As part of the Edu­ca­tion Sec­tor Focus, pub­lic school music teacher Doug Friesen shares a few impro­vi­sa­tion games his stu­dents love to play. GAME 1: Four!! After a cue, each par­tic­i­pant tries to…

This project explores cre­ative music mak­ing in a sec­ondary wind band pro­gram Nel­son Man­dela High School, one of Alberta’s des­ig­nat­ed High School Redesign Schools. In a redesign school, tasks are designed not…

Whether your school or com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tion is in an urban, rur­al or remote area, the nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment is full of inspi­ra­tion for cre­ativ­i­ty and learn­ing. Louise Camp­bell leads par­tic­i­pants in explor­ing and…

This col­lab­o­ra­tive project took place in the spring of 2022 with Den­nis Shorty and mem­bers of the Fid­dle­heads, a youth fid­dle ensem­ble in White­horse. The project focused on find­ing ways to integrate…

In this project, music edu­ca­tor Edmee Nat­aprawira and her stu­dents in the Prep Choir of VIVA Singers Toron­to build com­mu­ni­ty vir­tu­al­ly through cre­ative singing and music mak­ing: Hi, my name is Edmee…

Ele­men­tary Music School Teacher Kather­ine Fras­er and her stu­dents lis­ten, impro­vise, com­pose, and reflect on these cre­ative school music expe­ri­ences: “Hi, my name is Kather­ine Fras­er. I live and teach in Toronto,…

A music video project by the duo Siijuu Jaadas Cool Ladies, con­sist­ing of Hai­da Elder, weaver, and lan­guage teacher Jiixa (age 84), along with set­tler Julia (age 25). Julia makes the music…

Nathan Gage and his stu­dents describe and reflect on their cre­ative work as musi­cians, bands and pro­duc­ers in their class­room record­ing spaces. Here is a descrip­tion of a sec­ondary music pro­gram that…

What does col­lab­o­ra­tive music-mak­ing mean to you? “I quick­ly real­ized that that was the point, in a way it was just to bring peo­ple togeth­er. I would arrive as myself where I…

 “There’s a human con­nec­tion, despite what some peo­ple like to think… Despite age or dis­abil­i­ty, there’s a human­ness amongst all of us if you look for it. And that’s what we’re trying…

Through an inclu­sive and expe­ri­en­tial lens, this project intro­duces Freestyle rap, par­tic­i­pa­to­ry music, and impro­vised musick­ing through group skill build­ing activ­i­ties for dig­i­tal artists, cre­atives, and the curi­ous. Our par­tic­i­pa­to­ry project brings…

This project brought music to res­i­dents of Colum­bia For­est Long Term Care (LTC) dur­ing the COVID-19  pan­dem­ic, a time of incred­i­ble unpre­dictabil­i­ty, iso­la­tion, fear, and change. The project trans­formed into using music…

This activ­i­ty intro­duces par­tic­i­pants to cre­at­ing music by pay­ing close atten­tion to the qual­i­ty of anoth­er person’s move­ment.  The activ­i­ty devel­ops the abil­i­ty to lis­ten and notice one’s respons­es to the surrounding…

Intro­duc­tion With­in the con­text of the Piece of Mind project (details at the bot­tom of the page), we describe a col­lab­o­ra­tive activ­i­ty in which we trans­lat­ed a poem about the lived experience…

Since the start of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, Sound & Song pro­gram par­tic­i­pants have devel­oped an online col­lab­o­ra­tive song­writ­ing prac­tice ground­ed in indi­vid­ual sound­walks. Par­tic­i­pants use sound­walk­ing to gath­er lyri­cal mate­r­i­al for an…

Vin­tage Voic­es fea­tures the voic­es of res­i­dents liv­ing in the Long Term Care sys­tem shar­ing and respond­ing to music that they love; it brings these voic­es to the rest of soci­ety via…

