Held every June, the annual Parade of Noises is the culmination of the Music Roots Seminars program.  For the past four years, Music Roots volunteers have been teaching the basic principles of sound in a fun and engaging way. The program was recently expanded to include all Grade 4 students in Brampton and some in Mississauga thanks to a grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF).

Water container drummers demonstrate that fun is an important component of the annual Parade of Noises.

“We show children that it doesn’t take a lot of money to make music,” says music educator Richard Marsella, who leads the organization. “It’s about getting kids excited about music at an early age through an alternative and creative approach.”

The Music Roots program supports the science component of the Grade 4 curriculum. Each school year, Marsella and other volunteers visit 30 classes on five separate occasions. The first visit introduces children to various homemade instruments and during the second session, students get down to the business of making their own instruments.

“In sessions three and four, the class composes its own music and then rehearses that music,” says Marsella. “By the fifth and final visit, they’re ready to record their opus and participate in the Parade of Noises!”

While the sounds made by the children may seem like noise to some, they’re music to ears of teachers like Janice Harper of Hilldale Public School in Brampton.

“The kids love it!” she says. “They don’t even realize they’re learning about rhythm, sound, basic music theory and how to be part of an ensemble.”

But students aren’t the only ones who gain new knowledge.

“I’m teaching music to my Grade 5 class and I’m using some of the ideas used by Music Roots,” says Harper. “I’ve learned a lot from watching Richard and other volunteers and I’ve seen firsthand how well his techniques work in building a strong musical foundation.”

Teachers also participate in the parade. Harper has been part of every one to date.

“It’s an amazing experience,” she says. “To see and hear what the children have created from what is basically junk is so exciting.”

The 2006 Parade of Noises turns into Gage Park in downtown Brampton.

Following the parade, this unique orchestra performs a free concert in a downtown park with some of Canada’s finest professional musicians. Past participants have included jazz improviser John Oswald, Bob Wiseman (formerly of Blue Rodeo), children’s entertainer Eric Nagler, the Brampton Concert Band and members of The Lollipop People.

“Eventually, the concert grows to a grand culmination of sounds. Last year, two ice cream trucks and a City of Brampton fire engine took part,” says Marsella.

Each participating student receives a CD containing recordings of both their classroom performance and the final concert in the park. Production of hundreds of CDs each year has been made possible by OTF funding.

“The Music Roots Seminars have given thousands of Peel schoolchildren a love and appreciation of music that will last them a lifetime,” says OTF program manager Gilmar Militar. “Aside from the spectacle of hundreds of marching children, what strikes our volunteers the most about the initiative is the unique ‘fusion’ of arts and environment through the creative transformation of what we call junk materials.”

Ontario Trillium Foundation funding has ensured that the program is now well established in the Brampton-Mississauga area and Music Roots has a strategic plan to expand the program and the Parade of Noises to other communities.