Anna Scantlebury and Abi Cotton are the creators of Piccolo Music, running singing sessions for parents and their under fives in the North East. Aside from these singing sessions, they have recorded a wealth of songs which are available on CD, and have recently won a Practical Pre-School award for their children's radio show: 'A Basketful of Songs'. Bongo Club talks to Anna Scantlebury about how it all started.

How did Piccolo Music come about?
It started when our children were small. About ten years ago we would do quite a lot of singing at home with our toddlers, just to keep ourselves sane! From then on, we got a few friends together and would meet once a week as a fundraising effort for the National Child Birth Trust. The sessions started off in my house and then we borrowed a room at the local school. Then it developed - we thought maybe we could make it into a business, so we hired a church hall and made it open to the public. We charged a couple of pounds for people to come along and sing with us. It grew through word of mouth - we booked six weeks at the church hall, thinking if it takes off, it takes off, if it doesn't, we'll carry on at home. It took off big time! This was back in 2000, and we started off with just half a dozen children, and it grew and grew. A couple of years ago we were doing twelve sessions a week, which involved literally hundreds of children. We also now work in a lot of early years settings, passing on the skills we've learnt.

How did 'A Basketful of Songs' come about?
We were always interested in the idea of radio for children, and found that there was nothing around if you weren't into watching television or videos all day. There was no radio for children. I looked on the Internet and the only thing I came across was Abracadabra - a digital channel that was running several years ago in London. I contacted the person who was involved in that, and found out that it had been set up by Susan Stranks, who was one of the Magpie presenters! I was intrigued, so I contacted her by email and said that we loved the work that she was doing, and the radio station. We sent her some of our CD's, and she was interested in the work that we were doing, but there wasn't an opening there as it were. In the end Abracadabra was bought out and taken over by Sky and has become part of something called Fun Radio Live.

We followed things up a couple of years after that, and sent Susan Stranks our latest CD, saying that we were still very interested if there was any possibility of having some of the songs played on the radio. She persuaded the people at Fun Radio Live that we could do a pilot radio programme of some children's songs for under fives. She gave us a script for 'A Basketful of Songs' and we went to the recording studio to record the introductions to a large number of our songs. It came back and we listened to it and it had been transformed into this rather lovely programme! It's an eight-minute programme, featuring a song monster who doesn't have very good manners and says things like "I want some more". A voice comes on and says things like "You need to say please!", so the monster says please and we sing him another song! It's been airing since April 2007 on each weekday around 11.00am.

We've also been sending the radio show around to nurseries and various early years settings, with a questionnaire for them to try it out with their children. We're waiting for the feedback to come back at the moment so that we can gather more concrete evidence about how the children have responded to it. We also put the radio show forward for an award with Practical Pre-School Magazine, which runs awards for new and innovative products for early years practitioners. We won a sliver award, which we're delighted with and the review they ran was very positive. We're hoping that in the future we'll be able to record more radio show material. There's definitely a gap when it comes to songs that are available for babies under two.

What do you have to consider with under two's when it comes to singing songs?

It's about keeping their attention and the length of the song. It's about the delivery of the song as much as what you're actually singing. We pay a lot of attention to pauses - we're not strictly set to a beat. We have pauses where the babies can anticipate what's going to happen, which might be a little tickle or a little peek-a-boo! We vary the tempo, pitch and volume so that all these things keep their attention. We us a lot of traditional songs like 'Pop Goes The Weasel' and match actions to the songs. It's very much a two-way thing to communicate with the children through the singing. It's in the delivery that we make it age-appropriate and that's the important thing.

Listen to 'A Basketful of Songs'

You can hear 'A Basketful of Songs' on DAB Digital Radio, SKY Digital Channel 0112, Virgin Media (subject to local coverage) and at www.funradiolive.com.

About Piccolo Music

Run by Abi Cotton and Anna Scantlebury, Piccolo Music started in 2000 specifically to cater for babies and pre-school children. Piccolo Music offers 'drop-in' interactive singing and music sessions for babies and pre-school children, alongside parents and carers. The organisation's main aim is to get people singing with their children, and to enjoy music with them. The music sessions are live with Anna playing the guitar and Abi showing actions and encouraging participation. Both Anna and Abi sing during the music sessions and encourage parents and children to join in. Their hallmark is spontaneity and an ability to respond to the children in the group. The singing that takes place is always fresh and full of fun, with much of the material written by Anna and Abi themselves.

Areas of expertise:

• Singing with babies and under fives, including the use of percussion instruments, circle/partner  songs, using puppets and props.
• Methods for encouraging participation by adults and children.
• Vast repertoire of traditional and new songs.
• Training adults working with children to use more songs and music in their work, be it a nursery officer, storytelling in libraries, a classroom assistant or a childminder wishing to learn more.
• Playground/singing games with children aged 5-10.
• Tailor-made training to suit clients' individual needs and budget.

Previous projects have included:

• Training projects with several SureStart initiatives, including West Derwentside, to help establish the successful 'Wriggle and Giggle' singing with under fives groups in the community.
• Training project with Longhorsley playgroup, school and toddler group.
• Training project with London Borough or Wandsworth.
• Several years work with North Tyneside Schools.
• Several Family Music days with Downs Syndrome North East.
• Numerous events with South Tyneside EYDCP.
• A 14-month project with Longbenton Children's Centre .
• Conference Seminars: National and Regional Childminders' Associations; North Tyneside Early Years Conference; Primary and Early Years Teaching Exhibition.

Piccolo Music is a lively and very friendly singing, music and movement group. It's perfect for babies (from birth) and small children under five years old. For more details of Piccolo Music's CDs, training workshops, resources and the Wriggle and Giggle picture songbook, visit: http://www.piccolomusic.co.uk.