DRS Music Group meets next door to the hall in St Anne’s Church itself. We welcome all musicians and anyone wanting to make music. People don't need to have prior experience of playing or singing to join us. We connect through music using instruments and our voices.
Thanks to generous donations DRS Music has received, we have a range of instruments for people to play and practice on. We can help with music tuition including guitar, keyboard, voice, djaying drums and violin. Our aim is also to help any musicians arriving in Derby to make links locally and find opportunities for them.
Each month we have a samba band teacher or another visiting specialist musician to lead our session.
Group members have performed solo or together in and around Derbyshire, these include the annual Holocaust Memorial Events, Refugee Week events, Wirksworth Festival and other informal opportunities at DRS. When we can we rejoin the main DRS community to share our love of music!
And so to begin this diary, five years after the group began...
Musicians after performing at Derby Theatre April 2024
Thursday, 8th August with Sarah - violin and piano and Carol - guitar and voice
We aim to begin any session with a group activity: a get to know each other introduction. Today we had Farsi and Kurdish Sorani speakers, most for their first day at DRS. We began with a simple song we love that uses many languages, called Amani. After 10 minutes we were all able to sing together and in both these languages.
There were eight people for beginner's guitar initially.
We began with talking about sitting and holding the guitar, hand position, naming parts of the guitar: strings, frets, neck and then the notes.
We start with simple easier to achieve chords: A9 Em Am E. We work on good hand/finger/thumb positions, elbow staying free and aiming to strum rhythmically and slowly before preparing to change chords.
Talked about major and minor sounds, progressing to A and D and rudimentary tuning at the 5th fret - most people will probably use an app
We had a break away group for three people who wanted to try an introduction to the violin working on open strings.
By the end of the session we were able to slowly play chords A E D E - the chord progression for the song we began with, Amani
Sarah rejoined us and one of her group was able to play along on open strings on violin as we sang Amani again.
Reflection: A lovely morning, good connections made. After the session while the main hall was being cleaned there were impromptu songs at the piano with Kurdish musician D. and singer I. and attracting a young woman to come and sing a song for the first time - it was delightful.
A former member of our group came back to visit Derby. He had been promised a guitar having diligently come each week for 3 lessons and had been transferred to another town with no notice. We were able to loan him a guitar and bag and put him in touch with another asylum seeker who is near to him and an excellent guitarist who may be able to help him.
Saturday 11th, August - no lessons today - I was delivering a Harmonium to A. who had left his instrument in Germany on his journey. DRS Music Group was able to pay half the postage and it arrived this week. When it was opened it wasn't working but A was able to take it to bits, reassemble it using the DRS bike repair shop's tools and it is now working again - A is in a shared hotel room so will keep his instrument safely at DRS.
Had some time with T. who is advising me about BLOGS! - this blog will improve I know when he is able to advise me further and make it look beautiful ❤️
Although there were no lessons one man came hoping for piano help - D was able to give him a few ideas and he practiced ALL morning on the church piano.
An 8 year old boy had one piano lesson last week with another helper, Owen. We have lent him a small keyboard to practice at home. His parents spoke to me this morning and we will offer him a short 20 mins lesson on a Thursday morning before our music session whenever we can. I've sent him some notes about simple music theory and have made some suggestions about a beginner's book from ABE books. He is very keen.
Thursday, 15th August. Cris - drums, Dlivan - keyboard and Carol - guitar and piano
When I arrived this morning, A was already playing his Harmonium at the back of the church and he played for the whole morning.💐
First this morning was an early 20 minute piano lesson for 8 year old, A - he showed me an Iranian melody he can play called, 'Sultan Ghalbha' meaning Heart's King. We worked on: hand and finger positions for a 5 note scale starting from C or A, naming notes, keeping the fingers relaxed above the keys. Note values. We plan to help his parents find a piano teacher for when A goes back to school in September. We played Sultan Ghalbha together to finish.
