Celebrate the change of Seasons

Tom Gregory provides some ideas for using English Folk Music in your classroom

Spring is winding up to spring itself on us any week now, and with folk music much more on our cultural radar this year (I’m still waiting for the Wellerman to come…) it’s a great opportunity to use some traditional music in your lessons.

I work with English folk music so that’s what I’m mostly going to write about – the folk traditions of Scotland, Ireland and Wales are just as rich and I couldn’t possibly do them all justice here. I don’t propose to try and precisely define what folk music is but Tradfolk.co have some helpful definitions.

It’s possible that your last experience of folk music in school was ‘countrydancing’ lessons in the 80s. I’m sorry! It’s all much more relaxed now. I’vefound that folk music earns its place in our lesson plans because:

It’s regional

There’s something very special about sharing songs or tunes with our students that are from right where they live, or that bring traditions or industries from the area to life. For me, in Hampshire, it’s sea shanties in the port cities, farming songs about the seasons in the villages and step dances in the New Forest. It’s local culture. If you’d like a hand to find some folk music that’s local to you, a great place to start is the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS) Folk Education Network; they’ll be able to direct you to skilled folk educators in your area.

Music and Movement go hand in hand

We know that moving helps us internalise music. In folk, music and dance are stitched together. Having the students do a simple dance – even solo on the spot; you don’t have to get into partners and lines and everything if you don’t wish to – helps firm up rhythm and phrasing and brings the tune alive. Every time my class has come back to a tune or song after dancing to it the music is so much richer.

There’s bonus learning built in

I’ve already mentioned cross-curricular learning like local history, and additional musical outcomes like improving rhythm and phrasing. I’ve put some listening examples to get you going below, and I’ve noted unexpected learning moments that arose with my classes.

It’s very fun

This matters. For our students and for us.

Ceilidh

Portsmouth Music Hub

Tom’s top resource picks to get you started

EFDSS Folk Songs in the Model Music Curriculum – this helpful document provides a list of suggested English folk songs with links to their resource packs in EFDSS’s incredible Resource Bank – these include PDFs with teachers' notes, song words, notation, audio files and, in some cases, videos. There are recommendations for KS1 and KS2.

FolkActive Beginner Ukulele WICT – This lesson pack was developed and piloted with Southampton Music Hub. PowerPoint videos and slides guide pupils and staff though five weeks’ worth of KS2 beginner ukulele sessions, as they learn uke parts to three folk songs and dances. Pupils eventually accompany their classmates dancing and singing, which has been a magical moment every time I’ve seen it happen.

EFDSS Introduction to Maypole Dances – The iconic folk-in-thespringtime activity! I couldn’t not put this in. Take a look at these excellent dance instructions from Mike Ruff which actually work. The backing to Twister is a treat.

Maypole

Folk Active

Tom’s listening recommendations

Sam Sweeney – Steppy Downs Road. This prompted a really fun conversation with a Yr 5 class about the different ‘jobs’ the instruments were doing in the music. Honestly, this is probably my favourite bit of music ever.

Bellowhead – Roll Alabama. Classes like spotting instruments in this video and (of course) joining in with the ‘Roll Alabama roll’. Bellowhead are arguably the best known Very Big Folk Band.

The Lost Words: Spell Songs – Bramble. Musical performances and recordings inspired by the beautiful books of poetry and art The Lost Words and The Lost Spells. A rich example of creativity across multiple artforms and musical cultures.

Tom Gregory has over 20 years’ experience teaching music from all around the world. He currently teaches drumkit and WCIT for Southampton Music Hub and is Education Director with FolkActive. Twitter: @tomgregory