WHAT CHILDREN NEED IS A GOOD TUNE! Keynote by Richard McNicol

What are our aims ? Opening up the world of sound to those who are forgetting how to listen Making music together Learning to “understand” music Encouraging the children to: Listen intelligently Work together and cooperate Discuss and negotiate Develop language and learn better to express ourselves Have respect for ideas and the ideas of others Have the confidence to have and to develop new ideas Why contemporary music ? Contemporary musical language Open ears

How do we, the musicians, prepare ourselves ? Choose and analyse repertoire Learn what is possible with different age groups Decide what you wish to achieve and how you might arrive there Discuss the project with the class teacher How do children learn ? Graduated tasks Discussion Repetition and reinforcement

Planning the session Task Experimentations Solution Performance Discussion Pacing, including interludes for listening (the musician(s) perform to the children, followed by questions about and discussion of the music) What you will need A good working space or spaces for group work Instruments The support of the class teacher

In the classroom Begin with an activity that involves immediate music-making Either: question, answer, volunteer, music Or: begin an improvisation and draw the children into it How will the project process ? At the end of session 1: perform what has been achieved and discuss its effectiveness At the beginning of session 2: perform what the children achieved in session 1, then develop the musical ideas further. Introduce the concept of musical structure At the end of the project: perform the completed music (to another class, to the school, to parents) then show and perform the target work (eg Ligeti, Kurtag etc)

Skills to develop Looking at music analytically How to question children How to reject an idea that simply will not work How to involve everyone and especially those with special educational needs Praise and encouragement