Drumming at Hutton Hall (Mondays 5-6pm) - Ismail and Ishaque concentrating hard with Sarah!

Userseb having fun playing the djembe at Heartlands Hospital last week - before we started the Crazy Christmas Carol sing-a-long!

Update (well overdue!)

Our sessions at Heartlands Hospital, Hutton Hall and Naseby Centre are still going on and are going great! Sarah manages to make everyone smile at her sessions on the ward, including different activities for all ages, and taking away a bit of the stress and upset of a hospital stay. She brings her collection of fun and unusual drums, and everybody gets the chance to learn some exciting African rhythms as well as making up their own rhythms, learning about call and response, singing some songs, and generally having fun making a lot of noise! It's really lovely to see the difference it makes in some of the poorly kids and their families.

I had a go at a session myself a couple of weeks ago when Sarah was ill. I took some Ghanaian instruments - drums, shakers and a xylophone - to the Children's Ward and had a lovely time with some of the patients and students from the James Brindley School. We learnt a bit about Ghanaian music and dancing, had a go on all the different instruments, and made up some of our own rhythms and tunes on the xylophone. I had a great time and would love to do it again. The guys from JBS were particularly helpful and friendly, and I always enjoy working with them.

The African drumming club at Hutton Hall has come along really well, with a core group of committed and enthusiastic young drummers. The boys are learning loads, and I am always impressed when I see what Sarah is up to there! They've also had a lot of fun coming up with a name for their group...which will be unveiled in time for their first performance next year. The boys at Hutton work really hard during the sessions and it's really nice to see how they are improving from week to week. They're all very talented and great at learning new things - and have many skills apart from music too! (Last week I was treated to an impromptu magic show!)

Naseby Centre attracts more people each week, it seems! Sarah is great at including new drummers and there's always a fun and informal atmosphere at the sessions. The sessions are at the end of a long day, but Sarah never seems to run out of energy! Some of the boys are getting on really well, really good at remembering patterns and information about the music. As well as having a good drumming session at Naseby each week, it's always a giggle...mainly because of Carlito - which he assures us is his real name :-)

I always look forward to my day of African drumming in Hodge Hill: the three sessions are always really different and always really interesting and fun. I'm learning a lot about effective music leading and teaching complicated African rhythms to beginners. I'm very grateful that Sarah lets me observe all these sessions - and join in too.

This is Mackenzie with Mom and Dad, having a go at African drumming at Heartlands Hospital last week, on the Children's Ward.

We've now had 2 brilliant weeks of African drumming sessions with Sarah Westwood from Drumvoice. Our sessions are different every time with lots of new faces each week! We are learning some African rhythms and trying improvisation too! It's a lot of fun and the sessions go really quickly :)

First day of African drumming!

Last week we had a brilliant few sessions of African drumming, they were loads of fun! First we had a session at Heartlands Hospital, where we got a good group going - made up of patients, parents and NHS staff. Then we went on to Hutton Hall, where there was a very small but very select group - hopefully we'll have a couple more people this week! Then on to Naseby Centre where we had the biggest and LOUDEST group yet! What a fun day. African drumming is brilliant, I'm learning lots and Sarah's a great music leader! Photos to follow!

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Music project starts today!

Our brilliant project starts TODAY with some African drumming at Heartlands Hospital, Hutton Hall and Naseby Centre - for young people only! Sarah Westwood from Drumvoice (www.drumvoice.co.uk) will be running the sessions.

Thundercats are go!

The Arts Department at the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust was awarded a grant from Youth Music to carry out a huge music project with children and young people in Heartlands Hospital and the Hodge Hill community. The project will run from October 2011 - March 2013 and will include hundreds of young people from the area. We're excited to start! Next week workshops will begin at the James Brindley School and on the children's ward at Heartlands, and at youth groups in Hodge Hill. We have an amazing, energetic professional African drumming teacher who will carry out the first series of workshops. Coming up later in the project are DJing, songwriting and rapping workshops, performances, events at Heartlands Hospital and the chance for our young people to achieve an Arts Award. Hooray!