Mr. Turnbull's Blog

Last week I attended the Ways into Workshops 2009 residential course at Minsteracres, near Consett in County Durham and put on by MusicLeader NE. This is part 1 of my response to taking part.

It is easy to refer to such events as being inspiring, but so much has come out of this particular one that it can only be described in such terms. On a personal level it was a revelation, but it may also prove to be a catalyst for action in Scotland. I’ll comment on that in another post.

Amy Higgs  and Trevor Snowdon had organised an event for everyone. I was not familiar with any of the names of those leading the sessions, but I am now.

Hugh Nankivell, Dave Camlin, Beccy Owen and Rob Kitchen worked hard to ensure that it was fluid, creative and dynamic, with an emphasis on making people feel relaxed enough to step out of their comfort zone.

On the Monday night the participants brainstormed a theme for the event and a title worthy of a festival. Beyond the Bridge is what we came up with and it kept coming back as a refrain over the two days to help take people into new musical places. We all wanted to cross over into new ways of learning, teaching and maybe even performing.

Singing was a big part of the event, even for “non-singers”, because, as it was continually pointed out to us, there is no such thing as someone who can’t sing. For someone like myself who never sang in public until compelled to by the workshops I lead, this was both uncomfortable and encouraging. An honest acceptance of an honest contribution is welcome to the individual and a reminder of how some people feel about our own workshops. It isn’t necessarily exciting for everyone and can cause anxiety for people who feel that they aren’t musical.

On the Monday night, I had a discussion with Kate, building a community choir in Stockton-on-Tees, and Aly, who is on the new Community Music course at Newcastle University. One conclusion reached was that genius is something that can become apparent in anybody, given the right opportunities in life. I paraphrase, but we all agreed that as musicians and music leaders, we were aiming to provide those opportunities to everyone we worked with. It was heartening and also served as a reminder about why we were there.

More in the event to follow.

Tags: MusicLeader, residential, Ways into Workshops

Chatting to a friend, fellow parent and teacher recently, I was put on to The Langley Schools Music Project (Thanks Pete!).

This is a music education project from the mid-1970s:

The Langley Schools Music Project is a 60-voice chorus of rural school children from western Canada, untrained but captivated by melodic magic, singing tunes by the Beach Boys, Paul McCartney, David Bowie, The Bay City Rollers, and others. The students accompany themselves with the shimmering gamelan chimes of Orff percussion, and elemental rock trimmings arranged by their itinerant music teacher, Hans Fenger.

And inspiring music it is too. It was recorded using basic equipment in a school hall and released on two 12″ vinyl LPs that have since been brought out again on a single CD.

I was struck by the similarity of some of the aims and methods to my own workshops, which on reflection shouldn’t be a surprise as music education often incorporates ideas from various different sources. However, I aim to learn more about the ideas of Carl Orff Schulwerk as a result of this, since it seems to feature creative exploration of sounds and promote the idea of the children owning their music.

There is an account of the project and links to interviews and examples of the tracks on Irwin Chusid’s website Songs in the Key of Z.

Tags: Carl Orff Schulwerk, music, music workshops

A music workshop aimed at professionals working with preschoolers successfully showed how picture books can be used to create a musical event.

The recent Journey with Music workshop in Port Seton was part of the East Lothian Play4Today event and I was pleasantly surprised by the size of venue and numbers of people attending.

The workshop I provided was specifically for professionals working with preschoolers and aimed to show how I prepare, organise and deliver my creative music workshops for young children. I was slightly concerned about meeting the expectations of those attending the workshop as these methods have really just been tested at p1-3 level. I decided to focus on highlighting my approach to using existing resources such as picture books from the library and instruments that are to hand or can be made. Any arising issues would hopefully be ironed out with our collective experiences.

Educators can often be put off making music with children by their own musical experiences. By being out of their own personal comfort zone they can then feel that there is a risk of losing control and direction without a road map. My workshop aimed to provide some direction and show that by thinking creatively and allowing children to experiment and explore music on their own terms it is possible to devise a project that can be sustained over a number of sessions and can result in a group event such as a performance to parents.

My worries were unfounded since the very same approach towards scaling the music workshops that works in the classroom also applies to preschoolers. The goals, expectations and  learning outcomes are all modified to suit a range of abilities and interests in any situation.

In the second part of the workshop, everyone was invited to work with some books that I had brought in and see if they could devise their own material using the method that had been demonstrated. There were some inspirational results and even those who felt that they weren’t musical came up with something that I felt would work very well and that they were comfortable with.

We All Went on Safari was notably successful, but there was also a new dimension brought to the ever-popular We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. Some good results were derived from working with less promising books as well. I might return to this theme another time.

Some working with 3 year olds felt that the methods would need adapting a little more, but by 4 years old this wasn’t seen as an issue. Again though, it is a question of scale and modifying and we were able to consider some approaches in the workshop.

Overall, it was brought home to me that a significant benefit to this approach is the way that a book or story can reach beyond the pages and be the start of a different journey. Closing the book isn’t the end of the story. The story can be explored in art, displays, drama and, through this approach even music. And of course, these can all be combined.

Both teachers in classrooms and the other preschool professionals who were at the Port Seton event have commented that giving the children the time to explore instrument sounds that relate to the story is very appealing. Music lessons in schools often have a tight structure by necessity, but the purpose here is to give ownership over to the children within a supported environment and with some musical direction.

This lends itself well to working within the Curriculum for Excellence framework. Children work in groups, both small and collectively, make and share ideas and decisions, use instruments to explore sounds and express themselves with confidence.

