October 2018 Today, we had the opportunity to visit musicians from the Elbphilharmonie at the Bürgerhaus Eidelstedt, who had brought a sampling of different orchestral instruments that the children could look at, listen to and even experience themselves. String instruments, brass instruments, percussion instruments and even a harp was available to the children to experiment with. The musicians offered a wonderful imaginary journey from the Elbphilharmonie, through Hamburg harbour and onto the wide open sea, using the sounds of the musical instruments to mimic events that could happen on the water: the creak of the boat (double bass), the crash of thunder (timpani), the sparkle of the water (harp)… among others. During the trip over the ocean, the children also learned about the different types of instruments in an orchestra, and how to play them. The brass instruments were quite difficult to master, as they had to buzz their lips together on the mouth pieces. They were also surprised that a violin bow was made of real horse hair! At the end of our journey, we even got to search for treasure, which turned out to be beautiful hand chimes. It was a wonderful opportunity for the children to get a closer look at and feel of traditional classical instruments in a playful way. Ahoy!
– Wendy