We had a fantastic week discussing and connecting around local and international music halls, nature & music and the importance of play in our lives!
Steve started the week with his Music History and Piano Concert class where the theme was music halls around the world.
Take a look at some of the most beautiful concert halls around the world here. And enjoy this short video that takes us on a journey through concert halls worldwide.
Simon offered two classes this week where we discussed nature and music.
We sang many songs including The Sound of Music, Edelweiss, What A Wonderful World, Coyote, The Lion Sleeps Tonight.
We watched videos of nature and its evocative sounds including one from Toronto's Brick Works and Earl Bales Ravine. He played several excerpts from a man who takes recordings from nature including rain falling in winter and two coyotes. The nature sounds made everyone feel wonderfully relaxed and calm.
We had a lovely conversation about what nature noises mean:
rain can make us feel contemplative,
bird song sounds busy.
We wondered what the birds were chirping about and thought they might be saying:
Simon improvised some music to accompany some Rain Forest bird song - it was wonderfully evocative and meditative. Robin was inspired to draw a picture while he played.
During Robin's Creative Cafe program we discuss the theme of play and did we ever have fun 'playing' with that topic!
We started off discussing why we play, and some of the responses were:
We enjoyed recalling childhood memories of mixed age groups of children playing together in the neighbourhood. That inspired us to create a list of card games we play including bridge, rummy, go fish, war and solitaire.
Robin described for us the different kinds of play:
Physical Play (sports, tag, etc)
Expressive Play (music, art, etc)
Games (cards, board games, etc)
Manipulative play - babies flipping over their bowl of food with a cute smile!!
Word Play - we shared some jokes, then we shared some laughs and some groans!
We learned that Flirting is a type of play, so we practiced our winks, watch out!!!
We played a couple of games including 'The Price is Right' with our guest star Bing the parrot, who charmed the participants with his hellos. That was followed by playing 'Name That Tune' - and we got them all!
In between, we enjoyed videos of playful songs and dances and playful animals.
At the end, when playtime was over, it was nice to hear that our participants enjoyed everything, especially being together and having fun.
When one member was asked what her favourite thing about the program was, she replied: "the feeling that I was the most important thing in the world"
Please join us next week for creativity, conversation and connection! You can book your classes here.
