Schools and Groups

I'm happy to work with pretty much any age group.  With very young children (birth to three-ish) the workshops are as much for the adults as the children, though!

Feis Rois employs me and a host of other tutors in traditional music and song in a programme of school visits through the Youth Music Initiative and these are usually aimed at Primary 5 pupils.  Because most of the schools I visit are rural, this can mean composite classes including P5 involving a much broader age range.

I don't like to work with written words, preferring to get the group to learn 'by lug', but adults generally prefer words in front of them!  With every group, I do provide words at the end of the session or series of visits as a memory aid.

The advantage of working with a pre-existing group, as opposed to a specially formed class like an evening class, is that the members are already committed to coming along at that time and may not even have a specific urge to learn traditional song, but are happy to have a go for a few weeks before trying something else.

Recently I was working with a local Beavers group working towards their Global badge and finding out about  Scotland and Scottish culture.  Previously I've helped Brownies put together performances for their Hostess badge.

I've taught simple Gaelic song to an adult Gaelic learners group looking to consolidate their vocabulary, lullabies to a new parents group and used traditional songs as an inspiration for visual art in a retirement home project with visual artist Lizzie MacDougall.

I like the idea of integrating traditional song in amongst other areas of life, rather than rigidly comparmentalising it.