Harp Academy

Harmonica tuition in schools in the South East of England

Author: Richard

Announcements 

Spring Term 2025 – Time to Sign Up!

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Spring 2025
We launch our Spring harmonica learning and club activities from Thursday 9th January 2025. Details of our teaching plan and theme are below, along with instructions on how to sign up for music sessions.

First timer?
Welcome! We offer all newcomers a free Taster Session, which includes a free starter harmonica to keep. Simply click the Gold Harmonica on our homepage, complete your details, and we will email further information. Our email and this website explain what to do after your taster session, but feel free to ask any questions!

Back for more?
Termly subscriptions are £75.00 (10 sessions) or £82.50 (11 sessions) payable in advance. You can also pay in two half termly instalments of £40.00 (5 sessions) or £48.00 (6 sessions), payable ahead of your first and sixth sessions respectively. The timetable for your school is published in our My School menu.

Payments
Payment can be made by bank transfer, or through our Store using a credit/debit card (no need to log in). We regret that we are unable to accept childcare vouchers. Further information, including our account details, is available on our How To Pay page.

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Harmonica for 11-14 Yrs – Weekly Online Sessions

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Join our online harp sessions for 11-14 yrs

Harp Academy is often asked if it offers harmonica coaching for players in Secondary Education 11-14 years (KS3/Middle School). With the help of Zoom, the answer is yes!

We now run a weekly online group on Mondays 4.45pm-5.30pm (UK time). Friendly and encouraging, our sessions feature warm up exercises, study pieces, instrument skills and easy music theory. We use a combination of harp tabs and standard notation, but an ability to read music is not essential. Attendees have access to our cloud folder where we keep a music diary and study materials.

If you’d like to try a free taster session, email us via our contacts page and we’ll send you the information you need. If you are happy with your taster experience, ongoing sessions are £10.00 each, payable half-termly (five sessions) in advance. Sessions are led by Richard Taylor, a leading expert in harmonica teaching for young people. Full safeguarding criteria are adhered to while online, as is diversity and inclusivity, and sessions are not recorded.

Announcements 

The P Word (Practise)

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How to Practise Harmonica
It’s noticeable in our weekly school sessions when children have found the time to practise at home and have the support of their grown ups. Confidence levels are high, progress is swift and lessons are fun. Central to this process is parental encouragement, good use of our website, a music diary, a well managed music kit and a specific task or performance to aim at.

Of course some harmonauts tell us they don’t have time to practise, their grown ups won’t let them, or they’ve lost their music. And there was one harmonaut whose dog ate their harmonica – we saw the evidence, complete with bite marks. But practise needn’t be a torture. Here is our take on how to make it a purposeful and enjoyable habit.

Harp Academy Website
Many of our study pieces and exercise have a support page on our website. With help from their grown ups, harmonauts can log in and navigate to the appropriate page. Here they can find click-and-copy buttons to guide them through songs line by line. There is an explanation of what makes the song or music exercise unique, a list of key skills covered and practise tracks. Wider learning items also feature, touching on music theory, general knowledge and performance preparation. (more…)

Announcements 

Harmonica for 4-11 Year Olds

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Would you like to include music-making on the harmonica in your setting?

Here’s Richard presenting Play Harmonica, the theme tune from Harp Academy’s early years harmonica courses for 4-7 year olds. He’s using a 4 hole easy-play Speedy harmonica (available in our Store). Set to the tune of Wind The Bobbin Up/There’s A Dinosaur, the song encourages young players to acquire the following key skills:

∙ Hole location by number – 1 2 3 4
∙ Breath control – Blow and Draw
∙ C Major Arpeggio – C E G C
∙ Musical Alphabet (with Makaton) – A B C D E F G
∙ Progression to C Major Scale – C D E F G A B C
∙ Enjoyment of Rhythm and Rhyme
∙ Follow hand signals for intonation
∙ Read and follow harmonica arrow tab notation

If you would like access to the backing track, harmonica tabs, or further details about music making on the harmonica and running weekly sessions in your Early Years setting, get in touch using the details on our Contact page. Please also visit our Early Years menu for more insight into our Pre-School harmonica activities, or our KS1 for young School Age children.

Announcements 

Elvis has left the building.. in the wrong bag

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Please label all kit items 
Please be assured that Harmonica teachers check our music activity area at the end of each session to ensure nothing has been left behind. If an item of kit is found, it will be handed to the school office. Occasionally children can leave a music session with somebody else’s kit by mistake. In each case, the situation can be swiftly remedied if kit items are marked or labelled with their owner’s name. Your help is appreciated.


All Shook Up
A reminder that every Harp Academy student should bring the following kit items to their harmonica sessions: Harmonica / A4 Pocket Folder / Notebook & Pen