It is our experience that good teamwork is a crucial part of working well together to achieve specific goals as colleagues.
Summer course 2017
This summer the PULSE team were challenged by NMF to develop a summer campaign to be offered to their summer courses all around the country. The brief given was that everybody should meet and have fun in a musical activity that was new to them. It should also be challenging to all age groups.
Pulse Two Round One
Having to work together as participants in this exchange program for over nine months, we have developed an understanding of knowing our strengths and weakness as individuals within the team. This understanding has led us to temporarily create new teams for the summer; Sihle Mabena and Thulani Dupa has swapped their places. Sihle joined Masibulele Langa in Bergen while Thulani joined Sizwe Nkosi in Oslo. Both new teams are currently visiting different regions facilitating a two hours workshop in these summer course.
Dance drum solo
The summer course is a platform where children, youngsters and grown-ups that play in different bands on their daily life, get a chance to sign up for a one-week music course during their summer holidays. They sign up to these courses to have fun with other band members and they get a chance meet up with and receive training from great musicians who facilitate the course and ensuring that kids leave the course with great musical development.
Mix brass ensemble
Summer course is a great way to keep young musicians motivated for playing in the band. They get opportunity to make new friends and get to learn about other bands culture. These summer courses give individual members a chance to grow and develop on their instruments, as they are involved in various music activities during the courses, activities such sectionals rehearsals, mini ensemble where they learn to improvise and big band session.
The summer courses are categorised in different colours; these colours are representing age groups, which members can sign up for. Green courses are normally for the youngest musicians who have maybe been playing for at least year or two. Yellow, red, blue and black follows after green course. After you have been part of the black course, you can go to instructor’s course and when you are, a grown up you can attend the grey course. In addition to this, there are also drill courses specially designed for the dancers.
The team designed a two-hour program, which are split into three sessions being gumboots, singing ziyawa and drum break with dancing. In between the sessions, we do energizers especially when we see the participants are starting to lose focus and tiredness kicks in, this helps to regain the energy and positive attitude to the group. Spreading activity library tools developed for FBF to NMF regions is one of our aims.
PULSE team has already been visiting a couple of these courses and before the schools starts again we will have visited courses on all levels throughout the country. Pulse involvement in these courses is to create the idea of togetherness and create a positive atmosphere of learning while having fun. This is to promote sense of belonging, well-being and sense of mastery to members. So far we have received positive feedback from the courses we have already attended to and this has been a great initiative to be involved in as PULSE
Written By: Thulani Dupa, Sizwe Nkosi, Masibulele Langa and Sihle Mabena
Photos by: NMF archive and FBF archive
PULSE Music Matters 