Marten’s project in Estonia – Trumpet and comb-sax making a concert with Children

While being a volunteer of the European Solidarity Corps in Tallinn, Marten put in place his own initiative of solidarity : Trumpet and comb-sax making a concert with Children.

The Plan was to do a concert for the Parents on the graduation day, the kids playing the comb saxophone together with Martin on the trumpet.

“ I started building the combs with the children of my group after I bought the materials. I took some kids to the side and build with each one of them their combs. Afterwards I did a group rehearsal trying out the comb-saxophones and evaluating how quickly they learn.

During the next rehearsal I showed them both songs we would play during the graduation party and practiced. As this was very chaotic the teacher, who helped me, suggested to practice in smaller groups with 3-5 kids. This worked very well and I rehearsed for two weeks this way making sure everyone could play. The last week, 3 days before the party, I started to practice again in big groups making sure that everybody worked together and it fits into the ceremony schedule.

During the ceremony me functioning as a conductor and the kids performed very well. Furthermore I played trumpet during the party. I picked up the trumpet the day before with my tutor who organized the instrument. I showed it to the Kids of my group and showed them a few songs. The next day, the day of the graduation party, I went to another building of the kindergarten in the morning. There I showed the trumpet and the comb-saxophone. I planed to play a song together on trumpet and the kids on the comb-saxophones but unfortunately most of the kids didn’t bring combs. Thus I had to change plans. I showed the comb-saxophone briefly and played a little but soon showed the trumpet and explained how it works with my tutor as a translator. I showed it around and played two songs. Afterwards the kids could try getting a tone out the instrument. Then I headed to the graduation party. The day after I let the kids of my original group play the trumpet before bringing it back. On Fridaythe day I had to bring the trumpet back the kids from my group could try out playing it.

It was a fun and exciting process to learn the comb-sax with the kids and for them it was a different experience than just dancing and singing. The party was a great success as everything went smoothly. Furthermore, I think I could excite some kids for thetrumpet, some were actually quite good and talented. Most of them understood the concept of brass instruments and got in touch with one and heard how cool it can be to play an instrument.“

This initiative was supported along the CLIC project. C.L.I.C. for “Coordinating Locally in order to Increase More Changes with  the European solidarity Corps” is a cooperation partnership we participate  in with 9 other like-minded organisations from 9 European countries. Together, we want to increase the impact and the visibility of the European  Solidarity Corps in our communities, while providing young people with a  strong educational value along their volunteering projects.