Rhythm Circle

If you're looking for a multi-sensory way to engage with music making, please come and join me every Wednesday evening at Moor Hall Primary with the Singing Community of Choirs. I am thrilled to include them in my multi-sensory tribe of like-minded music educators and to be able to support them as an accompanist. Find out more about what makes SC Choirs special:

https://rhythmcircleblog.azurewebsites.net/index.php/2026/01/28/the-singing-community-of-choirs/

**Call-out for volunteers**

Sutton Coldfield folk - The Singing Community of Choirs is looking for volunteers to help out with their Wednesday evening rehearsals.
This might this suit teenagers who are looking for opportunities to to do volunteer work as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Awards and is a nice volunteering option for someone who enjoys the arts/ music and being sociable.

I've been playing for this fabulous choir for a few months and recommend them for their great set-up where all staff and volunteers are well-looked after and appreciated.

Further info at

Our Choirs - Singing Community Choirs Our Choirs We have 8 choirs in our community and we pride ourselves on creating a friendly, supporting and nurturing environment in which our members develop as musicians while creating lifelong memories and friendships. We believe that music education promotes confidence, academic achievement and p...

Chocolate gold coins make a very nice wee graphic score for dynamics. Found enough from my Christmas stash to make these - a nice way to start off 2026!

Colour-coding is one of the easiest ways to tap into multi-sensory learning.

This is one of my student's exam pieces. We embarked on her learning journey by assigning colours to all the different motifs in this piece. Pink for the demisemiquaver anacrusis motifs, orange for the repeated staccato notes, yellow for a motif that contained a leap of a 6th and a certain fi*****ng pattern, green for scaling passages in the keyboard F major, and blue for notes which need to be detached.

A heads up to artistic colleagues of all disciplines: the Attenborough Arts Centre has just sent a call-out to artists to join their team on the Inclusive Youth Arts Programme. This amazing programme and lovely AAC staff taught me so much adapting my methods to serve people with different learning needs.

🔔

Inclusive Youth Arts Programme: Artist in residence call-out

We are seeking artists that are open and collaborative, able to design process focused activity with multiple entry points to ensure inclusive access for all participants.

⏳ Deadline: Monday 1 September, 5pm

Find out more:
🔗 https://buff.ly/6le5Ey3

Checklist - duct tape, fingerless gloves, crocodile clips, digital piano, and tongue drum. And cake ! Must be an outdoor concert at Caldmore Community Garden .

This Easter, Amrit Sohal whom you may remember from past RC workshops will be running a creative writing and music workshop with her own organisation Motherland Music CIC

Further information and booking at : https://www.motherlandmusiccic.com/services-5

She says :

"We will be exploring the Punjabi folk tale called the Bear's Bad Bargain with Motherland Music CIC workshop leaders/musicians performing their music inspired by the tale. We will then guide the participants in creating their own story and devising their own music, culminating in a performance of their work at the end!

This workshop is suitable for children aged 8-12 years old. It's going to be a great afternoon and we would love to see you there!

Percussion instruments will be provided, and we welcome any children who already play an instrument to bring theirs along at their own risk. We look forward to seeing you there!"

Thank you Hazel Townsend and Spark Arts for hosting this lovely event. I begged, borrowed and bought instruments to share with participants in my workshop " What Shall I Play Today?". Made some surprising discoveries about musical instruments that you can actually get for under £30.

- beautifully-made ukulele from Octopus Ukulele https://shorturl.at/d33hp

- Meinl Sonic Energy Mini steel tongue drum. I already had some tuned in C so chose one tuned in B major and one in A major. https://shorturl.at/urL1s

- pBuzz. These are super-fun affordable instruments for those keen on starting with a brass instrument. Calling them a plastic substitute seems wrong as they are very much real instruments in their own right. https://shorturl.at/BehvN

Last week we had an inspiring Leicester and Leicestershire Early Years Music Network talk by Wai Sum Chong, founder-director of .circle. It was absolutely fantastic to hear more about their practice and having the chance to play and make musical instruments! 🥁Alongside practical advice on choosing and introducing musical instruments for child-led musical play in the Early Years! 🎶

This network is supported by partnership between The Spark Arts for Children, Leicestershire Music, and Leicester City Council Early Help Team as part of the Music Champions programme, aiming to support teachers, teaching assistants, early years practitioners and early years artists in teaching music.

This workshop "What Shall I Play Today?" is my homage to the Montessori and Reggio approaches: two child-led educational approaches which have influenced my music education work.

On 27th March, I will be bringing almost all of my portable instruments to the Attenborough Arts Centre to share ideas on choosing and using musically instruments with Early Years practitioners.

The event organised by The Spark Arts for Children is free to attend for all EYFS practitioners and musicians interested in learning more about early years practice. Booking links below in the post by Spark Arts.

📣 Calling all Early Years educators and artists 📣

If you are interested in music-making for young children, join us for our FREE Leicester and Leicestershire Early Years Music Network Meeting with Wai Sum Chong on Thursday 27th March 1.30pm - 3.30pm at .

This practical session will help participants to develop their early years music practice and provision and will specifically explore the following areas:

- What is a musical instrument?
- Choosing a musical instrument; the pros and cons of different types of musical instruments and ways to use them.
- Invitation to musical play: how can you lay out instruments to promote child-led play, including sample session plans.
- Practical exploration -opportunities to have a go and explore instruments, including those made out of everyday objects.

The session will be led by musician and music educator Wai Sum Chong. Trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, she has worked with Scottish Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, The Purcell School and Midland Theatre Ballet (Musical Director 2012 - 2018).

Wai Sum is the founder-director of .circle a children’s music education initiative which uses multi-sensory approaches. She runs workshops and consultation sessions promoting sensory and playful music-making. In 2020, the Rhythm Circle Digital Games project was funded by the to create online musical games friendly for neurodiverse young people.

This network is supported by partnership between The Spark Arts for Children, Leicestershire Music, and Leicester City Council Early Help Team as part of the Music Champions programme, aiming to support teachers, teaching assistants, early years practitioners and early years artists in teaching music.

Booking Link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/leicester-leicestershire-early-years-music-network-tickets-1248016172969?aff=oddtdtcreator

An epic day of playing for B'Opera Relaxed Concerts. First an outdoor concert at the Caldmore Community Garden , followed by a quick dash to Coventry for magical session in the Old Master's Gallery at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum. To top off a grand day, I even got to see Dippy the Diplodocus! (on loan from the Natural History Museum since 2023).

Always such a pleasure to play for B'Opera 's Alice and the Library Tree. I was even allowed to play with crafty things and set the table with materials and provocations. Since it is autumn and we have a mahoosive tree prop, the children attending were asked "What colour/ shape is a leaf?" As we were in library there was no shortage of handy gardening books filled with gorgeous pictures of leaf types to inspire the little ones.

Massive thank you to Thimblemill Library for hosting this yesterday.

What a gorgeous surprise to have such a packed out audience for yesterday’s B’Opera performance and workshop of Alice and the Library Tree at Thimblemill Library. Over 150 of you! These are pre pandemic sort of audience numbers. You listened, gasped, smiled, laughed, sang, danced with us, decorated the tree with us, joined in with actions, explained words, read notes, created finish lines, and proved true what Alice learns - “we can get back up and try again”, “we are stronger together” and that “team work makes the dream work”!

Rhythm Circle families with little ones - this is one for you. Go along to Cotteridge Park this weekend for a top-notch musical event created by our fabulous colleagues at B'Opera. Highly recommended!