Heart Beats - Phase two

Some people have been wondering if they have missed some Heart Beats sessions at Wells.
To make things clear:
Open sessions have stopped now. (We hope they will start again in the autumn - we're waiting for funding news.)
We will have 'open doors' at the Heart Beats project party, on July 4th, 6 - 8 at Wells Museum.
Meanwhile, from now until our Youth music funding ends after the summer, we are running the second phase of the project. This is where we go out and run 'outreach' sessions in schools, holidays clubs and so on.
The first of these is at FMU (Friends meet up) in Frome, on May 11th.
- see www.openstorytellers.org.uk for details.
 So - if you go to FMU, see you there!
Watch the blog for more news about Phase Two.

Somerset Sound Foundation

Just back from giving a presentation about Heart Beats at the Somerset Sound Foundation (music hub) event hosted by Spaeda at Great Bow Wharf, Langport - 'how do we get more children and young people into music?'
Ideally I would have taken the whole gang along and just played music! But, words, photos and film had to suffice. Great to get good feedback and especially inspiring to hear about other work going on across the county and region - including Actiontrack and Drake Music amongst others.
Giving this presentation has helped me to think clearly about Heart Beats and look back on what has been good practice.
We're now entering phase two with our first 'rehearsal' session with our core peer leading team - a step into the unknown, but a good one I feel.

Music leading

At Heart Beats, we have our own way of music leading -  using agreed signals, body language, and conducting. Sometimes two people can lead at the same time - this needs empathy and a good awareness of your 'leading partner'.
Here's a clip of two of the Heart Beats crew doing some co-leading.
As you can see, it's fun too.