Music

I’d like to include more music in my workshops, and after learning from Rich Allen, I probably will. In fact, the very next day after attending his workshop, I was presenting a workshop and managed to use music throughout – maybe not as effectively as I would have liked, but hey, I’m just learning.

Here’s the practical stuff. Rich uses a Bose Sound Dock with an iPod. The battery lasts all day and can be used outside, the sound is good – can be VERY LOUD, or quite soft. This website is a gem of a resource providing music for any subject or theme. Rich also used a remote control throughout his workshop, and used the loudness button a lot!

Here’s some of the tips I picked up:

• Use a piece of music to indicate a particular, regular activity. For example, in a classroom, the same piece of music can be played every time you want the kids to clean up their stuff (this raises all sorts of evil thinking on my part!)
• Play music during a debrief process. Turn it off when the time’s up and people will stop talking.
• Play music as people enter a space to create the type of mood you want.
• Play music in the background when people are doing tasks to create an ambiance that supports the work they are doing.
• People will only talk as loud as the music.
• If you’re going to use music, pick a theme and stick to it – don’t mix up musical styles.

And the best tip of all…

• The best music to play for ANY situation, because it is recognisable by everyone, is 60s rock music.

Yeah. Rock on!