Monday 25th July
Junk percussion has become an ever increasing theme within our work here at The Firebird Trust and this morning we had a session with Gary to discuss and analyse Pete’s workshop in Hull two weeks ago and also to discuss our planned “Bring Build & Play” sessions that we shall be conducting at Binbrook Activity Night in the coming weeks. Analysing Pete’s workshop was not only useful for him but resulted in us having a clearer plan of how to use junk percussion. The most important lessons we drew from this session were;
- The playing technique for each instrument should be taught in a thorough manner, and used as way to introduce the pattern(s) they will be playing.
- Regardless of instrument, every pattern that you are going to use should be taught to the whole group, regardless of whether they will be playing it or not.
- It’s crucial that all of the patterns relate to each other and form the part of a bigger whole; this gives everyone a common goal to work towards.
- As a leader you need to have an instrument to conduct and maintain control over the group.
A month or so ago I mentioned during a meeting with Peter and Liam that it would be nice to do a project where we build a set instruments with a group and then play them. After some consideration and discussion we all agreed that this would be a fantastic idea to take to the Binbrook Activity Night over the summer holidays for a period of four weeks. Gary’s input on this tied in to the analysis we did of Pete’s workshops with the kitchen equipment, demonstrating how to use syllables effectively to create a rhythmic piece and how to best pace them within the piece. One of the great nuggets of info related to Samba ensembles and the musical cues and breaks they use to switch between movements in the piece.
Tuesday 26th July
The morning was spent in the office today but the afternoon brought with it an interesting meeting with Marion from the arts organisation ‘IMPart’. The open-mic plan that we drew up last week is something we’re keen to get up and running, so today’s meeting with Marion was an opportunity to discuss using IMPart as a venue and providing a young musicians night. It’s nice to be in the company people who care about music and getting the next generation of musicians out there and in the spotlight and this made for a pleasant meeting. With a common goal in hand we discussed the options for our evenings; acoustic or full band? Week-day or weekend? Performance/showcase or mentoring? The most important aim is to give young musicians and forum to share their music, ideas, knowledge and to be able to network, with so much social media via the internet these days and lack of venues for under 16’s to meet it’s hard to really get to know other musicians.
The results of this meeting are yet to be seen, although it was promising. There is certainly food for thought and many things to take into consideration and areas to work out, but it’s something we’d rather do properly than in haste.
Wednesday 27th
A trip down memory lane today, as I dug out my secondary school design & technology skills!
In preparation for the first session in Binbrook next week with the “Bring, Build & Play!” sessions I drew a set of schematics for the instruments we are going to build with the children which include; drainpipe xylophones, parcel tube rain-sticks and soup tine shakers. It was a fun but demanding task, working out increments in size for the xylophone proving to be somewhat of challenge. With a shopping list e-mailed to Liam everything is hand and ready to go.
As part of our work here we’re often asked for consultation on all manners of areas such as marketing, branding, web-design etc. Our task for this particular afternoon was to read over and give feedback on the draft membership agreement for the organisation “Lincolnshire One” which aims to unify arts organisations in Lincolnshire and promote collaboration for the wider benefit of the county. It was an interesting document and set out a nice philosophy, something that appealed to me however we thought it could have done with a little more in the way of concrete facts and the mechanisms involved in the way of working it set out.
The Firebird Trust
The Stables, Wellingore Hall
Wellingore
Lincoln
England
LN5 0HX
The Stables, Wellingore Hall
Wellingore
Lincoln
England
LN5 0HX
01522 811229
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