New Primary 7 Band Gets Flying Start

A group of Stewarton primary 7 school children are on the fast-track to becoming star musicians.

The talented youngsters recently stunned their parents by picking up new instruments for the first time - and performing a full-scale concert just two days later.

In an initiative led by East Ayrshire Council's music service, the Stewarton Learning Partnership Primary 7 Kick Start band weekend recently took place in Stewarton Academy.

At 6 pm on Friday evening, the P7 pupils received their instruments and were given their first lesson from their instrumental teacher. After an intensive but enjoyable weekend of music-making, they were ready to give their first performance in the Games Hall of Stewarton Academy on the Sunday.

The success of the Kick Start system is the ability to progress through the equivalent of around a term and a half's work over a single weekend.

This engages the children from the start and captures the high levels of enthusiasm and excitement that the children feel at learning to play a new instrument - building foundations for excellence and reinforcing good practice at an early stage.

These young musicians will now progress through the various bands and ensembles offered by the authority and in years to come will be members of the award-winning Stewarton Academy Senior Wind Ensemble. This group once again received national recognition with a Gold Award at the 2009 National Concert Band Finals in Cardiff.

The Stewarton Band system is supported through a partnership between Stewarton Academy, the Instrumental Music Service, the Youth Music Initiative and the Stewarton Bands Parents Support Group.

Councillor Iain Linton, Spokesperson for Lifelong Learning, said: "This weekend of focused music making brought out the best in the children, especially when they had a concert to look forward to.

"This creative initiative by the Education Department's Instrumental Music Service is very welcome and will further develop the talent of the children who take part".

Instrumental teacher Alan Friel, who organised the weekend, said: "Instead of beginning with weekly lessons, we brought together 45 primary school musicians for an intensive weekend of small group lessons in their band sections.

"At 6pm on Friday evening the children had never played their instrument before and by Sunday they were ready to give their first concert performance as a band. The thrill that the pupils experience by learning a new skill so quickly is highly motivational. "