Instrument Picnic
Instrument Picnic is a music-making project for children aged under five and their families, run by Wren Music, a community folk arts charity based in Devon.
"Instrument Picnic" refers to the section of the session where real tuned instruments are laid out for the children (and adults!) to explore and to choose which to use in that week's session. The excitement is enhanced by the instruments being hidden for the rest of the session by a cloth. The music leader stimulates a ‘reveal’ by asking for a roll on the knees!
Over decades Wren has worked hard to establish a treasure trove of traditional folk instruments for participants of all ages to explore. We bring real mandolins, fiddles, autoharps, Appalachian dulcimers, guitars, squeeze boxes and ukuleles for everyone to play. But we tune them all to an open D tuning so that it can’t fail to sound good!
Songs are used for generating drumming and percussion patterns, and to give us a scaffold to make a band during our instrument activities. Children chanting ‘buzz like a bee’ find the pulse they need to coordinate their strumming, squeezing or bowing. Singing for dancing is also effective, as well as coming back to favourite, familiar songs, so that children can be the experts.
At the heart of the Instrument Picnic project was the aim of inspiring and enabling parents and carers to bring music into their everyday lives with their children.
"I like to see the children so happy when singing, playing instruments and dancing. It’s good that they are learning new things about music as well as speaking English. The Wren Music leaders are very good teachers and they know how to make the children happy" Amani, Syrian Refugee, parent of 4 year old girl and 7 year old boy
As we emerged from lockdowns, Instrument Picnic was important for our music leader development. Two of the musicians on this project joined us as trainees just before the first lockdown. Having two Wren Music leaders co-leading each session has been important to Wren throughout the entire Instrument Picnic journey. Not only giving the benefit of consistent and friendly faces to build trusting relationships, but also so that participants could gain from the sparks that come from two artists working together.
“Before this project I had only worked with under-fives a few times. Working with Sarah – who is also a parent of a toddler – has really helped develop my understanding of what musical activities are right for each stage of development. I didn’t realise we’d have to hide the instruments if we didn’t want them to grab them right away!”
Hannah Cumming, musician
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