Episode 9 Help! My Mini School Trip Is Magic

It's termtime again and our four magicians have left school

on a brand-new mission.

This time, we're taking unsuspecting kids out of school

and sending them on school trips.

They're off to visit some amazing locations,

where they'll witness incredible magic.

And once again, we're hiding secret cameras in every corner,

so you don't miss a trick on any school trip.

How long will it take before the classes shout...

This is year five getting on the coach.

They're on a magical mystery tour to...

The Royal Academy of Music.

Famous former pupils include Sir Elton John, Katherine Jenkins

and Gareth from The Choir.

So our magicians can play their tricks, string their kids along

and hit a high note, we're giving them a musical makeover.

John's an Italian tenor, or should I say ten euros.

HE LAUGHS

And roll over, Beethoven, here's Fergus.

They're ready for the performance of their life as here

comes their toughest audience yet.

So my name is Trevor Clef.

Trevor Clef? Sounds like treble clef.

But the class don't know the musical score yet.

I'm in charge here at the Academy of all instrumental design.

I replicate things, I fix things, I do all of those things.

So isn't it wonderful, all the things that we have around us today?

You'll have seen downstairs, we have a Stradivari violin.

It dates back... It's like 300 years old.

This particular piano here is from the 1600s.

So that is 500 years old.

Isn't that incredible?

And a true fact.

Now, one of the things I specialise in is drums and the design of drums.

So who here has played the drums?

Lots of you! Very good.

Now, obviously, the drums are a very, very noisy instrument.

Don't bang on about it, mate.

But, what we're going to do is talk about the design.

So, we have here a drumhead and here we have the plinth.

The plinth is the thing that the drumhead sits on,

so it's nice and stable.

Keep your eyes on that drum because it's so magic,

it'll knock your hi-hat off.

Now, often you have padding in the drum

and what that does is it reverberates the sound.

So it makes it echo, so you'll get a really good solid noise.

We also have drum skins.

They go on the front and the back of the drum.

And we're going to do that now with some assistance from Dino.

-So over you come, Dino.

-I'll give you a hand.

Dino is John's Italian alter ego for this trick.

So I'll place this one here, this drum skin on the front

and Dino will place that one onto the back.

There's nothing inside that drum head or underneath it.

They're placing the skins carefully on the drum.

It's already starting to look a bit more like a drum, yes?

-ALL:

-Yes.

Shall we see if it sounds a bit more like a drum? Yes?

-ALL:

-Yes.

They don't mind a bit of noise.

Oh, that doesn't sound much like a drum, does it?

Normally you get more of a doof. Can I hear you make a doof?

-ALL:

-Doof.

-Doof.

Put a couple of those together

and you could have the doof-doof bit from the end of EastEnders.

Now, if you have a smaller drum, like a drum with a thinner skin,

and even more timber in, you get like a katshh.

Can you do a katshh?

-ALL:

-Katshh.

-Good. And then you might have a symbol, like a hi-hat.

Like a tss, tss, tss, tss.

-So can I get a doof, chtss doof, chtss. ALL:

-doof, chtss.

That's right, now these drums will all go together.

Normally the drums aren't played on their own because they're

so noisy and loud.

So they'll be part of a bigger band, or something like that.

Some loud magic coming up. Watch the drum.

Dino, do you know when the drums were first invented?

Yes, the first a-drum, he was, he was in a cavern...

-KNOCKING FROM DRUM

-What was that?

-Did anyone else hear that? ALL:

-Yeah.

Where did it come from?

KNOCKING FROM DRUM

It's inside the drum but that was empty, wasn't it?

It's the drum, it's a-playing itself.

It's playing a trick on them.

Playing itself, that's...

Ahhh!

Boom! A banging trick, it's Katherine!

Where did she come from?!

She's certainly a good-stick.

It's Katherine and I'm Fergus.

Yeah, I'm John.

They're about to build to the big crescendo...

John is not actually Italian but he does love to eat a lot of pizza.

Gives a new meaning to Vivaldi's Four Seasons.

And in fact we are magicians.

You've all been set up by your teachers, by your schools,

by your parents.

There's a camera there. There's a camera there.

A camera there. You're going to be on Help! My School Trip is Magic!

SCREAMING

A chorus of approval but what chord did it strike

with the school-trippers?

It was a really excellent trick.

Playing itself... That's... Ahh!

I've never seen anything like it except for cartoons.

This Mozart-ful magic hit the school trip

like a bolt from the blue Danube.

It was as pitch perfect as this shout...