Music and Art Project for Home Learning

When we listen to music, we often find ourselves with a picture in our head of what the music is representing or what story it is telling.  We might imagine what would be happening on a screen if the music was part of a film or television programme.

Sometimes, it’s good to think of music and art the other way around and to look at a piece of artwork and imagine the music that it might inspire.

Here is a great project you can do at home. Grab your paints and pencils to create a piece of art inspired by music or find or make some instruments to create a piece of music inspired by art…

Support for school closures

We are very aware of the huge impact that Covid-19 is having on schools and the world of the Arts. We are currently working with Encore Enterprises to create some fun resources for schools and home learning. https://www.encore-enterprises.com/musicresourcesforlearningathome
Please do get in touch if there is anything you would find particularly useful or that we can do to support you at this time.
Hannah, Jenni and Bridget

Exciting News

We are thrilled to announce that ABF Music has been awarded the tender to deliver Sing Spring In 2018. Funded by Encore Enterprises (CIC), this is a fantastic project designed to get schools singing and having fun. We don’t want to give too much away yet but we have some new elements and challenges to make this project even more exciting. Keep an eye out for the launch podcast coming soon…

We’ve been busy

It’s June 2017 and probably time to update you on what we’ve been doing.

This academic year we have delivered some letter based workshops at Jack in the Box Nursery in Bosbury which has been a total delight. The children have loved their music sessions and been willing to sing, play rhythm games and even try their hand at some playing. We have been really impressed with the children’s behaviour and willingness to engage. They obviously have a lot of fun there.

Last term, we were mainly focussed on Sing Spring In, a project funded by Encore Enterprises and delivered by the Music Pool.  Jenni was once again the co-ordinator for this project while Bridget and Hannah got to drive around the county getting children singing. January also saw the creation of HYM’s brand new youth choir which Hannah conducts along with the fantastic Jon Weller.

This term we have again had the amazing opportunity to work with Hellensmusic to deliver their schools workshops. This is always such a privilege as we get to meet and work with some fantastic musicians, teachers and children. All eight schools created fantastic compositions which they performed to a very impressed Hellens audience.

We have also been busy with lots of smaller scale workshops, including delivering workshops at The Herefordshire School Music Conference.

We are now busy planning for next year. We’d love to hear from you if you have any suggestions for events you’d like to see or ways we can support you.

Back to Hellens

Well, we’ve had a very busy year and are thrilled to be planning this year’s schools workshops at Hellens Manor.
We will be working with The Schubert Ensemble in February for a day of workshops and performances.
May will see our return to run the school events for Hellens Music Festival which we are really excited about. Watch this space for more details.
In the meantime, we can be found at various schools in Herefordshire having an amazing time getting children singing as part of Sing Spring In…

New Things

After an exciting and busy Christmas season filled with singing children and many, many concerts, we’re enjoying the new year back in the classroom.
We have two brand new Singing Clubs at one of the city schools. The children are making fantastic progress and having a great time.
We are now working with even more schools to deliver workshops, some based around BBC’s Ten Pieces project and others designed to fit in with the class topic.
We’ve also just completed a highly successful workshop at Hellens, working with lots of amazing local school children and the Schubert Ensemble to help develop ensemble skills.
Finally, we’d like to welcome Bridget’s new son to the world. As the latest member of the ABF family we’ve no doubt he’s keeping his mum busy. We’ve also no doubt that she won’t be able to stay out of the classroom for long…

The Inspiration of Ten Pieces!

What a busy few weeks we have had! As well as being involved in some brilliant music projects, concerts and shows, we have really enjoyed our role as champions for the BBC’s Ten Pieces project. We’ve had the privilege of running some activities, supporting others and also learning about some of the amazing ways schools have responded to these pieces. It’s fantastic to see children (and teachers) so inspired.
More schools have now asked to join in with this project which is brilliant. Don’t forget that as well as the support we can offer, the BBC’s Ten Pieces Website has a wealth of free resources to help. Hurrah!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3xWSYQhHfM9dZYfmRmTwVqN/teaching-resources

Ten Pieces Screenings

We are pleased to be able to confirm that there will be three free of charge showings of the fantastic Ten Pieces Film at The Courtyard. These will be on Thursday 9th October at 10:00 am, 11:30 am and 1:00 pm. If you would like to book seats for any of these screenings, please contact The Courtyard on 01432 340555. You will need to have registered to take part in the project before you can do this.

Into School

Today we all had the privilege of working with some brilliant children and adults at St. Mary’s in Fownhope where we spent the afternoon with Foundation and Key Stage One. The pupils all learned new songs, singing with expression and thinking carefully about the meaning of the words they were singing. It was really rewarding to see the children (and teachers) having so much fun and making such great progress. Year One even managed to write their own song! We’re really looking forward to our next session there in October.

ISM support resources for The New National Curriculum for Music

Here is a great page with information about implementing the new curriculum in music. Get in touch if you’d like support with this.
http://www.ism.org/nationalcurriculum