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https://padlet.com/magic_acorns/83g893vplqieboti

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Some blogs from artists/musicians going into Nurserys

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Some blogs from artists/musicians going into Nurserys

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CONTACT US

​info@magicacorns.co.uk

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Magic Acorns works to nurture, develop and value co-creative processes between artists, educators and our very youngest children.

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Magic Acorns works to nurture, develop and value co-creative processes between artists, educators and our very youngest children.

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Sonic Possibilities - Remembering the art of play

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I came to the Germination project with great enthusiasm, armed with my clarinet and voice with a decade of classical training under my belt which proved to be more of an obstacle than any kind of useful tool at the very beginning. One hour into the first play day session, I found myself throwing a large pink button across the bare floors of the ex-department store that is PRIMEYARC, down reverberant staircases and quietly tapping pipes and chairs, in a pure state of listening and exploration. This moment alone was transformational.

I felt like my inner child was released and could finally explore and play, that I could see all of the sonic possibilities of the world through the eyes of a young child. I felt liberated. But it wasn't easy, on the first day I had to learn to let go of inhibitions and how to be silly, authentic and uninhibited with a group of people I had only just met. It made me realise that to truly engage in non-verbal play with young children you have to let your guard down and connect very quickly.

Many of the exercises of the play days featured complicité, non-verbal ensemble work. Learning how to mirror and extend physical gestures and follow the sound play of leaders, practising by leading and following. We experimented with 'micro-songs' which can be a mixture of physical, gestural and vocalised miniature sequences, they can often emerge as games and can consist of a simple yawn with some eye contact. I had experienced this with children in the past but lacked the clarity or definition of what it was and how it can be used as a creative seed with young children and engage with their play. When I entered the nursery setting for my play sessions I used my new-found knowledge of these 'micro-songs' to create an interplay between the music of my clarinet and the children's physical movements. The result was a dance and musical improvised piece for "14 children and clarinet" featuring disco dancing and rolling around on the floor - a good job I had already practised playing my clarinet lying down with my feet in the air.

Once the children realised what they were able to influence and control my clarinet playing, they pushed everything to the boundaries in joyful dance and life. There was a rhythm and flow to the session that felt utterly fluid. And I just let go and played the notes. I had children coming up to me and saying 'play the music like this' and then they would sing or move in a totally new way. And then I had to cook up something musically new. I found that when working with a group of young children it was all about embracing the present moment and being completely aware of what was being offered, and trying to respond to everything from the new ensemble. It was about discovering a new state of high awareness.

The dynamic exercises led by the Magic Acorns team were about being aware of the ensemble, miniature movements, vocalisations and tuning into the physical and sonic embodiments of other human beings. Young children are still developing their linguistic skills so by refining my ability to tap into the non-verbal communication of young children, I felt like I had developed a new superpower to work with.

Another outcome of the Germination project was having absolute confidence in being open to everything that happens in the moment. I would never have been brave enough to walk into a nursery setting with only my clarinet and no structured songs or back-up activities to call upon. But it showed me that if my focus is entirely on what of offered by young children, that it is always unimaginably fruitful and that I can share the moment in a dance of following, imitating, leading, turn-taking, shaping and copying to create a magical unique one-off experience full of energy and musicality. If I am completely aware and sharing the moment then all I have to do is play the notes.

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Sonic Possibilities - Remembering the art of play

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I came to the Germination project with great enthusiasm, armed with my clarinet and voice with a decade of classical training under my belt which proved to be more of an obstacle than any kind of useful tool at the very beginning.

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Tune In - Newham

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Jess's observation - a symphony of play 

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Jess's observation - a symphony of play 

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An observation at In-Between Spaces: A Symphony of Play

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The third session of the morning was with a family group of two children, one a toddler (T) and the other possibly 6-8 months (B) they were accompanied by their mum and grandma. Part One - The opening movement At the entrance to the space one artist was playing with paper plates, wafting the hanging diaphanous fabric, The toddler turned away when the interaction was too intense.

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Jess discussing a chapter in her book about sensitive improvisatory approaches 

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Jess discussing a chapter in her book about sensitive improvisatory approaches 

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Book Club #7 - Jessica Pitt & Hannah Dunster discuss Music Pedagogy as an Improvisatory Practice

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Charlotte's blog post/presentation about improvisation, complicité and care

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Charlotte's blog post/presentation about improvisation, complicité and care

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The In Between Spaces project explored the aesthetic qualities of a huge disused department store now Original Project's PrimeYarc gallery. We worked with light and shadow, acoustics, movement and the odd plastic dinosaur. Into this space we invited a single family at a time. In this short piece I propose that aesthetic practice, that is spacious, communicative and emergent, has inherent ethical potential, particularly when an ethics of care becomes central to a publicly funded arts project.

