Blow Your Own Trumpet: Edinburgh University Collection of Historic Musical Instruments

Designs for musical instruments were created by the students

What were the aims of the project?

Aims of the museum:
The project aimed to pilot a learning and access programme in the Edinburgh University Collection of Historical Musical Instruments. The museum had recently developed recommendations for development of its learning and access programme, and this project would pilot some of the suggestions.

Cultural Co-ordinator aims: – To promote the Curriculum for Excellence, through creative, inclusive teaching and learning using a cross-curricular approach. – To increase awareness of the processes involved in instrument making, playing and sound recording through participative activities. – To generate new partnerships between schools, Cultural Co-ordinators and heritage organisations. – To support the development of Edinburgh University Collection of Historic Musical Instrument’s links with schools.

What happened?

Role of the Cultural Co-ordinators:

The Cultural Co-ordinators prepared the funding application to Museums Galleries Scotland, and developed the overarching structure for the two-day workshops. The Cultural Co-ordinators made contact, and arranged visits with schools, were an extra pair of hands during the museum tour and workshop sessions, took photographs, and carried out project evaluations.

Role of the Museum:
The museum developed and facilitated the museum workshops.

Role of Fred Parsons, Audio Design and Music Technology:
Fred provided recording workshops in the class-room session.

Day one of the two-day workshop:

The workshops were designed to be cross-curricular, encompassing learning outcomes from Art and Design, Music, People and Place, People in the Past, Science and Technology. The day began with tours of the museum’s collection housed in the Reid Concert Hall Museum of Instruments. These tours emphasised the social use of musical instruments, craft and design of musical instruments through the centuries and across the globe, as well as methods of sound production – including basic acoustics. A handling session got the students moving and playing, in balance with the time spent observing and listening. After lunch, students were reminded about the methods of sound production, and these concepts were linked to instrument families through visual, written and aural examples, including musical examples.

The craft session was enthusiastically received, and the musical instruments created by the students put our sample instruments to shame! With basic instruments, the students became instrument craftsmen and women, designing, adapting and decorating their very own instruments, limited only by their imaginiations, the materials, and the time avaialable. Many students devised 3-instruments-in-one, such as a guitar/ rainstick/ drum. They were excited by their creations and eager to share techniques and ideas.

The craft workshop allowed students to combine creative craft with understanding gained through observation, discussion and play. It brought together a number of points from the four capacities of the Curriculum for Excellence, including:

- Successful learners – enthusiasm and motivation for learning, openness to new thinking and ideas, think creatively and independently. – Confident learners – self respect. – Responsible citizens – respect for others, understand different beliefs and cultures. – Effective contributors – an enterprising attitude, work in partnership and in teams, apply critical thinking in new concepts, create and develop.

Day two of the two-day workshop:

Students explored the acoustic potential of their made instruments by taking part in a second set of half-day creative workshops facilitated by the Cultural Co-ordinator team. These took place back in the classroom, where participants worked with music technologist Fred Parsons. Fred supported students to discover the rich variety of timbres and textures their instruments afforded, and to develop listening skills through a series of guided performances. The music created was recorded for review and evaluation by the class, before a final ‘best’ ensemble performance was made, to be included on a compact disc featuring music from all participant schools.

Throughout Fred’s workshop, pupils were encouraged to engage in the wide variety of processes and skills involved in performing for live recording, including: focus and concentration, following a conductor, listening to others, musical time, and the importance of silence, A number of teachers commented that for many pupils this was their first experience of instrumental musicianship, and were impressed at the level of commitment and confidence with which their students engaged with the tasks in hand.

Inspired by the acitivities and skills learned throughout Blow Your Own Trumpet, a number of teachers continued to extend learning in the classroom. For example, one class created instrument-making instruction cards, in which students combined methods learned in the making workshop with imaginative adaptions of their own.

Who participated in the workshops:

In total 135 P4 to P5 students and their teachers took part in the workshops in four groups from three schools (James Gillespies, Parsons Green and Lorne Primary Schools Edinburgh) attended the workshops.

What was learned?

