The Yamaha Music School based at the Fairfield Halls is to expand next spring, moving into a second space at Croydon’s major arts centre to cope with growing demand.
All together now: Yamaha’s music lessons at the Fairfield Halls have proved very popular
Suitably, from April 2023 the Yamaha lessons will also be taking place in the Arthur Davidson Suite, which takes its name from the local musician and conductor who for decades ran the very popular Saturday morning children’s concerts in the Fairfield’s Concert Hall, instilling a love for music in generations of Croydon youngsters.
The Yamaha Music Foundation was established in Tokyo in 1954. They were introduced to the Fairfield by the venue’s then arts director, Neil Chandler, as part of the revised community offering following its three-year refurbishment and they have been providing music education courses for children in their current studio, the Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Suite, since November 2019.
With high demand for the 20 keyboards, the YMS will expand and the teaching team will increase their offering to include singing, drums, guitar and flute. Further details and booking links can be found here.
The Yamaha Croydon Voices Community Choir has also been a big hit with the locals, who rehearse every Monday evening. Taster sessions are available every Monday until mid-December.
Croydon’s Yamaha Music School, the only one of its kind in London, provides lessons for more than 150 children, some as young as two years old. There are also lessons for adults, whether complete beginners or those who want to improve their musical skills.
On cue: The Yamaha Music School has pupils from two years old and include lessons for adults, too
YMS also has a partnership with the Paxton Academy primary school from Thornton Heath and other Wandle Trust schools that allows Year 4 pupils to receive weekly Yamaha keyboard lessons as part of their school curriculum.
“Offering Yamaha’s comprehensive courses to the families of Croydon and south London is a real privilege,” said Bethany Norman, the music education coordinator at Fairfield Halls.
“Our music lessons are so much more than learning an instrument. Group lessons mean that students are able to develop their social, singing and ensemble skills. The learning process, however, is really what sets us apart from a traditional music lesson.
“Our students learn by ear and therefore become much more free when playing, performing and creating music. We learn music how it is to be enjoyed, using our ears.”
Families can apply to Bethany Norman for information about places and course details: Ffh-musiceducation@bhlive.org.uk.
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Sounds great ! Everyone should have the chance to learn how to start to play a musical instrument, and to use their own instrument–their singing voice!
I forgot dancing– in the 1950’s and 60’s , most primary schools taught children to do “country dancing”, and to sing every day at assembly. How many do know? Not many, I bet, do the dancing. Maybe more do some singing.
At my suburb/village primary school in the 1960’s (within a seagull’s eye view of “Croydon Towers”) we listened to the BBC music for schools programme. I can still hum – accurately– the best known part of Schubert’s Trout Quintet as a result . Plus sing most of “All things Bright and Beautiful” without a hymn sheet, due to almost daily exposure to its verses. Even so, I even got to love it (albeit 50 years on!)
It is always a matter of wonder how, in the 1960’s , everyone spent a lot of time listening to music and quite a few in making music , and thinking about dropping out, but the country was prosperous.
Now, the pub joanna and home pianos languish unused or were long ago sold or went to the great dead pianna shop in the sky. Hardly a child knows how to dance a country dance, or weave a ribbon round a maypole, but we are all rather miserable and the country is falling to bits?
Thanks, Yamaha, for some good news, and to the Fairfield for hosting this.
I hope that it leads to a growing audience for classical music in our area, as well as life-long joy in music making for the current students.