November 28th, 2011

The first of two visits to create some drummy performance to show the parents. Always a delight with Brownies.

Tags: brownies drumcircle
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November 20th, 2011

Lovely gig at the Oystercatcher last night. First outing with Steve Crossen on drums. Thanks to those that supported us. Hope you had a good night .

Tags: jazz piano festival
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November 16th, 2011

Just setting up WordPress so I can blog from my phone. The only news is I am posting off a box of boomwhackers to a theatre group in Taunton

Posted by John Walter from WordPress for Android

Tags: boomwhackers
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August 18th, 2011

Next week I am getting along to Shambala Festival.

Running a drumcircle each day at 4.00 in a yurt.

Should be very relaxing and fun.

Come and find us.

Tags: celebrations, children, community, drumcircle, drumming, family, family friendly, workshop
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August 16th, 2011

August is the time for a smattering of Festivals and childrens projects. Paignton Zoo are running week long holiday programmes for children and each Thursday I am going in to run a 2 hr drumming and Boomwhacker session. I have already done 2 but there are 2 left go.

Its called Wild week and includes trips to Living Coasts and all sorts of activities in and around the Zoo.

Tags: boomwhackers, children, drumcircle, drumming, holiday
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July 18th, 2011

DrumCrazy have been running drum and percussion workshops in schools for over 11 years.

Our mission is to allow everyone to experience what it is like to be a musician.

Evelyn Glennie expresses brilliantly the listening part of this in this video:

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July 14th, 2011

My work always gets more varied in June and July, particularly because secondary schools collapse their timetable and go on trips, organise activity and arts weeks and invite me in to sing and drum.

I am now in the middle of a Latin American arts project with yr 8s where they are also getting Salsa dance, steel pan playing, drama and arts activities.

Each of my workshops is 100% hands on and for the latin american theme I have focussed on establishing a strong foundation  with surdo and shakers then creating a strong agogo bell melody and backing it all up with hand drum support rhythms. We are building up to a performance tomorrow with a few children from each class.

2 weeks ago I was teaching 11 to 13 yr olds to sing shosholoza in 4 part harmony 175 at a time.  A great challenge. Particular success with getting boys to sing the bass line, helped by an enthusiastic male teacher.

In between I have humped 200 boomwhackers around for massed events, facilitated a fabulous 100 person community drumcircle for Quest Festival and visited several primary schools.

As July comes to a close I look forward to a restful August with the occasional visit to the local Zoo to keep my hand in.

John

www.drumcrazy.co.uk

Tags: boomwhackers, drumming, schools, song, touring
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May 1st, 2011

Last week I had a good lesson in the importance of  seeing the overview at all times.

I was running an assembly with 200 children with boomwhackers. As the children came in I realised that they were going to be a bit chattery and excited. There was a lot of noise generated simply in getting them all to sit in a semi circle.

Just as I started I noticed some of the teachers leaving. Now we hadn’t agreed on them leaving so I started focusing on discipline techniques while being a little cross that it was not going quite as planned.

I got into my stride but for some reason the chattering and excitement were getting worse. I scanned around the hall and noticed that not only had the teachers left but all the TA’s had left as well. I was completely alone with 200 undisciplined children and they had this  crazy man they didn’t know trying to get them focused on whacking plastic tubes.

My anger at being abandoned and my determination to create discipline drove me on but blinded me to what was really going on in the room.

The full reality was finally brought to my attention when one of my yr6 helpers tugged me on my sleeve and said.

“You are walking in the wee!”

“I’m what?!”

“You are walking in the wee!”

Suddenly it all came clear. I saw my wet footprints trailing back to a pool of urine. Two TAs burst back into the hall with mops bucket and paper towels. I realised all the disturbance had been caused by children watching the drama unfold out of my sightline,. TAs dragging out one of the younger ones to change their clothes and then watching me splash about in a pool of urine unaware of what I was doing.

I can’t say things improved much after that but at least I was smiling.

Tags: boomwhackers, drumcircle
Posted in Boomwhackers, How to facilitate a drumcircle | 1 Comment »

March 27th, 2011

I am delighted to announce 2 upcoming gigs playing my 88 very specially tuned drums (the piano)
Just email me for tickets. piano@john-walter.co.uk
John Walter Trio: The Barrell House Totnes Thurs April 21st 8.00 pm £3 on the door
John Walter Solo/Duo/Trio St Lawrence Chapel Ashburton Sat May 21st 8.00pm £5 in advance £7.50 on the door
More info

I am very excited about this and rehearsing like crazy. Tell all your friends.

Tags: composition, jazz, piano, trio
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March 25th, 2011

I am delighted to be coordinating Arthur Hull’s training events in the UK again this year.

Details are still being finalised but we are talking about Mid October and two separate weekends in Dorset and Scotland

Subscribe to the mailing list at www.ukplayshop.com

Here’s a taster

Tags: drumcircle, drumming teambuilding, facilitator, training
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