I’m a long time leading music workshops. In no particular order, these are some things I’ve observed, learned, suspect to be true.
- Have a range of resources – games/songs/meditations/riddles/rhymes. Contrasting activity and material can calm dysregulated/hyper-activity, or energise a low energy room.
- Children respond to kindness and genuine interest in them (they can smell false).
- When teaching a song, use your own voice, in preference to backing tracks, wherever possible – Humans mimic a present voice more accurately than a recording.
- Sing the whole song in full, so that your group knows what they are aiming for.
- Young people respond to kindness & genuine interest in them (just more slowly).
- Call and response. A little bit/line at a time. When working with children or young people get them to really listen to the story of the song, and ask them after what they can remember – (they’ll be learning some of the words without realising!).
- Grown ups respond to kindness and genuine interest in them.
- Don’t be afraid to repeat well loved material, just get creative with it. Rinse it for all it’s worth. With kids, can they sing part of it in their head and then all come in together on the last line? Split them into 2 groups, one keeps the beat the other plays the rhythm. With older people, there are opportunities to keep a well known melody, but let the group to come up with new lyrics.
- Tuned, untuned and body percussion are your friends.
- Give as much autonomy in a group as you can. It can lead to unexpected and lovely things. (It can also go badly, but nothing ventured nothing gained. And there is usually always something useful learned in the process.
- Don’t underestimate the power of the human voice to connect. There have been times when I’ve found it hard to engage a group. I’m still surprised at the incredible effect that singing a song from the heart can have.
- Know your material, especially when working with a choir. Don’t try to teach a piece you’re not sure of yourself, just because you randomly came across it and think it’s great. Teaching something you don’t know well enough yourself is laborious for you and your group, and the will have bad associations with it – you may see their eyes glaze over when you mention it. You might waste a great piece of repertoire. Know it inside out before you take it your group, They’re unlikely to get on board otherwise.
- Trust yourself. It won’t always feel like it, but you have much experience and much to share, and so does everyone in your group. Share something of yourself, and try and make space for them to do the same.
roisin whyte 