Steel Pan Workshop at the Beamsley Project, near Skipton

setting up the pans

I love that moment during workshops where the I Can light bulb switches on. Sadly it inevitably preceded by the I must load this van moment, aka I wonder if Rick will help me load this van moment.

four jams

In short, in order to achieve the I Can moment, you must put in years of thought and testing things out, persuade your local music service to buy lots of steel pans, persuade your friend and pan-tuner to create lots of new single pans [and double basses], convince the general public that you can open up the wonderful world of steel pan to them, and only then are you ready to to fill the van with tons of heavy delicate metal.

Sheelagh holding up colours

at ease

 . . . .and drive to the Dales when Diane, Pat and Tom are giving the Leeds Schools Choir a residential. Filling in the risk assessment forms has cost Diane several working days and quite possibly risked her mental health. I know what this feels like and that is why I have not taken any students away since 2009 [sad really as, at Foxwood School I used to do at least two residentials a year; I even went to Lille with 60 Seacroft kids and several youth workers . .  now that was beyond the call of duty, and totally unsuitable for this blog!].

I digress.

The secret of any good musical event is the in detail. One detail was provided by Pat - the food, commented upon most favourably by children and adults alike. Above is a pic of toast with four different types of Pat's home-made jam.

soprano pannists eyes down

However this a steelpan blog so I will leave the choir activities to it, and say that the workshop was ace; at least one person has since joined the Music Centre Beginners' class; we played mini In the Hall of the Mountain King [arranged by Paula, not the version the Sparrows went on to wow Harrogate with, arranged by myself and Dave Gudgeon years ago] and You Raise Me Up.


After that, they all helped me re-load the van, and I went back to Ilkley and then home.

Pat and Izzy loading in da food

pans stashed away the night before

Sparrows Take-over 2015

February 6 2015. It's Takeover Two for Leeds Silver Steel Sparrows. Here's where we see who can count to four and make it count, and who can't count!

It's mostly Chloe, making buns and counting to four.There seems to be as much chatting as usual; Bex and I play a bit more than usual and Chloe holds up colours. Sparrows are Chloe, Millie, Millie, Ash, Georgia, Claudia, Naomi with new Sparrows: Kirsten and Lucy. We are rehearsing our five tunes for Music For Youth.

What is good about Music For Youth is that it makes you refine and polish a small set. You concentrate for a while on the same numbers, and let go of the casual play-with-feeling and conviction. What's bad is that you can get bored of these five tunes, and boredom is never the point of running a band.

Anyway I am all for a bit of refined polishing every so spring, and Bex and I are playing with and listening to some of the greatest players. Just the greatest. Sparrows. And |I have been playing for 34 years and listening to other bands for 25 years. I know a good one when I hear it! And Sparrows is it!

Workshop at Leeds College of Music for teaching Music to children with Additional Needs

If it's January it must the College of Music for Diane and me. We meet at 9 for a ten o'clock start, and start at ten fifteen. We met Christine at a NAME meeting years ago and she invited us to give this workshop to her students who were about to embark on their school and community placements.

Our brief is to demonstrate what techniques and what instruments you might use in order to fully include all students in your music class - from those with obvious additional [eg using a wheelchair] to hidden ones [eg shyness]. A wheelchair user may need nothing more than a wide enough door, and a teacher not leaning over her or him; a shy person might need including in the lesson by stealth, and, for example, careful use of eye-contact and never being asked to do a solo.

Diane last year at Music College

Recently the tamboo bamboo people gave a demonstration at an ArtForms training day; we were all converted to their plastic coloured poles [not wooden now] and Diane bought a set. Like pans, they can be as easy or as difficult as you care to make it. [Can't find any pics from this yr so here's some from last]

Diane last yr with frog

My angle is as ever that children's individual needs must be sought out and recognised, and with genuine full-blooded support, you can take your students to the limitless skies. I always open up with the video of the Sparrows at the Royal Albert Hall and describe the various difficulties that would have stopped any of them in their tracks if myself and my support team of teachers and volunteers hadn't done those extra miles.



That's it: my metaphors are as mixed as they can be!

Victoria last yr Leeds Trinity

Victoria last yr at Leeds Trinity

So, for example, at the Old Albert: one boy had  lost his mother just 3 months previously; one had such challenging behaviour that I only brought him if his mother came was well, two of them had had babies when they were 17, one girl now at Uni thought she wouldn't be able to learn the new songs [so I went to Sheffield Uni with 3 pans and another player and taught them again], one was two weeks out of an appendectomy bed; one Moroccan boy's parents had absolutely no idea what was on offer, so I went out to the other side of Leeds and we conversed in French, with some Italian [they'd had an itinerant life], with boy translating the bits I couldn't do in French. One girl was so shy she only agreed to play if she wasn't on the front row; it was endless. They had all played well enough to deserve winning the M4Youth World Music Award, but without massive pastoral support it would have been twelve players on stage and not twenty-three.

Yet another pic of Sparrows at Albert

Our book Including SEN in the Curriculum:Music is available to buy online from David Fulton's.

