Community Projects : Song from the woods

Woodworker Kenny Grieve and pupils from Alva Primary School took stories about Scottish trees as a starting point for creating their own stories and songs. Two of these stories Old Crouvie and the Tale of a Stick were further developed as performance pieces. The performances were initially developed as ‘mind maps’. The pupils then developed ideas for costumes and musical instruments to provide percussion accompaniment.

Kenny Grieve led several sessions in the classroom in which the pupils created a number of musical wooden instruments ranging from simple clap sticks to a xylophone. The particular qualities of different woods, including the wych elm, were considered and tested experimentally.

The two plays have already been performed in front of the whole school.

Song from the woods Part 1, Part 2   |  Community Yurt  |  Tree of life project