Our steel band was born into this less than tropical climate back in 1986, and promptly achieved nationwide popularity. We travel all over the country, and indeed abroad, playing to audiences at events with (or without!) a tropical theme. We make it our business for our steel band to transport your imagination to the most idyllic sun-soaked Caribbean holiday you have ever or never had!

Our Goals

In no particular order, we aim to....

■ Motivate every single participant

■ Have them gain an understanding and respect for the steel band, its origins and the Caribbean people

■ Promote the benefits of cultural diversity

■ Help them feel a sense of achievement having learnt a musical part

■ Build their confidence and assertiveness

■ Improve their performance within ‘tight’ time constraints

■ Have them bond and develop a strong team ethic

■ Have them communicate better with their classmates!

■ Put a broad grin on everybody’s face!

“Lionel came all the way out to North Essex to teach our Year 6 pupils how to play the steel drums! Whenever I went to check how they were getting on, the children were bopping to the music (La Bamba) and having a great time. Lionel was a great teacher, very calm and relaxed. I can't recommend this experience enough. Absolutely excellent!” - Laura, Brightlingsea Junior School, Essex

“Thanks so much for your incredible performance on Thursday. It was brilliant as it was our annual Arts Week & the theme was 'Global Trotters'. We thought you were all fantastic! We really enjoyed having you play at our school. The teachers & children loved it. So please thank all the other band members. You pitched it perfectly & you interacted brilliantly with the children. We look forward to having you again. Many thanks again. Tanya & all the staff at the Infants.” - Stanley Primary School - Infants dept., Teddington

Drum Workshop and Team Building

A chance for learning, communicating, understanding…and having fun!

 Our interactive ‘steel band workshops’ (we prefer this term as it immediately identifies the team ethic we foster) are also known as ‘steel pan workshops’ or ‘steel drum workshops’. They represent a fantastic opportunity for active learning with people taking part in an activity that is a lot of fun.

 If you are an educational institution like a school wishing to enrich the curriculum of your students, we can fashion the right music workshop for you with the Caribbean drums we call ‘steel pans’.

The steel pan is a very special instrument in terms of its suitability for both teaching and learning. Producing a note is easy. People love hitting drums, because the sonic rewards are so immediate and satisfying. With steel pans, because they are tuned percussion instruments, participants have the added thrill of producing tones for actual songs.

 Our professional facilitators can have total novices playing something very recognisable at the end of a workshop session!

 Our steel band workshops suit any group or audience regardless of age or ability and indeed can prove particularly beneficial to:

■Pre-schools

■KS2 and KS3 students

■SEN

■Inset Days

■Extended Schools

■Parent and Child Creative Workshops

■Fundraising

■Team Building

During our visits to schools and colleges we give the students an opportunity to learn a little about the colourful history of steel drums or ‘pans’ and how they are made and tuned. This may be done in individual classes, year groups, or indeed assemblies involving the entire school.

 We will then, of course, demonstrate how our instruments are played choosing the right tunes with which our audience can identify so as to encourage as much enthusiastic participation as possible. Primary school children may well enjoy ‘Incy,  Wincy Spider’, or ‘The Wheels On The Bus’, but trust us, ‘Match Of The Day’ goes down much better at a secondary boys’ school!

 Of course, we’ll also briefly demonstrate the sonic differences between the different instruments to make our audience’s experience as musically educational as it will be multicultural and entertaining.

 So we’re always looking for a nod of approval from the school’s Head of Music, as well!

 Then it’s time for our young audience to have a go themselves and get to play in their own steel band! This will immediately provide the right stimulus to conquer shyness and lack of assertiveness. At the same time, we will promote the children’s social and emotional development as well as improving their motivation for learning.

 How all this is organised very much depends on the numbers of children involved and how much time is available.

 We offer 2 basic music workshop formats consisting of the following:

■ A couple of steel band workshop facilitators and at least 15 steel drums.

■ 3 or 4 professional steel band musicians who would bring their own steel band instruments on which to instruct the kids.

The first steel drum workshop package is more suited to handling larger classes with little ‘performance’, as such required from our facilitators. The second package is more suited to high quality presentations including performances, but with smaller workshops. Even so, within each format we can show a lot of flexibility to cater for your specific requirements.

■ Experienced facilitators

■ All instruments provided

■ Public Liability Insurance

■ CRB Checked