I Can Download and Play!
What is I Can Play?
I Can Play! is part of Music4U's Youth Music funded project that spans across York, the East Riding and Hull, which aims to create musical opportunities for children and young people in challenging circumstances. This project focuses on increasing opportunities for D/deaf children and young people and is currently delivering long term projects in York and the East Riding, with provision starting in Hull this academic year.
Through this project, D/deaf children and young people will have the opportunity to:
- Try out instruments and participate in music-making activities and workshops;
- Find out about the opportunities to access instrumental learning and music-making in their local area;
- Meet instrumental tutors and increase their knowledge and confidence about making music;
- Be introduced to role models in the music-making community, including professional deaf musicians and music leaders;
- Participate and perform through music workshops and sharing events;
- Share the experience with their families, teachers and carers, who will also develop their knowledge and confidence around accessing music-making opportunities.
Impact of Covid-19
As restrictions on group music making came into place, all Music4U projects had to stop face to face delivery. This meant many of the children and young people who engage with Music4U, would be without their music groups, which often provide increased wellbeing and social interaction through musical education. The Music4U team quickly became aware of the gap in provision that would open up, particuarly as we had no idea of how long these restritions would last. As homeschooling started, a wealth of digital resources became available online but for many D/deaf children and young people these videos were inaccessible, with no communication support available within the videos i.e. Sign Supported English or British Sign Language.
After identifying this gap in provision, discussions opened up between our music practitioners who lead I Can Play! in the region and we devised I Can Download and Play!, a set of musical videos that would be accessible to D/deaf children and cover a variety of topics including:
- Singing
- Percussion - including junk percussion making
- Flute
- Brass
All videos provide accessible ways of interacting with musical themes or instruments without the need for prior musical education or expensive instruments. Although the videos would be accessible to hearing children as well, they are tailored to meet the needs of D/deaf children and explore areas like singing, that are often neglected in D/deaf musical education, as some children can be reluctant to use their voices. However, the I Can Download and Play! videos provide a fun and engaging way of exploring this, with call and response chants, songs with actions/movements - often exploring musical features such as pitch and rhythm by trying out songs 'higher', 'lower' or 'double speed'.
The videos are being released every couple of weeks with opportunities for children to go away and make instruments or develop their own videos to share back with us, to give them a sense of community and interaction with their music leaders that they have developed fantastic relationships with.
Some comments from participants and their parents who have interacted with the videos were
[Sean and Jenni] are funny and I learnt how to sing!
My daughter is having great fun and at the same time they are very educational.
I didn't know about warming up and it has helped me to sing better
She usually didn’t sing, but through these exercises she loved it.
I'm happy to sing and play together now
Sean is funny and the music makes me want to dance
It would be wonderful if other Youth Music funded organisaitions wanted to share these videos with children and young people, you can find all the resources on our webpage at www.ncem.co.uk/icanplay or contact us on education@ncem.co.uk.