Mar 09 2009
Songwriting into Spring
The past month has seen me lead song writing workshops in Direlton and Cockenzie. This has given me a chance to see the East Lothian countryside at its best, with snowdrops in abundance, lighter days and a hint of warmth in the sun. In between the falls of snow as winter is giving up easily this year.
No two of these workshops are quite the same as they are dependent upon the ideas of the children and their responses to the initial stimulus.
One thing that I like to do is encourage the children to bring in instruments if they are learning them, so there are lots of additional ideas being introduced within their groups. The workshops are structured so that they can follow my own musical ideas or introduce their own if they have the confidence to do so.
Sometimes this can lead to interesting challenges, such as how to incorporate two tenor horns or a trombone into the arrangement, or how tightly two chanters can play together. Equally interesting is how the others in the group become involved, even those who might not always be on-task or have a general difficulty working in groups. I never fail to be amazed at how they can bring it all together in time for the final recording.
Dirleton P6/7 have blogged about their music-making experiences and put up MP3 files and photos, so you can find out how the tenor horns sounded in the end.
Thanks again to all staff and children at the schools who made me feel welcome and my visits so enjoyable.
Photo by Laura Anderson, released under Creative Commons Licence.
