Mr. Turnbull's Blog

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

Next week I will begin delivering Creative Health Cover music workshops in East Lothian Primary schools. This is part of the authority’s Arts Education programme, which covers all creative arts and has proved to be popular in the past.

It’s a slightly new direction for me and one that I think will also provide useful experience. I am a musician in my spare time and have taught both instruments and in the classroom. Leading children through a creative musical experience is a little bit new to me, but I expect it to be fun (and noisy) and am really looking forward to it.

According to the programme notes, the workshops

address the various aspects of healthy living to include exploration of physical and emotional wellbeing, healthy diets and awareness of healthy environments and relationships.

Many of these projects are cross-curricular and readily meet the capacities identified in A Curriculum for Excellence. Some provide an opportunity for incorporating enterprising skills for pupils and for supporting Eco-school development, in addition to Health Promoting Schools Stage 2.

There are two types of workshop that I will be working on, Notes on a Story (P1-3) and Strolling on Song (P4-P7). Here are the details from the programme notes:

Notes on a Story

Using children’s stories with a healthy living theme as a stimulus, pupils will explore the wide timbres and tones of various instruments to create short pieces of programme music to interpret the mood and feelings provoked by the story.

Curriculum areas: Expressive Arts, Music, English, Health and Well-Being

Strolling on Song

Pupils will work with their teacher to identify and research a topic relating to Health and Wellbeing, such as the environment, healthy eating, positive relationships, etc. Then working collaboratively with a professional musician/ songwriter the class will create a new song or piece of programme music to interpret and express their findings and feelings on the matter.

The class will notate, graphic score and/or record their work and if appropriate this can be used by the whole school for assemblies or performance event.

Curriculum areas: English, Environmental Studies, Enterprise, Health and Wellbeing, Music, Art, PSD, Mathematics.

There is a series of three workshops for each class to explore and develop the music. The length of the workshop depends on the age and stage of the children. For example, the workshops next week are with P3 and last for an hour each.

There is a deliberate looseness in the remit to allow flexibility of experiences and outcomes. As well as being a teacher, I am a musician, and it is in this capacity that I will be working. My role is  primarily that of a facilitator and not as a teacher, although I anticipate that some teaching element will inevitably arise in order to help make sense of what we are doing. The teachers are expected to remain with the class during the workshops.

I have my plans and structure in place and am prepared to develop or abandon elements of them in order to respond to the needs of the class. It should be good!

(Image courtesy of Omdur at Morguefile)

Tags: arts, creativity, East Lothian, health, music, music workshops, Primary, Scotland, UK