Bye!

We've come to the end of our project! It's been brilliant to be a part of this project for the past 2 years. We've made so much music in loads of different styles. I've met some really great music leaders and some talented young musicians. Hopefully we have inspired some young people to keep on playing music. There have been some who I think will become really great musicians, who have shown a real talent for it. It's been really amazing to see our participants help each other out - more experienced musicians teaching the younger ones. I think we've set up a music programme in Hodge Hill that can continue due to the generosity and enthusiasm of our partners, participants, music leaders and supporters.

Thanks for reading. Pip pip.

Stina

Hodge Hill Rocks!

Our final music showcase took place at Naseby Centre and featured the young musicians who have taken part in the last sessions of our Music for Hodge Hill project. It was a really varied and exciting performance, including some young people who had never performed before and had only started to play or sing a few weeks beforehand. Here's a video featuring highlights from the show.

Thanks to Daz for his music tuition, Esther for organising the event and providing snacks, Naseby Centre for hosting, our young people who set up the hall for us, the musicians, and everybody who came along to support.

HODGE HILL ROCKS!

Drummer boy

Daz has also been visiting Naseby Centre. Here there are a group of older lads who are really wonderful and help to teach the younger ones. Ali has been diligently teaching Farzaan how to play the drums, and in a matter of weeks, he has gone from being a total beginner to a total pro. Well done both of you for being brilliant.

Daz at Norton Hall

Let's gloss over the fact that I haven't posted for a while. Things are a little crazy as we come to the end of our Youth Music project. We're planning a final performance, details of which will be dripped out over a period of several days like when they announced the new Justin Timberlake album.

Our music leader Daz has been delivering sessions at Norton Hall on guitar. He's been teaching chords and exercises to help develop our young musicians into rocking lead and rhythms guitarists. We've also been learning TV themes, playing musical games and talking about what it means to be a musician.

Here are some pictures from the sessions at Norton.
 

Music on the Children's Unit

I'd like to share one of the other parts of the music programme at HEFT (Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust). Some talented young volunteers came in to the Children's Ward last week, accompanied by their mom Jackie, to perform some music. Their session on the Children's Ward at Heartlands Hospital made a real difference to the day - a hospital stay involves lots of boredom, anxiety and upset, and music is a really good way of helping to create a lovely atmosphere to try to alleviate these.

Parents and staff, as well as patients, sometimes have a difficult time in hospital and it's important for the welfare of all of them to create an environment that's as free of stress as possible. I think the music and arts programme at HEFT is a really important part of making this happen. Thanks so much to Jackie, Ciara and Niamh for coming in.

Here's what Niamh and Ciara said about their visit:

We were lucky enough to be invited in by Christina to visit the Children's Ward at Heartlands Hospital on 20th February 2013 and play some music. We were made very welcome by the staff, especially Sam the Nursery Nurse.

We were keen to be able to play for the children,  being in hospital can be a very stressful time for sick children and their families and we wanted to provide what we hoped was a  fun and interactive session for young hospital patients and their families.

We played different types of music on the guitar and tin whistle, and sang some  modern pop songs and played some traditional Irish Music. 

It was a really wonderful experience, to see the children joining in and smiling - whilst beating a rhythm with some percussion instruments!!  We do hope to come back again and will learn some more songs that may be familiar to the children to help them feel more 'at home' during their stay in hospital.

Thank you for letting us come and visit.

Ciara and Niamh McCorriston

If you are interested in becoming a music or art volunteer yourself, please get in touch on 0121 424 0113.

Daz at Naseby

We had a great session on Monday with loads of people (including some new guys) so thanks everybody for turning up to take part. Daz brought some of his guitars and there's actually quite a lot of kit at Naseby: more guitars, keyboards, drums, so there's a chance to try out loads of different instruments. As always if you are under 18, please come along to Naseby Centre on Mondays at 7pm to take part in the music!

Thanks to Daz for running these sessions and to all the older guys who lend their expertise to the younger ones!