Preparation and Research
In preparation for our workshop, our group met up more than three times to create and rehearse our workshop. We dabbled with lots of different ideas for our workshop before creating our final idea. Some of these ideas were really fun and creative but didn’t get used for whatever reason; either because they were too complex, there wasn’t enough time or it didn’t fit with the rest of the workshop.
Here are some of our original ideas for the workshop:
- First idea for the ice breaker – Go around in a circle one at a time doing a body movement getting faster until it falls apart.
- Using coloured cards as reference to a syllable or sound to create with the vocals.
- Creating bass drum hit by stamping.
- Vocals getting higher or lower depending on if the clapping/ body hits are higher or lower on the body,
- Separate into 4 groups in the circle to create 4 different rhythms,
- Call and response clapping,
- Body hits and humming,
- Stand in a circle, change person in the middle to create rhythms.
For our ice breaker, we went around in a circle saying our names first as loudly as we could, then as quietly as we could, then loudly again but in reverse order. This was a good way to know everyones names and get everyone feeling comfortable ready for the workshop.
We decided to make a human sequencer for our main workshop by doing drumming patterns and singing in three groups. I created a bass drum noise by slapping my legs, Beth did clapping patterns, Abi sang and Hannah kept time by hitting a fork on a cup as a metronome.
Because we spent lots of time preparing the workshop before hand, we felt pretty confident during the actual assessment. We didn’t know if one of our group members would be able to make the workshop so we had to prepare two ideas for our script just in case. This made us be prepared for both situations. Our script was used as a rough guideline to give us reminders and time scales for each section.
We had to make sure that the workshop wasn’t too complicated as well as not so easy that it felt boring. It wasn’t hard to find the balance but it could’ve been very easy to over complicate it. I think our limited time scale definitely helped us to keep it simple as well interesting because we knew that we wouldn’t have time to expand our ideas too much.
However, if we were ever going to expand on the workshop even further for future use, we could definitely use some of our bullet point ideas that never got used. We would also add in another ice breaker to set the tone even more and get to know everyone a bit better before going into the main workshop.
Delivery
I feel like the delivery of the workshop was pretty successful overall. Everyone was animated, involved and they looked like they were having fun. The aim of the workshop was to get everyone being silly together.
The pace never felt too rushed or too slow at any point. I am aware that we had some time to spare towards the end but it didn’t effect the delivery of our workshop at any point. On our script we had some time guidelines for each section; the ice breaker was 2 minutes, the workshop was 6 minutes leaving a few minutes for a consolidation and cool down at the end. Hannah kept an eye on the time throughout to make sure we stayed on schedule.
Our workshop was approached with confidence because we realised that some people may feel shy or not as comfortable doing the workshop as others. Being confident in our body language and tone of voice helped to create an atmosphere where we could all could act silly and not fear being judged.
I felt confident and prepared in my personal performance of the workshop. However, if I could go back and change anything, I would have changed the way I remembered my bit of script. I ended up forgetting what I had to say just before it was my turn to speak and had to quickly improvise, which I think I covered up fairly well. I memorised it as a script rather than reference notes and I feel like if I’d learnt it just as bullet points or references, I might not have frozen and forgotten my lines.
By the end of the workshop the atmosphere was very laid back and you could tell that everyone felt comfortable in the environment. There was a feeling of togetherness. This was probably because the workshop meant working as a group and leaving comfort zones outside. Everyone was free to be as expressive and silly as they wanted in the circle.
Jazzy Heath UOG 