Page 28 - Glasbenopedagoški zbornik Akademije za glasbo v Ljubljani / The Journal of Music Education of the Academy of Music in Ljubljana: Mostovi med formalnim in neformalnim glasbenim izobraževanjem, leto 15, zvezek 31 / Year 15, Issue 31, 2019
P. 28
SBENOPEDAGOŠKI ZBORNIK, 31. zvezek
the meter and rhythm. For some of them it was quite hard because they have less
developed motor skills due to their disability, but since it was a small group, each of us had
time for an individualised approach. At the end of the workshop, the children wanted to
share songs they know with us, so we made a good connection for further encounters.
Teachers-assistants who came with the children gave us some advice on how to work with
the specific group we got. We noticed that several children in the group have perfect pitch,
although their mental age is not equivalent to the chronological age. Also, students were
surprised with the velocity of learning lyrics and melodies, comparing this experience
with their experience with the learning by ear in the school with children who can see.
Since this was the first workshop in the unfamiliar context for everyone, I was leading the
follow-up part. For next workshops, I decided to share follow-up parts amongst each other
because we noticed that children attach to certain voices (characters) from stories, so it
would be a good chance to increase interaction and give students a chance to practice
various pedagogical tasks.
Second story we chose was The Nutcracker. For the beginning, we took children’s book
based on the original story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by E. T. A. Hoffmann. We
completely simplified the basic text, putting out some characters, in order to adapt the
story for the group of children from the Vinko Bek Center. As a musical solution, we chose
to implement several Christmas traditional and popular songs children can sing with us
(we noticed that canons are really interesting for them, especially when we performed it
while moving throughout the space), as well as music from the ballet Nutcracker by P. I.
Tchaikovsky. For that purpose, we made riddles and movement activities for active
listening. At the end of the story, children were singing songs and playing Orff
percussions. Furthermore, we explored possibilities of making various sounds with
everyday objects (for, example, in one part of the story they get candies in hands, so we
used candy covers to make some noise). The combination of singing, playing, dancing and
listening activities, as well as of classical, traditional and popular music, enriched the
workshop and put it at some new level, so we decided to keep the same combination in
every story we do.
The Nutcracker was the story we performed every year in the Christmas time, usually in
various combinations of students. For example, there were cases when we had only two
students who have a workshop with kindergarten children, so then we adapted the story
for only two characters: grandma who is telling the story and her granddaughter Clara8).
Depending on the group of performers, their competences and instruments they play, as
well as contexts where we perform, we adjust the text and the music inside. There is a
moment in the story when Clara goes to sleep when we usually sing or play a lullaby.
Depending on the crew, at some workshops, we had students from the Singing Department
who sang some famous lullabies from the Western classical music repertoire (for example,
Offenbach’s barcarolla Belle nuit, ô nuit d’amour). In general, in all contexts we
performed, both for visually impaired children and children who can see, we noticed that
8 Clara is one of the main characters from the story. She is getting the Nutcracker doll as a Christmas
present. The doll becomes a real prince afterwards and takes her to the Land of Sweets. On the other hand,
grandma is not the character in the original story, but we decided to invent this in the storyline because we
had two female students who performed a workshop, so it was more authentic to have a grandmother
rather than a grandfather, who is planned in the original story we took.
26
the meter and rhythm. For some of them it was quite hard because they have less
developed motor skills due to their disability, but since it was a small group, each of us had
time for an individualised approach. At the end of the workshop, the children wanted to
share songs they know with us, so we made a good connection for further encounters.
Teachers-assistants who came with the children gave us some advice on how to work with
the specific group we got. We noticed that several children in the group have perfect pitch,
although their mental age is not equivalent to the chronological age. Also, students were
surprised with the velocity of learning lyrics and melodies, comparing this experience
with their experience with the learning by ear in the school with children who can see.
Since this was the first workshop in the unfamiliar context for everyone, I was leading the
follow-up part. For next workshops, I decided to share follow-up parts amongst each other
because we noticed that children attach to certain voices (characters) from stories, so it
would be a good chance to increase interaction and give students a chance to practice
various pedagogical tasks.
Second story we chose was The Nutcracker. For the beginning, we took children’s book
based on the original story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by E. T. A. Hoffmann. We
completely simplified the basic text, putting out some characters, in order to adapt the
story for the group of children from the Vinko Bek Center. As a musical solution, we chose
to implement several Christmas traditional and popular songs children can sing with us
(we noticed that canons are really interesting for them, especially when we performed it
while moving throughout the space), as well as music from the ballet Nutcracker by P. I.
Tchaikovsky. For that purpose, we made riddles and movement activities for active
listening. At the end of the story, children were singing songs and playing Orff
percussions. Furthermore, we explored possibilities of making various sounds with
everyday objects (for, example, in one part of the story they get candies in hands, so we
used candy covers to make some noise). The combination of singing, playing, dancing and
listening activities, as well as of classical, traditional and popular music, enriched the
workshop and put it at some new level, so we decided to keep the same combination in
every story we do.
The Nutcracker was the story we performed every year in the Christmas time, usually in
various combinations of students. For example, there were cases when we had only two
students who have a workshop with kindergarten children, so then we adapted the story
for only two characters: grandma who is telling the story and her granddaughter Clara8).
Depending on the group of performers, their competences and instruments they play, as
well as contexts where we perform, we adjust the text and the music inside. There is a
moment in the story when Clara goes to sleep when we usually sing or play a lullaby.
Depending on the crew, at some workshops, we had students from the Singing Department
who sang some famous lullabies from the Western classical music repertoire (for example,
Offenbach’s barcarolla Belle nuit, ô nuit d’amour). In general, in all contexts we
performed, both for visually impaired children and children who can see, we noticed that
8 Clara is one of the main characters from the story. She is getting the Nutcracker doll as a Christmas
present. The doll becomes a real prince afterwards and takes her to the Land of Sweets. On the other hand,
grandma is not the character in the original story, but we decided to invent this in the storyline because we
had two female students who performed a workshop, so it was more authentic to have a grandmother
rather than a grandfather, who is planned in the original story we took.
26
