Bye!

We've come to the end of our project! It's been brilliant to be a part of this project for the past 2 years. We've made so much music in loads of different styles. I've met some really great music leaders and some talented young musicians. Hopefully we have inspired some young people to keep on playing music. There have been some who I think will become really great musicians, who have shown a real talent for it. It's been really amazing to see our participants help each other out - more experienced musicians teaching the younger ones. I think we've set up a music programme in Hodge Hill that can continue due to the generosity and enthusiasm of our partners, participants, music leaders and supporters.

Thanks for reading. Pip pip.

Stina

Hodge Hill Rocks!

Our final music showcase took place at Naseby Centre and featured the young musicians who have taken part in the last sessions of our Music for Hodge Hill project. It was a really varied and exciting performance, including some young people who had never performed before and had only started to play or sing a few weeks beforehand. Here's a video featuring highlights from the show.

Thanks to Daz for his music tuition, Esther for organising the event and providing snacks, Naseby Centre for hosting, our young people who set up the hall for us, the musicians, and everybody who came along to support.

HODGE HILL ROCKS!

Drummer boy

Daz has also been visiting Naseby Centre. Here there are a group of older lads who are really wonderful and help to teach the younger ones. Ali has been diligently teaching Farzaan how to play the drums, and in a matter of weeks, he has gone from being a total beginner to a total pro. Well done both of you for being brilliant.

Daz at Norton Hall

Let's gloss over the fact that I haven't posted for a while. Things are a little crazy as we come to the end of our Youth Music project. We're planning a final performance, details of which will be dripped out over a period of several days like when they announced the new Justin Timberlake album.

Our music leader Daz has been delivering sessions at Norton Hall on guitar. He's been teaching chords and exercises to help develop our young musicians into rocking lead and rhythms guitarists. We've also been learning TV themes, playing musical games and talking about what it means to be a musician.

Here are some pictures from the sessions at Norton.
 

Music on the Children's Unit

I'd like to share one of the other parts of the music programme at HEFT (Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust). Some talented young volunteers came in to the Children's Ward last week, accompanied by their mom Jackie, to perform some music. Their session on the Children's Ward at Heartlands Hospital made a real difference to the day - a hospital stay involves lots of boredom, anxiety and upset, and music is a really good way of helping to create a lovely atmosphere to try to alleviate these.

Parents and staff, as well as patients, sometimes have a difficult time in hospital and it's important for the welfare of all of them to create an environment that's as free of stress as possible. I think the music and arts programme at HEFT is a really important part of making this happen. Thanks so much to Jackie, Ciara and Niamh for coming in.

Here's what Niamh and Ciara said about their visit:

We were lucky enough to be invited in by Christina to visit the Children's Ward at Heartlands Hospital on 20th February 2013 and play some music. We were made very welcome by the staff, especially Sam the Nursery Nurse.

We were keen to be able to play for the children,  being in hospital can be a very stressful time for sick children and their families and we wanted to provide what we hoped was a  fun and interactive session for young hospital patients and their families.

We played different types of music on the guitar and tin whistle, and sang some  modern pop songs and played some traditional Irish Music. 

It was a really wonderful experience, to see the children joining in and smiling - whilst beating a rhythm with some percussion instruments!!  We do hope to come back again and will learn some more songs that may be familiar to the children to help them feel more 'at home' during their stay in hospital.

Thank you for letting us come and visit.

Ciara and Niamh McCorriston

If you are interested in becoming a music or art volunteer yourself, please get in touch on 0121 424 0113.

Daz at Naseby

We had a great session on Monday with loads of people (including some new guys) so thanks everybody for turning up to take part. Daz brought some of his guitars and there's actually quite a lot of kit at Naseby: more guitars, keyboards, drums, so there's a chance to try out loads of different instruments. As always if you are under 18, please come along to Naseby Centre on Mondays at 7pm to take part in the music!

Thanks to Daz for running these sessions and to all the older guys who lend their expertise to the younger ones!

Lovely Alina's lovely Jelly Song

From one of Daz's sessions at the hospital. Alina is really great and loves music, but was a bit shy of singing so we all joined in. Unfortunately you can only mainly hear me because I'm behind the camera.

Guitar club Christmas performance

The Norton Hall guitar club Christmas performance took place in Heartlands Hospital on Tuesday 18th December and I know that lots of patients and hospital staff were cheered up by seeing and hearing the Guitar Club's lovely performance. All that practising paid off! Thanks to Daniel Sweeney from Birmingham Music Service and well done Umme, Wisaal, Michael, Ra'marn and Stephanie.

Daz at Naseby - demonstrating Purple Rain

Just want to point out, Daz is not really a drummer :-) Tutorial video from last week!

Our first session with Daz!

The other week we started our new set of sessions, with Daz, a super cool multi-instrumentalist and performer from Birmingham. He's going to be coming in to teach us about instrumental techniques on guitar and bass and other useful things about being a musician, like stage presence, rehearsing as a band, mic technique, and anything else to encourage our young musicians to go on to a glittering career in music!

Our first sessions at Norton and Naseby were off to a good start, with Daz demonstrating his experience as a musician and sharing some of his stories as a techie for various rock groups. He's really relatable as he is into so many different styles of music. He has made a list of requests from the young people of the songs they would like to learn. Our aim for these sessions is to create a band with a varied repertoire that could than go on to perform together.

Unfortunately our sessions this week had to be cancelled due to massive amounts of snow, so we'll resume on Monday!

Quantize: The EP

May I introduce our debut EP, "QUANTIZE."

All tracks recorded at The Pump, Kitts Green
Tracks engineered & mixed by James "Vice" Kennaby for Street Soul Productions
Thanks to Curtis Clacey, Ben "Alto" Smith and Eudina Jarrett for session support
Graphic design by Vice
Photography by Imke Daugs

Music4HH features in Bordesley Green newsletter

Esther, our project manager sent this article to the Bordesley Green Detached Project newsletter about our project.

Quantize Live at the Vibe!

 On 17th December we were welcomed to the Vibe to launch our CD and perform some of the tracks live. We were joined by Ben the amazing sax player and some talented young musicians from the Vibe. Even though there were some technical hitches and some problems with timings, we had a great evening of music, from hip hop to rock, indie, jazz and metal. It was great to see so much support from the local community, family, council workers and young people coming to cheer on our music-makers.

The young people that we have been working with over the past few months put a lot into this performance - it was the first time a lot of them had performed in public. This whole project has been about learning new skills and working together with new people to create some music - and this performance was a celebration of that. I can't believe the change I've seen in some of our young men - going from hardly knowing anything about music to writing and confidently performing in just a few months; it's an amazing achievement!

In moody black&white because the camera's busted and made everything purple. Also it looks cool.

As well as the young musicians, a lot of people have worked really hard to make this project happen. Our music leader James has been a brilliant creative producer, working round the clock at times to make this CD and performance happen. Esther is a dedicated project leader who can bring out the best in anyone. Thanks also to our youth workers: John, Zainab, Tanvir and AG. The staff and young people at the Vibe were supportive and welcoming to us, and thanks to them for hosting the performance. Finally thanks to our guest musicians and workers who've helped over the course of the project. Now it sounds like I'm accepting an Oscar. Enjoy the video of a few highlights of the performance!