Harp Academy

Junior National Harmonica Champion 2018-19

Congratulations to Robbie Nicholls in Y6 at Goldstone Primary School, who came first in the rock and pop category at this year’s national harmonica festival music competition. Robbie played Apache by the Incredible Bongo Orchestra on his new Hohner Special 20 harmonica. The tune was heavily sampled in the 1980’s as a backdrop to the emerging hip-hop music craze in America.

Robbie used the piece to show his skills in rhythm and melody playing, as well as improvising with great trill, wah-wah and vamping technique. He also threw in the theme from a famous Western movie, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, as demonstrated here.

We are processing some video footage of Robbie’s performance and will publish this shortly. In the meantime, well done Robbie, congratulations to his proud family and thank you to all our colleagues at Goldstone Primary School, Hove.

Wilkomnen, bienvenue, welcome!

We are delighted to welcome everyone at Elm Grove Primary School, Brighton, to our harmonica community.

From Tuesday 25th September, we will be operating a weekly lunchtime Harmonica Club with Richard Taylor.

If you attend Elm Grove and would like further details, click the Gold Harmonica here on our homepage. We’ll get back to you as soon as we’re free.

Summer harpin’ had me a blast..
If you wish to secure your place for the autumn term, there are two simple steps to follow. Firstly click our Gold Harmonica at the side of the screen and register your child’s details; this applies to returners as well as newcomers. Secondly renew or set up your subscription by visiting the Lesson Payments page in the Store menu above (no need to log in at any stage).

There have been no price increases. If you pay termly, the subscription rate remains £71.50. Payment can be made by BACS, or through the Store menu above. We can also take your payment over the phone if you experience any difficulty. For monthly subscriptions, transfer a one-off £18.75 now for September, then set up a Standing Order with your online bank for the same amount to go out on 15th September, and 15th of each month ongoing. You can cancel your Standing Order at anytime. If you already pay by monthly Standing Order, just leave this ticking over. Further payment information, including our account details is available here.

Autumn Teaching Plan
Each term we select a special musical theme and a musical element to study. This autumn we’ll be working on Songs from Around the World and looking into how duration adds expression to music (staccato, legato, breath control). We’ll also be exploring some seasonal songs with a view to a short performance at the end of term.

Dates for your diary
We provide 10 sessions per term. You can check our lesson dates in the My School menu above. It’s a good idea to note these on your family calendar at home or in your diary; we don’t always start back during the first week of school, and we usually finish ahead of the last week of term. Don’t get caught out!

Do you have all your basic kit?
Now is a good time to check through your harmonica kit. As a bare minimum, every student must have..

•  At least one working harmonica (KS1 4 hole Speedy, KS2 10 hole Airwave)
•  A diary with 10 or more blank entries
•  An A4 music folder

Items can be ordered individually, or as a Music Pack, using our online Store menu (no log in is necessary to access the Store). Alternatively, parents are welcome to supply their own notebook and folder.

Available to any Primary School children from Brighton

Our Open Harmonica Club is available to children from any Infant, Junior or Primary school in the Brighton & Hove area.

We meet on Wednesdays at Aldrington Primary School in Hove, with separate 45 minute sessions for KS1 and KS2 children.

KS1 4.15pm-5.00pm (Weds)
KS2 5.15pm-6.00pm (Weds)

Free taster session
Your first session is entirely free and includes a starter harmonica.

Terms & Conditions
Our normal terms and conditions apply

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You can follow our news and important messages through Facebook. This is a closed group and its content is monitored. To the uninitiated, this means our page is available to Harp Academy parents/carers only, not to the general public.

Click the Facebook icon here to find us and send your request to join our group. Once we’ve checked you are a current Harp Academy subscriber, we will approve your request. We welcome comments and feedback on our page, and we hope you find the content fun, as well as useful.