African Marimba Workshops

28/07/2022

I've been a bit quiet on insta for a while - but this afternoon we'll be teaching children to make some great music at a children's summer camp. Van's nearly loaded 🎶😍

21/05/2022

✅Coffee and cake
✅African marimba music
✅Gifts and crafts
✅Give generously!

13/05/2022

And another

13/05/2022

Happy memories! At a summer activity camp in Portugal where we lived for a couple of years after leaving Botswana.

16/03/2022

It takes quite a while to set these up (and pack away) so I'm really thankful I can leave them in situ between my after-school club and my evening group! 😜

11/03/2022

Came upon this pic taken whilst we were working on an arrangement... We didn't keep this in our repertoire as the bass was just too repetitive. Any guesses on the song?? 😂

01/11/2021

Delivered a 2 1/2 day workshop at a large primary school in Bicester just before half term - took my full range of instruments in order to manage class sizes of about 30. It was great fun and amazing to hear what even the youngest little ones achieved!

01/11/2021

This article first appeared in the July 2021 edition of the (South African) Marimba Workshop Newsletter - delighted to see it reproduced again on their page 😁

Community Music Project Highlight
School: Chinnor Marimbas
Teacher: Janet Merrow-Smith
Location: United Kingdom
I’m Jan, and I have a small part-time marimba business/hobby in the UK. Five years ago I decided to make time to focus on some marimba teaching and started running an after-school marimba club in my local village primary school, and an evening group for older/adult players. We don’t particularly seek performing opportunities but have played for local events, participated in a benefit concert for BEFSA (Borien Educational Foundation for Southern Africa) and were very excited to enter the 2020 Virtual Marimba and Steelpan Festival.
African marimbas are almost unknown in the UK so I can feel somewhat isolated at times, having no local marimba network or a cultural context to work within. Consequently it was great to connect with 2 other groups in the south of England (Simon at ACS International School, Cobham, and Jim of Worthing Steel Band), and Otto Gumaelius, a Batswana living in the UK who now teaches and runs a professional performing group in London. Thanks guys for all your friendship and encouragement!
One of my joys is being able to deliver workshops to other schools and to community groups such as:
• Parkinsons’ support group
• Care home for the elderly
• Support group for those with Alzheimer’s
• Women’s Institute meetings
• Adult Education workshop
This is a wonderful way to get people together, building a sense of team-work and helping in a variety of areas such as learning new skills, reinforcing memory patterns, developing and restoring gross motor skills and co-ordination etc. Often this is coupled with a talk/demonstration that generates a lot of discussion. In addition, being able to handle some gourd and seed-pod shakers, ornaments, bead jewellery and simple metal toys brought back from Africa, adds context and interest. I’ve found that most adults, and men in particular, are fascinated by the construction of the marimbas and this leads them to want to try playing. My original bass and baritone marimbas have the fibreglass resonators moulded from large gourds, and this again is another talking point when compared to the wooden-framed resonators.
Most recently, our evening group hosted a short social event, inviting family members and friends to get together and have a go. Such a lovely evening and everyone had a great time from the very youngest (pre-school), to the self-proclaimed non-musician! This really demonstrates how accessible the marimbas are to people with a wide range of abilities and ages, so I hope you will enjoy the resulting videos linked here. Bearing in mind that the 1-hour session included a short demo by the regular players, some social time and about 30 minutes for everyone to learn and have a go together, I think it was a highly successful event and a great achievement by all!

02/09/2021

Chinnor Marimbas and some of the workshops I run are featured in the July edition of The Marimba Workshop Newsletter, South Africa. Check us out on page 4!
https://mcusercontent.com/b101d2e4bacf6020bce4842a8/files/6c2284bd-dbdf-fc0c-4838-d65d84e4f0f4/Marimba_Monthly_July_2021.pdf

26/07/2021

Video 3 of 3: a video showing a few snippets of everyone learning/practicing...

26/07/2021

Chinnor Marimba Group hosted a social to end the summer term. In the space of only an hour we gave a demo of a couple of songs, chatted over nibbles and taught family and friends a couple of songs too! The regular group all got stuck in and taught their parts to our guests, some very young in age, and they all did a brilliant job. We all had a great time and the results are amazing – well done to everyone! Songs on the followinng videos are “Techara” and “Wimowe” (aka “In the Jungle”). Then there is a 3rd video with a few snippets showing how we got there, just for fun! ☺

Video 1 of 3: The song "Techara"

26/07/2021

Video 2 of 3: The song "Wimowe"