last weeeeeeek!

Class in Muktangan School

Oops...I didn't update you last week - it was a crazy one. My husband Michael trekked across the globe to come and join me for the week and see the madness for himself. Work continued with an additional workshop on Friday!!

I met designer at Landor, Ektaa Aggarwal at BlueFROG's Sunday brunch and she asked me to come and do a workshop for her NGO, Aashansh, in Bandra. So on Friday myself and Michael gave an hour's music session to 11 kids in a lovely space, all about Scottish music and dance. I will definitely be returning to do some more as it was really good fun and the group was very responsive.

Singing hello!

playing the clarinet

Tuesday was a great day, visiting Muktangan and introducing all the children in Ayush's classes to new instruments and teaching them some fun songs. They loved meeting Michael with his clarinet and learned an awful lot about how the instrument works! The 3 of us gave a special Valentine's day treat to the new trainee teachers working upstairs, of a wee romantic Scottish piece - and they really didn't want us to leave!

Muktangan school

Other notable events last week included a fab Dharavi Rocks drumming workshop from Tara Tucker, a djembe teacher from Australia. It was really interesting to take part in her session and see the perseverance and patience she has at waiting for the rhythm to come and build slowly.

Sunday's miniFROG was a hit, with everyone making colourful shakers with sparkly paper glued around recycled bottles, filled with rice, lentils and mungbeans!

So that's just a little bit of what happened...This week: I'll be giving a teaching workshop to Mewsic's tutors as well as leading Dharavi Rocks (and discussing what happens next for this), working with Ayush Shrestha on our blueFROG early set for the 2nd of March, giving another music workshop with Aashansh, working with Ayush in Muktangan schools, and going to Kerala for the weekend! Phew....

Gig coming up!

I will be guesting with Ayush Shrestha at BlueFROG on the 2nd of March - the early set 8-9pm!

http://www.facebook.com/events/237631399664584/ One hour of originals with a couple of new songs and the old ones done in a new way. Featuring Laura Grime, musician from Scotland. Introducing "Cushioned Bamboo Chair", "Yellow Moon" and "Anything as it is"...

the entry is free before 9pm. Let the Friday party at BlueFROG start early on March 2!!

MUSICAL CHILDREN GALORE!

This week has been full of activity. Throughout the week I met around 270 children! I visited two mewsic centres in the slums of Govandi and Dharavi, two Muktangan schools with Ayush Shrestha, as well as attending Dharavi Rocks, staying late in the office to work and generally enjoying Mumbai life! Time is constantly getting eaten up but it makes life all the more exciting.

MEWSIC: So after a short and sweet meeting with Darshan and Emily from Innovaid who run Mewsic, it was agreed that I will help to give their music teachers some training in how to set up the classroom, give appropriate praise to the children, and some ideas to make the classes a bit more fun and keep the children coming back for more.

On Tuesday I was joined by Hanifa (who has kindly agreed to be my translator) and Darshan in Govandi slum - I have never been to a more dusty place in all my life. The mewsic centre is located on the edge of the Govandi dumping ground, a huge mountain of rotting waste, where rag pickers including around 1300 children work, collecting recyclable rubbish in exchange for less than 100 rupees a day (about £1). Here's some pictures of the surroundings - it's quite a challenge to take photographs around this area for obvious reasons.

The Mewsic centre has been open for 2 months and is still experiencing some teething problems, which I going to try and help them address over the next few weeks. There's little consistency in who turns up for the music classes, and the children are largely illiterate which the teacher is really struggling with, as his method is very focused on letters and numbers.

Wednesday was spent with Hanifa again, this time in Dharavi Mewsic centre. This couldn't have been much more different from the previous day. The surrounding area was clean, not at all dusty and the centre was neat, tidy and fairly well equipped with 2 additional staff to help the children with their practice. It was really touching to meet such polite, sharing and motivated children. The atmosphere was one of concentration, pleasure, and the kids definitely knew why they were there, and were making the most of the opportunity. I'm really looking forward to going back and doing more work with the teachers to see what we can achieve.

Dharavi River

egg transport!

Woman drying chillies in Dharavi street

The entrance to the trapdoor of the Mewsic Centre in Dharavi

In the evening I went off to Dharavi Rocks with Ayush and Abhijit, who spent the session working on a couple of new songs. Despite a really noisy disco going on outside, the group managed to focus and learn the songs as best they could. Singing certainly isn't a strong point of the group, so I'm going to be encouraging them to do more rhythm work in the coming weeks, including body percussion, junk percussion, and some cup music...more to come!

