LO1
What is comunity music?
Community
music is such a wide range of things. Because what it basically is, is all types
of music that happen within certain community’s. For example it includes all of
the music teacher who offer the lessons within the community for people who what
to learn instruments. I have had a look for some music teachers, from a range of
drum teachers, piano teachers and violin teachers and I have linked some of them
below.
Community music is such a wide range of things. Because what it basically is, is all types of music that happen within certain community’s. For example it includes all of the music teacher who offer the lessons within the community for people who what to learn instruments. I have had a look for some music teachers, from a range of drum teachers, piano teachers and violin teachers and I have linked some of them below.
music is such a wide range of things. Because what it basically is, is all types
of music that happen within certain community’s. For example it includes all of
the music teacher who offer the lessons within the community for people who what
to learn instruments. I have had a look for some music teachers, from a range of
drum teachers, piano teachers and violin teachers and I have linked some of them
below.
Community music is such a wide range of things. Because what it basically is, is all types of music that happen within certain community’s. For example it includes all of the music teacher who offer the lessons within the community for people who what to learn instruments. I have had a look for some music teachers, from a range of drum teachers, piano teachers and violin teachers and I have linked some of them below.
The picture to the left of this paragraph is one music teacher that teaches in the Henley collage area and I have met and talked to. He was a part time teacher at my previous school for a period of about 4 months. He teaches a wide variety of different instruments from the keyboard and the piano to the clarinet.
It is also all of the music workshops that people run within the community that teach people the basics of rhythm or of harmony or of things like song writing. There are also other types of music that happen within the community that don’t include teaching. These are things like Festivals. Festivals are a very important part of community music because the draw in big crowds of people from outside the local area into the community where everyone has a good time and listens to lots of high quality music. As well as festivals with do not happen very often in community’s there are gigs in pubs and in venues that can happen all year round and they affect the community a lot because they mean that people can contently go and listen to music and have a good time. I have looked around for the local festivals in the area and Bucks and Oxfordshire.
The picture to the left is screenshot of the reading website. The reading festival is one of the biggest festivals in England and it happens every year and has awesome line ups. Reading is about tem min away from handles so this is a good example of local festivals.
Another form of music within the community is on that I have a lot of experience in. This is busking. Busking is such an obvious form of music within a community because it is latterly going into a crowded town centre and playing your music to the people within that community. You can make a lot of money from busking if the people in the towns and the community are that you are going into enjoy and embrace your music. I think that these things I have just said helps you to have more of an understanding of exactly what community music is. I have put in a youtue video of me buking in oxford last year.
When did community music start?
Music in the community’s has been around for a very long time. This is because ever since there have been communities of people living together in towns and villages and city’s there has been music within those towns and city sect. Music in community’s can start in a variety of different ways but some communities of people have more interesting stories about how the music in their community started up and how it has changed and evolved into what it is today. One example that springs to mind that demonstrates how some different types of community music began is how the brass bands in the north started. The brass band in the north began with me in the mines that played brass instruments. Another on is a very different type of music in community’s but it is still a equality important type of music in the community. There are tribes of people who are living in a lot poorer conditions like in Africa living in tents who’s communities of people are joined together by music and by tribal chants. Then from these cants the tribes of people then began in make instruments out of the things they could find. They made drums in which the drum head is made out of animal skin. They made shakes and all kinds of other weird and wonderful musical instrument to harvest the energy of their music within their community’s. There is also music in the community’s that we live in, there is a lot of jazz clubs in London that have been going for a long time, there are also a lot of other types of music within city’s that has evolves a lot and changes a lot since it first started in a community of people.
Why is comunity music so important?
Community music is so important because it gives so many different opportunities for people to get involved with music. This is very beneficial to some people because with some people once they have discovery the joy of music and how great it is to play and right and do so much more they never want to stop and they follow their dreams of being in the music business. A lot of peoples careers would never have happened if it want for community music because they might not have ever been inspired by music within their community and they would never have known what music can do for them. Without community music there wouldn’t be as many musicians getting big and making a name for themselves and bringing joy to lots of people through music. Things like teaching music within the community is so important because it allows people to get involved with instruments they love and improve at it and if the stick with it they will be able to bass there life around it and make money of it. It is important to have gigs in the community because again that can inspire young musicians to play and perform music. Busking within the community I very important and very nice to have around because it mean as you are walking up and down a high street in a town centre you can hear different snippets of different musical styles and you walk past different busks and that usually cheers people up if there having a
grim day.
grim day.
