Workshops & Leadership

Loose Wind founder Sam Sharp has many years of experience working in schools and community groups to provide tailored workshops. In addition to practical experience with instrumental ensembles, choirs, theatre groups and in the class room, Sam has had professional training in the Connect approach to workshop leading, from the Guildhall School Of Music and Drama.

General Approach

We believe in inclusivity, working with people from any background, age or ability. We can work with any mixture of instruments and skill to create a performance or recorded piece involving everyone. The inspiration for the work can come from current school projects, pieces of music, or completely from scratch from the group and leaders themselves.

Rhythm Workshops

Particularly suitable for young people, our leaders work with a group to develop rhythmical awareness, using body percussion and/or a set of percussion instruments. We cover rhythms from around the world, using a mixture of fun games, group composition and improvisation to encourage the group to express themselves and discover their natural internal rhythm.

Composition Workshops

Using an existing project, piece, words, picture, film or pretty much anything as inspiration, we can develop a jointly composed piece of music for a performance. This could be one or more pieces as part of a concert combined with existing material, worked on over a number of sessions. It could also be equally a piece written in one session to be performed in front of classmates, friends or family. The majority of the compositional material comes from the group itself, and we are confident we can deliver a piece in any style, ability or instrumentation.

Improvisation Workshops

Using pitched instruments and/or percussion, we can provide workshops at various levels of skills and experience within the area of improvisation. Our technique focuses on 3 key areas:

  1. Melody: Working on thematic and motivic techniques for melodic improvisation
  2. Rhythm: using rhythmic placement and style to inspire creativity and variety
  3. Harmony: advice on scale choices and harmonic ideas, from beginner to conservatoire level

Jazz Workshops

Often taking a group of classical, pop or theatrical musicians, we can provide a good grounding in the repertoire and technique of jazz performance and improvisation, including jazz phrasing, instrument-specific work (e.g. jazz drums, jazz piano), sectional work with big bands, and above all approaches to jazz improvisation