Artlink Highland

Training opportunities in Orff Music Education for beginners and intermediate/advanced; Indonesian Gamelan techniques; Scottish Traditional Lullabies/vocal warm-ups; Music Psychology and Improvisation; Music Therapy aimed at teachers, musicians, arts workers, health practitioners and carers supporting those with additional needs and with young people in general education.

Doug Goodkin (U.S.), Gamelan Naga Mas, Dr Raymond MacDonald (Glasgow), Christina Stewart (Ross-shire), and Lori Sunshine (Forres) will provide practical hands-on training workshops in their field.

The training is aimed at teachers, carers, artists, musicians, drama practitioners, dance artists, childcare workers, students and therapists. It will cover all abilities – knowledge is not necessary, but a willingness to learn and participate in a group will be.

The training will aim to give new skills to those working in the community, education and care arenas, and to artists; as well as providing an opportunity to network with people from different sectors. Some of the workshops will be client-based – observers are welcome.

Orff Schulwerk covers music, dance, movement, poetry and rhyme. Gamelan Naga Mas provides an insight into South East Asian cultures and the instruments of the gamelan. The gamelan is used in both community and mainstream as well as therapeutic environments. The healing power of the Lullaby is well documented and will be ably proved by the song workshop. Music Therapy uses sounds and music within an evolving relationship between client and therapist to support and encourage physical, mental, social and emotional well-being. Music Psychology will look at music communication and meaning. Music creativity will be explored in Improvisation.

Workshops will offer gains in music, creativity, movement skills, confidence, leadership, initiative, imagination, self-awareness and group dynamics.

The training week was brought together by artists' organisations working in collaboration to provide training in the arts across the Highlands and Islands and is being supported by funding from Awards For All and collaborative groups involved are Artlink Highland and ArtsPlay.

GAMELAN WORKSHOPS with NAGA MAS

The Indonesian Gamelan Orchestra

The instruments of the gamelan are a carefully tuned orchestra of chimes and gongs, a world of metallic sounds. The group can incorporate different skill levels - no previous musical experience needed. Learning Gamelan is like trying to solve a wonderful puzzle. There are many special skills to learn in playing the instruments. Jon Keliehor and Signy Jakobsdottir form a team specializing in community and mainstream. Margaret Smith and Katherine Waumsley provide workshops for persons with disabilities and persons with varying additional support needs. As solo practitioners they use the gamelan as a tool for engaging and developing

Gamelan is a highly accessible music activity that generates a great deal of practical musical knowledge for the student. The exciting instruments of the Indonesian gamelan provide a special way to look at world culture allowing insights into the music of South-East Asian culture. The gamelan is used in community, mainstream and therapeutic environments.

The instruments of the gamelan are a carefully tuned orchestra of chimes, gongs, a world of metallic sounds. The instruments are fascinating. A group can incorporate individuals of differing skill levels. Learning Gamelan music is like trying to solve a wonderful puzzle. To play the music there are many special skills to learn and problems to solve. A beginner does not need previous experience.

Gamelan Naga Mas is a community-based organisation providing workshops in traditional and new music, using a unique set of musical instruments known as the gamelan orchestra. They develop performances involving music, shadow puppets, dance and theatre. This set of instruments named the Spirit of Hope was brought from Indonesia to Glasgow as part of the year of Culture in 1990. and was purchased by the Strathclyde Regional Council and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. These instruments were designed to provide music for the Shadow Puppet tradition known as Wayang Kulit.

Music Psychology & Improvisation with Dr Raymond MacDonald

This workshop/presentation will include an introduction to the Psychology of Music. Raymond will also discuss some ideas relating to how music communicates meaning and assists joint attention. He will also introduce the concept of musical identities. The practical aspects of this workshop will be focused upon exporting musical creativity through improvisation – no musical experience whatsoever is necessary.

Dr. Raymond MacDonald is Reader in Psychology at Glasgow Caledonian University He is Editor of the international journal “ Psychology of Music” and Conference Secretary for The Society for Education Music and Psychology Research (SEMPRE). He has extensive experience of research relating to the psychology of music and has presented and published his work widely. He has also been Artistic Director for a music production company, Sounds of Progress working with individuals who have special needs. He is an experienced saxophonist/composer, who performs internationally and has recorded numerous CDs. Recent collaborations include work with David Byrne, Evan Parker and Lol Coxhill. In 2002 he was awarded Scottish Jazz Musician of the Year by the “Sunday Herald”.

Steve has been studying the Music and Arts of West Africa for many years and has been teaching African drumming, as well as group percussion in the Highlands since 1999. He has facilitated drum circles in Scotland , England , and the USA and is well-respected within the international Drum Circle . He has studied with Arthur Hall, group facilitator and keynote speaker from the USA , as well as other teachers from America , Nigeria , Sierra Leone , The Gambia and Zimbabwe . He currently leads the F.A.L.C.O.N Project Drum Group, Inverness Community Percussion Group and teaches and facilitates for a wide range of organisations, corporations and schools.

