Children from 4 schools in Fife joined with the Fischy Music team and Ruth Craib of Fife Youth Music Initiative (YMI) for a very special event to celebrate and launch 4 brand new songs!
198 children from four Primary schools in Fife collaborated online with our creative team to create vibrant new music reflecting the children’s pandemic experiences and their views on key issues in our world.
All 4 songs have just been launched on our children's website www.fishytunes.com designed for children to access at home to support their mental health & wellbeing.
The songs have been written as part of the annual Fife Song-writing Project, which has taken place with Youth Music Initiative (YMI) funding over the past 12 years. However, this year saw a completely new approach, due to the pandemic, with virtual song-writing sessions and the launch celebration event all happening online.
Over the past five weeks, seven classes of school children in Fife have collaborated with the Fischy creative team to discuss song ideas, write lyrics and explore music genres and styles. The pupils also produced artwork reflecting the song themes, which features in the song videos.
One of the pupils from Masterton Primary commented: "We discussed different themes which were important to us in our lives just now. Some of these were to do with feelings about ourselves and others were to do with global issues such as racism, global warming, pollution and gender identity. We decided to base our song on more personal issues. We also listened to different genres of music and decided we would want our song to be mainly in a pop style.”
Ruth Craib, Fife YMI, commented "Fife YMI were delighted to be involved with Fischy Music in overcoming challenges to deliver an online song writing project to 4 schools .The skill and enthusiasm of the Fischy musicians encouraged the pupils to produce thoughtful and creative ideas resulting in 4 amazing songs."
Suzanne Butler, Fischy Music Creative Team, added: "We wouldn't have written these songs without you. We wouldn't have had the words to express what it's been like for a P7 to live life in a pandemic year."
Mrs Baillie, one of the class teachers commented “I just feel that the project, and in particular the opportunity to be part of writing a song, has really given them an outlet to share their voice. They are really passionate about world affairs and the song captured their believes, concerns and the feeling that they have around wanting to change the world. They are a passionate and motivated bunch of children and are determined to make their mark on the world – I think the song sums that up completely.”