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Welcome to the Notate Create Innovate Page!

If you would like to know about us or view the workshops available at this time, please head to the about page.

If you would like to read about Notate Create Innovate's conceptualisation then feel free to read any of the blog posts below. These are designed to give an in-depth insight into the creation of the company, branding, workshops and everything else in between.

Alternatively, if you would like to find out more about the creator of Notate Create Innovate, you can head to the webiste: www.victoriaheathmusic.com.

If you have any questions or would like to sign up to workshops, you please fill out a form on the contact page or send us an email at: flautingit@gmail.com.

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  • Writer's pictureVictoria Heath

A Deep Dive into the Creation of 'Musical Sounds Scavenger Hunt'

Updated: Apr 23, 2021

Section 1


When choosing the theme 'Musical Sounds Scavenger Hunt', I was debating about where I wanted to go with these workshops. I had lots of ideas for in-person workshops but many of them would not work in an online format.

Originally, I wanted to explore drumming, interactive instrumental workshops, group composition and body percussion. The limitations of online workshops meant that it simply wasn't possible to have activities where people made noises at the same time. It also meant we had to make do with what they had in their house as we could not provide materials. I wanted to provide a very creative workshop with instrumental use. This is why I chose to focus on Foley music - anything can be an instrument!


Before I could begin planning the content of the workshop, I had to do a lot of research. I watched lots of videos, mini documentaries and consulted websites to get ideas for my workshop. While doing all of this, I made a list of materials that could be found in an average family's home that makes interesting sound effects. The list I came up with was:

  • Celery (snapping sounds)

  • Uncooked rice/pasta (walking on sand, snapping or rain)

  • Empty plastic bottle/ milk carton (heart beat)

  • Clingfilm (fire)

  • Paper (tearing or wind)

  • Creaky floor/ chair (wooden floorboards, haunted house)

  • Empty crisp bag (fire)

  • Empty yogurt pots (horse hooves)

  • Tupperware (horse hooves)

  • Deflated balloon (car tyres)

  • Rubber gloves (bird flapping)

  • Metal spatula and cooking tray (drawing a sword)

  • Ring of keys (chain armour)

  • Corn-starch (walking in snow)

I sent a selection from this list to every person that signed up, asking them to have a selection of items available for the workshop.

 

Section 2


The workshop began by explaining what

Foley was by looking at fake food adverts on TV. I thought this comparison may help the children to understand why they used alternative sounds in music. This resulted in some very interesting conversations speculating what else may not be real.


The next component I included was a short documentary video that I came across when researching the sounds. We paused this at several points to ask questions about what they were hearing and seeing to keep engagement up. It was evident that the children really enjoyed watching how the end product came together. For example, the boat sounds and the sounds of a rock climber.


Next we asked the children to think creatively and produce some of their own sounds. I included 4 categories in the PowerPoint to choose from. The rest of the group had fun guessing what the sound was and how it was made. We had one very creative student that we couldn't guess how she was making a rain sound. It turns out she was using shells from nuts that she had been eating during the session!

Following this, I included another short video. I found interspersing videos into the workshops gave the children another medium to connect and engage with that wasn't just our voices.

 

Section 3


Towards the end of the workshop, I added in a matching game. This involved pairing the item to the sound it produced. This activity gave everyone an opportunity to experiment with some different sounds with objects around them and to listen to what each other were doing. The teamwork in this activity was great to see.

I did find at this point that I had to turn student annotations off. It can be an incredibly useful feature, however it can also be a distraction. Unfortunately, some of the children got a bit over excited and wanted to show they knew all the answers. This meant I had to disable annotations to allow everyone to have a go and debate about which items matched up. Luckily the PowerPoint included the links to come in with animations so they could still see if they got everything correct.

 

Section 4


The final activity (and a bit of fun) was the bacon or rain video. This was a listening game using sounds of bacon cooking. The aim was to guess which clips used bacon sound effects and which were actually recordings of rain. It turns out they were all bacon!


With everyone very hungry from the amount of food we included, it was time to finish the workshop. I really enjoyed this one, although it was perhaps a bit more chaotic than the others. I think this was largely because we had an influx of people (we ended up with 13 children) and all the items around them caused a lot of excitement. This would have been a lot easier to manage in person, but I think Megan and I coped well.

If I were to run another workshop like this I would definitely turn off annotations from the start and set a few more ground rules for when they should be playing with the items and when they should put them down. Another change I would make is to ensure that siblings are all on one device. We had a lot of children in this session and keeping an eye on all the screens (and Foley items) was quite a challenge. This change should help in the future if we are oversubscribed again.

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