Midlothian Council and Infectious Grooves
Since 2003, all local authorities in Scotland have received money each year from the Scottish Executive to improve their youth music provision. This 'formula funding' has been administrated by the Youth Music Initiative (YMI) through the Scottish Arts Council and the primary aim of the funding was to meet the P6 target.
| The P6 target was set by the Scottish Executive and stated that 'by 2006 every school pupil in Scotland should be offered a year of free music tuition by time they reach primary six'. In January 2007 it was revealled that the P6 target had been met by each local authority area. |
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One of the ways in which Midlothian Council has met the P6 target is through a programme of African drumming workshops, in partnership with Infectious Grooves.
The African drumming project at Midlothian Council had four aims:
- teach children to play un-tuned African percussion
- train teachers to play the same percussion instruments
- train teachers to facilitate workshops with this type of instrument
- resource schools with the equipment needed to achieve all the above.
Between 2003 and 2005 the project concentrated on P5 pupils, and every P5 student in Midlothian took part in two percussion 'masterclasses' over a year. These were a huge success as you can see from these comments:
'I liked how we learned all of the rhythms and stuff.'
'I can't wait till next time. I really enjoyed it!'
'I enjoyed the drums because they are so different than anything else we play in music.'
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To enable the workshops to take place Midlothian Council purchased percussion packs. Each pack is shared between three or four schools and includes drums such as the Djembe (pronounced gem-bay), a goblet shaped hand drum, and the Doum Doum (pronounced doom doom), a cylindrical West African drum, as well as other percussion instruments like the Caxixi Shaker (pronounced ka-she-she), which is woven from straw and reed and filled with pebbles or seeds. |
Due to the success of the P5 workshops, in 2006 the project expanded to include P2 children. Midlothian Council noticed that boys found the African drumming workshops particularly attractive and they hope to encourage this even further by involving children at a younger age.
Through Infectious Grooves all pupils in Midlothian now have two African percussion workshops with specialist tutors during their P2 and P5 years. One of the YMI's priorities, however, is sustaining participation in music activity and in primary schools this can only be achieved by training classroom teachers.
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As can be imagined this is especially necessary when working with more unusual genres, such as African drumming. Therefore, Infectious Grooves have been running a training programme for teachers alongside the workshops. Teachers have been taught to play the percussion instruments as well as how to facilitate music workshops, and for the P2 strand of the project, how to work with early years children using music. |
In addition, Infectious Grooves have produced two 'Release the Rhythm' handbooks to be used as a teaching aid for class teachers, one for older children and one specifically for early years. Both handbooks have accompanying cds.
| Providing training for teachers has increased their enthusiasm and allowed them to become more involved in the project and more confident in delivering music activities in their classroom, as these comments show:
'I feel I now have the confidence to use percussion instruments with the children.'
'Daniel [from Infectious Grooves] enthused us all! I'm looking forward to trying it out in school.'
'I'll use the drums in the classroom for music and drama activities - very inspiring.' |
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As this last comment shows, although the percussion kits were bought specifically for the African drumming masterclasses they are now being extensively used by class teachers throughout the schools.
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Suzanne Thayne, Education Officer at Midlothian Council, said: 'The primary schools have benefitted greatly from this initiative and it is good to hear the sound of the drums at events held in the schools.' |
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| For more information on Infectious Grooves, email Daniel Duggan. To find out more about music projects in Midlothian, email Suzanne Thayne. | |