mexican Nation. His paternal grandfather was a watchmaker, candy maker and skilled craftsman who passed on the watch making tradition to his sons. His maternal grandfather a sheet metal worker, a self taught scholar in his own way was a great creator of anything imaginable and workable. His uncles all carry the traditions of these wonderful skills. As a child he (Luis Alfonso) helped at his fathers shop and learned the basic skills of watch making and jewelry design, making little silver rings and other small jewelry items that opened his mind to the use of old fashion tools and creation of new ones. At a later age and during the landing on the moon, his family moved to Guadalajara Jalisco where he continued with his secondary education and continued working at his father shop learning new skills and the art of sculpture and use of plastic in craft making. As a teen his family relocated to Xalapa Veracruz Mexico where he continued his higher education and started his art career, mostly in drawing and painting, where he he was awarded several prizes for his works. For the past 35 years he has worked without stopping in different Mexican schools teaching and developing new ways of creating artistic pieces with emphasis in the use of discharged materials for the the creation of musical instruments, while doing research and studding ancient cultures from different parts of the world and studding the ways music started and developed from those cultures. His workshops have brought thousands of happy smiles to children, teens, adults and elders from all walks of life. 25 years ago, he moved back to Lagos de Moreno to his family home and from there he has taken short term trips to different places in the world including many European Countries where he has worked with people whose language in not Spanish proving that music is an international language and an non color skill. Now at a retirement age and with a travelers heart, he has taken the invitation of people from the European Union to travel and bring to the Old World his knowledge and his skills. Workshops are done in regular basis in Lagos, Leon Guanajato, Xalapa, Puebla and other cities in Mexico and for limited times and while traveling in Europe in several cities and countries. If you are interested in hosting an event or a workshop with Koli, please drop us a mail and we will send you an schedule of his trips to Europe and arrange for you a date that is bound to be remembered and used for a life time. Workshops outside Mexico are limited and each will require a booking prior to the traveling of Koli. Materials used for the workshops are all from the area where the workshop is to take place making this possible for the participants to continue creating crafts after Koli is back in Mexico. ALL Materials and equipment needed is available in the EU. We work with an Event Management Agency in the EU who will provide all the necessary logistics, transport, materials, tools, audio and visual equipment to make this a successful workshop for you and your invited guest. Want to come to Mexico and do some local workshops, guided tours and visit NON Tourist places and get to see the Real Ancient - Aztec, Mayan, Zapoteca, etc. Cultures?. Kolis home town is located just a few Kms from the second largest City in Mexico (Guadalajara) and he can arrange tours. Transportation, lodging, tour, etc. can be arranged for small or large groups.

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