Workshop and Performance at Three Ways School.

Scott, John and Naomi are music students from Bath Spa University who've been on placements with the Heart Beats group this year. It's been fun working with them!

When Three Ways , a local SEN school, asked us to come in and do some music, we were thrilled when Scott and Naomi said they could join us...mostly because it was a real-life work experience opportunity for them, but also because they are top class musicians and have so many great ideas. Here's a clip of our planning session.

 

Last week we went to the school and ran workshops with two groups of post-16 and secondary students, improvising and creating new pieces of music together. Naomi and Scott added harp, saxophone, percussion and vocals, scaffolding the music and making sure everyone was engaged in a truly musical way.

The following morning the two groups performed in assembly to a relaxed and attentive audience.

The pupils enjoyed this experience as much as we did. 'I liked it because I haven't done anything like it before. It was fun to work with professional musicians. I was happy today in assembly. I'd like to try a different instrument next time, maybe a stringed one.'
'I've never played the steel pan before, it's my favourite instrument at the moment.' 
'The people let me have a go myself and be independent.'
'It was really good and interesting. I liked using the iPad because it avoided handache. I liked trying different instruments.'

A member of staff said : 'it was lovely to be able to see all the kid's faces in the group, they just looked so engaged and proud of themselves.'
The music co-ordinator said 'It was a fantastic thing to do, and covered so many aims that we've had for Music this year. 

 

Celebrating the AllStars Music project

The AllStars project is reaching an end with our mega-celebration, the Giant Jam, coming up on July 2nd.

What are we celebrating? We're celebrating
- hours and hours of live music played by amazing people with extra special powers
- establishing new friendships and connections
- a training programme that made us think hard about what we do and how it works
- some wonderful 'outreach' workshops and performances
- a chance to explore and reflect at the Listening Lounge sessions
- many surprising, fun, and serious moments
- all the volunteers and professionals who have given generously of their time and inspiration
- all the many individuals and grant giving organisations that support our work
- our partnerships with Wells Cathedral School, Spaeda, the Somerset Rural Youth project and Bath Spa University
- all the parents and carers who have supported all the young disabled musicians we work with

There is a lot more to say. This summer we'll be writing up our reports and evaluating the work. Everything we have learned from all the good people we've met along the way will help us to go forward and reach even more people, spread the music and see what is around the corner.

Giant Jam news updates

Lots of good news about our festival The Giant Jam.

Ben is busy booking people to come and help make it happen.  Drum It Up drum circle, Frome Street Bandits, Openstorytellers, Bianco Rosso Pizzas, Loops disco - and loads more to be announced really soon.

Follow the news on facebook. Book free tickets on Eventbrite.

The Giant Jam is a celebration to mark the end of the AllStars project, which has included HeartBeats music club and much more besides. Help us to make it a day to remember. Tell your friends and 'spread the Jam!'

A Music Making conference

On Friday April 28th we'll be showing what we do at Youth + Music =  a Music Making Conference - a conference for teachers, youth workers, musicians, and music practitioners in Bridgwater.

Youth + Music = is organised by local organisation the Somerset Rural Youth Project, who have been project partners of ours for several years now.

Here's Geoff doing some music leading at their conference last year . This year we shall be explaining what we do to make our music workshops more inclusive.

'a different outlook on improvising and listening to one another.....'

On Saturday we ran a training day - music leadership skills development. It was inspiring and fun to spend the day with a group of talented young musicians, who have an interest in community music and music therapy.

Days like this are rare enough -  and short, too - so we needed to get straight to the point. We wanted to talk, share, play, and explore concepts.

Being given the opportunity to share what you do begins with plenty of thinking. The idea was to explain what we do in our sessions, and why, and put some context on it all. We needed to cover all areas of interest, through doing as well as telling.

Between us we covered a lot of ground, from information on how the brain is affected by music, to receptive and expressive communication, to what happens to your listening ability when you only play for 50% of the time in an improvisation.

