Three Hares were grateful to receive funding to run more Musical Forest Workshops this summer, facilitated by Mischa Stevens. There was funding to run a Mental Health session, and two sessions with Trees and Seas forest school group (see photos).

But what exactly is a Musical Forest Workshop? Here is what the forest school group got up to:

‘The workshops started with ice breaker games. These included a “follow the
leader” with silly warm-ups stretching and role play. Another favourite was a “what
animal do you feel like today” activity to introduce everyone. There was then a quick
introduction of the musical forest, the history of the instruments and the outline of
the day’s activities.
Then we moved to the instruments. To ensure everyone had a go on every
instrument, we rotated around and played a different mini musical game each
time.
The games included playing with call and response, dynamics, speed and building
up layers one by one. Different people then took turns being the leader/
conductors.
We then used short stories to create rhythms and structures together. Teaching
simple chants relating to the stories to get everyone playing the same rhythm. For
example, one story involved a young girl who magically turned into a monkey at
school. We drummed together “monkey, monkey, monkey, who’s a cheeky
monkey”. The story developed as one by one everyone then turned into a monkey
and musical chaos ensued.
For the last mini game we took turns performing musical conversations in pairs.
Each pair pretended to be a different set of animals conversing and the group
guessed which animals they were.
After lunch we went on a walk to the river, and enjoyed the different sounds we
could hear and make in the woods.
Returning to the musical forest, there was storytelling where the group was encouraged to act out parts and create sound effects. We then learned to play a song that
accompanied the story. Coloured stickers on each note ensured
everyone could play together.
To finish the workshop we did more “musical storytelling”.There were prepared sets of
colour coded rhythms on cards for the groups to play. They each had different
themes that were weaved together into a story. For example, one was a fruit salad
theme set of rhythms that gets blended faster and faster into a smoothie.
Lastly the group was encouraged to create their own rhythms and themes which we
then played together, making some very funny inventive musical stories!’

So, next time round would you like to join us? Look out for future Musical Forest Workshop opportunities, or get in touch if you would like to bring a group.