Youth Music - BongoClub.org.uk

Credit: Tom Martin of USE Design, Nottingham

Music leader, Mat Andasun explains how Storytime, an innovative early years project is using music technology with 3-5 year olds. 

"It sounds like a rocket!" says Maisie, aged 4, running her hands up the keyboard.

"Can you put the rocket in a cave?" asks Tyrone, aged 3.5, listening intently.

Both children are completely 'in the moment', focussed on this strange, fantastic, electronic re-imagining of the sound of a toy lawn mower, recorded by the children into a PC and then played off a MIDI keyboard. Tyrone's strange question is a request to add reverb to the sound (Tyrone knows what reverb sounds like, even thought he can't always remember the right word for it).

I first had the idea of using music technology in early years settings (a catch-all term for nurseries, day care, pre-school, after-school clubs) back in 2003 when my youngest son was still at nursery.  His nursery was kind enough to let me loose on their children for a week.  I took in a sampler, a microphone, a controller keyboard and a portable mini-disk recorder.  We spent time recording our voices and slowing them down/speeding them up using the keyboard.  We then moved on to recording sounds from around the nursery into the mini-disk recorder that I would then upload into the sampler.  The children would listen to the sounds, describe what they sounded like played from the keyboard and made decisions about whether I should put effects on them.  

The climax of the week's work was to put the sounds into a story (We're All Going On A Bear Hunt was a big favourite as it features a number of different environments that the characters have to travel through, each of which has its own special noise).  It later transpired that there was an opportunity to replace the book with a story that could be created with input from the children and told on the spot.  This is how Storytime came about.  It marries the excitement of manipulating sound with the fun of storytelling.

How Does Storytime Work?

Storytime takes place over series of sessions targeted at small groups of 3.5 - 5 year- olds.  The age range is specific because most children younger than 3.5 struggle to comprehend what is needed from them, and children older than 5 tend to get frustrated with working alongside children much younger than them.

The sessions comprise physical warm ups, singing, recording and storytelling.  The physical warm ups help the group coalesce and focus.  Singing is used both as a gateway into the children's sense of musicality and fun (the songs involve a lot of play acting and actions) and to help the children's vocal development.  The creation of a story gives a place for the music technology work to reside and stimulates the children's sense of imagination and vocabulary.  Finally, the recording starts by capturing and manipulating the children's voices as a way of getting them interested, and then moves onto recording objects found in the nursery setting.

Using music technology with the under 5s relies upon speed.  The trick is to make sure that the gap between the children making a sound and then being able to play that sound from a midi keyboard is as brief as possible. This quickly sets up the association between the excitement of being able to play and hear 'their sound' with the more fiddly task of recording into a microphone and waiting for the sound to be loaded into the sampler.

Once the children realised that pressing the keyboard plays 'their' sound, they are hooked. This then gives the facilitator the latitude to take the work further; to demonstrate effects and how they sound and engage the children in conversations about the nature of the sounds they've created.

The fascinating thing about the work is the way in which it has so many beneficial 'side-effects'. The children learn to work in pairs and as a team to accomplish their tasks. They have to learn a whole new lexicon of words to discuss sound and its manipulation.  The development of the story, which is done as a group, encourages them to articulate the depths of their imagination.  The experience of playing their sound in the story (in effect, a performance) gives the children confidence and a great sense of pride and ownership.  As with all the best music work, there is as much active listening as there is active music making.

Training
There is a general need for music training at early years settings and this is especially so with music technology. Early years workers rarely have the comparable set of skills in music that they have for instance in visual art.  Storytime includes a day's training for 2 practitioners from each participating setting, where we look at the process of using the software to capture and manipulate sound, and we practise telling stories. 

The key to the training is to break down the process into simple steps which the practitioners can then repeat until they feel comfortable with them.  Fortunately, IT is so prevalent in our society that most people (and indeed most children) are familiar with a mouse, scrolling through on-screen menus and using keyboard shortcuts.  The training is then revisited after each of the sessions, to ensure that the simple techniques are not forgotten.  The project specifies the involvement of two practitioners in the training so that the responsibility to cascade can be shared.

Storytime is an exciting and interesting music project, which aims to use music technology to help children work creatively with sound in a collaborative way- the antithesis of a child working alone on a sequencing package.  Sampling and early years may at first seem an unlikely proposition; but in fact, they go together beautifully.   

5 Top Tips For Using Music Technology With Under 5s:

• Keep your group small (maximum of 6) and the age range small.
   
• Make sure you balance music technology activity with other aspects of music making and creativity that complement and feed into the technology work.
   
• Make the technology work for you.  The process of capturing, uploading and editing sounds should involved around 5 mouse clicks and no more.  The software and hardware must be rock solid.
   
• You are the interface between the children and the technology.  Make sure you face them as much as possible and always explain what you're doing with the technology as you do it.
   
• Always have a focus to the music technology work.  Ours is stories; yours could be creating sounds for a Christmas play, or for a soundtrack to a wall display.
   

Words: Mat Andasun

(With thanks to Matt Andasun and Nottingham Community Music for the use of this article).

For more information on training and professional development, visit MusicLeader

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