What can you/I do to get involved?
There are so manydifferent ways that you can get involved in music within the community. One of the most obvious what that I can think of would simply be to learn a instrument from a teacher who works within the community. It is always a good idea to learn instrument because it improves you coordination and helps you to clear your head and think straight. Another way that people could get involved in music in the community is something that is so small and most people would overlook it and think that it’s not important. If you can encourage the
musicians within you community to keep on playing and keep on writing music then you are getting yourself involved in your community’s music just like that. It could be something as simple as just putting in 30p to a busker in your town centre because if the busker makes money that will encourage him to go and busk again and keep making the community more musical. You could do a lot of other thing that would get you involved in the music in your community, you could take place in a workshop and get involved with learning some of the basics, youcould simply go and buy some music from a record shop in you town.
musicians within you community to keep on playing and keep on writing music then you are getting yourself involved in your community’s music just like that. It could be something as simple as just putting in 30p to a busker in your town centre because if the busker makes money that will encourage him to go and busk again and keep making the community more musical. You could do a lot of other thing that would get you involved in the music in your community, you could take place in a workshop and get involved with learning some of the basics, youcould simply go and buy some music from a record shop in you town.
History of Music in the community in this area
In and around the area of Henley there is a lot of musical history in the community. There have been lots and lots of music festivals put on in Henley and there have been lots of gigs and live music performances. There is alos a lot of musical history in regards to rhythms which is what I have decided to base my music workshop on. There is history of rhythms in all communities for a few reasons. There are always lots of people who play percussion and play the drums. There are often bands playing in the pubs in Henley who have drums and percussion in them. The most obvious example of music within the Henley community would be the Henley music festival witch takes place on the 9th to the 13th of July. Also in a 10 mile radius of Henley is the world famous reading festival which attracts 100s of thousands of people from all over the world. The reading festival always has a lot of brilliant acts for example this year one of the headlining acts is the world famous Arctic Monkeys and last year it was the amazing Biffy Clyro from Scotland.
What Are the Pros and Cons of rhythms comunnity music
Cons-
One of the big conns of rhythm in the community is the fact that rhythms are generally played on percussive instruments. Preclusive instruments are generally very loud and that is a issue to some people. Some people are sometimes not the biggest fans of loud drums. But that being said people are also amazed by it because of the volume and that can mean that it reaches a bigger audience.
One of the outher things that is a con is that there is no melodys. You canot play any melodys on drums and that means that people can not get melodys stuck in youre head. This is the reason that will will not often see a drummer solo artist and you will see a lot of guiitarist solo artists. The reason for tht is that people like molodys and like things they can hum.
One of the outher things that is a con is that there is no melodys. You canot play any melodys on drums and that means that people can not get melodys stuck in youre head. This is the reason that will will not often see a drummer solo artist and you will see a lot of guiitarist solo artists. The reason for tht is that people like molodys and like things they can hum.
Pros-
One of the main pros is that people playing rhythms are not a very common thin go to see. This means that people get easy interested by it and they are drawn intolistening to it. An example of this is that some junk drummers that i know go busking in Windsor always have a big crowd around them. They have a large following of Facebook and twitter two and that shows that people do find it interesting.
Reserch on Music Workshops in the Area
Research on STOMP
There are lots of different types of music and rhythms workshops that go on these days. The most commonly knows workshop that is used today is STOMP. STOMP is a group of people working together in an ensemble. They put on act and then begin using simple rhythms within the acts and as more people come into the act, the more complex rhythms emerge and they start to build up an overall complex and interesting rhythm. There are stop productions everywhere and they are all over YouTube. Stomp has been very successful and I think that this is because it is something so unusual to see a group of people acting a little bit and banging peculiar objects and making very interesting and nice sounding drum beats. They are very entertaining to watch and this is why they play sold out shows all over the country and tour other countries too. There are several STOMP company’s performing around the world, there are up to three working in the UK and 2 working in northern America.
