Applegarth children were treated to a visit from a professional musician today who is part of an organisation called Sowerby Music. We have been lucky enough to welcome musicians in previous years who have demonstrated brass, woodwind, percussion and singing skills.
Today, Jim explained how to ‘buzz’ our lips to use a mouthpiece and children and adults had a go playing along to ‘The Grand Old Duke of York’, buzzing into a brass mouthpiece which was attached to a tube which made the sound higher or lower.
Instruments were introduced of differing sizes, from a piccolo trumpet to a bass tuba, bringing smiles and gasps of awe from the Applegarth audience. He used the piano to show pitch.
Jim used vocabulary such as embouchure, timbre, pitch, spectrum of sound and rhythm. 
He worked with Year 3 children in special workshops throughout the day, where they learnt to play together, listen to each other and use rhythmic patterns, culminating in a grand concert for all the children.
A special thank you to Jim and Sowerby Music for inspiring us to become musicians in our own way.
A fabulous report. Thank you Mrs Lumsdon for sharing this event on behalf of your colleagues in the Y34 team and for our Music Lead, Mrs Browne. The children learnt so much and got to experience live music in the audience and then perform themselves. We look forward to working with Mr Stratton again in June when he will work with our Y4 children. This means every child in lower KS2 will have had this memorable experience whilst at Applegarth, building on and enhancing their music lessons in school. For some (adults and children) they found themselves in a learning pit when trying to make those first notes. Thank you to Miss Read for her efforts alongside the children, showing them that we can always learn new skills and to Mr Rowland who supervises workshops in the afternoon. These staff will have also learnt new things during the day.
It looks like Mrs Haworth had a super time performing in front of the school!