Music helps me grow

To consider the importance of the gift of music and to reflect on how God works in our lives.

by Guy Donegan-Cross

Suitable for Whole School (Pri)

Aims

To consider the importance of the gift of music and to reflect on how God works in our lives.

Preparation and materials

• You will need two pieces of evocative music and a link to this clip of a father and son playing the Chopsticks duet (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIiHZAtyZ5I or Google Chopsticks – Piano duet – YouTube).

Assembly

1. Say that you are going to play a clip of music. Ask the pupils to close their eyes, and imagine a place the piece of music reminds them of.
   
   Play the clip and then elicit from a few pupils the places they had imagined. Point out that music can help our imaginations to come to life.
2. Say you are going to play another clip. This time ask pupils to close their eyes and focus on how the music makes them feel.
   
   Play the clip. Ask pupils to say how they felt while listening to the music. Point out that music can help our feelings come to life.
3. Music is good for our imagination and our feelings. It helps us get in touch with things that are real, but we can’t see.
   
   Because we can’t see God, lots of people find that music is really good at helping us feel that he is here with us.
4. There is a story about music that can help us understand something about the way God feels about us.
   
   Once a famous piano player was about to give a big concert. Many people were there to listen – they had all paid a lot of money and were very excited at the prospect of hearing him.
   
   There was a little boy in the front row waiting with everyone else for the pianist to arrive. The boy looked at the piano on the empty stage. Before anyone could stop him, he climbed the steps, and started playing a simple, awkward tune – ‘Chopsticks’.
   
   People were very cross. What was this boy doing on the master’s piano?
   
   ‘Get that boy off the stage!’ some of them started to call.
   
   But suddenly the pianist appeared on the stage. Without stopping the little boy, he reached down and started to play with him, adding to the boy’s notes to make a beautiful tune. ‘Keep playing!’ he whispered to the boy.
   
   When they came to the end of the piece, the audience burst into applause and the boy and pianist took a bow together.
5. Here is a video of five-year-old Raghav Srinivasan and his father playing ‘Chopsticks’ together. (See Preparation and materials.)
   
   Christians believe that God is like the pianist and the father. He wants you to live your life, but if you let him he will come alongside and play with you, making who you are and what you do into something even more beautiful.

Time for reflection

You might like to play some quiet music as background for the following prayer.

Prayer
Dear Lord,
thank you for music.
Thank you that it helps me imagine things.
Thank you that it helps me feel things.
Please may you and I play together in my life.
Amen.

Song/music

‘Sing a song’ by the Carpenters (widely available to download)
‘Sing people sing’ (Come and Praise, 110)