E d u c a t i o n

Education

Education is now a major part of the work of Eye Music 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 intense light, colour and music in Colourscape. 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. Eye Music 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

Download some new colour experiments HERE

Nursery 'Elements' project

In 2003 Eye Music 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.

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

Our Nursery work has continued and developed every year and is now an integral part of our educational work. If your Early Years Dept would like to take part in Colourscape festivals contact admin@eyemusic.org.uk.

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 run running several Special Needs music projects.

WORKSHOPS are typically run by a computer musician, David Stevens, and disabled dancer, Alan Martin. Five workshops in each school lead to a public performance. A follow-on workshop leaves 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 projects 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 develop sounds with voice and/or percussion and tailor bend, pressure, distance and tilt sensors to each pupil's particular needs. A following 3 workshops develop performance skills with the computer systems and build to a finished performance.

THE SCHOOLS are 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.

Over the next few years we will be working with schools in Yorkshire, at least twelve London boroughs and other areas of the UK where our Colourscape events take place.

THE WORKSHOPS will be run by musicians and dancers:
David Stevens is a composer specialising in computer music. With funding from Eye Music Trust he has developed software and a unique system of 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. The software is specially designed by him and new sensors adapted to be suitable for use by disabled children with limited movement.

Alan Martin is a disabled musician and dancer. Profoundly affected by cerebal palsy he has overcome his disability with the help of speech communicators and computers to become a powerful musician. He is 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 develop our Special Needs workshops over the years. Please contact us to take part or to build a compete series in your area.

To see more information about our unique Special Needs workshops and to see video clips of David Stevens' work click HERE

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