Ten people this morning, 3 for drum and 7 for guitar. Three people who have a few weeks experience with guitar and 4 new beginners. We had a quick name intro between us. Three Kurdish languages, Farsi, Arabic, Swahili and Amharic. Music is our common language.
Our beginners did really well following our usual introduction to the guitar, tuning the instruments and managed to play A9 Em Am E plus A and D. Dave, one of the more experienced guitarists helped me support the other players. The session was slightly shorter because of a church service. We definitely need more guitars as we only have 7 in our cupboard.
Dlivan set up a keyboard and gave the dedicated young man from last week some scales to practice - we hope to loan him a keyboard when a donated one arrives.
So as a snapshot, in the main church: Harmonium playing in one corner, Keyboardist playing in another, 7 guitarists with me and Cris with 3 drummers in the side room.
On Thursday 22nd August we have arranged for Moussa, a great drummer, to lead the monthly drum workshop at DRS Music group, PLEASE COME AND JOIN US
Here's a video from a session a few weeks ago in the lovely park near DRS.
Thursday 29th August: Free event at Cafe Palestina at Dubrek Studios
Trio Ashti will be performing, santoor, drum, keyboard and songs. Dlivan, Mohammadreza and Carol play together in a trio and are now called Ashti meaning Peace in many languages.
DRS will be closed in September
In September Derby Peace Week is happening.
On Friday 20th September DRS musicians have been invited to play our music from around the world at this Music for Peace Concert
At the Multi Faith Centre, Kedleston Road, DE22 1GB
We would love you to come
More information next week.
Thursday 22nd August
Short piano lesson for A before meeting - great progress and he practices SO well! We worked on finding easier fingers to play 'Sultan Ghalbha' and revisiting 5 note scales to strengthen the smaller fingers. There are a couple of possible piano teachers for A's parents to try.
Monthly Drum session with Moussa
We had about 15-18 for drumming and slowly, slowly we grasped the different rhythms for the different groups of instruments. Polyrhythms are difficult! But by the end of the session we could play together and make a good sound!!! Many, many languages today and a good feeling of sharing, listening, thinking and making music together.
Next Thursday will be the last Thursday before DRS closes BUT there is the 9th Birthday Party of DRS on Saturday 31st August.
Derby Peace Week Concert for Peace - poster above
Spoke with D from the Keyboard/Saz Duo and they are able to play in Derby Peace Week Concert on Friday 20th September
Here are D and M
We hope other DRS musicians will play including Yasir
Our trio Ashti will play as well - please see the other page on this blog
A memory of DRS music in the garden
Thursday 29th August
Final early piano session with A before he goes back to school. Looked at 5 note scales from C and A, real progress in dexterity. We talked about chords starting with C Major and A minor, A could easily recognise the different sound of a major and minor key. We reviewed his song and looked at notes on the lines and in spaces on the stave and finding them on the piano. Lovely work!
Adult A was practicing his harmonium in the church when we arrived, the sound filling the space💐. Violinist, Sarah, improvised on violin with A and his harmonium in the back room - it was beautiful. Mike joined them too with his guitar
With guitarist, Y, we ran through three songs we will play at the Peace Concert, Amani, Ezzayacom and a new song(?) With drums from D and M and Y coaching a visiting Music therapist student who joined in.
A quiet morning so one to one follow on guitar tuition with another A! Great progress and after attending for a few weeks he was able to borrow a guitar for home practice.
F who has been conscientiously coming to the church to practice piano with or without assistance has borrowed a donated keyboard to continue at home.
And maybe best of all, after the 9th Birthday party, people assembled around the piano in the hall giving the chance for other people to sing or listen as D played.
