Between 2006-2013 Pete collaborated with fellow musician Mat Clements with a shared vision, teaching and fusing Afro-Brazilian and African music to young people in Primary Schools in Edinburgh and The Scottish Borders.
Pete "the Beat" has led over 100 workshops all culminating in exciting performances by the school groups.
Djembes, Alfais, Agogos, Abe/Shekere, Timba, Dun Duns, Caixa were all deployed exploring Samba Reggae, Soko, Rio Funk, Tiriba, Makulele, Kpanlogo, Macru, Maracatu and our own fusions leading to a rich and engaging experience for everyone.
Pete the Beat and Mat the Hat also developed the concept of the "Museum of Weird and Marvellous Instruments" bringing instruments to the classroom sessions and learning about their sound and culture whilst learning to sing the rhythmic parts or the song became a fantastic way of getting young people engaged in the art of music making together. We play instruments from our travels and study such as Claypot, Pandero, Berimbau, Mbira, Cuica, Talking drum, Bougarabou, "hang" and Water drums.
Pete as Pete the Beat has collaborated with fellow workshop leaders (Mat Clements, Conrad Molleson, Olivia Furness, Marcus Britton and Rick Bamford) in tremendous Big Drum Adventures into rhythm and song across Edinburgh City Council over a number of years. Reaching young people in vulnerable areas facilitating music making, fun group dynamics, learning to play together as a group and enjoy the drumming experience.
5-10 week courses of regular workshops would always culminate in a performance (usually recorded) for the school, fellow class mates, parents and siblings. You can hear some of the performance sessions here....
In 2008 Pete the Beat was asked by a special school music department to devise a bespoke interactive live sampling and music making enivornment with bespoke hacked devices.
Pete designed his own software "PetesBeatzSoundLooper" using Max/MSP to create a flexible and creative sound environment deploying such items as joystick, distance and light sensors, a reverse parking sensor and acoustic instruments. Heres a wee snippet of some of these amazing sessions with the young people...
Between 2009 - 2013 Pete and Mat continued a fun collaboration of workshop leadership together working in Primary Schools with The Scottish Borders Council and the Youth Music Initiative. BDA continued in over 30 schools across the Borders, reaching hundreds of young people for regular workshop sessions resulting in a band performance in "Week 5".
Braving four seasons a day of weather we would unload drums at a school at 9am in glorious sunshine and often be loading up in the afternoon in a snow shower!
Our projects featured as Creative Scotland examples of Excellent Practice in Community Music.
