Body percussion

This program looks at the different song writing processes of three groups; one a professional rock group and two groups of young musicians just "starting out." It follows them from the initial trigger or idea for their songs, through the choices they make, the setbacks and changes, to the final performance of their work.

This program starts with a poem about the wind. Students identify sound words in the poem, and explore the concept of tone colour as they express the words using vocal and body percussion sounds. These sounds are then transferred to instruments and performed as a composition. In the process the students explore the idea of a sound score as they come up with graphic notation (symbols and pictures) to represent their sounds.

A comical animation requiring sound is the starting point in this program. The presenter explores different features of sound production including duration, dynamics and tempo, in the quest to produce sounds which enhance the meaning of the story.