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Whistleberry Forest Basket
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Very often, I find that inspiration is a lot closer than we might realise, and when it comes to designing a music workshop for very young children, inspiration can be found in the everyday, in the simplicity of our surroundings, in nature. For a recent Trade School workshop on Dominic Street (Dublin), I journeyed with the children through ’Whistleberry Forest’, discovering all sorts of sounds and magical happenings. This little basket of forest sounds opened up a world of imagination and possibilities. Participants were asked to bring a ’forest gift’ along to the workshop, and their gift was incorporated into the workshop itself through a song aptly titled ’What Sounds Are Made In The Forest?’. This song gave the children the opportunity to touch/see the objects that others had brought, and importantly, they began to see and think about twigs/pebbles/feathers etc. as being ’sound objects’ as well as nature items that they might discover in their everyday lives. As you can see, the forest gifts that the children brought are beautiful, and I particularly love how young children in future workshops will contribute to and share in this living forest basket!
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