“The children had fun – many ended up dancing whilst their friends performed” Music Leader
 
Project Background
Tow Law Tiny Tunes focuses on generating music making opportunities for children aged 3 – 6 years in the isolated Tow Law; a small town placed 1000 feet above sea level on a ridge between the Wear and Deerness Valleys in county Durham.

Project Details
The Tow Law Tiny Tunes project has established regular music activity for young children through weekly visits to the Tow Law Community Centre and to the Blessed John Duckett Primary School during term time.  The sessions lasted up to 50 minutes.  In these sessions with music leaders children were encouraged to interact with music making using their voices, bodies, found objects and a wide range of musical instruments coming from a diverse range of cultures and continents.  Before the project started some work was done with a speech therapist, the findings simply served to strengthen the importance of projects like Tiny Tunes: musical activities within early years can result in a noticeable reduction in speech problems.

What Happened?
The Music Leaders involved in the project encouraged the children to experiment with over 100 different instruments including ukuleles, tin whistles, talking drums, djembes and car horns.  To add focus to the sessions children were asked to find instruments which made happy or sad sounds; high or low sounds and loud and soft sounds.  These simple techniques encouraged the participants to engage with music and fully appreciate what they could get out of it.  The appearance of an instrument was also discussed – developing an all-round confidence within music and music making. 

Independent music making was encouraged: children were given time to simply explore their favourite instruments, either alone or with friends.  This proved useful to the music leaders and trainees, who where able to assess the elements of music making most attractive to each child, allowing them to tailor future sessions to these interests.

What Was Achieved?
• Teachers have reported universal improvements in concentration.
• Previously quiet children have enjoyed raised confidence and self esteem.
• Parents have been delighted with the results; some have purchased instruments for the home.
• Improved Motor skills – with the sometimes complex movements needed to get the desired sound from an instrument
• Cross-curricular benefits such as improved numeracy and literacy skills: concepts such as first, next and last are crucial to melody making.
• Children learn an array of new songs and sounds.
• Because of the range of instruments children can become ‘specialists’ with certain instruments amongst their peers – this leads to increased self esteem in the individual.

What Next?
The Tow Law Tiny Tunes project has boosted the importance of music making in the schools and wider community.
Blessed John Duckett School has gone on to fund future programmes, with a hope of mirroring the success of the Tiny Tunes programme with the older children at the school.

Words:  Lizzy King