Creative Learning Officer

November 12, 2020November 12, 2020

Addam’s Family Theme in Garageband

Introduction

Mrs Borthwick has created a lessons to play the Addam’s Family Theme in GarageBand.

The Addams Family was a fictional household created by the American cartoonist Charles Addams in 1938. The Addams Family originally included Gomez and Morticia Addams, their children Wednesday and Pugsley, close family members Uncle Fester and Grandmama, their butler Lurch, and Pugsley’s pet octopus Aristotle.

There are a series of 10 short videos that lead you though the project. We have added two of them here but the rest are in the our YMI YouTube Channel iPad playlist

Learning Resources

To download files right click on the links and then select either:‘

- Save Target As’ (PC)
- ‘Download Linked File’ (Mac

Project Introduction Addams Family Theme

Addams Family Project Guide

A ddams Family Melody Sheet

Exporting Your Project Sound File

Save Your Project!

Video lessons

You can access the 10 video in three ways. If you have access to the schools GLOW network then all the lesson video’s are in the Making Music Team pages, or in the Making Music Sharepoint folder.

- - For SBC practitioners with access to Glow, join our Making Music Team pages. Use the code wjimn8l to get immediate access

- - Any staff with a GLOW account can access the Sharepoint page.

- - They are also all publicly available on our YouTube Channel in the iPad playlist.

October 23, 2020October 23, 2020

Borders Youth Music Forum

The Borders Youth Music Forum has been going for a number a years under the project name SoundCycle. Funding and lockdown temporarily halted things for but we held a digital meeting this week via MS Teams to get the forum going again.

A good cross section of people attended representing music tutors and providers, venues, music organisations and brass bands.

We had input from Kelsey Jubin, Creative Learning Officer(YMI) at Creative Scotland, who talked to us about current funding opportunities. In summary the funds were the;

Targeted Fund for 20 key national organisations
Small Grants Fund for artist led activities, opening in January 2021
Youth Arts Access fund for individuals and organisations, with a deadline on the 12th of November.

Kelsey also highlighted the Nurturing Talent Fund overseen by Young Scot and a new Hardship Fund opening on the 26th of October. This was open to musicians, craft makers and visual artists and Kelsey suggested visiting the Help Musicians website for more details. https://www.helpmusicians.org.uk/

See this post for more details about these funds.

Mae Murray from MEPG (Music Education Partnership Group), talked about its priorities and the new activities it was undertaking. Its primary roles were to be an advocate for music education, increase opportunities and reduce inequalities, bring together music educators and relevant organisations and to support the sector through training and advice.

Mae highlighted a new report, to be released shortly, about the levels of aerosol release from singing and instrument playing. MEPG also runs a very active youth Forum which is led by the young people.

During lockdown MEPG ran several digital projects including Doorstep Samba, Over the Rainbow, and the Hey Jude, Sunday sessions. Mae then introduced the training sessions that MEPG are going to be delivering over the next few months and details of these will be sent out in a further email. They are all available through Eventbrite and on the new MEPG website www.wemakemusicscotland.org.

Thanks for everyone’s input and we will keep you posted about the next meeting.

October 21, 2020October 22, 2020

Animal Bingo!

Introduction

This game for Early Years matches animals and their sounds, as in Bingo. The children have the pictures of the animals in front of them and when they hear the sounds they tick them off on their sheet. The first one to get all the animal on their sheet wins.

There are two sets off pictures to use, one of farm yard animals and another of wild animals. You can print off the sheets and laminate them so they can be re-used or project them onto a Smartboard or wall.

The sounds are pre-recorded as MP3 tracks so there is no need to make the sounds yourself, unless you want too of course!

Below are four examples of the animal sounds.

Farm Animal – Cat

Farm Animal – Donkey

Wild Animal – Frog

Wild Animal – Wolf

Learning Resources

To download files right click on the links and then select either:‘

- Save Target As’ (PC)
- ‘Download Linked File’ (Mac)

Farm Animal Sound Bingo Cards

Wild Animal Sound Bingo Cards

Mp3 Farm Animal Sounds

Farm Animal Sounds Zip File

Animal Bingo – Cat

Animal Bingo – Chicken

Animal Bingo – Cockerel

Animal Bingo – Donkey

Mp3 Wild Animal Sounds

Wild Animal Sounds Zip File

On our Resource Page you can find songsheets, MP3 tracks and worksheets for all our Blog posts.

For teacher and school staff with access to GLOW more Early Years information and all the files can be downloaded from our YMI Making Music team pages and from our YMI Sharepoint. Use the code wjimn8l to join the team if you are not already a member.

September 20, 2020October 23, 2020

Creative Scotland funding Opportunities

There are a number of funding opportunities currently available from Creative Scotland.

Youth Arts Funding

The Youth Arts Access Fund is open to individuals and organisations for grants of £5-£30k. It is set up to support for music making and wider youth arts projects with young people, especially vulnerable young people/young people who have been more adversely impact by Covid-19. The deadline 12th November.

The Youth Arts Small Grants Scheme will be open in January for applications to deliver artist led activities in schools and the community. It gives out grants of between £500 to £5000 with the activities delivered between March 2021 and March 2022.

The Nurturing Talent Fund is for young people (aged 11-25) to apply to directly, with £50 – £1000 available. The next deadline is 6^th December. You can read about some past recipients on the CS website here.

The Open Project Fund is open for organisations and individuals in the arts and culture sector; £1k – £100k; open all year round; The fund aims to enable individuals and organisations to explore ways of working that will help them to adapt and respond to the current changing circumstances.

Hardship Funds for Creative Practitioners: more information will be shared this week regarding this fund.

To keep up to date with funding news sign up to the Creative Scotland newsletter.

