= CHILDREN’S DAY EDUCATION PACK Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod 2013 Children’s Day Education Pack 2013 Introduction Thank you for choosing to visit the Llangollen International Eisteddfod’s Children’s Day this year. We are very excited to welcome you. We hope that what we have planned will be a memorable and exciting experience full of fun and surprises. Within this pack you will find some ideas to inspire work within the classroom. In addition to the music, it will inspire children who are maybe studying the solar system, writing space adventures or joining us on the day dressed up in sci-fi costumes they have made. We hope that you find this pack useful and enjoy your discovery on the day. Our Aims and Objections To promote……. Bilingualism Global Citizenship Sustainable development Knowledge and Understanding of the World (FSP) Creative development (FSP) Music skills (KS2) Geography skills (KS2) Children’s Day Education Pack 2013 Peace Message Concert We come in peace! As part of International Children’s Day we present the famous and historic Peace Message concerts by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. The orchestra will perform a collection of pieces based on discovery and the highlight is The Mission of SPM-1 by Gareth Glyn. The Mission of SPM-1 is designed to introduce young children to the orchestra and its instruments, the rudiments of melody and rhythm, and many other elements of musical expression in the most exciting way imaginable – a journey through space in the first ever Starship Powered by Music – SPM-1, captained by Starfleet Commander - Major Skale. In this fantasy, the spaceship is the concert hall, and its power is provided by the orchestra – here known as the Central Orchestral Interstellar Propulsion Unit – COIPU. The various ‚drivers‛ of COIPU are the different orchestral families, and each module of those families is represented by the individual instruments of the orchestra. The ‚crew‛ of SPM-1 are the children in the audience; they will be welcomed by Major Skale as highly-trained crew and vital to the success of the mission – and indeed for the best experience it is worth preparing the children beforehand. This is an interactive work – at various points, the ‚crew‛ will be asked to respond to prompts requiring them to repeat rhythmic or melodic patterns (in the guise of satisfying the demands of the ‚Galactic Sector Police‛); to produce sounds in various ways (e.g. humming, whistling, singing and clapping); and to sing, with the orchestra, a melody which has been specially designed to include every note of the diatonic scale. In the context of Mission of SPM-1, this is the Intergalactic Contact Code. Children’s Day Education Pack 2013 Warm Up Exercises Start with the class standing or sitting in a circle. This means all the children can see and hear each other. However, some of these exercises can take place with the class sitting at desks if you have limited space. 1) Name and Rhythm Warm Up Step One: Clap the rhythm: ‘clap, clap, rest’ to a count of four. Step two: In the rest, the person whose turn it is shouts their name, in the next rest everyone shouts it back to them. Step Three: This carries on round the circle until everyone has had a go. Aim: Ensemble rhythm and ‘multi-tasking’ (doing more than one thing at once.) 2) Pass a Clap Step One: With the class sitting in a circle, each person claps once, until everyone in turn has had a go. Step two: Try and do this as quickly as possible, and make it a real team effort. Step three: Time it and set a challenge to get quicker, to see how well the class is responding and concentrating. Variations: Once the first clap has been established try setting up two claps around the group (one clockwise and one anticlockwise). Take a steady clap round the circle to a count of 4. Only every other person claps. (This works well with an odd number of people in the class.) Children’s Day Education Pack 2013 3) Pass a sound Step One: Instead of clapping, send a different kind of sound around the class e.g. a ‘shh’ noise made with the mouth. Step Two: Ask the children to make a physical movement with the sound, to go with it. (The movement can really help to ‘describe’ the sound.) Step Three: As the sound and movement is passed, you can ask the children to vary the sound and the movement as it goes along. Variation: Get the class to imagine they are passing a flexible and changing object around the room. As the object changes shape so do the sounds it makes. Aim: To gain a creative sense of musical ensemble; by keeping in time, by responding and listening to each other’s ideas, and by performing solo within the whole group. 4) Keep With It Step One: The leader or ‘conductor’ gets the children to clap or stamp exactly in time with him/her. This can only be done if his/her movements are really clear and easy to follow. (You’re not trying to catch them out.) Step Two: Once the class is in time with you, you can vary the sounds that the class makes and vary the signs that are needed to cue them. For instance, a quiet, murmuring sound can be cued with wiggling fingers on both hands held close together. Step Three: As the ‘conductor’s’ hands move apart the murmuring gets louder, as they come together, it gets quieter. Step Four: Once the class has got the hang of this, you can invite a member of the class to be the ‘conductor’. Aim: To gain a sense of ensemble by paying close attention to a leader. Also, for some children to gain a sense of musical responsibility by becoming the leader. Children’s Day Education Pack 2013 5) Don’t clap this one back The leader claps the simple rhythm, which fits to the words: ‚Don’t clap thisone back‛. (You can think of it as ‘slow, slow, quick-quick slow’ to help pick up the