The music from previous Flora ads had been played on a violin. For this commercial the advertisers wanted something a little more childlike, so Mr Marriott arranged the tune for percussion instruments, recorders and choir.

The children were very excited about the project and worked very hard to learn their parts. Each part was practised separately before the children played the entire piece together for the first time. It sounded fantastic!!

Less than a week after their rehearsals began, the children went to the Merseysound studio in Waterloo to record the music. As they would not all be recording at the same time, the children awaited their turn downstairs in the Almiro art gallery.

Mr Marriott took the children upstairs to the 'Live Room' a few at a time to record their parts while our sound engineer, Lyndon, captured the recording in the 'Control Room'.

In the afternoon, once all of the instrumental parts had been recorded, it was time to bring the choir to the studio.

As there were so many children involved, we could not get them all into the Live Room. Instead, microphones were set up downstairs in the Almiro gallery. After a few rehearsals (and a short wait until after the bin lorry outside had gone!) the vocal track was recorded, ready to be added into the mix.

Once the recording was complete, all the separate parts needed to be edited and put together to produce the final mix. The finished product was then sent off to the advertising agency where, Mr Marriott was told, 'Everyone loves it!'

The music was added to the animation along with a voice-over track to produce the commercial, to be shown nationwide.

Click here to watch the ad.

Our thanks go to:

• Jo and Mark from Merseysound for allowing us to take over their studio at such short notice;
• Lyndon, our sound engineer, for all of his hard work in the Control Room;
• All the staff at the Almiro Gallery for accommodating our children all day;
• The parents and members of school staff who accompanied us to the studio;
• Michelle at advertising agency, BBH, for giving us the opportunity to undertake this project;
• And of course - all the children who practised so hard and performed so well!