Heddiw ydy Dydd Miwsig Cymru!

Combining Welsh and Music is the absolute sweet spot for me, I love it! Since I've been improving my Welsh language ability, I've been learning more and more Welsh and Welsh Language artists that I love.
Over the past six weeks or so I've been really upping my activities that involve the two skills together and have been working with all age groups.

Firstly, I've been working in a Caerphilly Primary School, guiding and consulting on activities for their upcoming school Eisteddfod. The students and staff are doing so well, and the range of activities are phenomenal! All age groups are participating in art, music and poetry competitions.
The work I'm completing with them ranges from singing Daw Hyfred Fis in a round to making their own GarageBand beat as a backing track for the live ukuleles and singers in Tri Deryn Bach.
I like to tell myself that the teachers love to see me turning up, as we never quite know where the session will lead us. The children certainly love to see me turning up, and they all start singing in Welsh at me as soon as they see me, though one of them did refer to me as 'that old guitar teacher'. I'll take that as positive that I wasn't forgotten.

I tend to start with a few songs for the class to listen to and tell me what they would like to perform themselves, and they regularly surprise me with the mature and heartfelt choices that they make.
Without giving them the option I would likely have always picked a banger out of fear of their disinterest. I bear in mind the skills the teachers have been or will soon be including in their curriculum (as who wants extra workload, when we can actually make single amazing activities cover so many different aspects of the schemes of work?)

Then? We make a start! I let the students have opportunity to start to sing the song and get comfortable. We are relaxed, and don't mind it being pretty messy at this point. It's all about making sure they are happy to be joining in.
Then we start playing around with the skill we want to add to it: body percussion, tuned percussion, ukes, digital music. Here's where the students start saying things like 'I've got a drum at home' and I say 'bring it in!' Whatever they are keen to bring to the table I try my best to let them add.
This can seem scary as the teacher, but the key is to always be able to make a skill more or less challenging.

• If they come with a djembe and can't keep a beat?
  Ask them to only hit on a downbeat, and bring a different (carefully chosen) student over to tap them on the shoulder whenever they should be hitting it.
• Are they struggling to sit sensibly for the performance?
  Give them a BoomWhacker, some firm expectations, and a 'conductor' to ensure they are only letting that energy out when they are meant to.
• Are they refusing to join in?
  Maybe they'll be happy being the official 'signer' for the song so they can join in using actions, without needing to sing at all.