The Music Shed in Eccles is still working hard to keep the music alive with their music lessons and ‘Rocktober’ online gig. 

The school welcomes children over the age of five and offers one-to-one music lessons on a whole range of instruments including vocals, piano, guitar, ukulele, bass, drums, saxophone, and clarinet. 

Dawn Luvin, 44, co-owner and business manager, said: “We came up with the Rocktober fest because a lot of people are not able to go out and mix at the moment, it has been quite an isolating time for a lot of people, so we are giving them an online opportunity to stream for their friends and family who maybe they have not seen in a while, to bring people together on a public forum in a fun way. 

We will have one band a week perform most Fridays, giving them an hour slot, which allows them to play seven to 10 songs. People can open our Facebook page and watch a free concert basically.” 

 

New Rocktober lineup

Dawn’s job is to connect with the families and organise events, which is more important now than ever. To keep something at a constant each week is really benefiting people, not just musically, but for their wellbeing too. 

The Halloween themed gig on Oct 30th will feature the school’s youngest band. As Trick or Treating has been cancelled across the city this year, they thought it would be a good way for the kids to still dress up and have some fun.  

These guys are our newest band and they’ve had a roller coaster of cancelled rehearsals and gigs due to the Pandemic, so we are keeping everything crossed that it all goes ahead for them! 

Opening in November 2017, Dawn and her husband

, both from Eccles, quickly realised that there was nothing in the community that was engaging kids with music, so that is what prompted them to start this school. 

“My husband is the lead teacher here at the school, he has been learning music since he was very young. It is a great way to bring kids together, you start to see skills develop, friendships form, and confidence build. 

“Music is a universal language that brings people together. There is a community at the school made up of the teachers, kids and parents. That’s what makes the school, it would not be the school it is today without the community helping us. 

Before lockdown, their school had events happening once or twice a month, performing on a regular basis. They had kids perform on Salford city radio countless times, their team band made it to the final of Battle of the Bands back in March but that was cancelled because of Covid- 19. One band even performed on the coronation street set. 

Dawn said: “We feel confident as a school that we are keeping everyone safe.  Everyone understands that everything we are putting in place is to keep them safe. We are trying to keep things as normal as possible in a world that isn’t normal.” 

Each room has one or two seven-foot screens between the child and teacher, markings in the waiting area and each workspace gets a full disinfected wipe down after each lesson. Also, cut down of their capacity in the waiting rooms to allow six people at most.  

Dawn continued: Parents will drop their kids off and wait outside now which is sad because one of the biggest parts of the school is parents congregating and talking in the waiting area, it used to have a really nice feel to it.  

We have just put a well-being wall up which is all about steps you can take to improve your mental health, healthy steps you can make, and people you can turn to if things are getting hard.  

For me, I feel like we’re offering some consistency in people’s lives and benefiting people in a significant way. Some parents have worked from home for eight months and haven’t seen friends, so that side of life is missing.

People are fearful for their jobs, fearful for family members’ health. It is having a big impact; I’m observing it daily, and it concerns me that people are feeling really down about it. 

Keep up to date to hear more about their adventurous Christmas concert on their website.  

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