Come and Play

Come and Play – Music Making Resource Pack.

Produced by the Come and Play project at 4Children, City Reach,

5 Greenwich View Place, London, E14  9NN

Star Rating: 2/5
 
When I started reading this pack I was delighted, writes Minna Graber.  Here was a real need – namely building play leaders’ confidence in leading musical activities.  But I read the suggested sessions with an increasing sense of disappointment.  Many of the activities are downright dull and would probably only serve to reinforce play leaders’ feelings of inadequacy in using music as a play activity.

Yes, we need a pack to support play leaders in their excellent work, but this approach is flawed.  It would be preferable to make a starting point from singing games and improvising rhythms – possibly in the latter case with the support of a backing track particularly when dealing with older children.  I hoped that the blues activity in the advanced section might have taken off in this direction.  While the suggested activity in this case was interesting, so much more could have been made of this material, but instead the second section plunged us back into music literacy exercises.  Another fruitful starting point for such workshops would be movement exercises as a way of supporting listening to recorded music.  such material does not feature.  While a few of the exercises in this pack are attractive, the overall trhust is misconceived and off-putting.

Minna Graber is head of music at Millfields, Community School.