The Garden/Allotment 4th September
Sarah, Sue, D and I will go to the garden/allotment on Thursday 4th, maybe other music group members?? - we will have a couple of guitars, drums and D will bring his keyboard if anyone wants to sing as there is power
Saturday 7th September Ashti are performing at 1 - 1.40pm at Lockstock a small music festival, part of Wirksworth Festival - it's a free music event and I think buses are still £2 . If anyone is interested please ask for more info. You can find out about the festival here - it is busy and lots of free things to see https://wirksworthfestival.co.uk/
Looking to the future - The Peace Concert 20th September
THIS IS FREE BUT YOU MUST RESERVE A SPOT (SEAT) on this link
Here is the link to the Peace Concert on 20th September, 6pm at the Multi Faith Centre at Derby University. More info next week
The allotment was such a beautiful surprise! A haven tucked behind the hedges and a perfect place to gather, grow and restore! The regular growers made a great lunch for us all, maybe 16 people in all. It was a delight to play in the garden a mixture of both songs together and a bit of individual work on instruments, Sarah and Dlivan exploring recorder, Sue and I with two people on guitar and Diarko on Dlivan's keyboard. I hope we can go again soon.
Planning for Derby Peace Week
Plans are coming together!
Yasir is able to join DRS Music Group on the road for the 20th September at the Multi Faith Centre, Derby as part of the Derby Peace Week Event.
Diko and Mustafa hope to present a set and Ashti will present a few songs.
Friday 20th September , Peace Concert for Derby Peace Week
A beautiful night of music!
DRS Music On the Road played 2 songs: Ezzayakom - a Greeting Song introduced to us 6 years ago my Amir at our first ever DRS Music group session: it has been a favourite ever since. As people move on from Derby our core group are able to keep this song alive - this was particularly important while DRS has been closed this September. We also sang Amani, meaning Peace in Swahili - a song introduced to us by by Music Action International in Manchester and another enduring song we can sing in any language spoken by people arriving in Derby who can help us find the right words.
It was a great joy to hear Diarko and Mustafa play keyboard and Saz together !
I hope there will be more opportunities to hear them.
Diarko and Mustafa
There was also great versatility and joy when singer, Rekha Thakur, asked Yasir and Dlivan to improvise along with her song💐
And finally thank you to the people from DRS who came along and we missed those of our group who have now moved on from Derby or were unable to be with us on friday. A special thank you to Nigel for the videos and photos💐
Here are a few photos!
Yasir, Dlivan, Carol and Mohammadreza
Saturday 28th September
Here is a link to a Photo Essay made at Refugee Week Hello Derby - A Festival of Welcome by
Jo McLeish - Creative Director, The Media Room Creative Communications Ltd
Jo interviewed Yasir, Dlivan and Mohammadreza from DRS Music Group and members of the wonderful Maison Foo who share delicious food and important stories from Asylum Seekers and Refugees who are now living and making a difference in Derby. As well as the stories you will here Music submitted by Yasir and a song written by Dlivan.
For the music group a quieter but lovely morning. Arasch was playing his harmonium when we arrived. Three people, Ali, Ahmed and Adis wanted to drum and sing - Dlivan lead this group, it sounded great. Sarah went to join Arasch and improvised with him on violin. Adam arrived and was interested in piano. With Ali and Ahmed we made a small start with 5 note scales from middle C, identifying all the Cs on the piano and where to find them, all the As in relation to the black notes and finally all the octaves of A minor. I know Owen planned to continue on Saturday! Ali and Ahmed joined the Music WhatsApp group and Adis and Adam I'll hope to ask next week.
We are hoping in Spring 2025 to arrange a Music Group visit to Manchester to meet a group of Refugee Musicians who meet regularly to play and perform. This is being organised with Goran, a former and much appreciated volunteer at DRS and who is now just beginning a degree at Manchester Metropolitan University. 💐
And here is another celebrated volunteer...