Working with our own post-lockdown fragilities as well as those of the children and families we were running sessions for, we were inspired by Eleanora Belfiore's recent paper which raises difficult questions about who is caring for publicly funded, socially engaged artists and those they are working with (2018). We endeavoured to work with care as a central tenet throughout the project. By foregrounding this principle of care, we were able to schedule a project programme which was manageable, spacious and ultimately very generative.

The first week was for forming our ensemble, playing and making the space. As 4 lead artists we were welcoming 4 emerging artists into the project to be part of the journey. We began the project with a day of open-ended play, experimenting with games and provocations around the elements we were working with. Deeply listening to tiny sounds, vocalising into and playing the space, moving with light and shadow. At all times we kept the families we would be working with the following week at the centre of our play and devising, we gave ourselves unrushed time in order to manifest ways of working that were both open ended and rich in complicité.

There is a rich sensual aesthetic to working without words, our senses are drawn beyond the explaining, narrating, describing and naming the world that removes us from being of the world. By letting go of words, we become part of an emerging, multi-modal improvisation which words would distance us from. There is both an ethics and an aesthetics to working, with young children without words. And we take this very seriously. We dispense with words in order to make young children's rhizomic, trans-modal conversations with the world tangible. Following Bronwyn Davis (2015) we strive to "listen to children with all our senses" and in turn this hones our adult improvisational skills and attunes us to the way in which children know and understand the world.

For philosophers Felix Guattari (1995), David Abram (2011) and Erin Manning (2012) infant knowledge is not a developmental stage that is left behind and consigned to the past but rather something that remains with us continuously throughout life existing 'in parallel with all other self-formations and will haunt the adults' poetic, intuitive and aesthetic experiences

Every session was different, every child or baby provoked radically different conversations and experiments with us and with the installation space we had created. Not knowing what will happen next forces us to reside in the present moment and the present moment unfolds into a deep space of connection and encounter. Complicité is a term commonly used in street theatre, physical theatre and ensemble improvisation, it means a dynamic, sensed, attuned, force between players; a moving or murmurating with. Complicité emerges through the present moment rather than through a sense of clear direction or intention (MacRae, Arculus, 2020).

We had no way of knowing or planning what would happen during the In Between Spaces sessions. To prepare, we developed complicité, we playfully imagined journeys, held possibilities lightly and trusted and hoped that everything would go off piste as soon as the children arrived.

The doing of hardly anything as an act of improvisation, the giving of space, physically and temporally to our family groups was absolutely critical. The doing of hardly anything became our expression of complicité. Sensing connections through present time and allowing space, stillness, attentive distance. Because there was no rush. Space to listen, stillness to move into. An outbreath, an expanding of present time. A ping pong ball in a vast space, rhythmic bursts of running feet, gently wafted plastic sheet. Out of hardly anything arose a rich polyphony of playful connection and experimentation.

I think about how children are constantly rushed through adult-made agendas of development and curricula, their time and space colonised, homogenised, standardised. The tyranny of rushing towards the future, reducing present time until we hardly notice it at all. As artists working in early childhood, we recognise not only the aesthetic richness but also the ethical imperative to meet children in their own time and space, with wonder and respect. To recognise children as more than adult - not less than adult. Complicité and attention to the present moment resist the future-orientated oppression of progress which places both education and parenting under a burden of future orientated anxiety. Through the doing of hardly anything as an act of improvisation, the planning of hardly anything as a act of resistance, we open an ethical aesthetic space of difference which has, I suggest, vast potential for the wellbeing, and care of those who reside in it.

Abram D. (2011.) Becoming Animal. New York: Vintage

Belfiore E (2018) Whose cultural value? Representation, power and creative industries.

International Journal of Cultural Policy.

Davies, B. (2014). Listening to children: being and becoming. London; New York: Routledge

The In Between Spaces project explored the aesthetic qualities of a huge disused department store now Original Project's PrimeYarc gallery. We worked with light and shadow, acoustics, movement and the odd plastic dinosaur. Into this space we invited a single family at a time. In this short piece I propose that aesthetic practice, that is spacious, communicative and emergent, has inherent ethical potential, particularly when an ethics of care becomes central to a publicly funded arts project.