As well as STOMP performances being put on in huge venues all over the place, there are also stomp workshops available to UK based education establishments and organisations. There workshops care aimed at the Key Stage 1 level and above. They can take anything up to thirty people in one session and one time. The sessions can run from a single hour taster to a weeklong performance. Each session are tailored to the people in the class so there is time in the sessions to take the questions from the people in the class. In ordered to run a stomp session they need one or two people to run the session. The name that some of the STOMP organisations have given to these people in STOMPERS. They also need all of the things for the people in the class to hit, these can be almost anything for example: pots and pans, empty plastic water bottles, brooms, folded up newspapers and many more.
When I look how the professionals who work for the STOMP organisations run there workshops I can easily see how it can relate directly to my workshop. As it stands my workshop is a workshop on rhythms, I have a lot of games that involved getting the group to do things like clapping rhythms and playing games that involve team building and clapping. I could do a lot of the exercises that the professionals STOMP workshops have without having all of the things for the people to hit. I could get people to make different noises on different parts of their body’s. If I were to use this idea then my workshop would go from a rhythms workshop to a body percussion workshop, or I could just have elements of the both of them in my workshop. There is no reason why I could not bring more objects for people to hit so that my workshop terns into something more like a STOMP workshop.
There are lots of different types of music and rhythms workshops that go on these days. The most commonly knows workshop that is used today is STOMP. STOMP is a group of people working together in an ensemble. They put on act and then begin using simple rhythms within the acts and as more people come into the act, the more complex rhythms emerge and they start to build up an overall complex and interesting rhythm. There are stop productions everywhere and they are all over YouTube. Stomp has been very successful and I think that this is because it is something so unusual to see a group of people acting a little bit and banging peculiar objects and making very interesting and nice sounding drum beats. They are very entertaining to watch and this is why they play sold out shows all over the country and tour other countries too. There are several STOMP company’s performing around the world, there are up to three working in the UK and 2 working in northern America.
As well as STOMP performances being put on in huge venues all over the place, there are also stomp workshops available to UK based education establishments and organisations. There workshops care aimed at the Key Stage 1 level and above. They can take anything up to thirty people in one session and one time. The sessions can run from a single hour taster to a weeklong performance. Each session are tailored to the people in the class so there is time in the sessions to take the questions from the people in the class. In ordered to run a stomp session they need one or two people to run the session. The name that some of the STOMP organisations have given to these people in STOMPERS. They also need all of the things for the people in the class to hit, these can be almost anything for example: pots and pans, empty plastic water bottles, brooms, folded up newspapers and many more.
When I look how the professionals who work for the STOMP organisations run there workshops I can easily see how it can relate directly to my workshop. As it stands my workshop is a workshop on rhythms, I have a lot of games that involved getting the group to do things like clapping rhythms and playing games that involve team building and clapping. I could do a lot of the exercises that the professionals STOMP workshops have without having all of the things for the people to hit. I could get people to make different noises on different parts of their body’s. If I were to use this idea then my workshop would go from a rhythms workshop to a body percussion workshop, or I could just have elements of the both of them in my workshop. There is no reason why I could not bring more objects for people to hit so that my workshop terns into something more like a STOMP workshop.
This picture shows a real STOMP workshop in action. It shows the man at the front of the class leading the workshop. The class that this workshop is with is a year 10 group that means that the students are between the ages 14 to 15. In the picture you can see that there are objects that they are using and that there are two upturned bins and one big blue plastic barrel that is upturned at the front of the class room. I think that there use of weird objects is one of the reason that people enjoy being a part of the workshops. If I were to do a workshop similar to a STOMP workshop then I would have to use objects that are a bit smaller and easier to move around.
Junk Music Workshops
As well as STOMP there is other organisation that put on Junk Music Workshops. Junk music workshops are very similar to STOMP workshops because they use rubbish to create rhythms within a group of people. Junk music workshops can be put on to a wide range of age group from very young age groups to teenagers. I have managed to find a list of the order that some of the Junk music workshops run. People will go into the music workshop and be introduced to the people running the work shop. The people who are running the workshop will then fill the hour long workshop with the activity’s in the list that follows: Ice brakes and interactive domination A brief introduction to recycling and the objects that they will be using, Learn how to use the equipment, making instruments out of rubbish, group performances of what they can do on the instruments they have made, Solo performances is the people are feeling up to it and then a drumming circle that the people leading the workshop will lead. The picture below is an example of one to the Junk Music Workshops that take place in the UK. You can see in the background the photo what objects they will be using in the workshop and you can see the people who are taking the workshop.