We asked everyone what they thought of the day - was it useful? Some comments...
- inspirational, invigorating, eye opening, educational
- very grounding, so much de-stressing - so warm and friendly
- a different outlook on improvising and listening to one another
- meditative, insightful, really fun
- cemented my want to be involved in community music and music therapy
- JOYOUS! - expressive, relaxed, informative, and personal in the sense that I felt as if I and other members of the group were expressing personal things through spontaneous music making
- I hope we can have future sessions like this!

We're already planning how we can offer more sessions like this. Thanks for coming, everybody.

Integration, inclusion - powerful music

What a brilliant session today in Bridgwater - with students from the Jean Rees Centre and Chilton Trinity school coming together to improvise, co-create, and listen.

We can say this was an 'inclusive' session because there was a role for everyone, with open permission to play, listen and be creative. The atmosphere was respectful, playful, and trusting. No one was excluded.

We can also say it was an 'integrated' session because everyone there was bringing different skills to the room. J from Jean Rees taught the Chilton Trinity students some Makaton which they then incorporated in to some conducting. Everyone worked together to craft and perform small pieces of new music.

Some leadership skills emerging

We are running these sessions to explore what happens when you bring peer groups together from different settings, and to see how communication develops with music as the medium.

Well! today certainly had a big warm glow, and the room was full of life affirming sound.

Sharing what we do

Doing our final planning for our music leaders development day this Saturday, we are reflecting on what we do and how we do it - and of course, why we do it.
The trick is to share that usefully with other people so that they will be inspired by it all.

We like running training sessions. It's worth acknowledging that our main funders, Youth Music, support and encourage CPD within projects.
It helps define what we do as a team, and what is unique about our approach.

There's a lot of interest in musical inclusion at present. Between us we've been working in this area for plenty of years. The privilege of wide experience gives us something worthwhile to add to the conversation.

some serious listening!

Here's some feedback from our last open training day

- fundamental, free, expressive, understandable
- what a great combination of theory and practice!
- amazing - I learned a lot. I learned, what is music.
- life affirming. It opened my eyes to a different type of work
- inspiring, motivational, therapeutic

If you would like us to come to you, in whatever setting, and deliver some training, do get in touch.

THE GIANT JAM

 We are so pleased and excited to be launching The Giant Jam - a one-day festival celebrating musical creativity within the local learning disability community.

All our team are delighted to have been awarded funding from the Big Lottery Fund to celebrate the achievement of our young musicians , trainees, volunteers and wider community that have been drawn together by the AllStars project.

The party planners

The Giant Jam will host an amazing variety of musical performances, jamming and workshops, dancing and discos, rest and relaxation and of course plenty of tasty food.

This party will be taking place at the Ammerdown Centre, near Radstock on Sunday 2nd July 2017 from 12pm to 8pm.

Tickets are FREE, and are available at The Giant Jam Eventbrite page.


Keep an eye on the blog for more news, and follow our facebook page

Music leaders' development day - an opportunity

The AllStars team are running a FREE music leader's development day in Wells on March 18th.

This is for anyone with an interest in music leading and community music - come and learn some new ideas in a fun environment, and try some stuff out. The activities will be led by Russ Stanley, Alex Lupo and Jane Harwood.

We'll be sharing tips and ideas for good music leading, especially with groups with additional needs.You can do some leading, take notes, film, or just join in and play.


Bring a packed lunch and an instrument or your voice.

Venue : the Denning Room, Union St, Wells BA5 2PU
Date; March 18th
Time : 10.30 - 2.00

You'll need to book a place : email info@heartbeats.org.uk

searching and reflecting - a team day

Alex, Jane, Russ and Ben were off over the border to Earlswood in Monmouthshire last week for a team skill share and reflection day. Before we did any speaking we made time for some music - tuning up and tuning in.

Professional development is important to the way we work together. This was a chance to try out some new things and really concentrate on how we play together as well.

Cold enough for woolly hats..

We had lots of fun which must be a good sign!

It was an opportunity to eat cake and discuss the future  - we have lots of ideas for ways to take our work forward, so it all feels positive.

nice sunset!

One idea is to spend more time together reflecting on good practice and inspiration in music leading.... a day didn't feel long enough.

We discussed creating a resource that would help others work in the way that we do.