ALP
Approach &
Methodology
The Active Listening Playground Approach is a communication-focused methodology based on a personal authentic research by composer Keren Rosenbaum. It is grounded on 3 commitments the player in an Active listening Playground adopts and from that moment on let the game begin.
The ALP Tools are a a set of design thinking core practices for a creative problem solving process to be implemented. With the tools we build an Inner awareness in real-time and apply that awareness towards establishing healthy relationships with other people and the environment. Exposing participants to series of simple, hands-on, exercises (we refer to as scales and etudes same like in music practice) we can produce an environment where each participant finds space to discover and express an authentic voice while constructing personal and collective meaning. The ALP approach is internationally practiced and integrated into schools, academies, social organizations, communities and refugee camps around the world.
We compose an ever-increasing global community of active listeners using Reflexive Music and by creating distinctive Active Listening Playgrounds. Rosenbaum has been commissioned to compose communities for art institutions, universities, and Not-for-Profit and commercial organizations. Each playground represents a unique event, specifically tailored to the needs of the community seeking composition.
We focus on finding instead of searching. We loop actions with reactions in a circular mode. Within the ALP Approach we refer to this process as Reflexive Music. The “music” is everything that happens in the action, reaction, and the in-between. Here, the term “music” extends beyond what we know from the world of instruments, orchestras, or choirs. It refers to each movement, sound, and intention in the action-reaction event. ALP allows us to explore the possibilities within this space of action and reaction from multiple perspectives. We call this extended layering of perspectives the “I-YOU-WE-WORLD”
Each individual in an ALP event has four choices: they can listen, they can lead, they can compose, they can perform or produce. With the ALP Tools we claim the freedom of choosing our own time and place to create, in a supportive and safe environment.
This safety operates on three principles.
We begin to experience a healthy balance between these fluid roles. We practice imitating, observing, initiating - the stances which allow individuals and communities to form meaning and engage in heartfelt interaction.
The Playground is a literal metaphor for an environment in which each individual in a group can find a way to express, connect and play. With the ALP Tools we transform into leaders, develop creativity, work in a team, learn to let go, and become strong followers.
Why do we need to be playful?
"A lot of people feel stress because their communication in relationships with ourself, familiy and work is blocked or not profound. I believe it is not just about active listening and understanding ourselves or others we need to develop a deep perception for one another to be able to demonstrate healthy empathy and expand the palate of choices of actions and reactions.
In that moment. Developing the awareness to be able to recognize my low level of playfulness and having the instinct to identify what I need to balance it in real time (no reflection but reflexion) can make the difference between allowing the stress to be domminant or shifting out of it.
I find tht ALP Approach allow us to physically and mentaly transform the "flavor of our stress" instead of pushing it down and suppress it. It establish a new trust in our senses and intution and allow us to transform the stress into opportuinities and new choices of action.
With the ALP Tools we "take our playfulness temperture" in a playful way which is already all we need to start having a playful mindset and now sustaining it and playing with the level of it becomes so much easier. I noticed people having a hard time embracing playfulness when it's most needed while in the midst of life chaos and personal challenges. The mechanism that I developed uses playfulness as a coping mechanism for stress and simultaneously giving me the tools for self efficacy to act instead of fear out of love.
ALP Approach
3 commitments for
Safe Environment:
COMMITMENT #1:
LET IT GO - JUDGMENT
I become aware of my own judgment towards others and myself.
In each moment I choose to let it go - the judgment.
IMAGINE IT - I crumple judgment and throw out of the window
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COMMITMENT #2
EMBRACE IT - CONFUSION
When I notice I am confused I let it be confusing and give it the time out of love instead of fear
IMAGINE IT - I hug confusions like hugging someone I love
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COMMITMENT #3:
PROVOKE IT - MISTAKES
I will begin to create mistakes not only observing when mistakes happen.
I will take responsibility to keep others and myself safe in the process of provoking mistakes.
I will choose to celebrate others and my own mistakes.
IMAGINE IT - I dare to make a mistake, knowing its a mistake but take responsibility that I am not hurting myself or others.
REFLEXIVE MUSIC
VISUAL SCORE
An original and innovative notation technique used to create Reflexive Music. The Reflex Invisible Score, developed by composer, interdisciplinary artist and performer Keren Rosenbaum since 1992. The original arranging and scoring of events creates a surprising integration of sound, visual play and physicality. The method also incorporates lighting, video, and interactive mediums in new technology. The unfolding of the score allows for a simultaneity in multiple events that becomes a completely unique experience and opens up the boundaries of musical expression.
Using outside triggers such as earphone triggers visual triggers, movement triggers and others. The invisible score notation requires of performers an improvisatory freedom in a very strict structural environment. The performers follow internal inspirations to respond and engage in conversations and at the same time are interrupted by earphone triggers that force them into an invisible structure.
The triggered events are notated and allows a much advance manipulation of the composition and at the same time affects and influences the improvised outcome. This ongoing project has been successfully performed and practiced by Reflex Ensemble members as well as many performers and students around the world. As a practice, it fascinates with its complexity and immediacy, and as a performance it is constantly surprising as it reveals the human-ness within structure.
The REFLEX INVISIBLE SCORE Technique was published in the book Notations 21 book by Theresa Sauer in 2009. The original notation and music scores became the foundation ALP Approach and the ALP Tools are all based on Reflexive Music Scores originally performed by the Reflex Ensemble. ALP (Active Listening Playground) Approach can be learned and practiced in the Reflexive Music Academy founded under Composing Community Global Organization.