As well as STOMP there is other organisation that put on Junk Music Workshops. Junk music workshops are very similar to STOMP workshops because they use rubbish to create rhythms within a group of people. Junk music workshops can be put on to a wide range of age group from very young age groups to teenagers. I have managed to find a list of the order that some of the Junk music workshops run. People will go into the music workshop and be introduced to the people running the work shop. The people who are running the workshop will then fill the hour long workshop with the activity’s in the list that follows: Ice brakes and interactive domination A brief introduction to recycling and the objects that they will be using, Learn how to use the equipment, making instruments out of rubbish, group performances of what they can do on the instruments they have made, Solo performances is the people are feeling up to it and then a drumming circle that the people leading the workshop will lead. The picture below is an example of one to the Junk Music Workshops that take place in the UK. You can see in the background the photo what objects they will be using in the workshop and you can see the people who are taking the workshop.
More Research
Some more research that I came across I actually found by accident. I spend a lot of my weekends busking in Winsor and I have got to know a lot of the other buskers who do the same thing as me. There were two drummers there last weekend. They have named them self the Guilford Bucket Drummers. I have put the video below, the video shows what they do and how they do it. But the concept of what they are doing is not too dissimilar to the concept of my junk workshop in with people make drum beats by hitting rubbish. The only difference is that they are hitting up tern buckets witch in some ways is rubbish. I think even if I do not use what they do directly in my workshop and if i don’t change my workshop to be more like what they are doing then I might even show a video of them performing at some stage in my workshop just to try and show the people in my workshop that this kind of music can get you very far and you can make your living of it and it’s not just hitting pieces of rubbish. I think that showing them a video of the Guilford Bucket Drummers would be a great idea to try and inspire them. I think that I could also try and inspired them with videos or real drummers playing on real drum kits because at the end of the day you need the same skill to play a rhythm on a drum kit as to play a rhythm on a few pieces of rubbish.
LO2
My Workshop
My Rhythms Workshop
I am going to do my workshop on Simple and slightly more complex rhythms. I am going to make my workshop with a variety of different games that include everyone and encourage the people in the workshop to work in teams. I think that this is a good idea because my games can work well on a variety of different age groups. I think that doing my workshop to a very young class might not work as wee because the very young children will be unfamiliar with rhythms and probably won’t have a basic understanding of music. If I were to do my workshop with a group of people who are slightly older and play instruments then I think that they will enjoy the games more and will not feel like I am asking too much of them.
Game 1 – simple listening to rhythms and repeating them as a class working together
This game will be the first game in my workshop. It will help the group to work as a team and feel more comfortable in my workshop. In this game I will tell the group to get into some kind of circle I will then explain the game to the group. The game is very simple. I clap a rhythm and then the class has to repeat the rhythm to me. When they are repeating the rhythm each person is not allowed to clap more than once at a time. This means that the group must work in a clockwise motion, and work as a team to repeat the rhythm that I clapped to them. Each person will clap one beat of the rhythm and the rhythm should go round the circle and repeat. I hope that this game helps the group to work together.
Game 2 – Improvisation game
This game is similar to the first game because in this game the group should still sit in a circle. When the group is in the circle I will explain to them what improvisation is. I will then clap a simple 4/4 rhythm and get each individual in the group to improvise a rhythm that lasts two bars and go round in a circle playing there improvisations to me one by one whilst I am still clapping my 4/4 rhythm. I hope that this game will help me to gain a basic understanding of which individuals in the group are more advanced and witch individuals have an understanding of rhythms.
Game 3 – The Forbidden Rhythm Game
The forbidden rhythm game is the most complicated of all my games. This game is a bit like ‘Simon Says’ with rhythms. To begin with, I will tell the class to stand up. In this game I will stand in front of the group and introduce them to the forbidden rhythm. The forbidden will be a simple rhythm. The rule of the game is that when I clap the forbidden rhythm the people in the group must not repeat it. I will then start the game and clap a lot of rhythms for the class to repeat back to me. When I clap the forbidden rhythm the group must not clap it back to me. If someone dose clap the forbidden rhythm I will tell them to sit down because they are out of the game. As the game progresses I will introduce a second forbidden rhythm and then a third forbidden rhythm. The winner of the game is the last person standing up. I will reward them with some sort of prize.
