To celebrate the Easter with the local elderly, Choi Kai Yau College and Moon Chun Memorial College have collaborated to organize an African music workshop at the Lar De Idosos Pou Tai on 18 April 2022. This activity brought happiness to the elderly participants, linked MCMC and CKYC musicians through music-making, and enhanced students’ RC competencies of leadership and service, cultural engagement, and healthy lifestyle.
The activity started with the drum performance titled “Lashidan.” Afterwards, there was an introduction of African drums and music culture, and teaching of African greetings and body percussion – using the body as the instrument for rhythmic communication. The African drum instructor from Hong Kong even taught the singing of African songs through zoom. After the learning of body percussion, dialogues, and singing, the elderly joined in the performance of our last musical piece – “Jole.” Both students and the elderly had great fun at the workshop, and some of the aged participants even requested for playing more after the workshop!
This music workshop was a successful combination of enhancing three competencies in RC education. The first competency is leadership and service. During the activity, the students guided the elderly to do body percussion and sing African songs. The teaching and demonstration enabled students to stay patient and enthusiastic with the elderly, and even to think of creative ways to attract their attention. The second competency is cultural engagement. Both College musicians learned the African culture through singing, drumming, putting on African costumes, and interaction with the instructor. The third competency was healthy lifestyle. While musicians trained their body through taking the heavy drums to the venue on their own, they also released their study stress through drumming and playing with the elderly in the middle of the semester.
Text: Liu Zijing (CKYC)
Photos: Jeffrey Jiang (MCMC)