My favourite day of the week, however, had to be Thursday. Ayush invited me to come to 2 of the Muktangan schools he teaches at. Muktangan is an integrated community school set up by the Paragon Charitable Trust, training local women to teach in a forward thinking method for children from the local poor community. Music is included in the curriculum, which is unusual in your average Indian government school. We played music with and for 8 classes over the day and the response was truly fantastic. The children were really happy to be singing and were fascinated by the violin, truly relishing seeing one in the flesh! Ayush is a really great person to be working with young children. His gentle, caring approach really suits the job and I am really looking forward to seeing him develop his style as he becomes more confident and develops some more diverse material for the children.

More to come....!

SULAFEST!

I was very honoured to be asked by Nepali singer songwriter Ayush Shrestra to perform with him at Sulafest - a weekend music festival at a gorgeous vineyard near Nashik, about 120km from Mumbai! So we did a short set on the Saturday for a select crowd and then it was on with the big show on Sunday, playing on the main stage - warming up for Nitin Sawnhey. Great crowd and a fantastic atmosphere!

GIG WITH TAAL INC.

Images copyright of Ayush Das Stills & Motion Picture Photography

So, very neglectfully of me - I completely forgot to mention my exciting performance of last wednesday (25th Jan) with West African Rhythm Ensemble, Taal Inc. at the BlueFROG Sula Fest Pre Party. It was a great night with a spellbinding performance from Bangalore singer songwriter Gowri and finished off by psytrance DJ Mad Maxx. Taal Inc. really got the party started in the middle, and it was great to be invited to finish off the set with them on a high energy solo in their epic medley of tunes and djembe solos! Thanks to Abhijit Jejurikar and the Taal Inc. guys for having me! x You can see more photos of the gig taken by Ayush Das Stills & Motion Picture Photography on FACEBOOK!

BAL KALYAN NAGARI

Monday was a really satisfying day. I was invited by Mewsic to visit one of their NGO based music centres for underpriviledged children in Mumbai. I travelled up to Mankhurd on the train, passing through some of the poorest areas of Mumbai. Then it was a speedy autorickshaw drive to the orphanage where the children live and study. Bal Kalyan Nagari is a peaceful location, with trees and some open green space around (not often seen in the 4th most populated city in the world with 20.5 million people).

The venue for the music class is a bare room with mats on the floor and the limited resources include 5 guitars, 2 keyboards, and a set of bongos, spread amongst 30 children, some of whom have notebooks with notes of how to play happy birthday and other similar melodies. I met mr Patil and his colleague who teaches guitar and then I started the class. Boys and girls aged 7 to 17, sitting in rows very neatly with wide eyes - having never seen a violin before, let alone heard one. These were amongst the broadest smiles I have ever seen - and the opportunity to just sit, and listen was clearly cherished by the group. I was treated to some lovely performances of dance and singing and a small amount of very basic guitar. The teachers are incredibly strict with the children and one step out of line really isn't tolerated. However, this is coupled with teachers leaving the room unattended to have a cup of tea or oversee another group and so there is little consistency for these children. Whilst I don't speak Hindi and the children understand very little English, I communicated fairly easily with them through actions and demonstrations, and the children trusted me very quickly. My session introduced them to the violin, a Scottish song, some body percussion and some Scottish dancing, but the highlight was definitely inviting the children to have a try of my violin. The sense of individual achievement that some of them got from having a go was clearly evident on their faces and they were desperate to be next in line!

I will be returning soon to do more work with the children and have scheduled a meeting with the organisers of Mewsic to discuss my future involvement.

Unfortunately I can't post pictures of the children from the sessions but here are some of the journey to the centre, and the teachers trying out my violin! (cover your ears)!

screeech!

view from the train: goat, shanty houses, burning rubbish, children playing

people crossing the railway tracks - good timing

children playing right between the train and a sewer of filthy water

back in Mumbai central area they have dug up the pavement since I walked here in the morning

MiniFROG takes off!

So it's been a good start to my fourth week in Mumbai. MiniFROG (sunday activities with children while their parents are brunching) was well attended this week. We had a 6 children and four of them really enjoyed the music activities we had prepared. The children made some groovy guitars and then we did some music activities together - singing songs, playing some tunes with my percussion instruments and listening to and learning about the violin. The children had a ball and were very proud of their instruments - and a couple didn't want the music to stop!