I am going to do my workshop on Simple and slightly more complex rhythms. I am going to make my workshop with a variety of different games that include everyone and encourage the people in the workshop to work in teams. I think that this is a good idea because my games can work well on a variety of different age groups. I think that doing my workshop to a very young class might not work as wee because the very young children will be unfamiliar with rhythms and probably won’t have a basic understanding of music. If I were to do my workshop with a group of people who are slightly older and play instruments then I think that they will enjoy the games more and will not feel like I am asking too much of them.
Game 1 – simple listening to rhythms and repeating them as a class working together
This game will be the first game in my workshop. It will help the group to work as a team and feel more comfortable in my workshop. In this game I will tell the group to get into some kind of circle I will then explain the game to the group. The game is very simple. I clap a rhythm and then the class has to repeat the rhythm to me. When they are repeating the rhythm each person is not allowed to clap more than once at a time. This means that the group must work in a clockwise motion, and work as a team to repeat the rhythm that I clapped to them. Each person will clap one beat of the rhythm and the rhythm should go round the circle and repeat. I hope that this game helps the group to work together.
Game 2 – Improvisation game
This game is similar to the first game because in this game the group should still sit in a circle. When the group is in the circle I will explain to them what improvisation is. I will then clap a simple 4/4 rhythm and get each individual in the group to improvise a rhythm that lasts two bars and go round in a circle playing there improvisations to me one by one whilst I am still clapping my 4/4 rhythm. I hope that this game will help me to gain a basic understanding of which individuals in the group are more advanced and witch individuals have an understanding of rhythms.
Game 3 – The Forbidden Rhythm Game
The forbidden rhythm game is the most complicated of all my games. This game is a bit like ‘Simon Says’ with rhythms. To begin with, I will tell the class to stand up. In this game I will stand in front of the group and introduce them to the forbidden rhythm. The forbidden will be a simple rhythm. The rule of the game is that when I clap the forbidden rhythm the people in the group must not repeat it. I will then start the game and clap a lot of rhythms for the class to repeat back to me. When I clap the forbidden rhythm the group must not clap it back to me. If someone dose clap the forbidden rhythm I will tell them to sit down because they are out of the game. As the game progresses I will introduce a second forbidden rhythm and then a third forbidden rhythm. The winner of the game is the last person standing up. I will reward them with some sort of prize.
My First Practice Workshop
The video below shows my first practice workshop which was at Henley Collage in the D4 classroom. In this practice workshop I only had three people and they are all in my class taking the same course as me. Knowing this I have to take into account that the people in my practice workshop will be more experienced with rhythms and the clapping games because they are all very good performers and they are studying performing course. I know that the reactions from them will be very different from the reactions that I would get from a class of very young children. I also know that I will have to do the workshop for a longer time. In the video we were a bit rushed for time because we were trying to get the whole class to record the first practice workshop within the one hour. In the video I run through the three games that I have listed above. I can see that there are a lot of things I can do to improve the workshop when I watch back the video. I am going to right an analysis of my first practice workshop so that I can see what I am going to do different in my next practice workshop.
The video below shows my first practice workshop which was at Henley Collage in the D4 classroom. In this practice workshop I only had three people and they are all in my class taking the same course as me. Knowing this I have to take into account that the people in my practice workshop will be more experienced with rhythms and the clapping games because they are all very good performers and they are studying performing course. I know that the reactions from them will be very different from the reactions that I would get from a class of very young children. I also know that I will have to do the workshop for a longer time. In the video we were a bit rushed for time because we were trying to get the whole class to record the first practice workshop within the one hour. In the video I run through the three games that I have listed above. I can see that there are a lot of things I can do to improve the workshop when I watch back the video. I am going to right an analysis of my first practice workshop so that I can see what I am going to do different in my next practice workshop.
