Guest Post by Mark Cusack
MASHED Potatoes are set to bring Limerick’s first improvisational Rhythm with Signs performance to Dolan’s Kasbah Social Club this weekend.
Mashed Potatoes debut gig in Dolan’s this Saturday will see a group of musicians perform a completely improvised set following the ‘rhythm with signs’ technique.
Rhythm with Signs is a dynamic musical technique where a conductor uses hand signals to guide musicians in real-time, shaping rhythm, melody, and improvisation. Encouraging creativity and collaboration, it’s popular in schools, communities, and ensembles, thriving in Latin America and beyond.
The free-of-charge event promises to be a unique collaborative musical experience – and a first for Limerick City.
Fionn Heffernan, a folk troubadour from West Cork, describes the technique as “a group of musicians led by a conductor, who have all learned an array of hand gestures that guide the jam.”
“The conductor can point at any musician and get them to do a thing,” he said. “For example, I can gesture at a musician, and they know to play a four-bar loop or a long or short note”.
Argentine musician Santiago Vazquez invented the method, and it has spread internationally.
In October of last year, Heffernan and fellow musician Tuán O’Baoill visited Rome to take part in a 10-day Erasmus+ program where they learned the technique.
“We did rhythm with signs every day; we learned it from the bottom up,” he shared.
In the program’s final days, Fionn, Tuán, and over thirty other musicians travelled around Rome, performing for local primary and secondary school students. On the final day, they performed an eight-hour-long improvised set, not stopping once.
After returning to Rome for an intensive course on teaching the method, Heffernan recruited musicians from different backgrounds within the local music scene to bring ‘rhythm with signs’ to Limerick.
The group was formed last December, and Heffernan is confident that “everyone is quite tight with the signs, everyone’s quite proficient, and there’s great energy”.
“Rhythm with signs is such a great thing because it is very accessible and brings everyone together. It’s an excuse to create another kind of community around music that doesn’t exclude anyone for any reason whatsoever.”
Mashed Potatoes will perform in Dolan’s Kasbah on Saturday March 29. Entry is free, but spaces are limited.
