Quotations
Some
Quotes
What else have you learnt about?
| (Girls) |
“I learnt
to use words and put them in songs” |
| |
“I’ve
learnt that you don’t have to use a CD player to make the
music”
“I’ve learnt how to play the Switches and the Beams
“ I have
learnt to write a techtractis poem and I have learnt how to do some
movements and (like) some dances”
“I have
learnt how to writ(e) techtractis poems and that you don’t
need a(n) Instrument or your voices to make music but you can use
technology.
|
| (Boys) |
“I have
learnt how to write tectratys poems and you can use technology to
make music” |
| |
“I’ve
learnt that you don’t have to use instruments to make music”
“I learnt
that Soundbeam goes low high low”
“techno(lo)gy
into musc”
“I have
learned about tectractis poems”
“I hav(e) learned how to play Soundbeam and the Switches”
“How to
write techtractis poems, and a poem”
“I have
learnt how to play Soundbeam switches”
“I have
learnt about technology and how to use it”
“I’ve
learnt that you don’t have to use in(s)truments. (you) all
you do is press a switch and use a sensor.” |
Would
you like to do another project like this? If yes, what would you like
it to include?
| (Girls) |
“Yes more
of the Switches” |
| |
“I
would love to do a project like that again and I would like it to
include dancing”
“I would
like another project that included, basically, any kind of music
and computers”
“Yes,
and I would like you to teach us how to play guitar and teach us
to make our own poems, and have a competition at the end of the
day to see
who wrote the best poem.”
“Yes.
I would like to include pop music - some drama.” (2 responses)
“Yes
I would like to have another go, but could I go on beams more?”
“Yes!
I would like to play instruments more.”
“Yes.
Art – Heather – Adrian - Steve”
|
| (Boys) |
“Yes
I would (like another project) because it’s fun. I would like
in it drums, Soundbeam, singing and the beams” |
| |
“Yes!
More poetry and more interviews* and more instruments”
“Yes.
I would like it to include more technology”
“Yes.
I would like to include different instruments and different noises.”
“Yes.
I would like to make more sounds on the Soundbeam Switches.”
“Yes.
I would like it to include ICT.”
“Yes.
I would like to include teaching people how to play instruments.”
“Yes.
I would like to use the Switches more, and more acting”
“Yes.
I would like it to include Soundbeam Switches and beams”
“No.” |
What else
would you like to say about “Seasons and Cycles”?
| (Girls) |
“It was
great working with Heather, Adrian and Steve. We miss you.” |
| |
“It
was brilliant. I enjoyed everything.”
“The
Project was not easy”
“Seasons
and Cycles was the best project that I’ve done in Leighswood
School.”
“It was
all brilliant, and it was worth Monday afternoon. I really liked
the video, and I would love to do another Project. Thanks.” |
| (Boys) |
“It
was the very, very best Project I have ever done” |
| |
“It
was brilliant”
“I did
n’t like singing”
“I would
like to make more sounds on the sound beam switches”
“Projects
are not easy”
“ I thought
Seasons and Cycles was brill, and I would like to do a
different play again”
“You need
to do more work than you think.”
“It was
magnificent and very, very, very, very, very, very, very,
very fun!!!”
“I would
like to say I liked people dancing in Sensors. I also like to
say I like pressing Switches.”
“How can
we make it more interesting – like mak(ing) a game?”
“I would
have liked to play the Switches more instead of singing. I
think it was the best project I’ve ever done.”
“It was
fun and I like(d) it. I liked the bluebell one.”
“I liked
the conkers best”
|
Sampling
Session
Mrs
Jan Taylor. (Head Teacher, Leighswood School)
‘…an educational benefit, and one that fitted
in with what we think of as our ethos, as part of our school culture,
which is one of encouraging all children to participate in something
and to perform, really, because we do want children to have that wonderful
experience and the confidence that comes with it.’
‘On other levels it will have meant more to some
individuals in terms of the develop-
ment of their confidence, irrespective of the musicality of it –
just them as young
people growing and developing. Some will have gained more than others.
Some of
them will have participated with people in groupings that might not
have ever arisen,
because, whilst they are a mixed ability class, we teach by group and
teach by ability,
and they’ve had a different grouping for this, which is good for
them as individuals.’
***
Heather
Wastie (Composer/librettist)
‘…He
was the one who brought me a tune scored out. He just drew four lines,
and then he drew quavers and crotchets on the lines, and I interpreted
it and said “Is this what you mean?” and he said “Yes”’.
HS. ‘I think
it was after that, when you used that tune, you could see the sense
of pride that he’d got that it was his idea, that seemed to
bring him, pull him further into it.’.
Mrs
Helena Smith. (Class Teacher, 4S, Leighswood School)
Because some
of them would say things like “Oh! That’s my tune you
know” –
it would be a tune that they’d given to you, and then you’d
put it into Soundbeam and
changed it, and they would say “That’s my tune”,
and they would recognise it, so
they knew that it was something that had been put in and that you
could change it
around.
***
‘I think it’s given some of the children opportunities
to shine in ways they wouldn’t have shone in the classroom -
given them the chance to see each other in a different light because…
KC. …they’re
seen to be shining in something whereas normally they wouldn’t
be seen by the others to have particular …’
***
Mrs
Kathleen Curd (Specialist Music Teacher, Leighswood School)
‘Yes, concentration’s
got to be there, as you could see on the faces of the children when
they were actually performing. But they weren’t concentrating
on making the sound like“fingers in the right place”,
“mouth right” and everything - they were concentrating
on when to come in….’
Michael
Parrott (Group Manager for Arts and Development, Walsall Metropolitan
Borough Council)
‘One of the most important things is that Soundbeam is a mechanism
for inclusive-ness. It can be inclusiveness within a particular cohort
of children, it could be a method of different groups of children coming
together’
‘There
are many boys who would not necessarily want to play an orchestral type
in-strument, but would be absolutely fascinated by the technical and
then the musical capacities of Soundbeam, or related technology.
‘Now, I really do believe that Soundbeam is a means by which
children can be brought in to making music with potentially less initial
barriers…’
***
‘…When
you actually talk to the boys, they’re far more intrigued by
technology, computers, other possibilities. I suppose that, in music
education today, we haven’t really got the bonding of traditional
music making and technology close enough within schools, or early
enough, so that boys can actually identify it, and then lock into
it
which is why I’m looking at this as a major issue of inclusiveness’
***
Sheltering
from the storm
Dr Nicholas Bannan (International Institute for Research in Music Education,
University of Reading)
‘…this
was an ordinary class, they had not been selected for this, it was
done in time taken out of class time, not after school. It was being
done as a class activity, not as a specialist extra-curricular music
club.’
***
‘…there’s this wonderful transfer of these sounds
from being live to being sampled, to being sampled and manipulated,
and then back again and then mixed together, the live and the sound
samples
***
I think that the idea of contagion - i.e. being excited by what other
people do - is one of the things we miss out on the kind of music
curriculum which we have in this country. The written documentation
doesn’t tell us anything about how to do that well. This project
achieves that brilliantly.
|
Three
poems by members of Class 4S, Leighswood School
Jake
and Ryan
Red
Shiny
Cricket ball
Hit the white wickets with the cricket ball
When they throw the cricket ball they hit it
With the white bat
With the bat
Red ball
Red
Jessica & Marshall
White
White snow
Shining snow
Sparkling white snow
Christmas has snow, lovely snow, lovely snow
Scott
Red
Roses
Beautiful
Delicacies
Growing each day till they’re big and they’re strong
All opened up from the day to the night
Delicacies
Beautiful
Roses
Great
|
