West African Drumming

On Thursday, November 25, students from Years 7 & 8 Classroom Music and Instrumental Music students participated in a West African Drumming & Dance workshop, which was subsidised by the Instrumental Music Program.

Mady and Henry, from Super Mande Percussion, were dressed in traditional Malian and Ghanaian costumes. They provided a djembe for every participant to play. All djembes are handmade by Mady, who is a Master Drummer, and he gave detailed explanations as to how they are made and how they reflect cultural spirit.

While Mady played a continuous rhythmic beat on the cow bell and dounoun (a bass drum played with sticks), Henry taught students basic rhythm patterns, using the three traditional ways of producing sound: bass, tone and slap. Henry then guided students to a full group performance, combining the various rhythms that were taught. He was an exuberant facilitator, who got everyone enthused. Students quickly learnt the hand signals that are Henry’s personal conducting style, and everyone participated in several modern traditional call and responses, including hand actions and basic dance moves.

There was an opportunity for free dance at the end as well, which was a lot of fun.

Two sessions were held, and each was unique while still imparting the same skills. Many students, who had done African Drumming previously, said this was the best workshop they had ever done!

Instrumental Music Program Wrap Up

The 2021 Instrumental Music Program is winding down, and now it is time to think about enrolments / re-enrolments for 2022.

Students have had a terrific year playing drum kit, mallet percussion, flute, clarinet, saxophone, piano, keyboard, guitar, bass, ukulele, violin, cello, trumpet and taking voice lessons. The Annual Mid-Year Music Concert converted to the 1.5 hour long Online Music Concert, with 29 performances and 60 participants. VCE and AMEB candidates got an opportunity to present their performances to video before their formal assessments. Several of the Instrumental Music ensembles performed online, including the College Band, Choir, Keys Ensemble, Guitar Ensemble and Indy Pop Band.

Most recently, ensembles are working on new repertoire, including writing their own Christmas songs, and translating and playing a Chinese Pop song in English. VCE and AMEB candidates are eagerly awaiting their Music Performance results.

Positions in the 2022 Instrumental Music Program are filling fast. Parents and carers will be contacted in the coming week about re-enrolments.

If your student is interested in learning or continuing one of our instruments on offer, please contact Nik Salter: nik.salter@education.vic.gov.au or Christine Walshe christine.walshe@education.vic.gov.au to secure your place for next year.

Instrumental Music Enrolment

Instrumental Music enrolments for 2022 are now open and ready for payments. The program is an extra-curricular program and involves many great opportunities for students to participate in including incursions, excursions to performances, music exams, specialty workshops – African Drumming Incursion and much, much more.

New Programs for 2022 include:

Music Composition Workshops that run for 10 weeks commencing in Term 2.
Music Theory Workshops that run for 10 weeks commencing in Term 3.
Digital Instruments: Push, Deejaying and Launch Pad lessons commencing Term 2.

Instruments offered:

Brass

Trumpet

Trombone

Woodwind

Flute

Oboe

Clarinet

Saxophone

Recorder

Percussion

Drum Kit

Tuned Percussion

Keyboard

Piano

Keyboard

Strings

Violin

Cello

Viola

Guitar

Electric Guitar

Acoustic Guitar

Bass Guitar

Ukulele

Voice

Contemporary Voice

Digital Instruments (special offer lessons commencing Term 2, instruments at this stage cannot be hired from the school)

Deejaying
Launch Pad
Push (Ableton Drum Pad)

Heathmont Gazette

Issue 9 · 30 Nov 2021

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