ORFF SCHULWERK with Doug Goodkin

Orff Schulwerk asks for minimal expertise in a wide variety of disciplines – music, dance, movement, poetry and rhyme. Carl Orff's genius lies in his synthesis of art forms: ‘Elemental music, never alone but always connected with movement, rhythm and speech'. Orff uses language as a way to musical development. He believed that music is born of the natural rhythm of speech. Speech is a natural way to music and rhymes; and poems build a foundation for rhythm, phrase and form. The Orff approach to music uses modal music from the start, a natural development from speech sound (Leonard Bernstein) and an inheritance from the roots world music. Variations in form and improvisation on a theme are main features of every song, rhyme and melody. Doug is particularly known for his innovative application of Orff Schulwerk to the teaching of multi-cultural music and jazz. His ideas connect Orff Schulwerk to the greater world of education and human potential Workshops will therefore offer gains in music and movement skills, confidence, leadership, initiative, imagination, self-awareness, group dynamics etc. Doug Goodkin is most well known for his work as a music educator and proponent of Orff Schulwerk. He is in his 31 st year at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Doug regularly gives workshops and teaches courses in the USA , Canada , South America, Europe, New Zealand , Australia Russia, Sweden , Japan and Indonesia . Doug has worked with children from 3 to 18 for over 22 years, and is particularly known for his innovative application to jazz, multi-cultural and traditional music. He has written numerous articles on Orff in contemporary culture and is the author of five books including textbooks.

Lori Sunshine RMT-BC

Lori is a fully trained and experienced in Music Therapy. She has worked in a wide variety of settings over the past 20 years. She graduated in 1985 from Arizona State University and has worked in hospital settings, hospices, schools, youth projects and for community services with adults, teenagers and children with special needs.

Workshop: Theraputic techniques using music, movement & poetry for adolescents with challenging behaviour . Lori will explore the elements of music and how the structures of music inherently are healing to human nature and beneficial for our overall development. Musical activities and experiential participation.

Lori will help demonstrate the power music has in our lives and how we can use it to communicate with each other and foster greater self-esteem and understanding of ourselves and others.

SCOTTISH LULLABIES with Christina Stewart and Bill Taylor

Christina, a freelance traditional singer from the Scottish Highlands, is rapidly gaining a name for her project work on the promotion of the singing of Lullabies. She will look at vocal warm ups, lullabies and songs for children in the Scottish Tradition. Many of her lullabies are recorded on her CD, ‘Kist o Dreams'. Bill Taylor, well known international clarsach player will accompany her.

Christina Stewart is a traditional singer from the Scottish Highlands whose latest work has concentrated on passing on the tradition through seminars, classes, workshops and activity sessions for participants ranging in age from 3 years to ‘third age'. She comes from a family of singers in Torridon and Skye and is an Honours graduate from Edinburgh University and the School of Scottish Studies , where she studied Traditional Song.

Until 1995 she was an Arts Officer for Highland Council; she now works freelance. Her current project ‘kist o' dreams' aims to promote the singing of lullabies through providing resources such as the ‘kist o' dreams' CD, the www.kistodreams.org website and a programme of presentations and classes for community groups and parenting groups, as well as at music festivals and other events such as Glasgow's Celtic Connections and the Tartan Heart Festival at Belladrum.

In 2006 she will be collaborating with Highland Pre-School Services to provide a Youth Music Initiative for the under 5s using Traditional Scottish song in Inverness and Skye.

A former vocalist with Mouth Music and founder member of the Feisty Besoms, Christina's recent collaborations have included working with storytellers Ian Stephen and Whigmaleerie (Lesley Maclean) and with her brother, Gaelic bard, Alpin Stewart.

Monday 27 March, 10-4pm

Workshops with Doug, Luminous Gamelan Naga Mas and Raymond at the Spectrum Centre, Inverness . Performance with Steve Sharpe and Falcon Theatre during the lunch break.

Tuesday 28 March, 10-3.30pm

Workshops with Doug, Luminous Gamelan Naga Mas ( Dingwall Town Hall , Dingwall). Impromptu performance by pupils of St Clements Special School during the lunch break.

Wednesday 29 March, 10 – 3.30pm

Workshops with Doug and Christina (Spectrum Centre, Inverness ).

Thursday 30 March, 10 – and 12 pm and 1 – 3.30pm

Workshops Lori (Dingwall Community Centre am); Doug and Steve ( Dingwall Town Hall , Dingwall pm).

Raymond, Doug and Luminous Gamelan Naga Mas will also be working with Primary, Secondary and Special Groups Lunch and coffee breaks will be provided.