SUMMARY: A three-ses­sion work­shop series (45 mins each ses­sion) intro­duc­ing young peo­ple to com­po­si­tion­al ideas. Stu­dents ide­al­ly have one year of some musi­cal expe­ri­ence. Read­ing music is not nec­es­sary. Mate­ri­als: coloured pens, pencils,…

The C.A.R.E. Cen­tre, a recre­ation­al orga­ni­za­tion for adults liv­ing with severe phys­i­cal dis­abil­i­ties, recog­nis­es the impor­tance of art and expres­sion for their clients, par­tic­u­lar­ly for those clients who are non-ver­bal. In addition…

GOAL: to devel­op a deep­er appre­ci­a­tion of music and the visu­al arts and how they com­pli­ment each oth­er. In this par­tic­u­lar work­shop, par­tic­i­pants were inspired by the music of Jab­bour, using the…

These Pres­ence Warmups pre­pare the body, breath and mind for expres­sive and cre­ative music-mak­ing. They are most effec­tive when used at the start of a rehearsal and can eas­i­ly be incor­po­rat­ed into…

The project Moi_Espace Pub­lic was born out of a con­vic­tion that artis­tic cre­ation can be a fruit­ful space for exchange on every­day issues, whether emo­tion­al  or social. My desire was to meet…

Short Descrip­tion: This Audio Scav­enger Hunt involves find­ing sounds from a list, report­ing on them, and dis­cussing what the sounds mean to you. Sounds are searched out and checked off a list.…

ACTIVATE: Young Com­pos­er Pro­gram is an adju­di­cat­ed com­po­si­tion pro­gram pre­sent­ed by The Alliance for Cana­di­an New Music Projects (ACNMP) and Cana­di­an Music Cen­tre (CMC). ACTIVATE is an ear­ly entry point for young…

Songs that Con­nect Us is a com­mu­ni­ty-engaged project for col­lab­o­ra­tive and mean­ing­ful group singing using sto­ry­telling and song. It fos­ters open com­mu­ni­ca­tion and a respect for diver­si­ty. The project was ini­ti­at­ed by…

Words and Rhythm have a real­ly close rela­tion­ship since ancient times when poets sang the epic tales in iambic pen­tame­ters, both to bet­ter remem­ber and more eas­i­ly sing them. Words con­tain rhythm.…

Piece of Mind uses the per­form­ing arts to syn­the­size and trans­late knowl­edge about Parkinson’s dis­ease (PD) and demen­tia. Our par­tic­i­pa­to­ry research-cre­ation project brings togeth­er artists (cir­cus per­form­ers, dancers, musi­cians, visu­al artists), researchers,…

Piece of Mind uses the per­form­ing arts to syn­the­size and trans­late knowl­edge about Parkinson’s dis­ease (PD) and demen­tia. Our par­tic­i­pa­to­ry research-cre­ation project brings togeth­er artists (cir­cus per­form­ers, dancers, musi­cians, visu­al artists), researchers,…

Young Com­pos­er Pro­gram – Con­tem­po­rary Show­case Edmon­ton The Young Com­pos­er Pro­gram orga­nized by the Con­tem­po­rary Show­case Edmon­ton Soci­ety intro­duces stu­dents ages 12 and up to com­po­si­tion and assists stu­dents to devel­op their…

Have you ever want­ed to cre­ate your own music/multimedia art­work, but couldn’t fig­ure out where to begin? While cre­ation can seem intim­i­dat­ing, it can actu­al­ly be sur­pris­ing­ly acces­si­ble, and more impor­tant­ly, FUN!…

These Lis­ten­ing & Sound­ing Games are fun and easy games for two or more peo­ple and will active­ly engage par­tic­i­pants in a process of deep­er lis­ten­ing and play­ful sound­ing with the voice.…

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…

Sound Sto­ries from the Land okâwîmâw askiy is Moth­er Earth (nêhiyawêwin/Plains Cree lan­guage), always pro­vid­ing for us in ways beyond our wildest imag­i­na­tions. This work­shop pro­vides an open­ing for us to strengthen…

