HarmonicaUK coffee mornings and lockdown sessions – a year on. It’s 2 May 2020, 1:03pm… ‘It’s nice to see everybody today. Welcome to the first of these workshops. Hopefully you’ll be able to glean something from it’ These were the words of Paul Gillings at the start of the first ever HarmonicaUK Lockdown Session. A year on and they’re still going strong; artists are now asking to run sessions, which is a great testimony to the reputation HarmonicaUK has gained in the last year.
PUBLICITY COLUMN Sam Wilkinson Vice-Chair
At the same time, the Friday Coffee Mornings began, hosted by David Hambley – a role that comes naturally to him. Since then, a core of members and non-members have this weekly event in their diaries. I would now like to share some quotes from artists and participants, but first from our chair ...
Pete Hewitt, HarmonicaUK Chairman ‘The thing I keep hearing is that once we were accessible twice a year, but now it’s twice a week. This is a fundamental shift that the members have welcomed. They love the camaraderie of the Friday morning coffee mornings, and the lockdown sessions that are a very valuable resource.’
ARTISTS Davide Speranza ‘Very interesting experience. The harmonica is a wonderful instrument and HarmonicaUK brings out every aspect of it. Artists sharing their style and techniques increases the awareness of harmonica in different world cultures.’
Marcin Dyjak ‘I think the Lockdown Sessions are much more than just learning to play harmonica. They focus on building knowledge and giving the opportunity to develop technical skills and understanding music theory. There are other significant benefits too, including providing participants with the opportunity to belong to a group of people with similar interests during isolation, improving respiratory efficiency (blood oxygenation) and lowering stress-related
June - July 2021 • Harmonica.co.uk
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