International release of Bedfordview teacher’s music
The songs, all written and composed by Petra, have been used by her Senderwood school for concerts over the last 23 years.
Bedfordview-based early childhood development expert Petra Scherf has taken her music to the world.
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Last week she released her collection of children’s music to an international audience when she launched the first of four albums on all streaming platforms.
The songs, all written and composed by Petra, have been used by her Senderwood school for concerts over the last 23 years.
Next year her Senderwood school will celebrate its 30th birthday, and in those years around 2 000 children have passed through its doors.
Many of those children have participated in concerts to the songs Petra created.
Now, she hopes the songs will bring as much joy to other children around the world.
“Growing up I did ballet and music, and while I didn’t turn professional in either, I kept really enjoying it,” she told the NEWS.
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Petra also wanted to be a pre-school teacher since she could remember and when she qualified in 1989, she was introduced to the world of children’s music.
She said she quickly found that the songs aimed at children were either too complicated for the little ones to learn or were too “pop” for school concerts.
While on holiday more than 20 years ago, inspiration hit.
“After a morning on the beach with a friend and our children, I was inspired to write a series of songs about the sea life we had observed.
“I composed the tunes in my head as I jotted down the words and just like that, I had a beautiful collection of songs the children at my school have enjoyed ever since.”
When she set out to write the songs, she never intended for them to be released.
Instead, Petra wanted to create songs that were appropriate for all children aged from birth to seven.”
“I wanted to move away from annoying one-dimensional children’s music to create something that everyone in the family can enjoy,” she said.
On November 13 at her official album launch, she released the first two songs on Apple Music, with plans to release her first album last week.
“I wanted to share this music with all the children of the world to enjoy. Gregory Nottingham from Jazzworks produced the most amazing music based on my tunes, and with vocalist Tulla Eckhart, Gregory made the songs come alive.”
She said music is the perfect learning tool for teachers and others who use music and song to entertain, stimulate and educate young children.
“The album includes instrumental tracks that can be used by music teachers for percussion and movement, or for children to sing the songs karaoke-style or learn to dance and move,” she said.
She added the songs include a variety of music, inspired movements and actions like marching, swaying and diving, which helps develop spatial awareness and language skills instead of worksheet exercises.
But the process of launching her album was by no means a singular effort.
She credited her sons for their help and her schoolchildren for their help in creating the album’s artwork.
Petra said through her album, Under the African Sea, she also hopes to raise awareness of shark conservation.
“I want to create awareness while allowing children to have access to really nice songs that have ingrained learning concepts.”
To do this, she has teamed up with the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town to play her music and hopes to create a partnership with Durban’s uShaka Marine World soon too.
Under the African Sea will soon be released in Zulu and Xhosa and is the first to be produced in a series of Africa-inspired albums that will include On an African Farm, In the African Bush and The African Sky and Beyond.
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