Mohammed's special day at Derby County's Pride Park to receive an award for all his work at DRS as a volunteer for the BBC Make a Difference Awards 2024
Thursday 24th October
A slightly different session as a new Organ was being installed. Unexpectedly we had 6 or 7 people and we SANG! It was joyful and everyone was very helpful trying out an idea for words from Amani to a new melody. We hope to sing it with everyone after meeting on the 7th November. We did a little bit of guitar Aminor to go with the song.
Here it is, Salem, Salem, Nurid asalem (Peace, Peace all we ask is Peace) We also tried this in Kurdish, Farsi and Tigrinyan
Salem, Salem
Thursday 31st October
I was away today but I KNOW Sue said there were three new people for guitar, I look forward to meeting them next week.
Thursday 7th November
Today we sang in the Hall after meeting in a round - (nice harmony!) we sang Nurid asalem. Maybe another time we can sing in Kurdish, Amharic, Tigrinya or Farsi.....
We have returned to our music morning structure!
We come together as a group and sing or clap something before we begin guitar, piano, Djaying or Drum. We then come back together to share what we have done.
This week two drummers improvised with piano and frame drum and later the people learning guitar came to listen and share what we learned on guitar.
Drum Improvisation with piano and frame drum
Thursday 14th November
Today we extended the clapping pattern together to warm ourselves and move a little!
New people today were Dawit a second person called Dawit, Dalo and Alfred along with Asad returning. A slightly shorter session today as some of the DRS music group were performing at a celebration of Janet Fuller's life at DRAC AT 1PM.
Dawit, Dalo and Asad made great progress on guitars. We looked at a good foundation for guitar playing: posture, hand position, naming of guitar parts, rhythm and 4 initial chords played smoothly. We used 2 of our chords to sing Ezzayacom - we just need to learn C and G next time! - (see the whole song below performed at DRAC)
I know Sarah was teaching the Happy Birthday melody on piano to Dawit and Alfred. No time to share this week sadly...
Yasir, Mohammadreza, Dlivan, Sarah and I went off to play at DRAC
At DRAC 14.11.24 for Janet Fuller's Life Celebration
January 2025
This New Year we have plans to fine tune our teaching programme and aim to bring more music into the main hall at least once a month so everyone can either join in or listen. Here's an earlier song called Thula Mama - just 2 words and meaning Don't Cry Mother.
Thula Mama after Morning Meeting at DRS about 18 months ago (?)
Looking forward there are already discussions with Derby Museum of Making towards us taking part in Hello Derby! A Festival of Welcome or whatever form this year's celebrations take!
Thursday 16th January
Our new 4 week beginner's course began well with 5 beginners! Everyone made good progress and by the end of the session we were all able to play a song using our first 2 chords and we had the opportunity to fine tune our pronunciation in Pashto, Amharic and Arabic.
This led to Ibrahim sharing music from home both recorded and to sing for us - it was great to hear.
Dlivan worked separately with one young drummer, a singer and Sarah.
No time to video anything we were too busy ! Here is a photo of the hall piano and the world map used as a starting point for a song called On The Road by Dlivan Salih and Carol Fieldhouse - you can find a clip on the second blog for Ashti.
DRS Hall Piano
Advance notice of people raising funds through music for DRS locally and further afield . A group of musicians from Wirksworth including Jay from Dubrek Studios are running an event during the Wirksworth Festival in September and would like DRS to be one of the charities being supported. AND Dubrek Studios in Derby have an event coming up later in the year where DRS has also been nominated as the Charity to benefit from the event 💐
Thursday 6th February
We began as a group with a physical clapping game - it's always good to move first before we sing or play! We worked on a 3 part song called Thula Mama - see video above - a Zulu song soothing a Mother.
A good turn out and progress in all areas. A big piano group today, 5 for guitar and 2 for DJ.
Our special songs we've sung for a long time, like Amani, (Peace) have proved invaluable in finding ways to connect quickly through music and with a few words in many different languages. In the guitar group we had 2 levels: complete beginners and one or two people who have had 3/4 lessons. It worked well to run 2 levels in slightly different areas of the space and then leave one group to practice while checking in with the other.
