Song writing in the Early Years

mac makes music explores song writing with young children in the Early Years at Allens Croft children’s Centre, Birmingham.

Folk-rock musician, singer, songwriter Dan Whitehouse worked with children aged 3-4 at Allens Croft Children’s Centre Birmingham. Song writing was explored with children for half a day per week for six weeks. The aim of the project was to explore musical composition and lyric writing based upon the children’s personal interests and preferences.

This was Dan’s first time of working in Early Years and was accompanied by Early Years music specialist Nicola Burke during three of the sessions to offer support. Dan shared a range of songs with the children, and invited the children to share songs with him. The initial sessions were exploratory and allowed Dan and the children to get to know each and unearth musical ideas and interests. The sessions involved singing, dancing, improvising, conducting and call and response.

This activity all took place within an open space during free flow time, with children entering, observing, joining in and leaving at their own free will.   The aim of the free flow sessions was to allow the children to direct and lead the musical activity and for Dan to learn about the children’s musical interests. He used open ended questions which lead into some very imaginative and interesting conversations with the children.  To begin writing lyrics, Dan gradually introduced the idea of conversation blending into song by switching between using his talking and singing voice fluidly.

The instruments used throughout the project were guitars, ukuleles, a range of hand held percussion, looper with wireless microphones, iPads with virtual instruments and a keyboard.

Following on from the free flow activity that took place initially, the sessions became more structured and Dan worked with smaller groups of 4-5 children.

• The children were invited to talk about ideas they had suggested in the free flow sessions and Dan began to sing the words that were suggested, through conversation with the children, the lyrics developed further.

• The children sang the lyrics they had created, sometimes individually, sometimes as a group.

• Instruments were connected to an audio looper to enable them to be recorded quickly and the instant playback worked as an audio mirror. Children added layers of sounds to the song and gradually the children were able to hear the songs being created.

• Collectively, the children decided when a song was finished.

The song writing process encouraged group discussion and supported children’s listening skills. Teacher Lianne commented that the process was at times cathartic suggesting that the song writing process can be used to support children’s personal, social and emotional development at this young age.

Throughout the project it became clear that some children were developing an understanding of song writing.  Towards the end of the project children were extremely excited to write songs:

“I would like to write a song about Cats” – Girl aged 4

Here are the lyrics that she went on to write:

Josie the cat was eaten up

Josie doesn’t have a voice

 

If Josie could come back to life

She would say “Meow!”

What else would she say?

 

Josie became a little girl

It was her birthday, she wore her best party hat

 

Teacher Lianne reflects on the experiences of the children.

Some of the children who had communication difficulties displayed great interest and were eager to get involved. The children were able to communicate through an alternative language - music. Some of the quieter children who had created their own lyrics showed an increase in confidence by standing up in front of others to singing their song. The artist was able to turn their stories into simplified phrases and all the lyrics used were from the children. This gave them greater self-esteem in their ability to be music makers. 

It was wonderful to observe how children’s thoughts can be turned into lyrics for a song. I still feel that I need to build up my own confidence in my music ability, although I do feel this project has helped me to recognise and value musical skills children display.  

Dan Whitehouse reflects on his experience of the project.

Co-constructing is a term that Nicola and I discussed and a brilliant way of describing the working method with this project. My aim was to empower the young people to write songs, by highlighting and amplifying their passing thoughts. Demonstrating how these ideas are valuable stepping stones on the creative path and as such must be cherished.

On the music we made:

Listening back to the music composed is inspiring and whilst the recordings are raw I do not want to embellish them or treat them with any post production music tech techniques.

Nicola said something that resonated deeply with me. She drew a comparison to visual art, drawings. She said “you would not paint over, or correct a child’s drawing, so why do that to their music”

On the live performance:

At the performance share event at the end of the project it was interesting to observe the facial expressions of the young songwriters. When we announced we would be sharing a song from one of the songwriters, he covered his face but slowly during the performance he moved his hands away from his eyes and found the courage to watch the reaction of his peers which was very supportive – he allowed himself to release a huge smile.