Wells Music Circus

This Saturday we'll be in Wells for the enormous, ambitious Music Circus. The city will be full of live music.

Please join us if you can - there will be some empty chairs and some spare instruments.

We'll be outside the Music School on the Cathedral Green, next to the Museum. Our slots are 11.15 - 11.30, and 12.10 to 12.25.

At 12.30 everyone involved will be singing 'All you need is Love' together, and then we're all having a picnic together on the Cathedral Green.

We'll have plenty of lovely instruments with us for you to play.

Wells Musicircus

In June, we're taking part in Wells Musicircus, which is being co-ordinated by our project partners Wells Cathedral School.

Inspired by the composer John Cage, musicians will perform simultaneously from every available space, creating a joyous musical marketplace.

This will be the largest gathering of musicians Wells has ever seen, flooding the city with a cacophony of sound...

The event begins in the market place and wends its way across the Cathedral Green, to end in a huge picnic by the new Cedars Hall.

Our role in this? we'll be there playing music that will reflect the mood of the day and of course - we shall offer instruments and a chance to join in with our HeartBeats group.

Gathering ideas for our training day

On Saturday January 30th 2016, the AllStars Music team will be hosting an open-access CPD session for educators who use music and musicians who work in care and education.
The training will focus on developing a person-centered approach to music: unlocking creativity and confidence.
As a team, we have a wide range of SEN/D expertise, so the training will be useful for people who work in SEN/D, or the wider aspects of musical inclusion.

We'll be sharing some of the thinking and practice that informs our work, both in  our inclusive Heart Beats sessions, and also our wider work with schools, mentoring, and using music as a tool for therapy and communication.

As part of the package, we'll be offering linked opportunities for experiential learning through placements at the Heart Beats music group.

At the moment we're gathering ideas for the day, especially thinking about what 'musical inclusion' means and how to create a 'playful' environment.

There will be plenty of playing on the day, so if you want to come, bring an instrument.


Watch this blog for more details. The venue will be in Wells and the day will run from 10.00 - 3.30. Tickets will be available soon.

Recruiting - come to our taster sessions

This Thursday, June 18th, we have the second of our AllStars taster sessions.
Do you know someone who'd like to come?

At our first taster on June 4th we had a full room  - with a mixture of old and new faces. Lots of old friends meeting up, with plenty of giggling and happiness.
The Heart Beats crew showed the new people how things went and how we run the session.
We went from laughter to quiet listening; exploring all sorts of sound and enjoying the new instruments.

Ryan said 'It's nice to be see everyone back - and to have new instruments.' Everyone liked the sound of the harp and hammered dulcimer together.
Ellie said 'what a fantastic group.'
Bella said 'thanks for being so welcoming.'

Martyn brought his new guitar along.
Katie had her trusty ukelele, and Geoff, his melodeon.
Mark enjoyed playing the new dun dun.
Looks like we might have some fun coming up....

Three more tasters to come:
June 18th
July 16th
July 30th

- all at Wells Museum lecture hall, 6 - 8.
Spread the word.

This evening

A sunny summer evening coming up, what better way to start our project than by gathering and playing together.
Wells Museum, starting at 6 : looking forward to it.

AllStars project begins

This is it - this week we have our first AllStars taster session - Thursday at Wells Museum, 6 - 8. Now that is good news.

See you there.

The music team - trainee volunteers

We're lucky to have two fantastic trainee volunteers with us at every Heart Beats session.
Following in the illustrious footsteps of Sophia, Iona, Elin and Ros, we now have Wells Cathedral school students Gemma and Vicky with us for the year.
This placement is an opportunity for them to gain experience of music leading, and for the Heart Beats crew to learn from them.
Last week they added in what was probably the first ever funk riff on French horn and recorder!
Go Gemma and Vicky!

Gemma with Martyn

         

Vicky with Martina and Andrew

Here we go.... new season begins

I'm so excited, I'm off to Wells to see the crew...... Heart Beats..... yes!

The Heart Beats crew

Making time for some new music......

Yes! It's almost time for the NEW Heart Beats sessions to begin..... as you can imagine in the engine room of Heart Beats hotel here we are getting quite excited.

There will be lots of the usual cool stuff - games, rhythms, songs, tunes, soundscapes, listening, sharing, exploring ...... and some new faces, we hope.

Don't forget to tell your friends : we have some spare places still. First come, first served. Sessions start on Thursday September 19th at 6.00 prompt.
We'll be there :

 Ben

 Jane

 

Alex

Russ and Geoffrey

Planning for the Heart Beats party on July 4th

Here's some of the crew taking a break, having a banana and helping to plan the party we're having on July 4th. mmmm... looks like hard work to me.

And here's our wonderful trainees, Elin and Roo .... looking... wonderful.

Heartbeats this week

Two good things this week : an after school club at Critchill tomorrow and a proper great big music session in Wells on Thursday ... great.

Trainees

We have two trainee posts on the Heart Beats project.
It's meet the trainees day tomorrow. We have so many talented young people interested .... we're going to have a great taster session meeting them all, hoping that everyone who comes will take something away which is worth having, even if they don't get the 'job'.
It may be cold outside, but things are certainly hotting up in Heart Beats land!