A com­mu­ni­ty-based col­la­bo­ra­tion fea­tu­ring ori­gi­nal local music pai­red with the sto­ries and sounds of seniors resi­ding in an assis­ted living centre

Over the course of mul­tiple work­shops, get to know par­ti­ci­pants so a bond can be for­med and par­ti­ci­pants will feel open to sha­ring. During the workshops :

1. Using a hand held digi­tal recor­der, record and cata­logue sound as much as pos­sible, which will allow for many ran­dom moments that may sur­pri­sin­gly lead to song titles, or themes. Cap­ture sounds unique to the indi­vi­duals enga­ged. These sounds can be loo­ped or pit­ched and used to make beats or rhythms spe­ci­fic to the locale, and be used to teach that ordi­na­ry sounds can be musical.

2. Let par­ti­ci­pants try ins­tru­ments and/or music apps on devices. See Shei­la and Steve sit down to create ‘Hope’ as an example of intro­du­cing someone to an ins­tru­ment for the first time. For trying music apps, see Ger­maine steps up to the iPad for the first time. Tell par­ti­ci­pants there is “no wrong way” to touch the screen and make a sound, and that often­times being naive is an advan­tage because they will do some­thing new. Put them at ease by casual­ly trying it in front of them and sho­wing them that it’s easy to do. Record these to use as seg­ways, intros, or full tracks.

3. During the recor­ding of voices for work­shops, encou­rage conver­sa­tions on themes. This will give a sense of play to the pro­ject and pro­cess and bring mea­ning to par­ti­ci­pants. Some examples include : “Where were you born?” “Have you ever had a nick­name?” What was your favou­rite toy as a child?” “What’s your big­gest fear?”

4. Be open and present to reco­gnize a magic moment – be it group laugh­ter or a serious sto­ry, and use that to anchor the song/piece.

5. Gather musi­cians to play a score that has been crea­ted (a num­ber of short ins­tru­men­tals or songs) or impro­vise music and edit pieces or moments into short clips of music (2–5 mins) that will fit well with the length of a short sto­ry. Use ori­gi­nal recor­dings from par­ti­ci­pant enga­ge­ment with apps in work­shops to include as back­drop pieces of music. Expe­riment with dif­ferent com­bi­na­tions of ins­tru­ments : drums and voice, gui­tar and bass, full band, etc. Use the “kee­ping tur­ning left” model of doing some­thing oppo­site of what was just impro­vi­sed : change keys, change tem­po, change instruments.

6. Lis­ten to the recor­dings of the sto­ries and choose which musi­cal piece would fit well, based on theme, lan­guage, mood, and length, or ran­dom­ly com­bine work­shop recor­dings with music.

7. Edit the sto­ries if neces­sa­ry, crea­ting space bet­ween words, and treat the mate­rial as sonic or musi­cal moments, or leave the cho­sen sto­ry in it’s ori­gi­nal state and let the music and sto­ry be inde­pendent of each other, all the while being combined.

8. A strong idea to create mea­ning and flow is to edit a word or sec­tion and repeat it as you would a cho­rus of a song. Many times you will find sen­tences that have their own rhythm work well when com­bi­ned with music of a dif­ferent tem­po and/or rhythm.