Bill the Bastard heard an earful of fantastic percussion thanks to Murrumburrah students who participated in a unique activity. Music educators Rachel Scott, Ben Sibson, and Dr Deborah de Graaff all taught Murrumburrah students the importance and fun of making music.
To an audience of many, the students drummed up a storm that parents and students were very proud of. Dr. Deborah de Graaff tells us about the process that led to the spectacular event, “We’ve just witnessed the result of this fantastic funding that’s got an activity for the children. They’ve been workshopping for two days in the school.
The teachers have gone into the classrooms and into a big hall. We used objects that are supposed to represent the farming community. Wheelbarrows, tabletops, silo drums, and food beams. They’ve all been used as musical instruments.”
“Before that started, the children had to spend last week thinking about what objects you could make a sound out of. So we had rolling pins, and we had shakers made out of wheat. I had my friends in Sydney come, Rachel Scott and Ben Simpson, and they came into the side and helped the kids work out which would make the loudest noise.
We knew we wanted to make a feature of the Bill the Bastard statue because this is something that the community has been working on for a long time.” “They’ve been so excited. They have never actually performed like this before the concert.
Some of them didn’t know what a concert was. We had to explain, ‘you’re going to be performing on Friday, and you’ll be playing for an audience.’ They never did anything like that before.”
Rachel Scott, who helped prepare the kids for the concert, couldn’t have had a better class of students, “They were beautiful. I don’t think I have taught such well-behaved children for a very long time. They were an absolute delight.”
“Me and my partner in crime, Ben Simpson, have spent two days working with the kids at the primary school. We’ve done two workshops with them teaching them about percussion.” The students loved the event, a lot even remaining to bang on their instruments and talk about their time after it had long finished.
One boy was sitting in the wheelbarrow he performed with. How often do you get to sit in the instrument you just played? Josh Guy and David Djukic shared their experience on the day, “I learned drumming isn’t all about the rhythm.
It’s like feeling the music. It was fun. It was really fun.” Dr. Deborah de Graaff sums up the afternoon, “They’re all smiling, looking pretty excited. That’s what happens when you do a concert, and you do it well.
The other thing is that Rachel works a lot with kids and she has never taught that much information to that many children in two days. They are super fast learners and did amazingly well.
Their attention was incredible. It’s all from memory, so they had to remember their job and the sequence. It was very successful
Jack Murray
