Multi-instrumentalist Adam Page wants you to have fun with music. His new show, For Kids… and their Adults, is an astonishing and hilarious demonstration of how music can be made if you get yourself a loop pedal, relax and mess around. Page presents music as a sandbox for play and creation. While he brings many years of musical accomplishment with him, he also brings children up on stage to show that literally anyone can play along.

Page opened the show by demonstrating for the audience step-by-step how he uses a loop pedal to record sounds, play them on a loop, and layer them on top of each other to create songs. This is an improvised music show, but it is really a tutorial in making music with a loop pedal. He began by making a chaotic cacophony but then created a song entirely out of the sounds of various toys. One of the songs took all of its lyrics from the name of an audience member. He created another entirely from the tones blown over a water bottle as he drank the contents. One of the highlights was a song created with the near-magical theremin, played by a child from the audience.

The venue, Rehearsal Room 1 at the State Theatre Centre, is an intimate space where everyone is close enough to the stage, and to Page himself, to join in. He offered plenty of opportunities for audience participation. One of the songs involved him taking samples of children in the audience making funny noises and building a song out of it, over which he played improvised melodies on the saxophone. The kids loved hearing their own whoops, grunts and fart noises turn into a funky groove they could dance to. A few times throughout the show, he brought audience members up on stage to improvise with him, demonstrating that making music is something everyone can do if they are willing to give it a go.

His talent and years of training as a musician showed clearly through his quick facility with a wide range of instruments and amazing ability to build rhythms. His list of accomplishments, from composing and conducting for symphony orchestras to a slew of festival appearances and awards, backs this up. But it was his warm and funny personality, pitched just right for primary-aged kids, that really made this show joyful. Rather than feeling like a showcase for his staggering talents, it was more like a demonstration of what the kids can do themselves if they play around with the tools he was showing them.