Feedback has been positive and there is some thought about taking it further. I have also since been alerted to other projects and methodologies that share some underlying principles with mine and hope to discuss those further at a later date.

Tags: CPD, creativity, East Lothian

I’m giving a workshop this Saturday in Port Seton to early years practitioners. Journey with Music aims to provide ideas for providing creative music opportunities for preschool children and I’ll be sharing what I do in my Notes on a Story workshops in Primary schools. I’ll also be providing resources, tools and tips so that those attending can feel confident to explore the format for themselves.

The workshop is sold out, with 15 people due to attend, from childminders to nursery workers.

Image CC by Martin Sharman

I was at the Scottish Learning Festival in Glasgow yesterday. A very long day, but great for picking up ideas, resources and inspiration as well as meeting and networking with others.

Tags: Curriculum for Excellence, Glasgow, Teaching

Steve Lawson is a musician, educator and Web 2.0 enthusiast. I have been following Steve Lawson on Twitter (@solobasssteve) since I joined earlier in the year (@theFlowMusic) and his enthusiasm and ideas have caught my imagination.

His ideas are something that we can all relate to I think. Here they are necapsulated in a keynote speech he recently gave to music educators in Birmingham (contains some mild language):

Tags: arts, blog, ICT, music, Resources

Well school is back and isn’t it just? Scottish schools break up earlier than elsewhere in the UK and return earlier too. We are all just back into our second full week and it is already starting to look busy. Last year got off to a much quieter start for me, but this year my diary is full of crossings out and last week had two triple bookings before I sorted things out.

I am doing music supply in Midlothian and Creative Music Workshops in East Lothian again, so my week is full of music, which is lovely. Being the start of a new year as well, the children all have energy and interest, making it very rewarding all round.

The RSAMD Musicworks tutors got together in advance of the new year at the weekend. Despite the pre-6am start for me (on a Saturday!), there was lots of food for thought and news of new sponsors and patrons. Maybe more on that as it becomes public.

Meanwhile I have also been developing new workshop ideas for Primary children and have updated The Flow, which was  major summer project.

Image Rosslyn Chapel, Midlothian.Photo CC by nds808v

Tags: music workshops, Primary, RSAMD, supply teaching

This Saturday’s Youth Music Forum day at the Brunton Theatre in Musselburgh has been postponed. It is hoped that that scheduling the event at the beginning of the autumn term would be a better fit with people’s priorities and diaries.

While this is to be regretted, I have at least now prepared a new workshop for P1-P3 that I had hoped to air at the event for the first time. Instead it is ready to take around schools when they resume after the summer. More details about that nearer the time.

An unfortunate clash that I had with the final day of the term at the RSAMD MusicWorks event at Craigmillar is no longer a problem however and I will be able to assist with that.

I also would also have had to leave the YMF event early as I will be playing at a ceilidh that evening with The Big Squeeze. My diary looks quite messy for Saturday 20th, but the day is at least now more straightforward.

Photo CC by David Poe.

Tags: Add new tag, workshops, Youth Music Forum

I am currently working hard to prepare a new Notes on a Story workshop in readiness for 2009-2010 and early responses have been very positive.

Aimed at P1-P3, Notes on a Story is a series of workshops that runs in East Lothian schools that lets the children explore the sounds and timbres of different musical instruments while creating the soundtrack to a story. The focus of the story is on an aspect of health and after the success of working with Marvin Wanted More I was looking for something a little different but equally engaging.

I’ll talk about it more in another post as my current goal is to get everything ready for the Youth Music Forum event at the Brunton Theatre in Musselburgh in just over a week. I met Arts Education Officer Ruthanne Baxter today to go over some of the details of the event.

I’m looking forward to it and it gives me a chance to try out the new workshop ideas. I just need to finish designing the graphic score resources, which is proving to be a little trickier than I had hoped.

The Youth Music Forum event in The Brunton Theatre in Musselburgh takes place on Saturday 20th June.

Photo CC by Mark Menzies

It has been a busy period for me as I have begun RICCT cover in the Borders and I have been looking ahead to the summer and beyond.

May sees me performing at a couple of folk festivals, firstly Moniaive, a lovely festival in a gorgeous setting in Dumfries and Galloway. I’m playing with Absolutely Legless Irish dancers and we’ll be supporting headliners Dervish on the main stage on the Saturday night, May 9th. Last year we supported Altan and that was fabulous, so I’m looking forward to this.

My involvement was in doubt earlier this week when I broke my finger in a community football game, but I have been advised to keep it moving, let nature heal itself and to play the flute if it doesn’t cause discomfort to the finger. With care, I should be able to manage I think.

Later in the month we’re playing at another small festival, the Border Gaitherin’ at Coldstream and I’ll also be teaching a Tin Whistle class on the Saturday. There is a tutors concert on the Sunday night, which is a bit of a new step for me as I am so used to playing in a band set-up, with other things (usually dancing of some sort) going on.

It’s one of my favourite festivals, so it’s great to be involved in this way.

Elsewhere, I have been speaking with various local authorities about taking my creative music workshops further afield after the summer, with some promising feedback so far. I am also speaking to East Lothian about an event at the Brunton Theatre in Musselburgh in June. More on that when there’s more to say.

Finally, I have begun to use Twitter and have to say that it is a very interesting tool and I am learning a lot, while at the same time wondering what it is all about. It is certainly fun.

Tags: Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, festivals, music workshops