Working with our own post-lockdown fragilities as well as those of the children and families we were running sessions for, we were inspired by Eleanora Belfiore's recent paper which raises difficult questions about who is caring for publicly funded, socially engaged artists and those they are working with (2018). We endeavoured to work with care as a central tenet throughout the project. By foregrounding this principle of care, we were able to schedule a project programme which was manageable, spacious and ultimately very generative.

The first week was for forming our ensemble, playing and making the space. As 4 lead artists we were welcoming 4 emerging artists into the project to be part of the journey. We began the project with a day of open-ended play, experimenting with games and provocations around the elements we were working with. Deeply listening to tiny sounds, vocalising into and playing the space, moving with light and shadow. At all times we kept the families we would be working with the following week at the centre of our play and devising, we gave ourselves unrushed time in order to manifest ways of working that were both open ended and rich in complicité.

There is a rich sensual aesthetic to working without words, our senses are drawn beyond the explaining, narrating, describing and naming the world that removes us from being of the world. By letting go of words, we become part of an emerging, multi-modal improvisation which words would distance us from. There is both an ethics and an aesthetics to working, with young children without words. And we take this very seriously. We dispense with words in order to make young children's rhizomic, trans-modal conversations with the world tangible. Following Bronwyn Davis (2015) we strive to "listen to children with all our senses" and in turn this hones our adult improvisational skills and attunes us to the way in which children know and understand the world.

For philosophers Felix Guattari (1995), David Abram (2011) and Erin Manning (2012) infant knowledge is not a developmental stage that is left behind and consigned to the past but rather something that remains with us continuously throughout life existing 'in parallel with all other self-formations and will haunt the adults' poetic, intuitive and aesthetic experiences

Every session was different, every child or baby provoked radically different conversations and experiments with us and with the installation space we had created. Not knowing what will happen next forces us to reside in the present moment and the present moment unfolds into a deep space of connection and encounter. Complicité is a term commonly used in street theatre, physical theatre and ensemble improvisation, it means a dynamic, sensed, attuned, force between players; a moving or murmurating with. Complicité emerges through the present moment rather than through a sense of clear direction or intention (MacRae, Arculus, 2020).

We had no way of knowing or planning what would happen during the In Between Spaces sessions. To prepare, we developed complicité, we playfully imagined journeys, held possibilities lightly and trusted and hoped that everything would go off piste as soon as the children arrived.

The doing of hardly anything as an act of improvisation, the giving of space, physically and temporally to our family groups was absolutely critical. The doing of hardly anything became our expression of complicité. Sensing connections through present time and allowing space, stillness, attentive distance. Because there was no rush. Space to listen, stillness to move into. An outbreath, an expanding of present time. A ping pong ball in a vast space, rhythmic bursts of running feet, gently wafted plastic sheet. Out of hardly anything arose a rich polyphony of playful connection and experimentation.

I think about how children are constantly rushed through adult-made agendas of development and curricula, their time and space colonised, homogenised, standardised. The tyranny of rushing towards the future, reducing present time until we hardly notice it at all. As artists working in early childhood, we recognise not only the aesthetic richness but also the ethical imperative to meet children in their own time and space, with wonder and respect. To recognise children as more than adult - not less than adult. Complicité and attention to the present moment resist the future-orientated oppression of progress which places both education and parenting under a burden of future orientated anxiety. Through the doing of hardly anything as an act of improvisation, the planning of hardly anything as a act of resistance, we open an ethical aesthetic space of difference which has, I suggest, vast potential for the wellbeing, and care of those who reside in it.

Abram D. (2011.) Becoming Animal. New York: Vintage

Belfiore E (2018) Whose cultural value? Representation, power and creative industries.

International Journal of Cultural Policy.

Davies, B. (2014). Listening to children: being and becoming. London; New York: Routledge

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Improvisation, Complicité & Care: The Ethics of Aesthetic Practices

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The In Between Spaces project explored the aesthetic qualities of a huge disused department store now Original Project's PrimeYarc gallery. We worked with light and shadow, acoustics, movement and the odd plastic dinosaur. Into this space we invited a single family at a time.

