It was a chilly winter morning and the school felt empty, on account of the senior’s being away on a trip. The first session of the day was Mary. She loved to sing, particularly music from games and Disney. On this particular morning she wanted to share with her teacher the song she had been working on over the last couple of weeks. When her teacher wasn’t available during the session Mary suggested we could “maybe sing for a few different people” such as other staff and students. This statement set the ball rolling for an impromptu concert after lunch.
The next student to have a session was Travis who had previously composed his own song on the guitar out of some the chords he had learnt. We were working on the changes between the chords as well as how to structure the song when I ask him if he wanted to participate in the concert. He seemed excited about the prospect and had a cheeky grin on his face the next time we played through his piece. Travis was really listening to his song as we played it through with the concert in mind. He identified in his middle section that the chord progression sounded similar to ‘Hallelujah’ by Leonard Cohen. With this impetus we looked up ‘Hallelujah’ and found that the chords were the ones that we had learnt previously and we were able to play the piece. With that we had found our finale of the upcoming impromptu concert.
The final student I saw that day loves technology and creating remixes and mash-ups on the computer. However, we begin every session by playing live instruments, in particular, the keyboard. Danny loves to improvise and as he is playing will describe a story line or atmosphere he is trying to create whilst experimenting with the different sound sources available on the keyboard. I mentioned that some students and I were putting on a concert after lunch and would he be interested in performing as well. Danny immediately jumped at the idea and had suggestion on how we could set up the room in order for the audience to have the best time during the concert.
Danny helped me to move the music equipment over to a classroom where the concert was going to take place. He arranged the tables in a semicircle around where the performers were going to play. Danny suggested we build a stage, but this wasn’t quite practical in the short time he had until the concert (but I loved the big ideas he was coming up with). He wanted desks for the front row of the audience to sit at so they could lean forward when they got excited by the music being played. He then set up particular spots in the classroom with chairs and bean bags for particular staff and students to sit in.
We were sitting outside expectantly waiting for lunch to finish so we could put on our performances. First on stage was Mary who performed ‘How far I’ll go’ from Moana. She was quite nervous and asked for a restart, which everyone encouraged and cheered for her to do. Mary sang well and was very proud of her efforts, which could be seen by the massive smile on her face. When she looked to see her teacher’s reaction (the original aim at the start of the day) she had tears in her eyes, which made Mary feel that her performance was very special and moving to others.
Danny performed next on the keyboard, including his own musical joke using the pre-programmed music. He played his improvisation, which was slow and considered before pressing start and pretending to play a fast classical piece, with a huge grin on his face. At least four people in the audience laughed out loud at Danny’s musical joke.
Finally, it was Travis’ turn to perform. He announced his own piece and that he had composed it on his own. He concentrated and was very focused throughout his performance and the audience enjoyed his chord progression. They encouraged Travis to add words to his song in the future so they could sing along. Finally, Travis and I encouraged the audience to join in as we played ‘Hallelujah’. Many voice joined in particularly in the chorus which gave everyone a real sense of achievement as well as creating a sense of belonging and community within the school.
At the impromptu concert the audience consisted of students, teachers, principal, assistant principal, administration, and school learning support officers. It was really quite a lot considering how empty the school felt in the morning without the seniors present. Some of the students wanted to retry their pieces, so we listened to Mary, Danny and Travis again. They all made adjustments to their performances the second time and were engaging more with the audience. The whole mood of the school for the rest of the day was light hearted and free because of moments shared at the concert.