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BRASS DRUMS TRAINS

In 2022 BlueJam’s Director Jilly was commissioned to write a piece of music, create a teaching resource and make a video with soundtrack linking two parts of local heritage – steam trains and brass/silver bands! BlueJam was lucky to be working in partnership with Julie Hoggarth from Drum and Brass to deliver the project.

Here is the final film of the Brass Drums Trains project. You can also find it on YouTube.

The Brass Drums Train Project:

ORTON FARMERS MARKET

We had a fantastic time at Orton Farmers’ Market on 13th August 2022, 10am – 1pm, where BlueJam Street Beats were joined by Melody Makers young performers from Tebay plus shoppers to create a great impromptu performance of drums and horns! We played ENGINE, one of the sections from the piece and people also made recycled train-sound instruments with Julie and used Samplr on the iPad to create atmospheric railway sounds from their instruments and voices with Jilly. Mike (who has the most AMAZING model railway installation), lent some of his train paraphernalia as well.

PICNIC ON THE PLATFORM!

On 24th September 2022 we had a picnic for brass players, drummers and steam enthusiasts at the amazing Stainmore Train Museum in Kirkby Stephen. We played our piece through, plus created more atmospheric sounds and got some serious (and funny) video footage for the final film. We also premiered a new piece by Isla Gordon (a BlueJam work experience student from Sedburgh) written especially for this project.

FINAL PIECE WRITTEN FOR BRASS (& SILVER) BANDS & DRUMS

The piece is designed to be easily adaptable for different sizes of groups, playing experience and intending performance. So far two local bands – Kirkby Stephen Silver Band and Appleby Town Band have rehearsed it, plus sections have been performed by BJamba HORNS involving a live samba drum section! The piece had its first full performance at Kirkby Stephen School in October with young people performing a spoken word accompaniment.

Here is a demo of the horn parts.

DEMO: BRASS DRUMS TRAINS piece – Instruments played by Katie Hodges, Matt Warwick and Geoff Bartholomew.

This project was supported by…