September 17, 2020September 18, 2020

Warm up and Action song

Introduction

Mrs Borthwick teaches us two body warm and action songs to help with Emerging Literacy.

Learning Resources

On our Resource Page you can find songsheets, MP3 tracks and worksheets for all our Blog posts.

September 17, 2020September 17, 2020

Kaeru Song

Introduction

‘Kaeru no Uta’ (Frog’s Song) is a Japanese tune about a little frog and the sound he makes.

Mrs Borthwick teaches us the song and brings in simple percussion. To see how to make your own instruments have a look at our video lesson on making a Guiro, Triangle and Shaker.

You can download the backing tracks to play in your setting or use the video’s on iPads and Smartboards.

Kaeru Videos

MP3 Tracks

Kaeru Backing Track

Karen Vocal Track

Learning Resources

To download files right click on the links and then select either:‘

- Save Target As’ (PC)
- ‘Download Linked File’ (Mac)

You can watch an animated version of song sung in Japanese in this YouTube video.

Mp3 Backing tracks

Kaeru backing

Kaeru vocal

On our Resource Page you can find songsheets, MP3 tracks and worksheets for all our Blog posts.

September 11, 2020September 17, 2020

Songs for Numeracy

Introduction

Here are four songs to support numeracy in Early Years settings. You can download them as backing tracks to play in your setting or use the video’s on iPads and Smartboards.

There are three songs counting to Five and one counting to Ten. Whilst singing might not be possible due to current restrictions the songs can still be played and the videos watched to reinforce learning.

Here are two of the videos and the other versions of the song can be viewed on our YMI Borders YouTube Channel Early Years playlist

MP3 Tracks

Backing – Five Little Squirrels

Vocal – Five Little Squirrels

Backing – Ten Little Raindrops

Vocal – Ten Little Raindrops

Learning Resources

To download files right click on the links and then select either:‘

- Save Target As’ (PC)
- ‘Download Linked File’ (Mac)

Maths rhymes and songs

Little Squirrel Picture.pdf

Mp3 Backing tracks

Five Little Squirrels backing

Five Little Squirrels vocal

10 Little Raindrops backing

10 Little Raindrops vocal

Five Little Acorns backing

Five Little Acorns vocal

Five Little Seeds backing

Five Little Seeds vocal

On our Resource Page you can find songsheets, MP3 tracks and worksheets for all our Blog posts.

September 8, 2020December 4, 2020

Ode to Joy on the iPad

Introduction

Mrs Borthwick has created a lessons exploring Beethoven ‘s 9th symphony to create a track in GarageBand.

This piece was the first ever Choral Symphony, written for symphony orchestra, vocal soloists and choir. Beethoven conducted it’s premiere in Vienna and 1824. The last part of the symphony uses a poem by Friedrich Schiller called Ode to Joy. The message of the poem is that mankind should live in peace and harmony with each other.

Before you go ahead with this project make sure you have looked at the Ode to Joy Project Introduction in the Learning Resources section. You will also need to watch and or listen to the clips that are linked in that file.

There are a series of 10 short videos that lead you though the project. We have added two of them here but the rest are in the our YMI YouTube Channel iPad playlist

Links and Additional Learning

Beethoven the Puppet will tell you a little about his life and work in a short fun video here.

You can hear more about how Beethoven’s music has been used in pop music and film here.

Watch an unusual and exciting performance by a flashmob orchestra. Keep watching as the music starts small and builds into something amazing.

Learning Resources

To download files right click on the links and then select either:‘

- Save Target As’ (PC)
- ‘Download Linked File’ (Mac

Ode to Joy Project Introduction

Ode to Joy Melody Sheet

Ode To Joy Teacher Sheet

We have listed all the lesson video’s here and you can also find them all on our YouTube Channel in the iPad playlist

August 17, 2020August 18, 2021

The Big Drum Adventure

Mat Clements, who delivers The Big Drum Adventure, has been working across the Borders with the YMI programme since 2010. He delivers a gateway music programme which takes a whole primary class on a musical journey with drums, percussion and voice.

The project introduces pupils to the exciting world of music making, building rhythm, playing and performance skills to give each pupil the confidence to progress to the next level.

Mat’s website has details of all his projects. www.wherestheone.co.uk

Mat has created some online versions of his fantastic Museum of Amazing Musical Instruments which you can see on our blog here.

The Museum of Amazing Musical Instruments

These are two recoding from one of the projects Mat has run

ig Drum Adventure at Knowepark PS , track 1.

Big Drum Adventure at Knowepark PS , track 2.

July 20, 2020August 20, 2021

The Udu

Introduction

In this Museum of Amazing Musical Instruments Mat the Hat introduces the Udu

And if you’re wanting to do an activity whilst you’re visiting the museum, there’s an accompanying quiz for each minstrument and web links to explore.

The Udo

This is the udu – a musical clay pot. How do you do, udu?

Udu pots originally came from Nigeria, Africa, but today they are made all over the world. The musical clay pot is popular in India, where it’s called a Ghatam.

In the Igbo language of Nigeria the word Udu means a vessel, but I think it’s also like the sound the instrument makes – ooo doo!

This udu is made of clay and has tiny grains of iron embedded in the clay to help improve the sound of the drum. You play it by covering the holes in the side or the top. If you bounce your hand over the hole, you make the ‘oooo’, if you place your hand you make a ‘doooo’.

Udu clay pots are a wonderful example of how something from the home becomes a musical instrument. Before they were made with a hole in the side, udu vessels would be placed under ground to store water or milk in order to keep the contents cool. They could be described as the world’s oldest refrigerator!

The udu is a quieter drum that’s nice to play on your own or with other softer sounding instruments. Some players put water inside the drum, which changes the pitch.