Introduction

During the summer holidays of 2015 we returned to Yellow Submarine to deliver a workshop in African Drumming run by Hart Beats. Hart beats are a duo made up of Justine Hart and Barry Neilson, and they provided us with two engaging workshops, using the Djembe, and Dun don drums.

Context

Yellow Submarine are a charity that support young people with learning needs and disabilities. As part of their work they run a youth club day in Witney which they have asked us to provide music sessions for their young people.

Working with two groups, we split the session so that each group took part in a 45 minute workshop full of singing, call and response patterns and improvising.

Both sessions included young people with a variety of special needs but the session was delivered in a way that the activity remained accessible, fun and engaging for all those involved.

The Story

Each group gathered round in a semi circle and Justine introduced herself and Barry to the group. We then explored the Djembe, what it was made out of and how to play it safely and properly.

After an energising warm up, we started playing call and response patterns and began putting words to the patterns we made. Each young person added a solo to the song and we slowly built it up layer by layer.

Justine taught the group some lyrics from South Africa which we added to our end of group performance, which we played through with the support of Barry who provided the tempo for the group. 

Impact on participants

This was one of the best project sessions we have delivered for Yellow Submarine. The music leaders pitched the session at the right level and everyone remained engaged in the session.

Each young person said “Thank you for coming” to the music leaders which was not prompted.

When asked if they could play faster the young people did not shy away from the session, instead they embraced the challenge and got stuck in. 

Yellow Submarine youth workers commented that the children really enjoyed the session.

Next steps

We are going to return to deliver one more workshop this summer, and then hopefully we will be back for more sessions during the October half term.

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