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Move, Explore, Create

Community Music Project 2014

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What is Community Music?

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•  An initiative of the Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy Centre •  Local pre-school •  6 week program •  Approximately 45 infants •  1 trained music therapist •  4 participating staff members •  My role was to observe and assist in sessions, then partially

facilitate the sessions (three songs)

My Community Music Project

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Images from the program

‘Move’ component of the program, singing and moving to the Hokey Pokey.

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Images from the program

‘Exploring and moving’ component of the program, whilst playing the drum.

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Images from the program

‘Create’ component of the program, whilst playing individual percussive instruments.

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•  Introduce music to the learning week •  Infant and group engagement •  Enhancing numeracy and literacy skills •  Staff/professional development

•  Useful to note that during these sessions, staff would follow the cue of the therapist when trying to engage children with known learning disabilities, or difficult children, particularly in the younger groups. Rather than excluding the child in the activity - or forcing them into it - an environment of inclusivity was created by using instruments, voice and movement.

Goals for this project

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Framework

Move individual experience, awareness of behaviour, motor and physical movement, body awareness and environment Explore individual and collective experiences, cognition, creativity and non-verbal communication Create collective experience, sensory integration, social skills, self regulation, functional communication (basically school readiness)

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Executing these aims through framework

Move -  Eg The “Hokey Pokey”, other dancing songs which focus on engaging

and cooperating with each other. -  “Beat on the drum” – involves listening skills executed by therapist via

a range of dynamics, tempo changes and rhythmic gestures (also keeps things interesting)

Explore -  “I’ve got a sound and it goes like this” encourages group to be aware of

the actions and sounds of their peers. -  Exploring variety of reading materials and musical puppet songs that

incorporate use of numbers and enable verbal contribution Create -  Use of individual percussive instruments, and taking ownership in

doing so.

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My Written Reflection / Challenges Experienced

Written reflection & essay I will be discussing Community Music through the framework of Nordoff Robbins’ ‘Move, Explore, Create’ and the paper, Sound links which looks into both informal and formal, learning and teaching in music (Bartleet et al. 2009). In addition to this, and slightly digressing from Community Music, I intend to observe the notions of Music Therapy to define Community Music in a manner of contrast. Where Music Therapy seeks to connect meaningfully with the client and establish a personal musical voice for the client (Darnley-Smith & Patey, 2003), or reach their inner voice (Priestly, 1975), Community Music engages with its audience for various goals. •  Website: http://communitymusicandmore.wordpress.com

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My Written Reflection / Challenges Experienced

Challenges & Learnings •  Administratively – could not photograph all children, and no

video as it would capture those without parental permission. •  Youngest group (18 month to 3 year olds) – lack of

concentration. •  The somewhat unpredictable nature of children! •  Staffing

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An example of Project and Structure

•  Hello song •  Percussive songs – we’re gonna make some music & shake

your sillies out •  Goodbye song – call and response

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End of Presentation!