Analysis of my First Practice Workshop
I am very happy with the overall outcome of my first practice workshop. This is mainly because I can see that my games all work reasonably well. It is also nice to know how people are going to react to the games. I know that if there were more people then I would have been able to see a lot more people’s reactions and that is a shame because in that sense this practice workshop is very different to what the real thing is going to be like. When I watch myself back there are a few thinks that I saw that I think I should change and that there are things that I could easy do to improve them. One of the things that I noticed is that all of the people in the workshop will learn at different rates and they might all take different amounts of time to learn the same thing. I now understand that to avoid this I must make sure I am explaining each game as clearly as I possibly can and I must also repeat myself a lot of times and even more if I am going to do the workshop to a younger age group.
I have also had a though that in my next music workshop I could bring in some junk for people to hit and I could begin to evolve my simple and complex rhythms game into a junk rhythms music workshop. I think that this is a very good idea because it will open a lot of doors and I will be able to change the games so that they are more suitable for having a lot of people hitting things to make drum beats. It is also a good idea because I will now be able to look on the internet at junk music workshops that have already taken place and I will be able to take inspiration from what they have done and I will know whether it has worked from the reactions and the reviews that they got about their workshop.
I am going to work on some different ways of explaining the games so that people do not get confused because it did take my group of three quite a long time to get the game considering that they are all music students it think that that is a sign that I could have probably explained the games a bit better to start with.
I am very happy with the overall outcome of my first practice workshop. This is mainly because I can see that my games all work reasonably well. It is also nice to know how people are going to react to the games. I know that if there were more people then I would have been able to see a lot more people’s reactions and that is a shame because in that sense this practice workshop is very different to what the real thing is going to be like. When I watch myself back there are a few thinks that I saw that I think I should change and that there are things that I could easy do to improve them. One of the things that I noticed is that all of the people in the workshop will learn at different rates and they might all take different amounts of time to learn the same thing. I now understand that to avoid this I must make sure I am explaining each game as clearly as I possibly can and I must also repeat myself a lot of times and even more if I am going to do the workshop to a younger age group.
I have also had a though that in my next music workshop I could bring in some junk for people to hit and I could begin to evolve my simple and complex rhythms game into a junk rhythms music workshop. I think that this is a very good idea because it will open a lot of doors and I will be able to change the games so that they are more suitable for having a lot of people hitting things to make drum beats. It is also a good idea because I will now be able to look on the internet at junk music workshops that have already taken place and I will be able to take inspiration from what they have done and I will know whether it has worked from the reactions and the reviews that they got about their workshop.
I am going to work on some different ways of explaining the games so that people do not get confused because it did take my group of three quite a long time to get the game considering that they are all music students it think that that is a sign that I could have probably explained the games a bit better to start with.
Adding some Theory into my Rythems Workshop
I also think that it would be a good idea to add a little bit of theory to my muse workshop. When I say ad some theory I mean show the croup some simple rhythms that have been written out and just explain the rhythms. I would explain the idea of different time signatures and I would also explain what 8th notes are and show them what an 8th note drum grove sounds like. I think that doing a little bit of theory at the begging of my work shop is a very good idea because once I have explained the rhythms that are written down on either a piece of paper or on the white board I will then be able to lead in to an exercise that I have been thinking of. In this exercise I will get different sections of the group to represent different drums or percussive things on the drum score of a simple beat. So I would begin by getting four or five people in the workshop to represent the high hat by clapping their hands. I would get them to clap 8th notes and repeat it. I would then get another four or five people in the ground to represent the bass drum. I would show them where to play as it was written on the score and then I would tell them to keep repeating it. I would then get another 4 or 5 people in the group to represent the snare drum by doing something like clicking their fingers. I hope that everyone would do as I say and I would have a similar beat going to the beat that I showed them the theory to at the beginning of the workshop.
Diary of the lessons and my Plans
Week 1
In the first week of planning our music workshop we thought about all of the different things that we could do for our music workshop. We talked about how the music workshop can tie in with the community. We discussed doing our workshop to young classes, elderly classes or people who are already experienced in music and who already have a basic understanding of music. We talked about some of the things that we could do in our music workshop like games which will include everyone so they don’t feel left out. Richard gave us some ideas for games by showing us some of the games that he plays when he is doing workshops with younger groups of people. One of these games was called the
Forbidden Rhythm. The Forbidden Rhythms rules are as follows: the person who is taking the workshop stands in front of all the people in the workshop and claps one rhythm witch everyone has to remember. This rhythm is called the forbidden rhythm. When the game begins everyone has to stand up. The person clapping the rhythms claps a lot of random rhythms witch everyone has to repeat. When the forbidden rhythm is clapped you must not repeat it. If you forget that then you loose and you have to sit down. This game teaches a basic understanding of
rhythms and helps everyone work as a team and teaches listening.
