Hearts, Beats, Music

Wow, what an amazing team!
Its been a total joy working with you all .....
Geoff
Russ
Alex
Ben
Mark
Martha
Emma
Leah
Elin
Ros
Iona
Sophia
Declan

Here's a wish for lots more music, for all of us, later.

Tasters for disabled children in Somerset

Count Me In / Heart Beats are pleased to bringing their music to

'Things to do with Arts and Media…. Tasters for disabled children in Somerset'.

Thanks to funding from the SCC Short Breaks Service, the InspirED agencies* have come together to offer six Saturdays of arts and media activities in Langport in September and October 2103.   The programme offers six weeks of two hour arts and media tasters for disabled children of 12 years upwards, their families and carers and will also provide participants with an opportunity to undertake the Arts Award.  You can attend them individually or book the entire programme for only £5 per young person per session, carer goes free.

Experienced and passionate arts practitioners will lead the programme as follows.  All sessions from 10am-12noon in the fully accessible venue of Great Bow Wharf, Langport. 

·        Sat 21^st September – Things to do with Music and Song
·        Sat 28^th September and Sat 5^th October – Things to do with Film
·        Sat 12^th and Sat 19^th October – Things to do with Sculpture
·        Sat 26^th October – end of project celebration sharing the films we have made and playing sounds to tell a story through noise!

Booking and further information: Call Sarah at SPAEDA on 01458 254 262

*InspirED agencies are – SPAEDA Arts Eduction, Somerset Art Works, The Engine Room and Take Art.

Heart Beats at FosseWay School

Here's Emma and Geoff posing in front of the Heart Beats bunting. Day one of two days for Fosse Way School went well .... lots of engagement, good attention and interaction, and some excellent feedback from staff there.

Tomorrow, our workshop there is the final day of our outreach phase and the last workshop of our Youth Music funded project. What a journey this has been.
Amazing.

We're back in September thanks to some funding from the Big Lottery.

Fairfield Farm College

Wow, what a brilliant evening playing music at Fairfield Farm College - thanks Geoff, Mark, Alex, Ben, Russ ..... and all the Fairfield Farmers crew.


Heart Beats hit the spot!  what a joyful load of spontaneous music-making. Fun with reggae and funky beats, gentle improvisation, conducting, movement and games.
Thanks to everyone at Fairfield for making us welcome, giving us cool drinks, showing us the beasties (cute baby cows), chatting, helping set up and pack away.
Most of all, thanks for your music, singing and enthusiasm. 




O. said 'Thank you for coming and playing music with us here - will you come back? We don't get this opportunity often.'
J. stood up and said 'I'm leaving this college - and so are lots of my friends.' So, it was an important moment. We hope everyone will remember the great party we had together  - the Heart Beats crew won't forget it in a hurry, that's for sure.

More schools.

We were playing more Heart Beats music with very young people at Three Ways yesterday.
Geoff played his didgeridoo and demonstrated how the sound comes from the inside of a djembe. Because it was such a hot day we played gentle, relaxing sounds.

And here is a lovely letter from Critchill School, where we did some after-school club sessions.
It's a privilege to work with so many young people. The music is different, every time.

This Thursday - off to Fairfield Farm College for what I suspect might be some high-energy fun.

School workshops in Bridgwater

Phase two of our Youth Music work is in full swing now. Today we were at Elmwood School in Bridgwater, running workshops for their enrichment day. Sadly Penrose School couldn't join us as planned, as Ofsted had suddenly arrived!
Elmwood is a friendly school, we had a great welcome and lots of cake.
All the students joined in, concentrated hard, and made some good music.
Emma and Geoff came with us, to help lead the workshop. A student said that Emma's conducting was 'magic', and someone else said Geoff's drumming was the best thing of the day. So well done you two.

This second phase of our project can be quite challenging as we are in new situations with young people who may have complex needs, but don't know us at all.
Part of the big strength of our 'usual' Heart Beats sessions is the chance to work regularly as a team. Now we have to work with our strengths in one-off situations.

What is working well is our ability to help people improvise and really explore group music making.
Rod Paton calls this 'communitas'.
Thanks to a really brilliant team, sunny days like today will remembered for some while to come.

Next Monday we are going to Threeways School in Bath to work with primary children.

News!

MUSIC SESSIONS IN 2013-14

Count Me In are really happy to announce the news that we have secured funding from the Big Lottery Fund (Awards for All) to carry on with our music sessions at Wells Museum.

The Big Lottery want us to provide a safe space where young people in challenging circumstances, with learning needs and autism, can make friends, play good music, relax and communicate with each other.

These sessions will be the same as ever – run by Jane, Alex, Russ, Geoff and Ben. We will explore live music together and have fun too, of course.

Sessions are on Thursdays – we start at 6.00 and finish at 8.00.

You need to be aged between 16 and 25 to come. We ask everyone to pay £1.50 a session towards drinks, snacks, and venue hire.

You will be asked to sign a new registration form when you come. We’d like everyone to come to every session please, if you can.

If you have questions, or know anyone new who would like to come, ring us on 01373 813558, or email info@heartbeats.org.uk 

You can follow our project blog at:

www.heart-beatsmusic.blogspot.co.uk

 

DATES FOR THE NEW SESSIONS

2013

1. Sept 19^th
2. Oct 3^rd
3. Oct 24^th
4. Nov 7^th
5. Nov 21^st
6. Dec 5^th

          2014

7. Jan 9th
8. Jan 23^rd
9. Feb 6^th
10. Feb 27^th
11. Mar 13^th
12. Mar 27^th
13. April 24^th
14. May 1^st
15. May 15^th
16. June 12^th

Sessions are at Wells Museum, BA5 2UE.  Session times 6.00 – 8.00 p.m. Cost £1.50. For more information email info@heartbeats.org.uk  or ring 01373813558.