Festivities

Music is fun, as it should be. And seasonal fun is even better. Here's a film of Geoff, volunteer music leader at Count Me In, sharing his festive joy last night... so Merry Christmas to all our amazing group, and supporters, and music leaders - and everyone!

part of our local music community....

We were pleased and proud to open up the Wells Cathedral School newsletter - 'in the community' - and find a feature about  AllStars and a photo of a Heart Beats music session.

Thanks to Wells Cathedral School for hosting and supporting us so generously.

Active listening

Hear, absorb, process, react, respond. This is active listening - a communication skill - it's what we do when we're really engaged.

When you do this in improvised music sessions, it can become a transferable skill, so that listening in conversations - displaying empathy - becomes easier too.

By responding, we reflect and lead on. This is a fundamental of interactive communication.

Active listening can be hard work. Sometimes, in group sessions - often when things get loud! - as a music leader, you feel that people can become self absorbed, giving full attention to their instrument rather than other people, or maybe even not being fully present, in a 'zone' induced by rhythm and the physicality of playing. (Which is nice enough)

As a music leader you have to feel the balance of the sound, and make decisions as to whether the music is working or not. Sometimes just gaining attention, stopping for 4 beats and starting again will bring focus back. Sometimes it's ok to take the risk and let it find a level. ....And sometimes you might ask some people to stop for a while and others to continue playing, to allow a clearer listening space.

Tonight at the Listening Lounge we are going to explore invitations to play, inviting and respecting others. We shall play some listening games too - trying out ideas for the bigger group.

autumn sessions

Hi everyone - reminding you that there is no session tomorrow ; we next meet on November 10th at Cedars Hall, usual time.

Moving - and shaking....

Moving Heart Beats to a new location was a big decision : the creative space we build around ourselves as a group is important to everything we do. Many of us take a while to get used to new places.....different access, lighting, acoustics - there's a whole load of multi sensory aspects to consider.
We'll soon get used to the stairs and the lift, heavy fire doors, piles of instruments and music stands, and an energetic atmosphere with other people buzzing about.

Cedars Hall

Cedars Hall is an exceptional building because it's brand new, and designed with acoustics in mind.
Our room has carpet, acoustic panels, a specially designed floor,and big windows looking out across tree tops. Our instruments and voices sound different in this room.
In the corridors students are moving their instruments about and practicing pieces. In the main hall ('The 'Eavis Hall' ) orchestras rehearse and we can look down to see what's happening as we walk along the corridor.

Eavis Hall

Michael Eavis opened Cedars hall officially on October 8th. He said 'I learned to laugh about lots of things in Wells.'

What do our musicians think about the new music space? 
Katie says 'It's an adventure in a new place - I appreciate it.'
Emma -'I love the new place.'
Sophie - 'I like the lift!' 
Geoff - 'It's all fresh - a good atmosphere. This is a new achievement.'
Mark - 'The building has a phenomenal atmosphere. I liked seeing the orchestra.'

We're starting something new together.
We have a feeling the music we make in this new room will be quite different.

warming up at Cedars Hall

Testing the acoustics!

Here we are - the Listening Lounge gang - exploring how it actually sounds, and what it feels like, to play live music in one of our new rooms at Cedars Hall. We started as quiet as mice, made loops on the iPad and then - we were away!

Many thanks to Wells Cathedral School for hosting our music sessions this year.

The Listening Lounge

This evening we are going to Cedars Hall for the first time.
Our first group there will be the Listening Lounge.
This is a closed group run by Alex and Jane. The Listening Lounge brings young people with and without additional needs together to explore 'what music does' more closely. There's a lot of chatting, playing, listening to music and each other.
In our explorations, we use instruments, recorded music, voices, words, technologies, art and all sorts of spontaneous responses to sound.

exploring sound, pattern and colour

Heart Beats starts tonight!

A reminder that the autumn sessions start tonight.
This will be our last session at the Lawrence Centre before moving on to Cedars' Hall.

Tonight we'll be using our voices, and rhythms, to greet each other and make patterns of sound.
Theme of the evening is 'everybody jam' - chosen by Geoffrey.

See you there!

Local support makes lots of difference!

Here we are in the local press -  receiving a cheque on behalf of the group, generously given us by Radco through donations collected on their gala night.

Local support works in lots of ways, and donations do really help.

Click here to see the photo and read all about it.

Heart Beats is moving to a new home

We have some news! From the end of September we are moving our Thursday sessions (Heart Beats club, and the Listening Lounge) from the Lawrence Centre to a new venue in Wells.

This venue is Cedars Hall at Wells Cathedral School.

Cedars Hall

This is great news, for two reasons.

Firstly, Cedars Hall is a brand-new state of the art teaching and learning centre built with music in mind. Building the hall has been a long standing project for Wells Cathedral School, and now it is ready to be used.
The hall has wonderful facilities and is accessible, designed with acoustics in mind and - of course! - perfect for playing live music. We shall be on the first floor, in a teaching space with adjoining rooms and observation space for break-out opportunities.

Secondly, the move brings us into a closer partnership with Wells Cathedral School.
Over the years we've offered supported training placements for Wells students, and more recently, staff as well. This has grown to become a vital part of our work as the 'AllStars ensemble' explore improvisation together with the Heart Beats crew, our core group of learning disabled musicians - it's a creative hothouse.

A professional development day with an integrated group

Wells C.S head Elizabeth Cairncross says 'we know that music and the performing arts must be inclusive, not exclusive. With Cedars Hall we will be able to expand our community programme, our teaching, our staff training, and our partnership work.'
Inclusion is everything for us. We do believe that everyone is musical, and that music can change lives.
Most of our group live in the Wells area.The school recognise that Cedars Hall is a significant community asset for Wells and the South West. We're proud to be included.