Schools projects, workshops and classes
We offer a range of educational opportunities, some of which we organise independently, and others which are run in association or partnership with other groups or individuals.
We work in primary schools across the region, sometimes on one-off visits, and sometimes on longer projects, often as part of a wider community project.
We offer some ready-made programmes which include song and dance. The most popular programmes include broom-dancing and jig dolls. We can also offer a closer look at some regional traditional instruments, and in some cases, we can offer children a chance to try out instruments for themselves. We also offer some seasonal programmes which involve a historical aspect: Victorian Harvest, Victorian Christmas, or sessions which look at some aspect of Victorian life through local folksongs, such as transport, farming, the roles of men and women, and the story of the east coast fishing industry in songs, dances and drama. Click here to see details of programmes currently available.
Through our projects, children in many schools have learned traditional songs and dances from their locality: for example, over 200 children in King's Lynn learned local fishing songs during the summer of 2006. Following an initiative by the East Anglian Traditional Music Trust, Suffolk Folk donated twenty mini-melodeons to a Suffolk primary school. We also have our own stock of mini-melodeons which we can offer to schools on a shorter term basis, or as a one-off experience. An exciting partnership with the regional dance development agency, DanceEast, which involved a series of workshops on stepdancing for another Suffolk school, resulted in the production of a DVD for schools use and distributed nationally, 'Soil Dances'. See the DanceEast website for full details.
In 2007 we again worked in King's Lynn primary schools with 10-11 year olds, and are also ran a dance project in Diss with 6-7 year olds. Recent projects include country dancing in Norfolk and a song-based project in Cambridgeshire (see Songs from the Fen Edge, above).
Please ring 01449 771090 or email us at info@eatmt.fsnet.co.uk to enquire about booking a school visit or to discuss a customised project: perhaps for your arts week or to mark a special celebration.
We offer readymade programmes as follows, or we can produce a customised session to suit your school.
Victorian Harvest
Victorian Christmas
Spring into May!
All at Sea
Dancing Dolls, Limberjacks and Jollyboys!
Big Jig
A Sweet Country Life
Upstairs, Downstairs
The Old Grey Mare and the Iron Horse
Out of the Frying Pan into the Fire
Squeezeboxes and Stringy Things
Full details of these programmes are on the schools page.
For nearly ten years, we have provided evening classes for adults to learn to play the melodeon, and as a result, there are well over a hundred people playing, for their own entertainment, and very often for community events.
This year we’re taking a slightly different approach in our melodeon classes - running beginners and improvers on the same night in the same venue so we can work together a bit more, and also picking a topic for the improvers each term.
The beginners class is suitable for inexperienced players, either with your own instrument, or using one of our hire instruments. It will build on work in the previous term/s. Please note: this summer term's course will not be suitable for people who are absolute beginners, but a new series will start in the Autumn. The beginners' class is taught by Ron Ross.
The improvers class is for those with some experience but who would like more support and ideas for developing their playing. The summer term’s theme is “Tricky Hornpipes", looking at some local tunes used for stepdancing, and how to manage the rhythms in this type of tune. The class is taught by Katie Howson.
The classes run on Tuesdays May 25th, June 8th & 22nd, July 6th in Stowmarket, Suffolk. Ring 01449 771090 to see if there are still spaces.
Melodeon & concertina workshops
Song workshops
We regularly run song workshops on a project basis.
In 2009, we worked on a project looking at songs collected in Cambridgeshire, in partnership with the Cambridge Music Festival and Fen Edge Community Association, called Songs from the Fen Edge.
Here is the early information about this project, followed by a report:
Longtime EATMT collaborator Chris Coe, together with Mary Humphreys, who has unparalleled knowledge of songs from the county, will be running song workshops with local schools and also a series of evening workshops for adults. If you live near enough to get there in an evening, and are interested in joining in, please contact EATMT. It doesn’t matter whether you are an experienced singer or just fancy having a go in a group situation, you’re welcome. Chris and Mary are very encouraging and inspiring, and they have been working away at some of the fascinating songs collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Fred Hamer and Ella Bull from singers such as Charlotte Dann, Hoppy Flack and Ginger Clayton in the early 20th century.
Chris Coe and Mary Humphreys will be running song workshops with local schools and a series of evening workshops for adults, looking at some of the folksongs collected in the area, leading to a performance on Friday November 20th. The workshops are on Wednesday 21st October, 4th, 11th and 18th November in Cottenham Village College.
These photographs show just a fraction of what went on at the final concert of this project, held in Cottenham Village College, near Cambridge,
in November. What you can’t see is the sixty children who performed, or the further hundred or more children who had taken part in the
workshops through October and November. What you can’t hear is the glee in the voices of the seven year-olds singing The Row of Pins or
the passion of the twelve year-olds singing about the threat of the dykes giving way and communities being flooded, or the emotion in the
voices of the adults as they sang The Hungry Army - a song as full of meaning today as when Charlotte Dann sang it a hundred years ago. The remit of the project was to look at the theme of evolution through local folksongs, which gave our two inspirational workshop leaders
plenty of scope to investigate the local repertoire and to dream up ways of letting these songs be moulded in the hands of a new community
of singers. Chris Coe and Mary Humphreys achieved this balance brilliantly, and a packed audience for the final concert were able to see the results alongside other aspects of the local musical traditions: dulcimer playing and stepdancing. The Cottenham Local History Society
also contributed by showing a slide show of old photographs. The project was produced in partnership with the Fen Edge Community
Association, the Cambridge Music Festival and Start Arts, with funding from Awards for All and South Cambridgeshire council.
Photos courtesy of Start-Arts.
Left to right: the adult singing group led by Chris Coe, steppers Percy & Doreen West with Old Hat Concert Party, Anahata and Mary Humphreys.
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These pictures show Chris Coe and workshop participants in action during the Blyth Valley Voices project in 2004.
This project culminated in a community concert, BBC Radio 4 programme, touring exhibition and book - click here for more details.
Melodeon and Concertina workshops
In March, we hold a day of classes for melodeon and concertina players - held annually since 2000. Further details on the Melodeons and More page.
Concertina Saturday School
After a lengthy planning period, we were really pleased to be able to provide a series of Saturday afternoon tutorials in 2008/9 on the anglo-concertina, led by Roger Digby. Roger, who lives in Essex, is currently Reviews Editor for the International Concertina Association and was a founder member of the influential English band Flowers and Frolics.
Roger gave the group of 11 students an intense and structured grounding in playing the instrument, supported by booklets and even a phone and email helpline! One participant commented: “An invaluable set of sessions, extremely well taught. With the focus that the sessions have given me, I feel that I am starting to make some progress!” Several of the group have been using instruments hired from EATMT. The classes and hire scheme were made possible thanks to donations from members of EATMT and also due to support from the “Friends of Towersey Festival” fund.
There are no such classes currently running, but if you’re interested in finding out about future classes, please get in touch by email or ringing us on 01449 771090.
Fiddle workshops
At present we don't run regular fiddle workshops, but there is a chance to meet and play with some of the best of the UK's English style fiddlers at Traditional Music Day every year, and this event includes a Fiddle Forum.
In the past we have held classes in English fiddle style for beginners and competent players - in 2002 as part of the Tuning In project, in Long Melford, Suffolk, in 2004 as part of the Musical Roots launch in Eye, Suffolk, and in 2005 in Shipdham, Norfolk, as part of the Playback project.
The photographs above are from the Tuning In workshop. Looks like we're overdue for another one!
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