The project was considered a success by all involved, and we enjoyed working on this collaborative project. If three challenges were to be identified, they are the following:

-Communication breakdowns during the project lifespan. Ongoing communication on obstacles or challenges from both partners is essential, as are short updates so both partners know the appropriate project stage to be at and when to move to the next stage

- Underestimation of time required for workshop preparation. If a craft-based workshop is being developed, don’t underestimate the time it takes to find beads, scissors, and purple glitter glue! Craft workshops are no fun if the materials are still in transit

-Considering internal planning, permissions, and stakeholders. As a museum in a larger organisation, the project highlighted a number of internal challenges that put pressure on the project. Make sure key plans are approved and relevant people are kept informed

What is the wider relevance?

The Blow Your Own Trumpet project, completed in 2007 in partnership with the Edinburgh City Council’s Cultural Coordinators, has sparked a wave of creative activities over the last few years. Combining learning activities focused on musical instruments, sound production and acoustics, craft and design, art and even ecology and recycling, the aims and activities of this project are firmly placed as a popular cornerstone in the educational activities of the University of Edinburgh’s Musical Instrument Museums. Exploring musical instruments by creating unique and wacky instruments out of recycled materials has been the focus of a number of events in the Musical Instrument Museums, including school workshops, Show Scotland family fun days, and will also feature as part of a larger online resource currently being developed.

Musical Instruments at Your Fingertips is a MGS Recognition-funded project due to be completed in autumn 2010. Its aims are to increase access, learning and enjoyment of the Recognised Collections of the University’s Musical Instrument Museums by offering dynamic learning resources with diverse and engaging content, in a range of learning styles. One part of the online project is to offer ‘student-created’ content, in which primary classes making their own musical instruments will create fun online content (‘how-to’ instrument designs, stories with sound effects made with their instruments) to engage and inspire other children and young people (and hopefully anyone who is a kid at heart!) to experiment with their own ideas.

‘Design a New Musical Instrument!’ and ‘Sounds from Nature, Sounds from My Life’ will challenge and entertain young people, creating a legacy that has the aims of the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence at its very core, enabling students to become ‘successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors’. The current MGS-funded projects rely upon innovation and ideas gathered during the first partnership project ‘Blow Your Own Trumpet’, and both the museum’s learning and access project and the public have benefited from this initial collaboration.

What type of evaluation was done?

Evaluation sheets were designed by the Cultural Coordinators, and were completed by the teachers, teacher aides, and students. Armed with information on the workshops successes and areas for improvement, the Blow Your Own Trumpet project was been developed to be one of many workshops offered to schools and families by the Musical Instrument Museums when the learning and access programme began in 2006.

All students and teachers were asked to reflect on their experiences as participants in Blow Your Own Trumpet – through questionnaires, discussion and drawings. A selection of participants comments and observations have been collated below under the headings of Curriculum for Excellence Four Capacities, in order to highlight the relevance of the project’s learning experiences in relation to the new 3-18 Curriculum. For further information regarding the evaluation methods and feedback from schools, please contact lucy.kendra@edinburgh.gov.uk.

Successful Learners:
Pupils said:
…makes learning fun

I can look at an instrument and compare it with early forms of itself

Class Teacher said:
The children were remarkably reflective about each of their experiences

Confident Individuals:
Pupils said:
I couldn’t make instruments, but I can now.

I could not keep in time, but now I can.

I enjoyed the recording because we are going to be on CD!

Class Teacher said:
….a great session that the kids thoroughly enjoyed. They had a maximum feeling of ownership, accomplishment and pride.

Responsible Citizens:
Pupils said:
I liked seeing what other people were doing

We learned how to play and how to combine our instruments.

Class Teacher said:
Pupils realised the importance of co-operation in performing together.

Effective Contributors:
Pupils said:
I can build instruments out of things you can find in your own home…out of any old junk.

Class Teacher said:
Children could understand that anyone could take part in music – everyone played an instrument and joined in.

For Further Information

A resorce card outlining the project, and its relevance to the Curriculum for Excellence is available from lucy.kendra@edinburgh.gov.uk

Or for further information about the project, please contact the Blow Your Own Trumpet project partners:

Cultural Co-ordinators, City of Edinburgh Council
http://www.edinburghartsandlearning.org Lucy Kendra lucy.kendra@educ.edin.gov.uk or Kate Marshall kate.marshall@educ.edin.gov.uk

Edinburgh University Collection of Historic Musical Instruments
http://www.music.ed.ec.uk/euchmi Emily Peppers, Assistant Curator e.peppers@ed.ac.uk

Fred Parsons http://www.fredparsons.co.uk