Special Needs Workshops
Music Off Canvas provide interactive, improvised workshops which can be tailored exactly to themes being studied and various levels of disability.
- Free from the constraints of traditional musicians workshops, the members are able to explore deeper the individual reactions and draw on these to provide a highly responsive session.
- This might be in the form of musical response to a noise or gesture from the child or simply gauging the energy levels of the group at a specific time in the workshop.
- Getting close to the children to allow them to be connect to the instrument and its sound production
- Creating a canvas as a souvenir of the session and keeping sound clips and photos for the children to access post workshop
- Highly reactive session in which any spontaneous gestural or verbal response is incorporated so the children realise they are affecting the piece.
- Trained Arts Award advisors.
Photographs taken from a workshop day at The Friars for adults with learning difficulties: http://www.ccfttootingbec.org.uk
Photographs taken of a display post-workshop at Oakleigh School, High Barnet. http://www.oakleighschool.co.uk
- Sample Workshop Plan - An Introduction to instruments/players
- Introducing each instrument and showing how sound is produced and a demonstration of pitch with ‘high’ and ‘low’ by all musicians.
- What do the instruments sound like together? An improvised melodic tune with swaying or simple movement
- A more in depth look at ‘high’ and ‘low’ sounds encouraging movement and waving high or pointing low encouraged by all musicians.
- An exploration into a theme/topic of interest using a board with colours on which the children can draw and affect musical responses and sounds, then translated into a piece of music. Children can be encouraged to sway, tap along, clap or dance to the beat of the music.
- Rhythmic games depending on the ableness of the children including ‘call and response’ and ‘copying’ patterns.
- A recap of the sounds and pieces that the children have heard
- A finishing improvised tune
Training
All Music Off Canvas musicians are trained through the Live Music Now Scheme which provides workshops to children with varying degrees of special needs including autism and profound and multiple learning difficulties. The musicians are adept at improvising and reactive workshops which take into account a response and can adjust the direction of the workshops accordingly.
http://www.livemusicnow.org.uk
http://www.livemusicnow.org.uk
Past Projects
To date, Music Off Canvas have held residencies exploring music and art at Oakleigh School, Treehouse School and Oaklands School through the Live Music Now scheme.
