The Musical Conversations project aimed to create a musical dialogue between very young children and their grown-ups.
By enhancing music practice in nursery and pre-school settings, darts aimed to develop a culture of exploration and conversation through music. Four musicians worked in partnership with Early Years practitioners through joint planning, skills exchange and delivery to create music sessions which were truly child-led.
darts secured funding from Youth Music's First Steps programme to run this exciting exploratory music project in six Early Years settings in Doncaster. These were; Intake and Belle Vue Children's Centre, Askern Spa Spiders Children's Centre, Richmond Hill Primary School, Stirling Primary School, Rainbow Bright Day Nursery and Sunny Bright Day Nursery.
Two of the musicians, Pammi Sansoa and Michael Humphrey, received mentoring from experienced musicians Janet Wood and Ali Bullivent. The musicians developed their skills in working with very young children and their approaches to planning and facilitation of sessions. The two music trainees were identified through other darts work, Pammi Sansoa is a musician from India with strong traditional vocal and rhythm skills. She has taken part in a previous Youth Music project with after-school clubs. Michael Humphreys was keen to build his skills in workshop facilitation, long-term planning and development with partners.
Informal training was run in each of the six settings for key staff and interested parents.
A CD of songs and rhymes was created during the project.