JOHN THORPE

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John is bringing some exciting and alternative music workshops to schools in the southwest, giving children a chance to hear and play one of the oldest musical instruments on the planet – the didgeridoo.

 

With over 14 years of teaching didgeridoo and facilitating workshops around the UK, John offers a professional service to primary and secondary schools. He has also been making didgeridoos since he started playing around 20 years ago and therefore a sound knowledge of how the didgeridoo works. 

 

His workshops can be a general introduction to world music - didgeridoo - or they can be used to support specific projects related to music, the arts or culture.  Whatever you want......links to curriculum...

and also its cultural significance.  They are designed to

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The Early Years and Primary School Music Workshops are tailored to the needs of the school and the participants. We have standard workshops that are tailored to your needs or we love the challenge of creating new projects. Whether music is new to your school or you have a strong history of music participation, we can create a project that fits your needs: from a general introduction to a specific brief. 

 

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John Thorpe  has been performing across the UK for many years from bars to the London National Theatre.  He is a world class professional musician who facilitates didgeridoo workshops around the UK for all ages from 5 to 100.  This wonderful and ancient instrument is fun to learn and John’s creativity and intuitive nature enables him to reach out and engage with everyone in the room.

 

He provides up to at least 30 beginners plastic didgeridoos and brings a few of his own performance instruments to demonstrate.  It also includes a short assembly performance.

 

Workshop 45 mins or tailored to your needs.  Some key points as follows:

 

• Brief introduction to the didgeridoo and its history in Aboriginal culture.

• The Drone – how to get a basic sound from the didgeridoo

• Creating more interesting sounds with letters and words  (didgeridoo language)

• Introduction to rhythm with the didgeridoo

• Vocal sounds such as barks etc… children find this a lot of fun)

• Circular breathing – the basic starting point

• Allowing children to see how they sound through an amplifier!

• Finish on all joining in with a rhythm with John using some percussion and didgeridoo.

 

Learning how to play the didgeridoo can be a lot of fun but it is also very educational as John teaches how letters, vowels etc can be used to create didgeridoo sounds and  rhythms - didgeridoo language: the building blocks for didgeridoo as a musical instrument and for developing confidence