Wednesday 1 March 2017

Taonga pūoro with Jerome

On Monday, we were very lucky to spend some time with Jerome Kavanagh.
Jerome brought along a range of taonga pūoro (maori instruments), that he shared with us through story telling.

The first instrument we were introduced to was the putaatara - a shell trumpet.  Jerome played different sized ones for us to hear the range of pitches depending upon the size.



Next, we heard a story about how a whale tooth nose flute came about.  Jerome told us that the noise it makes is the sound of the mama whale singing to her baby.

We also heard a story about an albatross wing bone flute and Jerome played a pūrerehua (butterfly instrument) for us too.

It wasn't long before it was our turn to create our own ukutangi (clay instruments).  Jerome showed us step by step how to mould the clay correctly.  He explained that it took him many days of practising to be able to play this instrument correctly.  We had a go at trying to make the sound of the wind with our lips - it was tricky!!













We are looking forward to building on our knowledge of instruments and persevering with trying to play our ukutangi!