Ranelagh Primary School - Thursday 29th March 2007

Class 5T6 created a blues song about Arcos, a girl from Africa who was sold several times and separated from her family. Their lyrics came about as the result of some really thoughtful drama.

Listen here:
"If I refuse now"

Class 5T9 created a class Indian Raga about Iqbal, a boy who made carpets in India. They learnt all about the hot, cramped conditions in which he must work for long hours each day. Some of the children already knew about aspects of Indian music which was great. The class were split into 3 parts: the drone section, the tabla section (playing the Tintal Tala pattern on their hands) and the melody section who improvised up and down the raga scale with their voices and then sang lyrics about Iqbal.

Listen here:
"Iqbal's Raga"

Southern Road Primary School - 28th March 2007

The children at Southern Road had been working on a choreographed dance for a scene onboard the slave ship.

After some body percussion warm-up games, the children took part in drama to brainstorm some word phrases that they could use to turn into musical phrases. They then developed these in groups, transferring their spoken phrases onto a variety of percussion instruments. They also learnt about the names and techniques used to play classroom percussion. At the end of the session, each group performed their piece, using my djembe pulse to link each group. They hope to develop their group piece and perform it live. 

Listen here:
"Southern Road Percussion"

Gainsborough Primary School - 28th March 2007

The children at Gainsborough produced a great Blues song. They had worked so hard that there was plenty of time left over to develop their improvisation skills. Using their voices, they made up their own on-the-spot melodies and took turns to sing these bravely on their own, in between the lyrics of the song. They supported each other wonderfully - what a great session!

Listen here:
"Will I be a chief?"

Tollgate Primary School - Tuesday 27th March 2007

With some help from Ms. Wellburn, children in 4W learnt about Sabina (12) and Rupchan (8) who work in a brickfield factory in Bangladesh. The children composed Indian Ragas in small groups on the theme of 'Seven days a week, twelve hours a day' - the working hours of the children.

Listen here:
"Tollgate Raga"

Lyrics:
Seven days a Week

Seven days a week, twelve hours a day
Seven days a week, I'm starving
Seven days a week, we are only children
Seven days a week, we are hungry children
They forced me, we're hungry
Seven days a week, they forced me
Seven days a week, twelve hours a day

In the afternoon, the children of 4M wrote an amazing blues song about Olaudah Equiano. The children used their voices to improvise and with one excellent musician playing her trumpet, everyone enjoyed themselves.

Listen here:
"Tollgate Blues"

Gallions Primary School - 26th March 2007

Buzzing from the excitement of meeting the home secretary, the Year 5 at Gallions were keen to make some Music. Hip Hop Class composed a Blues song about a boy called Emilio, in Guatemala, who had become a child soldier.

Listen here: 

"Emilio's Blues"

Jazz Class used their cellos to provide 'drones' for Indian Ragas. They also added words to tell the story of Sanjay.

Listen here:

"Sanjay's Raga"

Essex Primary School - Thursday 22nd March 2007

I met Class 5G and their teachers Mrs Ward and Mrs Grey to compose a blues song that would portray the thoughts of Olaudah Equiano at one of his lowest points - on board the ship taking him away from his homeland. Christopher took the role of Olaudah and held a freezeframe position as the children applied their knowledge of poetry and vocabulary to thought-track Olaudah's feelings and write really thoughtful lyrics for this song. They too enjoyed improvising with their voices in the practices. This time, the children sang over a backing track which I created in Garageband.
 
Listen here:
Class 5G - 'Equiano's Blues'

Manor Primary School - Wednesday 21st March 2007

Today I visited two Year 5 classes at Manor Primary School in West Ham who knew lots about slavery and the abolition of the slave trade.

Miss Collins and Class 3 worked with me to compose their own blues song, "I'm a slave now". They learnt about the structure of the 12-bar blues and then applied their musical knowledge from their samba and djembe groups to write call and response lyrics based on the blues scale. We used a drama exercise to produce some questions that Drissa, who has experienced slavery in the modern day, might ask about his life. These formed the lyrics. Brave and keen, the children can be heard improvising with their voices after each line of lyrics. Well done Class 3!

Listen here:
- Miss Collins' class - "I'm a slave now"

Mrs Gove and her class had been learning about spirituals and had thoroughly enjoyed singing 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot' and some other Spirituals. They worked hard to try to understand the 'coded messages' that slaves put into their Spirituals in order to pass on messages about escaping to freedom. Using the same drama activity as the other class, Daniel took the role of a slave dreaming of escape. The children decided to use the simile of a 'butterfly' as a creature who was free to emulate the 'coded messages' of traditional spirituals.

Listen here:
- Mrs Gove's class - "Butterfly floating on the wind"

An introduction to the Newham Primary Cross-Arts Project

Approximately 360 children in Newham, from nine different schools, are currently taking part in this year's Primary Cross - Arts project.

Through Drama, Music, Dance and Art, the children are learning about the abolition of the slave trade in 1807. They have also been learning about the harsh reality of slavery still happening today.

They are learning about Olaudah Equiano, the slave who bought his own freedom and wrote an autobiography. They have also been finding about Thomas Clarkson who campaigned tirelessly to abolish slavery and as a local link, they have been exploring an albino slave called Amelia Harlequin who was documented as having been in West and East Ham in the late 1700s following her escape from a touring 'Birds and Beasts' exhibition.

The children will be performing at the Stratford Circus Theatre from 20th-22nd June, 2007.