rhythm.) Step One: As the class learns the rhythm, get them to say, ‚Don’t clap this-one back‛ at the same time. Step Two: Once mastered, this becomes the rhythm that is not to be clapped back. Step Three: The leader claps all sorts of rhythms, lasting 4 beats or thereabouts, and the class clap them straight back. Step Four: If they clap ‚Don’t clap this-one back‛ they are out. 6) Heads To Toes Step One: The leader asks the class to follow him/her as s/he goes along. Step two: S/he starts by tapping her head 8 times, shoulders 8 times, knees 8 times, toes 8 times – all in time. Step three: The next time round it’s 4 times on each, then 2 then 1. Step four: Repeat, but do it faster. Step five: Carry on until you run out of breathe! Children’s Day Education Pack 2013 Variations:  Repeat the exercise, but this time do the count on 7,5,3,1 – odd numbers instead of even.  Ask the class which they found harder and why. Aim: This exercise, (apart from being fun and keeping you fit) concentrates the mind on rhythm and a simple number sequence at the same time. All the exercises are good as a way in to musical improvisation and composition, and to get children in the right frame of mind for making music together. Above all, they’re great for teaching how to keep in time. Children’s Day Education Pack 2013 Exercises To Teach The ICC The Intergalactic Contact Code uses every note of the major scale and uses Tonic sol fa to describe the notes. You do not need to be Julie Andrews to teach children about Do Ray Me! Teaching Tonic sol-fa is simply a question of building up the children’s knowledge note by note. For this, Tonic sol-fa hand signals can also be used to help reaffirm the notes that they are singing. For the purposes of these exercises the examples will work in the key of C, so the only notes you need are C D E F G A B C. The notes and hand signals of the major scale are as follows: Children’s Day Education Pack 2013 Step One – Singing Begin by repeatedly singing each of these examples. (If you are not confident enough to just sing the examples have an instrument close at hand to help you.) With each example the children should echo what you have sung and played. Children’s Day Education Pack 2013 Children’s Day Education Pack 2013 Children’s Day Education Pack 2013 Step One – Instruments Use unpitched percussion to keep a steady beat in 3 time. Possibly with a deeper or louder instrument on beat one to emphasise the first beat. Introduce each of the following parts on the instruments using C D E G A and high C By introducing each of these layers the Tonic sol-fa notes are re-established and it creates a simple piece for the children to play. I would suggest that each part is brought in one at a time until all are playing and then reverse the sequence to finish. Experiments can be done as to which instrument should go first and which should finish last. The last part is improvised with the only restriction being the choice of notes. Children’s Day Education Pack 2013 Step Two – Singing Before moving on, sing through the first bar of the Intergalactic contact code. Now sing through the following phrases Children’s Day Education Pack 2013 Step Two – Instruments Now on instruments put together the following parts. Use unpitched percussion to keep in 3 time, experiment with different combinations of percussion to provide this beat e.g. drum and cymbal, triangle and shaker, wood block and cabassa. If you felt more adventurous you could try player two on a different starting note which would mean player two was playing in an alternative key. Children’s Day Education Pack 2013 Step Three – Singing Before moving on sing through the first two bars of the Intergalactic Contact Code Children’s Day Education Pack 2013 With singing and hand gestures now try the following Children’s Day Education Pack 2013 Step Three – Instruments Now with the instruments put the following parts together Children’s Day Education Pack 2013 Step Four – Singing Sing the whole Intergalactic Contact Code with hand signals. Have unpitched percussion to keep it in time, with one bar introduction from the percussion before each entry, sing through a total of four times. Step Four – Instruments Now try playing the Intergalactic Contact Code on instruments, again with unpitched percussion to keep the 3 time pulse. At the end of these exercises the Intergalactic contact code should be familiar to everyone. Make sure that everyone has had a go at both keeping the pulse and playing the melody. Children’s Day Education Pack 2013 The Intergalactic contact code will be harmonised by the orchestra in a different way each time it appears, but they will be strong harmonies which will help the children. The example below provides a piano part for the code (which includes the bar’s rest between repetitions of the tune) and includes a simple diatonic harmonisation (not used in the orchestral version) which might be useful for classroom practice: Additional Ideas  Design and make a space ship  Design a flag to represent International Music, Song and Dance.  Produce your own graphic score.  Write a space adventure meeting Alien’s from different countries with different talents. Children’s Day Education Pack 2013 Reading List The magic school bus lost in the solar system Joanna Cole (KS2) Aliens love underpants Claire Freedman The story of astronomy & space Louie Stowell & Peter Allen (FSP) (6 - 11yrs) Websites Listed below are recommended websites to support with the learning of the solar system and the orchestra. www.spacekids.co.uk www.kidsastronomy.com www.planetsforkids.org http://www.bbc.co.uk/orchestras/learn/guidetotheorchestra/conductor/ (This leads to a further insight via video clips into sections from the orchestra such as brass, woodwind, strings and percussion.)