Harmonica tuition in schools in the South East of England
Westdene Primary School
We are delighted to welcome Westdene Primary School to our roster of harmonica learning partners, where Richard Taylor has been leading our first term of ‘Daybreak Harmonica’ Key Stage 2 sessions each Friday morning before school. Congratulations to our inaugural cohort of players and thank you to all staff, parents and carers involved in helping us to get successfully underway.
Summer 2025
We look forward to launching our Summer harmonica courses and club activities after the Spring break. Details of our teaching plan and theme are below, along with instructions on how to sign up for music sessions.
First timer?
Welcome! Simply click the Gold Harmonica on our homepage, complete your details, and we will email further details. Our email will explain how to enroll, what kit you’ll need, our dates and the cost of joining. We’re also here to answer your questions, so do feel free call or email using our Contact page.
Payments
Payment can be made by bank transfer, or through our Store using a credit/debit card (no need to log in). We regret that we are unable to accept childcare vouchers. Further information, including our account details, is available on our How To Pay page.
Spring Teaching Plan
Our theme for the Summer term is a continuation of our pop and rock music topic. Among our favourite tunes are Shut Up And Dance, Uptown Funk, Louie Louie, Low Rider, Blowing In The Wind, Super Trouper, That’s The Way I Like It, Take On Me, Paranoid, and Killing Me Softly.
Dynamics
Our special Musical Element this term is Dynamics. We’ll investigate degrees of loud and soft sound, and their Italian terms. We’ll also learn to use crescendo (getting louder) and diminuendo (getting softer) in our playing.
Dates for your diary
We provide 10 (sometimes 11) sessions per term. You can check the timetable for your School in our My School menu. It’s good to note these on your calendar; we don’t always start back during the first week of school and often finish before the end of term. Don’t get caught out!
Do you have all your basic kit?
Now is a good time to check your harmonica kit. As a minimum, each student should have:
• At least one working harmonica (KS1 4 hole Speedy, KS2 10 hole Airwave)
• A diary or notebook with blank entries and a pen
• An A4 music folder
New kit and harmonicas can be ordered in our online Store. No log in is required to browse or place orders. Please note that if you have taken part in sessions and are moving up to Y2, you need to order a 10 hole Suzuki Airwave harmonica for our Y3-6 programme. Grown ups are welcome to supply their own notebook, pen and folder. Alternatively items can be ordered individually, or as a Music Pack. We look forward to making music with you this term.
Join our online harp sessions for 11-14 yrs
Harp Academy is often asked if it offers harmonica coaching for players in Secondary Education 11-14 years (KS3/Middle School). With the help of Zoom, the answer is yes!
We now run a weekly online group on Mondays 4.45pm-5.30pm (UK time). Friendly and encouraging, our sessions feature warm up exercises, study pieces, instrument skills and easy music theory. We use a combination of harp tabs and standard notation, but an ability to read music is not essential. Attendees have access to our cloud folder where we keep a music diary and study materials.
If you’d like to try a free taster session, email us via our contacts page and we’ll send you the information you need. If you are happy with your taster experience, ongoing sessions are £10.00 each, payable half-termly (five sessions) in advance. Sessions are led by Richard Taylor, a leading expert in harmonica teaching for young people. Full safeguarding criteria are adhered to while online, as is diversity and inclusivity, and sessions are not recorded.
How to Practise Harmonica
It’s noticeable in our weekly school sessions when children have found the time to practise at home and have the support of their grown ups. Confidence levels are high, progress is swift and lessons are fun. Central to this process is parental encouragement, good use of our website, a music diary, a well managed music kit and a specific task or performance to aim at.
Of course some harmonauts tell us they don’t have time to practise, their grown ups won’t let them, or they’ve lost their music. And there was one harmonaut whose dog ate their harmonica – we saw the evidence, complete with bite marks. But practise needn’t be a torture. Here is our take on how to make it a purposeful and enjoyable habit.
Harp Academy Website
Many of our study pieces and exercise have a support page on our website. With help from their grown ups, harmonauts can log in and navigate to the appropriate page. Here they can find click-and-copy buttons to guide them through songs line by line. There is an explanation of what makes the song or music exercise unique, a list of key skills covered and practise tracks. Wider learning items also feature, touching on music theory, general knowledge and performance preparation. (more…)
Would you like to include music-making on the harmonica in your setting?
Here’s Richard presenting Play Harmonica, the theme tune from Harp Academy’s early years harmonica courses for 4-7 year olds. He’s using a 4 hole easy-play Speedy harmonica (available in our Store). Set to the tune of Wind The Bobbin Up/There’s A Dinosaur, the song encourages young players to acquire the following key skills:
∙ Hole location by number – 1 2 3 4
∙ Breath control – Blow and Draw
∙ C Major Arpeggio – C E G C
∙ Musical Alphabet (with Makaton) – A B C D E F G
∙ Progression to C Major Scale – C D E F G A B C
∙ Enjoyment of Rhythm and Rhyme
∙ Follow hand signals for intonation
∙ Read and follow harmonica arrow tab notation
If you would like access to the backing track, harmonica tabs, or further details about music making on the harmonica and running weekly sessions in your Early Years setting, get in touch using the details on our Contact page. Please also visit our Early Years menu for more insight into our Pre-School harmonica activities, or our KS1 for young School Age children.