PUPILS at a Borders school have taken part in the first instalment of a songwriting project.
Mixing traditional folk music with rap and hip hop saw pupils at Newtown Primary School enjoy a "memorable" day with musicians from Edinburgh’s Tinderbox Collective and Borders Youth Music Initiative (YMI) tutors.
Pupils from Primary 6 and 7 wrote their own raps inspired by the story of Tam Lin.
Class teacher Emma Brown said: “It is so nice to be able to step back and watch the growing confidence and talents of pupils in my class”.
To go with the rap, pupils used percussion, keyboard and glockenspiel to play the traditional reel which was used as the 'hook' of the song.
Jed Milroy from the Tinderbox Collective said: “It was so inspiring to see all the talented young rappers, dancers and musicians in the P6 class at Newtown Primary School getting into the story of Tam Lin and traditional music from the Borders.
"It just goes to show that there are always opportunities to look at traditional stories and tunes in new and exciting ways.”
Edinburgh-based rapper Josh Koukpaki also joined the sessions to teach the children about rap and showed them how to create hip hop beats on an iPad.
This sessions marked the first in a term-long project at Newtown Primary School where pupils will take part in rap and hip hop songwriting workshops with Borders YMI tutors throughout the term.
Creative learning officer Sara Alakus added: “We are excited to be piloting this new project following on from the success of the Hip Hop & Rap project at Newtown Primary School, the engagement of the pupils in this project speaks for itself and is indicative of a need for innovative approaches in music education”.
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