ANDY ROSS reports on the work of musicians Alice Mullay and Jonathan Ritch with school children in Shetland.

RECENTLY A CD set was produced in Shetland that showed innovation and creativity at work. The two CD’s showcased work by schools on the island of Unst in Shetland, Baltasound Junior High and Uyeasound Primary.

Alice Mullay, a classically trained musician and music teacher at the time, and Jonathan Ritch, a prominent Shetland Fiddle player, musician and sound engineer, worked with the young people to produce a work that has been heard on BBC Radio 3 and has helped to raise funds for the next plans the pair have for music in schools.

The project had three main aims. The first was to build self-esteem and a sense of identity for the schools through music and creative processes. The second was to include everyone in the creative activity of writing music, and the third was to introduce the recording process to all ages in the schools.

The two schools were showcased using different methods of creative music-writing. Baltasound Junior High was given a theme of ‘Light and Dark’, a theme which was further developed in environmental study topics within the school curriculum, such as with the P3 topic ‘Toys’ which was extended to ‘Toys at Night’.

Uyeasound was not given a specific theme, but the songwriting was done as a class, based spontaneously on things going on at the time around the children of P1 to P3, while P4 to P7 built on the fiddling tradition evident in much of Shetland music with the addition of percussive elements.

The important part of the process was that it was a leaning experience, and gave a sense of ownership and meaningfulness to the children through creativity and working together. Every step of the process was controlled by the youngsters, from lyric writing to recording sounds. All the sound effects and interviews were recorded by the children and the experience taught a new way of listening to music.

Recording the CDs gave pupils the confidence to experiment and perform in ways that they would not have necessarily been able to if the experience was live. It helped build self-esteem and taught teamwork; every single young person in the schools is represented in the collection.

This set of CDs was a showcase for what could be done. With the success of the work, an impetus has started which can now be harnessed to develop more work. Alice and Jonathan have used the money raised from sale of the work to buy a drum kit and are keen to equip the school studio for the students to use.