What does it mean to “Know Music”? The impor­tant thing, as one can­not repeat too often, if that the child should learn to feel music, to absorb it, to give his whole…

Lis­ten­ing Games for Reduc­ing Noise Lev­els in a School Cafe­te­ria Pic­ture a large room: con­crete floor, low tile ceil­ing, bare plas­ter walls, tables lined with stools, a wall of indus­tri­al fridges and…

Find­ing Folk for Music is a way to share con­cepts and strate­gies for a kind of exper­i­men­tal folk music. The series engages peo­ple in hands-on cre­ation regard­less of anyone’s lev­el of previous…

Cat­a­lyst is an online, music impro­vi­sa­tion learn­ing expe­ri­ence. Along with three instruc­tion­al videos, this guide will out­line some of the key com­po­nents of musi­cal impro­vi­sa­tion. This video series draws from the Creative…

From find­ing objects around the house (the recy­cling and ‘junk draw­er’ are trea­sure troves!) to turn­ing them into musi­cal instru­ments and dec­o­rat­ing them, to com­pos­ing a sym­pho­ny, to con­duct­ing the final performance!…

A co cre­ation project with adults faced with men­tal defi­cien­cy and autism issues through the rein­ven­tion of Car­men. With work­shops on opera, meet­ing with cre­ators, and train­ers help­ing them pro­duc­ing it as…

Here is an approach to col­lab­o­ra­tive music mak­ing based on using exist­ing reper­toire, where a group sam­ples and repur­pos­es mate­r­i­al and ideas for use as a Start­ing Point. A. PREPARATION – Choose…

The beat or pulse could be con­sid­ered the foun­da­tion of what we do, as music-mak­ers.  It is often the struc­ture with­in which we tell a sto­ry through melody, rhythm, tim­bre, dynam­ics and…

Pic­ture a mut­ed video of a per­son walk­ing inside a house. Imag­ine what the foot­steps might sound like going up creaky steps or slight­ly drag­ging on the floor. Turn up the sound…

The Pros and Cons Prison Music Pro­gram was ini­ti­at­ed as a response to the clo­sure of the agri­cul­tur­al pro­grams in Cana­di­an pris­ons, and from the out­set was run with the inten­tion of…

Lis­ten­ing, touch­ing, feel­ing and sound­ing activ­i­ties using your voice, hands, whole body, instru­ments, or speak­ers (e.g. on phone, com­put­er, ear­phones). These sound activ­i­ties are for peo­ple of all —includ­ing hear­ing and non-hearing—…

Hel­lo!  My  name is Ger­maine.  I have pre­pared for you some task-based games you can share and play with your friends.  I love task-based games because I feel like I am living…

Hel­lo!  My  name is Ger­maine.  I have pre­pared for you some task-based games you can share and play with your friends.  I love task-based games because I feel like I am living…

Hel­lo!  My  name is Ger­maine.  I have pre­pared for you some task-based games you can share and play with your friends.  I love task-based games because I feel like I am living…

Hel­lo!  My  name is Ger­maine.  I have pre­pared for you some task-based games you can share and play with your friends.  I love task-based games because I feel like I am living…

Hel­lo!  My  name is Ger­maine.  I have pre­pared for you some task-based games you can share and play with your friends.  I love task-based games because I feel like I am living…

This entry is a co-writ­ten account of “jam sessions”—an impro­vi­sa­tion­al musi­cal prac­tice based in Regi­na, Saskatchewan that embraces and accounts for rad­i­cal forms of access in son­ic expres­sion with dis­abled and Deaf…

Mat­ter at Your Fin­ger­tips Using play­dough, ‘Mat­ter at Your Fin­ger­tips’ is a play­ful ini­ti­a­tion to sound cre­ation. Objec­tive: to make a col­lec­tive com­po­si­tion fea­tur­ing a score made out of play dough. By…