OUT OF THE BOX CREATIVE LEARNING GUIDE MORE INFORMATION AVAILABLE AT OUTOFTHEBOXFESTIVAL.COM.AU

Early Years FrameworkOutcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity.Outcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world.

QUEENSLAND CURRICULUM ASSESSMENT AUTHORITYESSENTIAL LEARNINGSTHE ARTS Ways of workingPractise arts works, using interpretive and technical skills. Knowledge and understanding: Music: Familiar sound sources, including vocal and instrumental sources, have characteristic sound qualities (tone colour).SOSEKnowledge and understandingCulture and identity: Groups and communities are identified by practices, symbols and celebrations that reflect their values, beliefs and sense of belonging.

AUSTRALIAN CURRICULUM v8.1Science Year 1: Light and sound are produced by a range of sources and can be sensed (ACSSU020). Year 3: Compare results with predictions, suggesting possible reasons for findings (ACSIS215).Music: F-2 Create compositions and perform music to communicate ideas to an audience (ACAMUM082).Music: 3-4Develop aural skills by exploring, imitating and recognising elements of music including dynamics, pitch and rhythm patterns (ACAMUM084).Humanities and Social Sciences: 3-4Knowledge and understanding: History.Celebrations and commemorations in places around the world (ACHASSK065).

3–8 Years

AGE RANGE 3–8 YearsVENUE Nepalese Peace Pagoda, South BankCOST FREEBOOKINGS None requiredRefer to Festival Timetable on pp. 16-17 for available times and dates.

Gong Garden

Set in a tranquil garden around South Bank’s Nepalese Pagoda, tap, rub and hum your way to mindfulness. Take an evocative journey through a garden of ancient and beautiful gongs and singing bowls. Discover the sounds, sensations and philosophy of these fascinating instruments and join in improvised musical play with internationally acclaimed gong artist Michael Askill.

an out of the box festival production

OUT OF THE BOX CREATIVE LEARNING GUIDE MORE INFORMATION AVAILABLE AT OUTOFTHEBOXFESTIVAL.COM.AU

CREATIVE LEARNING GUIDE The Gong Garden is a highly sensorial area with gong artist Michael Askill. Gongs and singing bowls are central instruments in Asia, being used in traditional ceremonies and events. Sound is created through reverberation and this sound changes depending upon the size of the bowl or gong (size can range from very tiny, to over a meter in diameter!). These are very physical percussion instruments to play, their tone and timbre changes according to the intensity of the reverberation. Michael Askill presents a wonderful workshop for children that enables them to find out what happens when you mix water and singing bowls, or your feet and singing bowls!

ART FORM FOCUS:The Arts: Music, Dance

KEY MESSAGES:How can music help us find our way in life?

LEARNING OPPORTUNITY:Exposure to different types of percussion instruments through making, listening and playing in a variety of contexts helps broaden children’s understanding of the use of music in everyday life. Children will play, create and listen to a variety of music through the course of the activities.

LEARNING ACTIVIITES:THINGS YOU CAN HIT! GETTING TO KNOW PERCUSSION INSTRUMENTS… Discuss percussion instruments – things you can hit! • Exploring YouTube or video examples of percussion • Focus on pitched and un-pitched. Ask children to identify which

is which. • Talk about uses for drums – origins as the first musical

instruments, use for communication, making music, warning indicators

HOW MANY INSTRUMENTS? • How many different percussion instruments are there? • Name as many as you can. • Listen to parts of Varese’s Ionisation from https://www.youtube.

com/watch?v=a9mg4KHqRPw , asking children to identify the instruments they can hear (40+ instruments, 13 players):

Answers include: 3 bass drums (medium, large, very large), 2 tenor drums, 2 snare drums, tarole (a kind of piccolo snare drum), 2 bongos, tambourine, fi eld drum, crash cymbal, suspended cymbals, 3 tam-tams, gong, 2 anvils, 2 triangles, sleigh bells, cowbell, chimes, glockenspiel, piano, 3 temple blocks, claves, maracas, castanets, whip, güiro, high & low sirens, and a lion’s roar. Explore how percussionists play everything that isn’t wind, brass or strings.

MAKE YOUR OWN GONGS AND DRUMS • Using found objects, make your own gongs and drums. Examples might include: tins with brown paper and rubber bands, cake tins, bins or lids.• Ask children what the sound sources are for instruments (eg. air,

string vibration etc.). • Explore the sound possibilities on both newly-created and

existing instruments.• Use gongs for everyday life – call for dinner, stop play, signal

bedtime.

MAKE A MUSICAL GARDENUse found objects, made instruments, and existing instruments. Locate the instruments outside. • Encourage children to explore and experience playing sounds

outdoors. • Record the sounds on an iphone or similar and play the recording

indoors. • Ask: What makes this into music?• Discuss the differences between music and noise.

USE OF MUSIC FOR CULTURAL PURPOSES • Discuss percussion-based music from a variety of cultures. Examples:

– Javanese gamelan (see www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1AiCTJ9t8g)

– Tibetan singing with bowl gongs (see www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cojWneotA4)

– Found objects in the Australian outback (see www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w34dtEDCY )

• Explore the function of the music in relation to their culture – for entertainment, ceremonial, functional.

LEARNING MUSIC • Sing a song learned by rote and repetition. • Improvise a piece on found objects. • Play (or demonstrate) a piece read from a music score • Explore different ways of notating music – pictures or graphics,

through sound recordings or through scores.• Discuss the reasons for preserving music through recording and

manuscripts.

OUT OF THE BOX CREATIVE LEARNING GUIDE MORE INFORMATION AVAILABLE AT OUTOFTHEBOXFESTIVAL.COM.AU

OTHER RESOURCES WEBSITES / BOOKSEncyclopedia of Percussion, John Beck, Taylor & Francis, Encyclopedia of Percussion John Beck, Taylor & Francis, Encyclopedia of Percussion 1995 Powerpoint: What are graphic scores? www.primaryresources.co.uk/music/powerpoint/graphic_scores.ppt