Published on

You are here:

City of London Sinfonia: Tower Hamlets KS1 workshops - rhythm and pulse

This month City of London Sinfonia was in Tower Hamlets primary schools with our wonderful workshop leader Claire Bloor, introducing children to all things brass.

This project marked the end of our Tower Hamlets schools work for this year, but the beginning of our Youth Music funded project which will continue through next school year.  This is a project in partnership with Tower Hamlets Arts and Music Education Service (THAMES) who chose the schools who took part.  THAMES helped us to identify the gap in the services provided by cultural partners across the borough – we chose to work with Key Stage 1 classes, as there is a significant amount of music work happening for both Early Years children and Key Stage 2, but there were no music projects happening for KS1.  The project is focused on providing children with an opportunity to experience live classical music, whilst building skills in musical concepts, as well as strengthening the skills of teachers of KS1 classes in Tower Hamlets.     

The sport-themed project this month consisted of workshops in four primary schools, where children worked with Claire and our brass players on building a variety of musical skills and learning about the rowdiest section of the Orchestra – our brass players!  The workshops were followed by a bespoke schools concert for participating classes.  I thought it might be useful for teachers and other music practitioners to get a flavour of what went on in this project with a couple of specific examples of musical activities which were used, devised by our workshop leader, Claire. One musical concept which was really solidified through the workshops was rhythm and pulse.   

Working around the theme of sport, many of the activities in the workshops were very focused on fast and slow and introducing the concept of tempo change.  Claire used a modified version of the children’s rhyme ‘Slowly, slowly goes the garden snail’ – the snail section is sung in a slow tempo and the song changes to a fast tempo when the mouse section is sung. The song allows the children to feel the difference between fast and slow and the visual aid of a mouse and snail is very effective. In the workshops Claire used a snail and mouse soft toys.  One child in the circle held the mouse while the snail was slowly passed around the circle, with all singing the snail song.  When the snail reached the mouse in the circle, the fast mouse song began and the mouse was passed around the circle until it reached the snail.  This activity really came to life when the brass musicians joined Claire for the final workshop and added harmonies to the simple song.

Another activity which worked around these ideas is called Shy Numbers.  This exercise is used to help even very young children to internalise pulse and rhythm. Using the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 the group says the numbers out loud whilst keeping a steady pulse i.e a beat is created by just saying the numbers. The numbers are described as being shy. One number is so shy that it does not like its name to be said out loud. The group replaces saying this number with a finger to the lips and a shhh sound. This is known as internalising the beat. This activity requires actual numbers being cut out of card so there is a visual stimulus. The shy number needs to be hidden once it has been chosen by a member of the class. This activity can be extended by allowing the group to choose a different sound for the shy number other than a shhh. This could be the sound of a drum or a vocal noise created by a member of the group.

These are just two examples of the exercises used in the workshops which helped children to solidify concepts of rhythm and pulse.  The key to the success of this project was to make all exercises fun and relevant.  All of the activities linked back to the sports theme of the project and concepts learned were highlighted in the pieces performed by the brass quintet in the concert.  Lots of musical examples were used in the workshops and children learned new concepts through fun and engaging activities. 

More to come about the concert portion of this project.  Do get in touch if you’d like any more information on the activities used in these workshops.

-Gillian Hunter, Education Manager and Claire Bloor, workshop leader, City of London Sinfonia