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!

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.

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!

PHOTOSHOOT!

Guys, this is so exciting. Our photos have arrived from professional photographer Imke Daugs. They are amazing. View more at our facebook page: facebook.com/music4hh

 

Huma & Jonny sing Taylor Swift "Crazier"

We run music sessions at Heartlands Hospital alongside the Kids United session in the community. Here one patient who has not sung before, gains confidence in singing thanks to encouragement and help from the amazing Jonny Amos.
Thanks Jonny!

Huma says "thank you, it was amazing. The best experience I've had".

Rapping!

We've come to the end of our sessions on rapping, beatboxing and lyric writing. Here are some of the tracks that our young people have created with James!

These two are from the youth clubs, so James had more time to work with them on lyrics and got their input about what the backing should sound like. He also sampled some of their beatboxing and included that too.
Naseby crew - Drastic by Music4HH
Arceus - character rap - norton hall session 2 by Music4HH

And these are from the sessions at the hospital:
Mckenzie - character rap - heartlands hospital session 3 by Music4HH
Haider AND Baabar - The Adventure by Music4HH

Curtis at BHH take 2!

Curtis came back to the Children's Ward at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital last week (2nd July) for another session rapping with the young people on the ward. He rapped with Baabar in the sensory room, creating a rap based on things that Baabar likes. First he brainstormed some ideas, then wrote the rap in super quick time!

Hi I’m Baabar, trainers on my feet

Love a bhangra beat and a little doner meat

Loving all the nurses, yeah there’s a few

If I ever bought a car then it would be a Subaru

Can’t beatbox but I’ve got a DVD

Christina went and videoed and made a vid for me

Lights in the room tell me colours that you see

Purples and pinks and there’s blue like the sea

Long limousines and they call it a stretch

All of the nurses I’ll go in and fetch

Baabar’s niece who he loves have you seen her

Amina’s her name but I call her Ameena

But I better wrap it up here

So we can record and we all give a cheer

Lay back now in the chair go to sleep

Press play whenever to hear my little beat.

Next Curtis co-wrote a rap with Morgan, whose twin brother is a rapper too! Curtis took the same approach, first making a chart of all the things Morgan likes and then encouraging him to write about them.

Morgan is my name I won’t tell you again

I text real quick on my black BBM

59 plus in my contact list

And I got a red label around my wrist

Love the Lazy Song by Bruno Mars

And I don’t know why but I’ve got it in my stars

I live in Birmingham with my mom and my brothers

House too small so no room for others

Play football on the big green grass

I’m way too quick so I don’t need to pass

I have a favourite player who is Marlon King

He runs down the pitch and has a good swing

12 inch pizza yeah it’s a beast

Pepperoni and a large meat feast

Box so big that I can’t see the telly

Wait til I’m done see the size of my belly.

DJ showcase 28th May

We had an amazing time with DJ Moyma learning about DJing, dancing and graffiti. To celebrate the end of the sessions and show off what we learnt,  we put together two "performances" on Monday 28th May (one at Naseby Centre and one at Hutton Hall.) This was a chance for our young musicians to showcase their new skills and experience what it is like to DJ, MC and dance to a crowd.

Everyone did really well.

Naseby Centre dancers

Hutton Hall DJs

Some more graffiti

Rory at Heartlands Hospital

Fazaan at Naseby Centre

Fazaan AKA DJ Biggy

DJ Bash at Naseby Centre

DJ Bash

DJ Techno

DJ Ishy

DJ Bullet Squash

DJ Techno, DJ Ishy and DJ Bullet Squash at Hutton Hall

Learning about graffiti!

The last couple of sessions with Moyma have been about graffiti art. In the first session, we learnt about tags and how they are created. Then last session, we looked at graffiti art and how we could design a logo using graffiti-style lettering. Moyma brought along examples of artwork he has created for other DJ artists, along with some examples of different types of graffiti lettering. The young DJs started to create their own logo using the different graffiti lettering along with pictures and shapes. Here are some of the works-in-progress!

These are from young people on the Children's Ward at Heartlands Hospital and at Hutton Hall and Naseby Centre.

DJ Anees

DJ Babes

Jules

DJ Luciee

This is the new logo Younus (DJ Techno) from Hutton Hall designed for us.

Even Esther and me had a go (Esther is the Project Co-ordinator, I'm the Project Intern).

DJ EJ

My first tag!

DJing!

DJ Moyma on the Children's Ward at Heartlands Hospital

Our DJ sessions have started with the excellent DJ MOYMA (www.moyma.co.uk). Young people on the Children's Ward at Heartlands Hospital and from Naseby Centre and Hutton Hall have been learning about hip hop culture, including its history as well as DJing and dancing, and have had the chance to try mixing and scratching some records. This is a really exciting new part of the project, and it's very popular with the participants :) More and more people are turning up each week, which is great! Sessions at Naseby Centre (5-6pm) and Hutton Hall (6.30-7.30pm) are open to any person under 18.

Younus and Moyma at Hutton Hall

African drumming at Heartlands Hospital

Sarah comes into Heartlands Hospital every week to carry out workshops on the Children's Ward. They must be a challenge, as we never know who's going to be there - sometimes there are a real mix of ages, from babies to teenagers! But Sarah always delivers a great, fun workshop, which the children, parents and staff always benefit from.

DJing workshops coming soon!

From Monday 20th February, young people in the Hodge Hill area will have the chance to get involved in a series of DJing workshops, run by DJ Moyma (www.moyma.co.uk). DJing was nominated as the style most people would like to try out, so they are starting at Hutton Hall and Naseby Centre from 5pm on Monday evenings.

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!

Talk to us!

Like us on facebook! www.facebook.com/Music4HH

Follow us on twitter! @Music4HH

Tell us what you think! Ask us things! Share your photos and comments! What music would you like to try out later in the project? Do you like African drumming? Why? What's happening on X Factor? What's your favourite band?

TELL US!

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.