Shared Inventions - Homelands Blog 9

by Hugh Nankivell
Pupil names have been shortened for their privacy

Session 9 December 7

Lots of visitors today, four other adults in the space in addition to James and I and the regular Homelands staff, but the children didn’t seem too unduly bothered.

James sang them his Pirates and Ghosts song and it was interesting to notice how many of the children now know all the words. They have not been taught the words, and usually only encouraged to come in with the soundscapes (howling wolves, ghostly woo-ing, rustic pirates and mysterious skeletons).

We then sang the Ho Ho Ho Ho Ho parents song and again they all enthusiastically joined in, remembering the words better than me, and coming in with the claps at the ends of the lines and really enjoyed singing it.

Finally we sang Go To Sleepy and – as expected – a new line emerged for this song. This time they added and dry yourself after the line have a bath. It is really interesting that with the songs they have created/composed (including ‘Like’ from earlier in the term) they feel that they can add to it at any time and that they should be adding to it. This happens much less with other songs (Pirates and Ghosts, The Boa Constrictor and Ho Ho Ho Ho Ho for instance) which they do not have so much ownership of. So every week we have added something new to Go To Sleepy and I wonder if we carry on singing it at every session throughout next term whether it will continue to be added to?

James and I spent a bit of time prior to the session sorting out a shape and a melody to this song as, since the first week, the new lines do not have such clear melodic characteristics and it does feel as if we need to shape it a little, but then of the course the children do not know the ‘new’ tunes. But when we sang it today they seemed to join in with us in our new melodies readily enough after they had heard it once, and the nice thing about a song like this is that as it gets added to each time, you learn the previous line.

Sarah sorted out a group for us that had none of the clearly dominant children and we had a very interesting session and group.

We did three things in the session.

Play with sticks and it was really interesting to note that the group remembered all of the different people who had invented the special ways to play the sticks even if they were not in the room at the time with us. They acknowledged them all.

I bought in my mechanical music box and played them the name tune that had already been composed and then explained to them how they can ‘compose’ their names into music using this machine. James then became the hole-puncher for the session and was fully employed for that time. Some of the children were completely attached to it and I have left it at school as we didn’t get a chance to hear all the ‘names’ composed into music.

There was general band play. A1 and I played together on xylophone and glockenspiel – it was a song called I Love You beautifully improvised by A1. A2 also improvised/composed several new songs and remembered them really well and they seemed fixed in her mind. There was much dressing up, rearranging the stage, taking notes off the xylophone, smiling and laughter.

What is Shared Inventions?

Shared Inventions is a four-term (Sept 2011 – December 2012) creative project working with young children in two schools in Torbay. It is led by musicians Hugh Nankivell and Ben Ballard along with trainee James Aldridge.

Hugh is going to write a blog for each session that he leads during this term.

For more information: Click here

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