Harmonica tuition in schools in the South East of England
Harpin’ By The Sea Harmonica Festival.
Here’s a memento for everyone who took part in the children’s workshop at this year’s Harpin’ By The Sea international harmonica festival in 2023.
Thirty children from 4 to 11 years old joined Richard Taylor and Quim Roca for two hours of music and mayhem, culminating in a performance to our grown ups live on stage. It was epic!
Thanks to Matt our Sound Engineer and everyone at The Brunswick for a great morning of fun.
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…)
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.
Please label all kit items
Please be assured that Harmonica teachers check our music activity area at the end of each session to ensure nothing has been left behind. If an item of kit is found, it will be handed to the school office. Occasionally children can leave a music session with somebody else’s kit by mistake. In each case, the situation can be swiftly remedied if kit items are marked or labelled with their owner’s name. Your help is appreciated.
All Shook Up
A reminder that every Harp Academy student should bring the following kit items to their harmonica sessions: Harmonica / A4 Pocket Folder / Notebook & Pen
As part of this year’s harmonica festival, Harpin’ By The Sea, Hanna Neter from BBC Radio Sussex visited Harp Academy’s Richard Taylor for an early morning music lesson during the Alison Fearns breakfast show.
In less than half an hour, Hanna was playing When The Saints Go Marching In and enjoying her new found musical skills. You can hear how Richard, Hanna and Alison got on right here.