On the Hoof
On The Hoof was our new creative music-making project for 2009. We would like to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who took part in the community workshops - from the school communities to the travelling children from North Perth.
The On The Hoof project resulted from a week of song-making that Christine Kydd and Ewan McVicar undertook in 2008, with the young people of Double Dykes travellers' campsite. One of the songs written there was Time For Traivellers. Interestingly, among the Double Dykes young people were grandchildren of the famous Scots storytellers, Duncan Williamson and Willie MacPhee.
Over the course of 6 weeks, Ewan McVicar and Christine Kydd worked with 262 Primary 3, 4 and 5 pupils from the six Carse of Gowrie primary schools (Invergowrie, Longforgan, Inchture, St Madoes, Errol and Abernyte). Ewan and Christine worked with the children to create some new songs and learn some old travellers' tunes. The songs all use traditional melodies and the lyrics, in part, tell about the lives of the schools' communities - but also about the lives of travellers.
As a special feature of the project, Ewan told each school a different traditional story from the repertoires of the aforementioned Scots storytellers, Duncan Williamson and Willie MacPhee. A class in each school then wrote a song based on the story they'd been told.
Some of the story songs are ‘The Hedgehurst', ‘Nine Horse Stall', ‘The Three Feathers', ‘Old Man Of The Forest', ‘The Magic Pot' and ‘Building a Bender Tent'. In addition, the children imagined their own story as to how Horsecross Arts got its name, in the song, ‘Horsecross Nancy'.
Each school has now recorded and produced a CD with their songs and stories on it. These CDs can be purchased through the schools as part of the pupil's enterprise project, with all profits going towards school funds.
An additional compilation CD has been made, featuring songs from each of the schools. This can be purchased for £5 by contacting Jenn Minchin, Music Development Coordinator for Horsecross Arts and Perth and Kinross Council on 01738 477 722 or by emailing jminchin@horsecross.co.uk.
Whilst the song-writing workshops were happening, we also worked with children from Double Dykes Travellers' site in Perth, delivering traditional tin whistle workshops.
On The Hoof culminated in a large sing-a-long concert in Perth Theatre on 2 March 2009, with the pupils from all the Carse of Gowrie schools involved.
Only Boys Allowed
An ambitious singing project involving every p6 and p7 boy in Perth and Kinross - 1200 young people culminating in a big sing session at Perth Concert Hall. This project will leave a lasting legacy as the school teachers involved will take the skills they learned throughout this project back to the classroom for future learning. The boys will benefit from the fun experience as research proves that singing has some key physical benefits and can imrove neurological functioning. Only Boys Allowed was the largest gathering of young people for a singing event that Scotland has ever seen!
This project was made possible with funding support from The W M Mann Foundation, The Whitaker Charitable Trust, PKC and Horsecross Arts.
soundwaves
Soundwaves was our creative music making project focusing on Scottish Traditional, World and Contemporary Music for 2007/08.
We worked with children in Primary 6 and 7 from various schools in Highland Perthshire to create new songs based on their experiences. In March 2008, the children all took to the Concert Hall stage and performed their own compositions accompanied by sensational Scottish band Session A9, local songwriting legend Jim Malcolm and world class Indian and World musician Trilok Gurtu. We called this part of Soundwaves ‘Tales and Talas' as it combined Scottish music with Indian music.
As another part of Soundwaves, we worked with children in primary 5, 6 and 7 from schools in North Perth on a drumming project we named Bang Bop Bash. Jazz musician Tom Bancroft and world class percussionist Colin Currie helped the pupils to create their own rhythmic pieces of music using samba drums, djembe drums, home-made shakers and any other percussion instruments we could find. This culminated in a performance in the Concert Hall with Colin Currie and the pupils in April 2008.
We ran many community workshops during the summer with groups in North Perth of all ages. We wrote songs with the ‘bingo tea ladies' of Fairfield, learned how to play exciting new percussion instruments with families in Letham, composed music with travelling families from Double Dykes Travellers' site and helped members of Tulloch Youth Club start their own band!
The final part of Soundwaves was to run training workshops for teachers and music leaders. These took part in Pitlochry, North Perth and finally in the concert hall where the participants took part in vocal workshops and created their own Samba band!
Soundwaves was funded by the Scottish Arts Council, The Ernest Cook Trust, The Russell Trust, The Community Regeneration Fund and the Tay Charitable Trust.
