Harp Academy

We look forward to playing to everyone at Brighton’s Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital this Christmas and raising money for the Rockinghorse appeal. Our harmonauts have been invited to play 11.00 am-12.00 pm in the Outpatients Waiting Area on the Ground Floor level and we will assemble from 10.45 am.

How to join in
Places are limited so you’ll need to hurry! Mark the date on your Calendar, click the Gold Harmonica and complete your online registration, selecting The Alex option. List any pieces you’d like to play on your registration form. Practise Jingle Bells at home for our grand finale (you’ll find it further down our homepage and in our KS Music Libraries). (more…)

Dashing through the snow

Here’s a fun song to play for Christmas. The song was originally composed in the late 1880’s in Massachusetts, USA. It was written for Thanksgiving rather than Christmas, but these days it’s become a popular seasonal number.

You’ll find that the verse is a bit too awkward for the 4 hole harmonica, so we’ve tabbed it out for 10 hole harp. The chorus is great for any harp however. If you choose to perform this song at Christmas time, but only play 4 hole harmonica, we’ve found it fun to make some movements while we sing the verse, before playing along to the chorus on our harps. (more…)

For those about to rock, we salute you! 
As we move into October, thank you to all those who are joining us in for our tenth anniversary year. We’ve experienced a surge of interest in the harmonica this term, which is fantastic! If you haven’t yet signed up, hit the Gold Harmonica at the side of this homepage and let us know that you’re interested; we still have places available in some of our schools, and we’ll get straight back to you with further details.

Our Autumn theme is Skool of Rock harmonica, plus the musical element Duration. And we’ve got a ton of fun stuff planned through the school year, with some great opportunities to play live in public and melt faces.

•  Mon 23rd Dec 2019 – Christmas blow out at The Alex Children’s Hospital
•  Sun 9th Feb 2020 – Children’s workshop with Joe Filisko (USA) at Harpin’ By The Sea
•  Sat 4th Jul 2020 – End of term blow out at Paddle Round the Pier, Hove
•  Sat 15th Aug 2020 – National Harmonica Festival music competition, Gloucester

Registration
If you’d like to sign up to our programme, whether you’re a seasoned harmonaut or a newcomer, we need you to register by clicking our Gold Harmonica. This means we’ll have the contact information we need, and we know you’re happy with the way we do things.

We’ll get back to you with our confirmation email, giving details about your taster session (newcomers), our schedule of dates and how to subscribe in advance. (more…)

Summer harmonica fun for all the family…

It was great to see so many harmonauts at Paddle Round The Pier on Hove Lawns. We’d like to thank everyone for turning out; mums, dads, relatives, friends and pets!

Paddle is Europe’s largest beach festival and our annual performance is the perfect way to end the harmonica music year and start the summer season. This year thirty harmonauts took to the stage and blew the roof off on what was an extremely hot afternoon. Dressed as Pirates and Sailors they looked and sounded fantastic! Join us next year, when our theme will be Star Wars, but for now, sit back and enjoy our video of this year’s escapades..