Slavery Music Project

As part of their topic on slavery in the USA, the children in year 5 have been composing and performing collaborative pieces of music.

The Slave Ship was created by children in 5G using Garageband on the iPad. The children chose a minor chord (either D, E or A minor) then used the notes of the chord to create repeating patterns using a piano sound. We then stacked different layers of piano to create a moving and developing piece. Mr Gardner added some samples of ocean waves to create the feeling of an ocean journey. Listen to how the notes of the minor scale give the music an ominous and melancholy feel.

Freedom was created by the children in 5H using Garageband on the iPad. The children chose a major chord (either C, F or G major) then used the notes of the chord to create repeating patterns using a piano sound. We then stacked different layers of piano to create a building and developing piece. Finally, Mr Gardner added a sample of a shaker to strengthen the rhythm. Listen to how the notes of the major scale give the music an uplifting and hopeful feel.

Repetitive sample track:
To represent the repetitive nature of a slave’s work we created this rhythmic and repetitive piece. Slaves would use their voices and objects they found while working to create music: to reflect this, we recorded snippets of our voices and sounds around the classroom into Garageband’s sampler.  We then sequenced these short sound samples into a repetitive rhythm. In our performance, we used this track as a backing for some of the poetry that the children had written.