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Musical Development Matters in the Early Years

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Musical Development Matters in the Early Years

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ReusefulUK | Reuse of resources for community benefit through the diversion of clean reusable scrap waste materials from businesses

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Magic Acorns has grown out of a 20 year legacy of pioneering work in early childhood music and arts with families from Great Yarmouth in the East of England.

The community of artists, researchers and other professionals who have worked to develop this practice feel passionately about arts in early childhood, and strive to make this accessible, inclusive and community based.

"My child is accepted, understood and supported...really encouraging"

Parent Feedback

You can download a PDF of the
of the full report here

SALTmusic developed from an action research project between the music and arts team at Great Yarmouth Community Trust Sure Start Centre, and Speech and Language therapists (SLT) at East Coast Community Health in the East of England. This trailblazing work was celebrated in the Durham Commission on Creativity
and Education (p48).

​

What is SALTmusic?

SALTmusic builds upon the idea that all babies are born with innate musical ability and that musical communication can contribute to our multiple forms of language.

SALTmusic offers musical, playful approaches which support speech, language and communication needs (SLCN). It fosters a nurturing, safe space for parents and children to play together in a supported environment.

Taking the pressure off talking, through sound rich/talk poor environments; an improvisatory approach, based on observation, has been found to increase participants' confidence and children's vocalisations through musical play. Through laughter, fun and a relaxed atmosphere we can support and nurture communication and the many languages of children.

SALTmusic sees communication as more than words and works with children and parents' abilities to create an environment that celebrates and builds upon what they can do.

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Magic Acorns has grown out of a 20 year legacy of pioneering work in early childhood music and arts with families from Great Yarmouth in the East of England. The community of artists, researchers and other professionals who have worked to develop this practice feel passionately about arts in early childhood, and strive to make this accessible, inclusive and community based.

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Matt Laurie's rapport based musical interaction

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Matt Laurie's rapport based musical interaction

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In a nutshell, the purpose of Rapport-based Music is to create rapport. For a person with a communication disability, this experience meets many needs including the need for connection, empathy, community, communication, togetherness, hope, happiness and understanding. Human beings are social creatures and rapport is the central experience of positive connection. I now offer INSET, CPD and on-line training sessions to practitioners across the UK and abroad.
When a practitioner uses Rapport-based Music, the intent is not to teach music because this would mean that the practitioner has an agenda or learning objective and is therefore leading the activity. Having an agenda means that some behaviours will corrected or invalidated and rapport will be sacrificed. As in Rapport-based Communication, the value of the approach is in ability to respond in the moment to the person's interests and behaviour, letting the person lead and validating and affirming their choices and actions.
Offers
The first step of Rapport-based Communication practice is to look for OFFERS in the person's behaviour. The practitioner then joins in and celebrities these OFFERS by mirroring, reflecting or doing what you see. This has the effect of validating and affirming the person's behaviour and creating connection and rapport.

Musical Interaction follows the same principles but will often involve the practitioner making the first OFFER (of music or song) to which the person then responds. The practitioner will see this response as an reciprocal offer and then respond to this.
Repertoire
Interaction Songs (Structures)

These songs (or structures as I tend to refer to them) are designed to allow the facilitator to respond to the unprompted behaviours and interests from the participants in response to the initial offer of pulse, rhythm, tune, lyric or phrase. These songs are the core of my Musical Interaction approach and are designed to around the 3 C's; developing rapport and facilitating musical conversations.

Common repertoire

These are the songs that everyone knows. By offering a mutually understood song, tune, lyric or phrase the facilitator can create a foundation for social inclusion and rapport. Typical songs that I frequently sing in sessions include Coming Round The Mountain, You Are My Sunshine and Happy and You Know It. These songs are important to establish familiarity and shared understanding.

Improvised songs

Improvisation is a key skill in Musical Interaction. Ideally the facilitator should be able to respond as fluently as he or she would be able to in normal verbal conversation. Improvised songs may take the form of a sung commentary on the participant's unprompted behaviours; this could be a completely new song or might extend from an existing interaction song such as Music Here Today or I'm in a Singing Mood. Improvisation is often the most direct route to the creation of new songs, particularly when working with older people with memory problems or people who find it difficult sustain the attention required for a more typical song writing activity.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In a nutshell, the purpose of Rapport-based Music is to create rapport. For a person with a communication disability, this experience meets many needs including the need for connection, empathy, community, communication, togetherness, hope, happiness and understanding. Human beings are social creatures and rapport is the central experience of positive connection.