A Second Encounter with Community Living Toronto

Fortunately, Community Living Toronto had a modest selection of percussion instruments, which we used to our advantage by welcoming members of the audience to join in on creating music with us. They responded quite actively, and some more enthusiastically chose the djembe while others more passively accepted the other instruments that were available to them. We decided that we introduce the idea of soundscape, by encouraging the participants to use the instruments available to them such as the djembe, the tambourine, the human voice, and even body percussion to create an environment that would more or less resemble the noises one would hear in a jungle.

It was very fulfilling to be able to bring the art form of music into the lives of others, even if it was just for a short period of time. The joy that appeared on the faces of the people there was immense, and the contagious nature of the music reminiscent of the 60's only helped to being people together in cultural fervor, and rhythmic unity, as exhibited in their dance moves.

To recap, we went through a series of simple activities which constituted as our program for the hour at Community Living Toronto. As usual, we went through the same series of songs as we did last time, with an additional hit from the from the soundtrack of the "Lion King". Needless to say, the people were delighted with our selection of music which included the songs,"Hey Jude", "Yellow Submarine", and the hit single, "In the Jungle". With two additional members in our group, we were able to facilitate the session with much more ease and comfortability as previously, we had some difficulty catering to such a large group of people with an even larger range in needs.

Most of the activities were quite straight ahead, and they were more or less received with enthusiasm from participants all around. Needless to say, it was a good time, and a great way to end off this year's study of music, its inhabitants, and the influence of music on people in all walks of life.