Emerging Music workshop

Here is wonderful team building soundscaping process that I used in a workshop at the transformational festival Prana which I call “Emerging Music”.

The group chose the theme of the soundscape and created their own sounds and sonic ideas, while the facilitator role is to encourage people to make sounds freely, without inhibition. This is best done by modelling.

Emerging Music Process

In a circle, close enough to hear each other without straining (we were sitting on the earth) someone decides on the  theme ‘the story of our country, Aotearoa (New Zealand), specifically the colonisation and loss of Te Reo ( Maori language ).

We lined up seven rocks to signify the key points in the story :

1. The Maori journey by sea from Hawaiiki
2. The arrival and the beauty of Aotearoa
3. Colonisation by the British
4. The conflict
5. The banning of Te Reo Maori ( Maori language )
6. Reclamation of Te Reo
7. The now

Then together , using only our voices and hands, we created a soundscape in which we moved together through each point in the story. ( Powerful listening skills are required here!)

The group had to keep very aware of where everyone else is in the story, to try and keep together in the unfolding.

Facilitator notes :

• It’s a good idea to have a story ready as an example but be ready to hand it over the second someone gets the idea and starts to run with it.
• Encourage stories with obvious sections, i.e horses running over wooden bridges, a plague of cats, a snoring giant… these will give very obvious landmarks for keeping the group together. If someone gets lost they can find their way back in easily.
• Encourage the group to move through the parts of the story using aural non visual cues,  resist the urge to point at each rock in turn to try and ‘ keep people together’, it’s OK if it falls apart as it will let everyone know they have to listen more powerfully in the next story.