crab
Do you like music? Is it fun to listen to watch music being performed? How about making your very own music?
Crab Music is a music workshop for young participants to improvise, compose and play with electronic sounds.
Participants are given electronic sound generators to explore and discover their own sounds. They join in on an adventure where they learn how to create their own music. Young participants are invited and no previous musical experience is required. At the end of the workshop they perform their composed music to an audience.
Some of the pieces composed by previous Crab workshop students are: De Olifant Gilt in de Regen, Geluidenstorm, Popcorn, A World of Sound, and, Clouds. Here you can find a link to the recordings made by Crab Music participants https://soundcloud.com/user-256932902
The pilot Crab Music workshop took place on the 4th of May 2018 and there were six workshops between December 2018 and June 2019. Keep an eye on the Crab Music website to find out when the next workshop will be – https://krabmuziek.wordpress.com
Crab Music is the Studio LOOS affiliated, The Hague based collective that delivers electronic music workshops to children aged between 8-14 years. Listening activities form an important part of the workshops in order to heighten sound awareness. The electronic sound generators are a piece of equipment which may not necessarily be seen as an instrument for making music, however, by focusing on the characteristics of sound, they become just that. The intention is to approach music making from a different angle, where sound and its characteristics, analysed and broken up into pieces, becomes the source of material which is then put together to form a musical piece.
The objectives of the Studio LOOS affiliated Crab Music are:
Creating awareness of musical possibilities and creativity
Bringing musicians and non-musicians from various backgrounds together
Learning skills and gaining insight into composition and improvisation
Making music with others – development of ensemble skills
Sonic discovery through electronic sound generators
To learn ways of applying the discovered sounds to a composition, thereby, learn compositional skills such as form, repetition, variation, contrast etc.
To provide an opportunity to be part of a musical performance
The distribution of musical knowledge and skills to others
Social upliftment and community interaction
In order to keep the learners focused on the sounds that are being produced the goal of the workshop is to compose their discoveries into a musical piece. Listening activities are used to heighten their sense of sound as well as their understanding of concepts such as high and low, loud and soft, texture and timbre (rough, smooth, singing, noise, etc.). Thereafter, composition activities are used to apply the sounds into a composition. The aim of the activities is to strengthen the learning environment in a fun way. The activities encourage the learners to work together. For example, in groups they are encouraged to describe the sounds they discover by naming the sounds characteristics. They make compositional decisions as a group where one of the students acts as a conductor to lead the form. When working as a group, they often share their sonic discoveries with each other and thereby encourage one another to explore further and try out a similar idea. After they have completed the musical piece, they listen to a recording and as a group make suggestions for what can be changed. The role of the teacher is to give suggestions to keep the creativity levels high, while also providing freedom for them to discover by themselves.