In the first week of planning our music workshop we thought about all of the different things that we could do for our music workshop. We talked about how the music workshop can tie in with the community. We discussed doing our workshop to young classes, elderly classes or people who are already experienced in music and who already have a basic understanding of music. We talked about some of the things that we could do in our music workshop like games which will include everyone so they don’t feel left out. Richard gave us some ideas for games by showing us some of the games that he plays when he is doing workshops with younger groups of people. One of these games was called the
Forbidden Rhythm. The Forbidden Rhythms rules are as follows: the person who is taking the workshop stands in front of all the people in the workshop and claps one rhythm witch everyone has to remember. This rhythm is called the forbidden rhythm. When the game begins everyone has to stand up. The person clapping the rhythms claps a lot of random rhythms witch everyone has to repeat. When the forbidden rhythm is clapped you must not repeat it. If you forget that then you loose and you have to sit down. This game teaches a basic understanding of
rhythms and helps everyone work as a team and teaches listening.
Week 2
In the second week of planning for our workshop we continued thinking about how we could use different games in our workshops and the affect it would have on the group you are teaching and the overall outcome of the games. I am still thinking about what I want to do for my workshop. I am not sure whether I want to tech a younger age group who have no experience in music or if I want to work with a group of people who already have a basic understanding of music and are probably a bit older. I have a few choices that I am trying to decide between
for my workshop. The first choice is a workshop where everyone has a basic understanding of the guitar and I teach them some scales and some chords. The second idea is a workshop that has rhythms in it. I like this idea because it means I could do a lot of games that are based around clapping and simple rhythms and if the class are understating it all well I could move onto some more complex rhythms and see how they respond to those. My third idea is a workshop that teaches harmony. I think that this is a good idea because I could teach people with their voices and there singing. I do understand that some people are not confident singers and might not like to participate if they don’t want to sing. So I think the harmony workshop would work better with people who are already confident singers and who won’t be ashamed to sing.
In the second week of planning for our workshop we continued thinking about how we could use different games in our workshops and the affect it would have on the group you are teaching and the overall outcome of the games. I am still thinking about what I want to do for my workshop. I am not sure whether I want to tech a younger age group who have no experience in music or if I want to work with a group of people who already have a basic understanding of music and are probably a bit older. I have a few choices that I am trying to decide between
for my workshop. The first choice is a workshop where everyone has a basic understanding of the guitar and I teach them some scales and some chords. The second idea is a workshop that has rhythms in it. I like this idea because it means I could do a lot of games that are based around clapping and simple rhythms and if the class are understating it all well I could move onto some more complex rhythms and see how they respond to those. My third idea is a workshop that teaches harmony. I think that this is a good idea because I could teach people with their voices and there singing. I do understand that some people are not confident singers and might not like to participate if they don’t want to sing. So I think the harmony workshop would work better with people who are already confident singers and who won’t be ashamed to sing.
Week 3
In the third week of planning what we are going to do for our community music workshop I have been thinking about my three main ideas and I have decided that the best thing for me to do is a workshop on rhythms. For my rhythms workshop I am thinking about what games I can put in to teach people rhythms. I have one idea to begin the workshop and to break the ice with the people in the workshop. This idea is a simple game in which involves getting the whole class to clap a rhythm. I will get the group in some kind of formation like a circle and then I will clap them a rhythm. The class will then have to clap the rhythm back to me as accurately as possible but each person can only clap once at a time and it will go round the circle making everyone work as a team to make the rhythm that I originally clapped. That is how I intend to start my workshop.
