Workshops
Kate and Ford are experienced workshop leaders and facilitators, working with musicians and beginners of all ages. They are both tutors on the Halsway Manor National Centre for the Folk Arts annual Young Folk courses and Cambridge Music Hub summer school.
Early years and beginners
Accessible music workshops on singing, rhythm, songwriting, or just making noise that require no musical experience. In schools, community venues, the great outdoors, anywhere!
Folk band
Working with musicians of varying abilities and any instruments to put together a folk band. Teaching traditional music by ear, facilitating group creativity through arrangement, and taking everyone through the process of rehearsing and performing a professional show.
Instrument specific
Kate and Ford are experienced educators on their individual instruments. Kate is an innovative clawhammer banjo player who has adapted old time techniques to Celtic music and wider rhythmic styles. Ford is an accomplished low whistle player who has extensively studied the techniques of contemporary whistle pioneers and explored improvisation through the Indian raag system.
Rhythm
Ford leads workshops on rhythm that draw from the rhythmic language of Indian classical music. These can involve just clapping and reciting rhythmic language and can be tailored to absolute beginners, or can be applied to higher levels of musical understanding and instrumental playing. The concepts provide a method for deepening rhythmic understanding in almost any context.
Interactive Performance
Interactive performances are ways of making music more accessible to audiences that might not ordinarily experience live music. They can involve explanations and chat with the audience in a way that breaks down the normal barriers of formality, or incorporating simple participatory elements that can help audiences, especially younger ones, to engage with the performance.
As musicians working with the charity Live Music Now, Kate and Ford have performed in many non-typical music spaces such as SEN schools, care homes, and hospitals, tailoring their performances to the needs of each audience.
With Sheffield music charity Concerteenies, they have performed for parents and babies of less than a year old (and younger in neo-natal care), and witnessed the powerful impact of live music in early years and in strengthening bonds between parents and children.
Get in touch to discuss booking Kate and Ford for a workshop or interactive performance.