An enchanting musical adventure, Musical Melodies are a series of free interactive children’s concerts letting children 0-5 take the lead, whether it’s clapping, humming or twirling. Immersing the children in magical tales woven through music, each Musical Melodies concert features a narrator and a string quartet and encourages children’s imaginations to soar. We spoke to violinist Jenna Raggett on why music is such an important creative outlet for children and how using your imagination is valuable at every age. 

You recently hosted ‘Magical Melodies’, a Creative Youth event for children held in Mayfair Library, Kilkenny. Your work involves introducing young people to instruments such as the violin, why do you feel making music a possibility for children is so important? 

For so many reasons! Music can influence our cognitive development, our emotional development, our motor skills, our social development and our academic abilities. It provides a space for self-expression, giving a child an outlet to express their feelings and emotions. It is a universal language, which everyone can understand and can act as a way of communicating with others. I see this first hand working as a performer in residence at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital, where musical play is a tool used to develop connections and to communicate with patients. Engaging in music develops creativity and imagination and improves our understanding of the world around us.

Personally, I have met some of my best friends through music. I have met people who have inspired me, motivated me and mentored me from across the world and been to lots of beautiful places with my violin. It has helped me grow into the person I am today and I can’t imagine my world without it! 

How do you encourage spontaneity and fun into a creative form that requires such discipline and rigidity? 

I think it needs to be a priority from the moment the child first engages with music. If the child is enjoying themselves, they are then motivated to play and try it at home and the discipline follows. I almost think about it as the other way around, how can we encourage discipline in a creative form that is full of spontaneity and fun?

When we think of the word play, we think of a child doing something they enjoy, being silly with friends, using their imagination. I always consider this in the context of ‘playing’ an instrument and how I can incorporate this into my teaching and my work. For me, rigidity has no place. We need fluidity in how we approach an instrument, a student, a colleague, the music, the industry etc. Finding the fun in everything is what fuels me as an artist and allows me to express myself fully! When I’m working with younger people, this is always through games, stories, songs, dancing, listening, finding out what they like and understanding the child and building trust and connection. When a child feels safe to explore.. that’s when the magic happens! 

 Do you think attracting children to classical music is more difficult now than it ever was?

This is an interesting question! I don’t think music needs to be separated into different genres and I will always define myself as a musician, rather than ‘a classical musician’. If a child likes classical music then brilliant, but there are so many types of music to explore. I play lots of pop & trad on violin too. For me growing up, it was always about the people I was playing with and it wasn’t until much later that I developed a love for classical repertoire.

I think it lands on how we introduce a child to music, how we teach them an instrument, how we teach music as a subject in schools and how we make it relevant. The music industry is evolving and we need to evolve with it. Access and provision are huge obstacles that organisations are faced with. However, I think it’s a matter of how we engage with music in our communities and finding ways in for everyone. 

A long winded answer to your question but I’m very hopeful about the future and excited to challenge the narrative of what classical music can look like!

You incorporate storytelling and imagination into your work with ‘Magical Melodies”, why are these elements so key in making music more accessible and engaging for young people? 

Well, personally, I always understand things better when there is a story and throughout my music education I had so many brilliant teachers who always focused on this aspect of music making. 

I think stories are accessible for children because they are familiar, whether that’s a storybook before bed, or learning to read in school. Combining the familiar with the unknown (music, in this case) can make it easier for a child to engage and to develop an emotional connection to the music. Similarly, when we are using our imagination, we are thinking outside of the box and being creative which is usually very easy for a child to do!

For example, in this project I created a story which followed a young girl being invited to a party in the Kilkenny Castle by the Kilkenny cat. Along the way, there was a storm, a rainbow, we heard some birds and met a bear in the woods! Once the music was added, we created a 3D experience for the children and adults which made it easier to engage with the music. There is often a lot of pressure surrounding how we engage with music and people often decide quite early on whether music is something they are ‘good’ at. By using imagination and stories in a context like this, the pressure is removed and each person is given the opportunity to be immersed in the adventure!

Image Credits: Jenna Raggett

Read more about the ongoing Creative Youth projects here.