Ben on working with 4-9 year olds

The idea behind these workshops was to bring the participants together to consider and represent their ethnic identity through the medium of sound and language. Myself on Double Bass together with the other musicians taking part in the workshop – a flautist and a traditional Ney player – would be working with the youngest group taking part in the workshops. The children involved were aged from 4 to 9 years old and were absolutely wonderful to work and make music with.

The theme for the workshop was based around a traditional Farsi story – The Little Black Fish. This is the story about a little black fish wanting to explore the larger world and to take the brave step to leave home and swim down the river. Along the way, the fish meets a multitude of different species, makes some friends, and escapes a nasty fate of being eaten by the Pelican. The children had made puppets for each character in the story with the aim of then coming up with a leitmotif for each character using percussion instruments and the sounds of our own instruments.

In the first workshop, we introduced the children to our instruments, explaining where they came from, where they were commonly found and giving them an idea of what kind of sounds could be produced. We then looked at each character and came up with words to describe each one and tried to connect sounds to the words. It was great to see the children respond to the instruments and see the way they experimented matching the sounds to the imagery… Fast running flute lines for the running water… Low sustained notes on the bass to represent the fear of being inside the dark cavern of the Pelican’s stomach.

Breaking up into groups, the children were then given a range of percussion instruments and we worked together to come up with leitmotifs for the specific characters. My group had the job of coming up with sounds for The Frog and The Ugly Fish. We experimented with the idea of what sounds a frog makes such as using the guiro for the “ribbit” sound. The final result gave a surprisingly good depiction of what a frog sounds like hopping along and croaking. The children seemed to particularly enjoy finding the sound for the Ugly Fish using loud percussion instruments, stamping on the ground and using their voices to come up with some “ugly” sounds.

The second workshop was spent revising our devised leitmotifs and then fitting them to the story for an informal performance to the children’s family members. The story was to be read aloud, with the children holding up their puppets whilst that character was being talked about. As well as this, the children also had to play, on cue, each of leitmotifs they had devised for the characters.

The children performed with huge enthusiasm and concentration. The final result was thoroughly enjoyed on both sides of the curtain and the creativity seen coming from these young minds over the course of the workshops was incredibly inspiring to see develop.