Just completed a week of workshops for THSH and UFA, project was called Soulful summer. I helped facilitate sessions based mainly on developing young people’s composition skills. I was blown away by the young people’s ideas and good vibes. Some of the feedback I got was great, and was nice to see some of the […]
community music
100 Hour challenge: Third week
Hmmmm… Day 1: Practiced for two hours Day 2: Practiced for an hour Day 3: Back in Birmingham, no practice Day 4: Nada Day 5: Nada Day 6: Nada Day 7: Nada Hmmm think I failed there. I did read up on stuff but… few ebonies and ivories were tinkled last week! On the plus […]
New Year: Brand New Second Hand Moi & The Arty Jaunt
(Pic by Emot) Happy New Year! How are you dear Bobablog readers? No really, how are you? Nice Christmas? Nice juicy turkey, nut roast? I managed to only annoy half my family – which was a record! Well, life is going great! I am adjusting to my to-ing and fro-ing from Birmingham and London. I […]
Down Your Way – Castle Vale High
I had a wonderful session working with year seven students from Castle Vale High School last Friday, it was a chance for us all the bond, learn about the project aims and do some rhythm/pulse exercises. I was really impressed with how quickly the students were able to recognise and play different patterns from our […]
Chatted Up in Castle Vale After a Cool ‘Down Your Way’ Session!
I had a wonderful session working with year 5 students and OAPs from Chivenor House. Our sound bites moved from melodic fragments to a chorus. We just need to tweak the lyrics now. The boys were really into singing – apparently they are not meant to be! Dave – Artistic director of the project has […]
Pics from Down Your Way last Saturday
Here are some pics from last Saturday’s session. We had some Global Xchange volunteers from Morocco participate and it was quite contrasting to the smaller numbers we’ve had in the past. Chris led the session, and recorded sound bites about childhood memories – short phrases were the stimuli for music making and composition. We wrote […]
What to do in Silly Season?
Summer can be a quiet period for the community musician and I am finding it particularly hard to relax. I know I should spend this time focusing on my artform, enjoying my time off, but, it just doesn’t work like that for me- guilt being the operative word I suppose. I was counseled only slightly […]
Listen Up!
Finally found some time to upload some audio from workshops I have delivered. You can also find and listen to the CBSO Planets Project songs that I promised last month- all written in 5 sessions!!
CBSO Planets Creative Project
I have been working with students from Holyhead School over the last 2 weeks to compose songs inspired by Holst’s The Planets. All students went to a CBSO performance of it a few weeks ago, this was our composition stimuli. At the start of the workshops I gave participants the option to compose about planets […]
Have your say! The Music Igniter Final Round-up session
Today was the final Music Igniter session. It was a chance for everyone to share the projects they had delivered, discuss the processes and whether the guinea-pig test worked; if you put 10 teachers and 10 community musicians together and ask them to work towards creating innovative, fun, successful fun projects- does it work? The […]
Birmingham Jazz Youth Sessions
This weekend I have been working with lovely students from Hamstead Hall School to compose, arrange and perform an original piece of music. It had a fusion of reggae, bashment and jazz. Most students had never played in a band before so were pretty nervous- but everyone did a great job- although I fluffed some […]