Workshops, classes & schools projects
North End Voices song workshop
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.
Details of our current evening classes for melodeon players may be found on the news page.
We're very pleased to be working in King's Lynn again this summer, running further schools workshops and a one-day adult song workshop with Chris Coe on Saturday 9th June at the North Lynn Discovery Centre. Following on from the Playback song workshop held in 2005, Chris picks up the threads of the songs and singers from this traditional fishing community in Kings Lynn, where Ralph Vaughan Williams collected folksongs in 1905, and fishermen sang for the BBC in the 1950s. This is part of a bigger project organised by BBC Radio Norfolk, which includes EATMT song workshops in local schools. A film is to be made from the project, which will be on the BBC Radio Norfolk website, and which will be premiered at an evening event in St Nicholas' Chapel on 9th June. The evening event will also feature songs from Chris Coe's workshop. For further details about the workshop click here.
We run an annual workshop day for melodeon and concertina players, in March every year, and we run evening classes for melodeon players. Both these events have been going for a number of years, and we have taught over a hundred melodeon players through the evening classes alone.
In 2006, we gave workshops in East Anglian traditional music in Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire, Durham and Nijmegen (and again in 2007!) in the Netherlands. We also ran a stepdance workshop in Suffolk, and our colleagues in Norfolk, Rig-a-Jig-Jig, ran a music and stepdance workshop.
In 2007, classes for concertina players as well as melodeon players will be available on the Melodeons and More day on 31st March. A song workshop 'North End Voices' takes place in King's Lynn, led by Chris Coe, on Saturday 9th June. Further details here shortly. The next in our series of occasional fiddle workshop is likely to take place in Autumn 2007, and we hope to run further song workshops. Details on this website in 2007.
Below are details of some past workshops run by the East Anglian Traditional Music Trust.
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 Silver Darling: the story of the east coast fishing industry in songs, dances and drama.
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 are again working in King's Lynn primary schools with 10-11 year olds, and are also running a dance project in Diss with 6-7 year olds.. For 2008/9 we are in the early stages of planning a project with 11-18 year-olds.
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.
2005 melodeon & concertina workshop
Blyth Valley Voices song workshops, 2003/4
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A wonderful chance to sing some gems of the Suffolk folk-song repertoire under the tuition of one of the country’s most inspiring singers!
The Blyth Valley Voices project was designed to research folksongs collected by the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams in Suffolk in the early twentieth century, and to bring them back into performance.
Chris Coe led participatory singing workshop in 2003 and 2004, featuring folk-songs collected from the fishermen of the Southwold area.
The workshop was open to singers of all ages and abilities: all parts will were taught by ear - no music-reading skills needed.
Fiddle workshops
Classes in English fiddle style for beginners and competent players - in 2002 as part of the Tuning In project, held in Long Melford, Suffolk, in 2004 as part of the Musical Roots launch and EATMT Open Day in Eye, Suffolk, and in 2005 in Shipdham, Norfolk, as part of the Playback project.
Melodeons and More
A day of classes for melodeon and anglo-concertina players - annually since 2000. Further details on the Melodeons and More page.
Musical Roots
From October 2004 over a period of twelve months, we ran a series of classes in the Eye area. This was an in-depth course focussing on local repertoire, and led to community performances in 2005. Further details on the Musical Roots page.
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