My first encounter with Orff was through Kindermusik, which also introduced me to concepts of Dalcroze and Kodály.  Kindermusik’s set early years programme uses concepts from these as well as others, inspiring me to find out more about these concepts independently.

The Orff summer school was an eye opener for me, never having attended events before with so many like-minded people interested in music education.  Experiencing concepts like creating a sound based on your name, developing it to a movement, to be paired with another person’s sound and movement, and eventually a co-ordinated group of four, was so inspiring, as was presenting and watching different groups’ interpretations.  Creating a new song out of repeated phrases from an existing song, physically introducing notation in simple rhymes by body percussion and then holding drums and sticks to represent crochets and quavers, and different ways to introduce glockenspiel play were also exciting experiences; so many ideas that I was eager to try, but struggled within the limitations of a set programme.

I attended a few Kodály training events, inspired to introduce singing in canon amongst other ideas and later on, I was given the opportunity to attend the Dalcroze intensive weekends course in Croydon, learning so many new ways to introduce music through physical experience.  With an open mind and no special loyalties to any particular approach, it interested me in how each session I attended overlapped with other concepts, blending so well together and intuitively sharing ideas from each other, fusing together the potential for a rich and comprehensive music education.

The credit crunch encouraged me to take the precipitous leap to creating my own independent programme, and having built a reputation with various schools and nurseries, they were more than eager to see what I had to offer.

I decided to start by offering a local primary school my own musical after school club, and with the current trend encouraging activity/healthy eating, I decided to offer a music/movement course based on the Olympics, relating music notation/rhythms to the top UK Olympic sports.

As children between 4 to 7 years are almost constantly active, each session began with a short warm-up to ensure that all the body parts we would use in our active sessions were loose and ready to work: arms, stretching, toes, jumping muscles.  As a lot of the notation experience is based on varied walking speeds, this became a feature of our warm-up, walking-jogging-running-jogging (all on the spot).  Having a regular sequence set to music each week (with room for alternate sport-specific variety toward the end) encouraged children to become physically aware and confident in the routine through familiarity, developing their spatial ability, working together as an ensemble, enhancing their concentration through needing to watch me as both a reminder and guidance – and became a great performance piece to present to parents.

Each musical method uses its own terminology for rhythms based on the intended understanding or performance, so I find it interesting to see that primary infant teachers are using commonly used terms, more intellectually accessible to average pupils.  Walmsley C of E Primary School use insect terminology, so for the past few years, I have become accustomed to the BEE (crochet), SPIDER (quavers), WORM (minim), CATTERPILLAR (semiquavers) and most recently, LADYBIRD (quaver-quaver-crochet).  This, however, was not sufficient for my new programme, so I have had to introduce the BEETLE (dotted crochet-quaver) and SNAIL (semibreve).

Not sure how children between 4 and 6 would respond to being introduced to the semibreve, but feeling that the longest note should be the basis of notation, I was pleasantly surprised.  I introduced a variety of methods of experiencing the semibreve: 

• clapping and then moving hands apart in big circles for 4 counts chanting ‘snai-ai-ai-l’
• swimming different ‘strokes’ in slow motion, chanting ‘snai-ai-ai-l’ while clapping or beating a drum (piano playing can also be used, ideally focussing on written or original pieces with clear and regular semibreve intervals)
• walking in a circle to a song, taking 4 counts per step (I use Kodály songs from the Preschool Music book as the range is guaranteed to be suitable for inexperienced singers)
• rolling a ball for 4 counts between partners (depending on the size and behaviour of the group, an alternative would be rolling the ball from the centre tand having children roll back to you.  This is more likely to encourage keeping the 4 count roll as children do not need to stop to decide who should receive the ball next)
• passing a ‘love letter’ to each other, taking 4 counts (children should stand relatively near each other as their legs don’t stretch terribly far)

Having previously introduced the children to the glockenspiel and very simple ukulele chords, half the group ‘accompanied’ the circle dance using a semibreve stroke or strum.

We ended the session with a scarf dance to instrumental music, with the children using their own interpretation of swimming strokes and movements to the ‘snai-ai-ai-l’ chant, and it was such a change to see so many unique ideas, compared to adult groups, who quite often come up with two or three ideas and then look around to others for inspiration.  These photos show how some children used their gymnastic training, others perfectly content to sit creatively on the floor and make scarf shapes, whilst others focussed on footwork or arm motions.

It was fascinating to see how even the youngest child who struggles to keep his attention focussed, responded to this activity creatively.  More interestingly, I anticipated having to prematurely end the song, being over 4 minutes long, but the children kept developing their ideas, looking for new ways to express swimming motions to ‘snai-ai-ai-l’.

The next week acted as a follow-up/reinforcement time so one of my first questions was whether anyone remembered the rhythm for snail.  Straight away one little girl imitated my large circle clapping motion, clearly using the space created by the large circles to remind herself of the length of time taken for 4 beats!

I look forward to our adventures as we go cycling, canoeing, participating in athletics and gymnastics!

Frances Turnbull

Early Years Music Specialist, Bolton

Frances is an independent early years music specialist, involved in primary schools and nurseries in Bolton, Greater Manchester since September 2006, with a passion for introducing music to children from birth based on the findings of recognised music education research.  She operates through her own company, Musicaliti, http://www.musicaliti.co.uk, tweets new research findings on http://www.twitter.com/musicaliti_uk, and has a weekly blog at http://www.musicaliti.blogpot.com, contemplating her sessions of children’s reactions and development through music, including her own little one’s progress overcoming her speech delay through … music!