September 2010 Session 1

The 2010 Feeder scheme students were in for an exciting first session with Simon Preston, the tutor for the day. The session began with a welcome from CEO & Artistic Director Lisa Tregale (and an interesting warm-up exercise that had all the students, and their parents, singing together).  Simon then began with several fun activities that emphasised how to work with others in the context of music.  The session’s main focus was rhythm, and the students were introduced to basic Samba and Cuban rhythms and skills.  The students went on to explore syncopation, cross rhythms, poly-rhythms and time signatures.

Upon completing this task, the students broke off into groups of six and experimented with applying the rhythmic patterns introduced earlier, to create music of their own.  After regrouping to share the different pieces of music the students made, they had a lunch break as they prepared for the second half of the day.

In the afternoon, the students gathered once again to make a percussion collective and were lead by Simon to revisit the lessons learned in the morning on rhythm.  They were then asked to apply what they had learned throughout the session on rhythm to their own instruments.

The highlight of the event was when all the students worked together to give their parents a unique performance that combined all the lessons on rhythm that were covered over the day.  Although this was the first time in which the students ever got together, their strong first performance gave everyone a reason to look forward to future sessions.

Look out for more to come from those in the 2010 Feeder scheme!

Throughout the day there were also opportunities for parents to have sessions with SWMS mentors to talk about the opportunities available for their child both within South West Music School and externally.