E d u c a t i o n

Education

Education is now a major part of the work of Nettlefold Festival Trust through the Colourscape Music Festivals and in-school workshops, with musicians, artists, dancers and poets.

In these pages you can find workshops tailored for your own age group, download pages of colour experiments, download ideas for running music workshops; download ideas for running Nursery music workshops.

We run workshops at all ages and abilities from Nursery through to Art College. Special Needs groups particularly benefit through the strong light, colour and music. Our workshops support the National Curriculum through art, colour and light, acoustics, active music-making, composition, improvisation and science.

Our workshops are totally student-centred. The workshops in Colourscape lead the participants on a journey of discovery where they find their own answers to the questions:

How light and colour work;

How colour is made in the brain;

How colour affects our thinking and emotions;

How, music, words and dance might link;

How colour affects our everyday lives.

Learning that is created through personal discovery is much more powerful and leads the participant to find his or her own direction in art and music. Nettlefold Festival Trust also runs longer workshop series in schools based on: Music and sculpture; Nursery music education; Special Needs music workshops.

Colourscape Workshops

Every Colourscape Music Festival contains workshops run within Colourscape usually on weekdays in the school term.

A popular format for workshops at Key Stage Two and Three level is a two-hour morning or afternoon session suitable for up to 60 pupils.

When the pupils arrive on the Colourscape site they are divided into two groups: one group start with a colour workshop while the other start with music.

The colour group spend an hour in Colourscape working with artists and teachers to discover how colour and light shape our lives; our thinking; our emotions. The workshops are pupil-led, with the leaders mainly asking questions for the group to find answers by discovery and exploration. The workshops link from art to science with practical experiments into after-images, colour-mixing, the differences between reflected and emitted light, how colour affects our emotions, links between colour and shape, colour and sound.

The music group work with percussion, voice, musical instrument design, improvisation or composition depending on the particular workshop leaders that day. The music workshops are always totally participatory and the pupils will usually work towards a finished performance by the end of their hour.

Nursery and Key Stage One pupils usually find a one-hour workshop will stretch their attention-span. Nursery and young children are particularly responsive to colour and light. They see after-images and colours far more strongly than older people and respond in a very natural way to links made with music and dance.

Special Needs pupils and adults gain strong benefit from Colourscape. For those with profound learning disability or sensory deprivation the intense colour and light in Colourscape is a great therapy. Autistic pupils particularly respond. For those with a less acute disability we tailor our workshops to their ability wherever possible bringing music into the learning.

Colourscape is totally wheelchair accessible but we ask that all wheelchair users are accompanied by a carer to help move through the space.

Look in our Festival Diary to find a festival or Colourscape showing near to you. You can book in to our Colourscape workshops through our contact addresses.

Download colour experiments for use in the classroom HERE

Nursery 'Elements' project

In 2003 Nettlefold Festival Trust ran a programme of Nursery music workshops with the help of funding by the National Foundation for Youth Music's First Steps programme, local councils and Arts Council Lottery funding.

Three musicians ran the workshops over five sessions. Our composer built simple musical instruments with the children, parents and staff. The children learnt how instrumental design worked and how different materials affected sound. Our percussionist worked with the instruments developing rhythm skills, listening to sounds, developing ensemble. Our vocal artist worked with voice production, developing vocal sounds to build soundscapes, microphone techniques and simple music technology.

At the end of each workshop series the Nursery children performed to the public either at one of our Colourscape Music Festivals or at council open-air events.

We plan to repeat this project in 2005. Our Sure Start areas for the workshops are proposed to be: Liverpool, Wandsworth, Lambeth, Brent, Truro. Contact us to take part if your Nursery is in a Sure Start area.

Workshop leaders were:
Simon Desorgher, composer, instrument building; Tim Palmer, percussion
Viv Corringham, voice artist; Michael Ormiston, voice artist

Download the full project details of the Elements workshop project to find ideas for your own Nursery music work HERE

Special Needs workshops

In parallel to our In-Festival Workshop programme and concerts in Colourscape we are also running several Special Needs music projects during 2004.

THE WORKSHOPS will be run by three musicians (see details below) Five workshops in each school will lead to a public performance. A follow-on workshop will leave the skills and a compete package of software and sensors to continue our work after the project is ended.

OUR AIM is to give the pupils complete control of their creative potential. Many music programmes for disabled people use synthesized sound which has been created by other people. In our project the pupils will be in complete control, from the sound production, using percussion or voice, through to the finished music produced by leading-edge computer technology. The only limits will be their imaginations.

In each workshop series the initial 2 sessions will develop sounds with voice and percussion and fit the bend and tilt sensors to each pupil's particular need. The following 3 workshops will develop performance skills with the computer systems and build to a finished performance.

THE SCHOOLS have been chosen in areas where we are presenting Colourscape festivals that can provide a high-profile platform for the finished performance and give creative inspiration to the pupils.

We are working with: schools from Croydon and Bromley offering great support from the staff - performances at our Crystal Palace Colourscape Festival. Springwood, is in the Speke/Garston area of Liverpool; one of the neediest areas in Europe. LB Barnet are presenting xposure 2004 Disability Arts Festival in November 2004. This makes them an ideal candidate for our SN project. Schools in our needy inner-city area of Lambeth/Wandsworth will perform at our 15th annual Colourscape festival on Clapham Common.

THE WORKSHOPS will be run by three musicians:
David Stevens is a composer specialising in computer music. He has developed software and bend/tilt sensors suitable for musicians to use in live performance. The software is based around sampling of live sound - the sensors give control of the parameters of the sounds. He is re-designing the software and building new sensors suitable for use by disabled children with limited movement. This project will also help him develop new teaching skills.

Tim Palmer is an experienced percussion workshop leader and ran the Birmingham YMAZ in 2002/3. He has a wide experience running workshops for all ages and abilities. This project will extend his exerience with SN pupils. He will be responsible for helping the pupils to create the initial source material for the music, whether voice, percussion or natural sounds.

Alan Martin is a disabled musician. Profoundly affected by cerebal palsy he has overcome his disability with the help of speech communicators and computers to become a powerful musician. He will be the perfect role model for the pupils, showing them how to control sounds with the sensors and how to move in performance to articulate the sounds.

We plan to repeat and build on our Special Needs workshops. Please contact us to take part or to build a compete series in your area.

Download workshop ideas HERE

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