Oulton Steel Band play Trinity and Allerton CE Steel Band play St John's

Well, two primary school steelbands tread the boards on the same day. I go first as audience to see Wanda weave her magic wand over Leeds Trinity Centre with the wonderful Oultonettes. The sound carries, and I hear them before I see them. Trinity is suitably seasonal with reindeer and snowflakes.

Besides panning they also sing some seasonal songs. I have to leave before the lunchtime rush starts, but not before Oulton have made their mark.











In the afternoon it is over to St John's at Moortown for Allerton CE's debut outside gig. The school has already transported the pans and glocks over already. All I have to do is count to 4 and find the B flats.

Each class payed one tune, and everybody from each class was included. That makes nearly one hundred children from years 5 and 6 . Mr Moore's class even managed Silent Night, which has 6 beats to the bar] We also played African Noel, Jingle Bells [not the whole song, but a nice two-chord 16 bar version of the chorus] and Winter Wonderland.

Our tunes were interspersed between readings, and the whole event proceeded at a fine pace. I will upload the pictures once permissions are established.

East Steel and some Steelettes play North Leeds Music Centre Concert

Okay Debs, it's seriously seasonal now.

East Steel get to play as people assemble for North Leeds Music Centre Concert. We are me, Lynn, Anne, Wanda, Kirsty, Vicky, Pippa, Sophie, Yi Bai drumming and Steelettes making their debut: Leah, Margaret, Josie, all of whom I have persuaded to play singles. On account it's me carting the blooming instruments around in my trusty blue Transit, and while everyone mucks in at the venue, at home it's a different matter!

Either I cart the lot up the garden myself, or spend time and effort into bargaining with a member of my family, or even just pleading!

Anyway, Head of Centre, Mark and I would like to offer steel pans as a class in spring [spring, I mean, late even more winter!] so we thought a little giggette would be a good place to start. And so it was.

For the record, East Steel started as a music centre class in 1999, in the actual building where I started my teaching career: Foxwood School. In 1999 it had already become East Leeds Family Learning Centre, and I persuaded whoever [Stella, maybe] to pay me to teach a class there as a satellite to East Leeds Music Centre, and I persuaded whoever was i.c. ELFLC to let me use the space at the back of the hall. This pic below is probably East Steel's first YAMSEN:SpeciallyMusic appearance at Leeds Town Hall [and exactly ten years later, Tamanna, in the middle of the picture below, played at The Royal Albert Hall with award-winning Leeds Silver Steel Sparrows].

Allerton Grange Allstars at Allerton Grange

It is always a pleasure to play at Allerton Grange World of Music concerts, mostly because I get to see all the other acts, and they are, unfailingly, awesome! First off, must be three or four years ago now I was bowled over by Theo's steelband, and also indie-rockband, Glassbody [some same personnel here], a sort of mix of Cure, Bloc Party and one other that I forget now. But some of my all-time favourite bands.

Then there's the singers. There's never a year that one singer doesn't bring tears to the eye. Avtar's dhols - astonishing! Cellists, pianists, concert band, and the rest. All great, and the concert so well-paced, thanks to Mr Mercer and Mrs Casey. End of eulogy.

The other reason that I like Allerton Grange concerts is that, as the school is very diverse, culturally and religiously, there is no obligation to do Jingle Bells at the December concert. Excellent! And I don't. Also it was at Allerton Grange that I asked ArtForms colleague, Alex if he could recommend a drummer for us, and next thing I know, George is drumming for the Sparrows as well. Yippee!

So here we are,  the so-called beginners [Iuean, Alice and Polly] playing Au Clair de la Lune, and X, everybody plays Redemption song as people coming in for the second half, then the daytime class [Sophie, Josie, Kris, Findlay, Seb] and the after school club [Destoni, Sabna, Sarah] join forces to give us You Are Not Alone and Sing A Rainbow. I have also volunteered Yi Bai and Ashley to support the bands.

Which of course they were happy to do, in an arm-bending kind of way.

East Steel for YAMSEN:SpeciallyMusic Town Hall Concert

on da phones

So, it's that time of year again when East Steel takes their place on stage with Off  By Heart, Young Accord, The Yorkshire Post Concert Band, St Peter's Choir, and Diane's impromptu ensemble, and many many others.

In the afternoon Yi Bai and I load in the pans n kit, find Mavis glueing pictures back onto the display boards. As you do!


We were me, Bex, Wanda, Anne, Kirsty, Lynne, Sophie, Trish, Pippa, Vicky and Yi Bai on kit. Small but perfectly formed. You should hear the CD! And we didn't know it was being recorded!

Sophie Bart Claire

Wanda staying glued to her favourites [basses]!

in the dressing room, probably a bit late now!

Bex posing on a table top- as you do!

This year our featured tunes are completely unseasonal Viva la Vida and Somewhere Only We Know.

in da pub

We play Go Tell it on the Mountain for the prize-giving. Bex and Vicky put a great display up in the side-foyer, sold no books or CDs, but they looked good.

We packed the van, and rewarded ourselves with a swift half [well!]. Who did we find in da pub?