Scratch Trash Orchestra | Barking Spider Creative

Love inventing things? Love making lots of noise?

In this workshop, we’ll hit the scrap heap to make instruments to create our own Scratch Trash Orchestra. We’ll take up-cycled and recycled materials and invent new musical instruments. Then, together we will join together to create the orchestra, combining our new instruments to devise a wild musical experience.

Wild Instrumentation at Scratch Trash Orchestra

Scratch Trash Orchestra is available for festivals and events, as a rolling (continuous) programme or as a one-off workshop for a school or community group. Please contact us for more information and bookings.

We begin the session listening to different styles of music, from different cultures and periods, and pull apart the sounds to make sense of what the instruments might be. Then the children focus on the materials, recycled materials and natural objects, and design and construct their own instruments. They are guided to be as inventive as possible, and to consider how an instrument can possibly have multiple musical functions. Once all the instruments have been created, we see what the range is in our orchestra, and set the orchestra up – something akin to a traditional symphonic orchestra, breaking instruments into rough sections. We then compose a short piece of music together, employing musical dynamics and focusing on rhythm. This is then presented to parents & carers at the close of the workshop.

Children can take home their new musical creations!
VIEW A SOLOIST ON YOU TUBE