In the third week of planning what we are going to do for our community music workshop I have been thinking about my three main ideas and I have decided that the best thing for me to do is a workshop on rhythms. For my rhythms workshop I am thinking about what games I can put in to teach people rhythms. I have one idea to begin the workshop and to break the ice with the people in the workshop. This idea is a simple game in which involves getting the whole class to clap a rhythm. I will get the group in some kind of formation like a circle and then I will clap them a rhythm. The class will then have to clap the rhythm back to me as accurately as possible but each person can only clap once at a time and it will go round the circle making everyone work as a team to make the rhythm that I originally clapped. That is how I intend to start my workshop.
Week 4
In the fourth week of planning for our community work shop I have been further thinking about what I can do to keep the people in my workshop engaged and interested in what I’m trying to teach them. I am also thinking about having some sort of theory half of the workshop in which I showthem the rhythms that they are clapping in form of the notation. We have alsobeen told that we will be sharing what we have in our workshops with the restof the class and trying the workshop out on the group to see if our ideas workthe way that we hoped they would work. I am thinking about how my class will respond to my workshop because they are all music students so they have a goodunderstanding of what I am going to be teaching them and the gams that I am going to show them. They will definitely react very differently to a younger age group but it will still be very useful to get there feedback and see whatthey think I can do to improve what I have already done.
In the fourth week of planning for our community work shop I have been further thinking about what I can do to keep the people in my workshop engaged and interested in what I’m trying to teach them. I am also thinking about having some sort of theory half of the workshop in which I showthem the rhythms that they are clapping in form of the notation. We have alsobeen told that we will be sharing what we have in our workshops with the restof the class and trying the workshop out on the group to see if our ideas workthe way that we hoped they would work. I am thinking about how my class will respond to my workshop because they are all music students so they have a goodunderstanding of what I am going to be teaching them and the gams that I am going to show them. They will definitely react very differently to a younger age group but it will still be very useful to get there feedback and see whatthey think I can do to improve what I have already done.
Where am i going to hold my workshop?
Shiplake Collage
Shiplake was the last school that I went to so I already know the head of the music department.
Throughout the cores of the planning process for my workshop I did have a lot of
thoughts about doing my workshop at various different places. One of the places I considered doing it was Gillots School and the John Collet school in Wendover near my house. But one school jumped out at me as being the most conveniently places school since it is in Shiplake and I live in Henley with is on the same train line. Also the fact that know the head of music very well and I know that he would be willing to let me run a workshop to sis students because I am one of his X-students. I also think that it’s the best place out of all of my different options because I know a lot of people at the school who would offer to hold the camera for me so that it is clear what is happening I the workshop. All of the photos below are screenshots that I took when I was in the process of emailing the head of music at shiplake collage whose name is Paul Jones. Paul was my music teacher for the final year of music GCSE so I already know him. The first two pictures show two of the emails that he sent me when I sent him my original email in witched I asked if I could do my Worksop at shiplake. In this email Paul asked me if there are any dates that I had in mind. I responded with anything within this month and I also mentioned how the Fridays of every week this month are the days that suit me best because I have collage on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and on Thursday but I don’t have college on Friday. These emails are the first three that we sent but it shows that shiplake would be interested in having me come in to do my rhythms workshop and that is definitely a positive thing. |
The Video of My Music Workshop
Unfortunately for my music workshop the teacher, Mr Jones who is the head of the shiplake collage music department never responded to my second email that asked what date best suited him. Because of this I decided that the next best thing to a class of people who don't know each other and have mixed abilities is a group of my friends who also have mixed ability's and are all unexperienced in playing musical instruments. The video below was recorded in my living room. I had a group of 8people who all took part in my workshop. I asked them all for small pieces of feedback after the workshop.
Feedback from my music workshop
I asked every one in the workshop if they would give me one out of three marks in my workshop. I have written out the results from this down below.
Mark out of :) :/ :(
Will - :)
Cam - :)
Niles - :/
will - :/
harry - :/
tom - :/
alex - :)
frazer -:)
Mark out of :) :/ :(
Will - :)
Cam - :)
Niles - :/
will - :/
harry - :/
tom - :/
alex - :)
frazer -:)
My workshop on 'Listening'
I was given a small piece of paper with the word ‘listening’on it and I was told that I will be doing a workshop on listening. For this workshop I have decided that doing a lot of rhythm games will help me because I will know if the people are listening by if they do the game right. I have also thought about playing them some music and see how they respond to different music.