In the piano room this short video was made. We plan to find a way to arrange this beautiful song for our group.
First steps of a new song
Thursday 13th February
A particularly cold morning so a little quieter. A different group warm up activity of welcome and more progress with the song Thula Mama for next week's sharing in the Main Hall. We will meet at 10.15 next week to run through the song.
Two people for guitar, two for piano and 2 for DJ.
We are hoping to invest in a PA to facilitate our music sharing at DRS and beyond.
Alexander - new DJ doing great!
Thursday 20th February
Today people arrived early on a rainy morning at DRS! We practised our song together so we can be ready to sing for everyone in the hall. It was lovely to sing together with so many voices both new friends and old friends. Thula Mama.
And here is today’s new video from Alexander!
Thursday 20th Feb singing together in the Hall three part harmony
Thula Mama - Zulu song meaning Don't cry, Mum
We plan to sing in the hall once a month - we are aiming for 27th of March!
Plans are developing with a request for DRS Music Group to contribute to Refugee Week on June 21st with Furthest From the Sea. TBC
22.03.2025
We are sad to say one of our music team died on Monday. Mike was a guitarist who was a friend to all and enjoyed teaching people in our music group. Mike performed with us at Willington Fund Raiser for Help For Hannah and at Furthest From the Sea Festival 2024. He tirelessly repaired and restrung guitars and helped individuals behind the scenes with their lives.
Mike standing recording with 2 members of our group.
And here on the left at Furthest From the Sea 2024
This YouTube video link was made almost 2 years ago for the evaluation of a project called Derby CAN based at Derby Theatre. This is a short interview to explain how Derby CAN and Derby Theatre with Sam Rushton have supported DRS musicians. Our friendship with the theatre continues with multiple opportunities.
Thursday 3rd April
We sang our very own version of Bella Ciao with the whole of our DRS community in 6 languages - thanks to Terence for making the powerpoint of all the lyrics!
Sarah, Sue and I had the luxury of working one to one on piano, DJaying and guitar respectively. It's a great opportunity not only to share music but to find ways to communicate and improve English understanding.
Next week, Thursday 10th we will have drumming with Chris Sylla, let's hope the sun shines and we can play in the park..
June 6th
A busy time with many of our friends transferring to other cities. Their music stays with us💐
We are preparing for Refugee Week - the plans are not clear because sadly Furthest From the Sea has not received funding for their outside stage - a great pity!
We are hoping for a chance to sing inside the Museum of Making .
This song is called Better Together written by Carol Fieldhouse
Here is a small practice video of a new song we were preparing to sing in the hall
.....and then an even smaller video in the hall!
Better Together by Carol Fieldhouse 2025
V. 1
D / / / G / /
All I am
/ D / /
All I can be
/ G / /
Better together
/ D / /
You and me
V. 2
/ G / /
All we are
/ D / /
All we can be
/ G / /
Better together
/ D / / /
You and me
Pre - chorus
D / G /
If I fall, understand
G / A /
If you fall, take my hand Repeat
Chorus
(D) / / / G
Sun will rise……..always
/ A / D
Earth will turn……always
/ / / G
Side by side…….always
/ A A D / /
Better together ….always. Repeat
V. 3
/ G / /
Times are hard
/ D / /
Things go wrong
/ G / /
You’re feeling lost
/ D / /
The road is long Repeat Blue words
Refugee Week 2025 Museum of Making
What a wonderful day of warmth and community. DRS singers did a great job with Thula Mama and the first performance of Better Together, previewed above.
Thanks to all the singers and supporters.
And a few photos from Babi and Mohammed - thank you to you both.
A tiny clip from singing with and for everyone at DRS
August 30th DRS 10th Birthday Party at the Allotment
Hosted by the Allotment team in the beautiful garden space they have built with and for our community. Great food, music and even some dancing.
DRS is closed now until October for its annual break.
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