Our philosophy is to tailor our workshops to suit your needs and aims, whether you want to keep your music students interested and focused, to offer specialist single-reed masterclasses for your clarinet and saxophone students with exams on the horizon, or simply to provide an entertaining and educational concert for the whole school. Other workshop possibilities include interactive concerts, with audience members encouraged to come forward and conduct, improvisation/devising sessions, classes on developing ensemble and performance skills, and workshops for students studying for SQA exams, with concepts relating to melody, rhythm, timbre, style, etc. illustrated in engaging and yet always educational ways.
We offer a wide variety of musical genres in our educational workshops and concerts. The clarinet is a supremely versatile instrument, and with the addition of saxophones we can perform styles ranging from Mozart to Music Theatre, including but not limited to Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Twentieth Century, Contemporary, Popular, Folk, Jazz, Funk, and Film Music. We also have arrangements of children’s favourites such as the Pink Panther or music from Harry Potter. As noted below, we are happy to arrange a programme of work to suit individual needs or current school interests. Past workshops have included:
“By George!”
This is a jazzy piece based on Gershwin’s well-known songs, commissioned from composer Glyn Bragg by Kilmardinny Music Circle and EMS for clarinet quartet and clarinet choir. The choir parts are suitable for intermediate clarinet players, and SCQ plays the quartet parts, thus giving the participants the valuable experience of playing alongside professional musicians. This project requires a lead time to allow for rehearsals and learning of music.
“Folktales”
Suitable for all ages, in this one-day workshop groups of students select their own folktale and put it to music, led by a member of SCQ. Students are encouraged to think about how to use their instruments creatively to tell a story through music, and how both narrative and emotional elements can be represented.
“Three, Two, One… Blast Off!”
In this workshop, particularly aimed at primary schools, the principal musical areas of Listening, Inventing and Performing are covered. After an initial introduction to SCQ and the amazing variety of soundworlds that can be created through the use of clarinets of all sizes, small groups of students devise and perform their own works on the theme of Space, using percussion and other instruments. Past groups of students have been inspired by modes of space travel, encounters with aliens, and life in space.