An original song by Rachel Wanless Green created in PMZ's Brighter Skies sessions with Anna Batson - a beautiful acknowledgement of loss and love and how entwined our memories are. Illustration of forget-me-not flowers and butterflies.

The Colour Of Her Words

Created entirely online together on Zoom, 'Just Dance' is a collaboration between neurodiverse / disabled musicians from Plymouth Music Zone's 'Digital Orchestra' led by music leader, Steve Becket. It features vocals, Guitar, Piano and other instruments played by different group members. Files are shared with one another and creative decisions made together in online weekly workshops. Nice one team!

Digital Orchestra - Just Dance

The Community Engagement Team from Peninsula Dental Social Enterprise have developed a resource which supports oral health improvement for children aged 5-7 years. 

Funded by the Wrigley Company Foundation, Open Wide and Step Inside is a 12 minute film which tells the story of a giant with toothache and his visit to meet Daisy the dentist. With key oral health messages throughout the film, children learn about their own teeth and find out how to keep them healthy. 

A 2 minute brushing song has been written especially for the programme by Anna Batson from Plymouth Music Zone with local school children taking part in the recording and production of the song. The animation and brushing song encourage children to remember the 5 ‘take home’ messages:

• Brushing for 2 minutes
• Always brush before bedtime
• Fluoride is ‘super hero’ ingredient in sugar
• Limit sugary drinks and foods, and only have them at      mealtimes
• Visit a dentist on a regular basis

The Brushing Song

The fabulous PMZ mentee 'DJ Dolphin' (aka Karen Smithen) has created and recorded this remarkable, rapturous rap with support from her mentor, PMZ Music Leader Paul Lacey.  Written about the fun and antics she had during her old school days at Cotswold-Chine from 1985 - 1990 DJ Dolphin recalls friends and happy times. Now a seasoned performer, she can be seen singing at the Funky Llama festival in Plymouth 2015, so big thanks go to them for their help towards funding this.  Funky Llama is a Theatre Royal Plymouth project which challenges stereotypes and celebrates the creative talents of adults with different abilities. It involves large scale performing arts and social events as well as increasing the amount of arts opportunities available throughout the region.

Cotswold Chine - by DJ Dolphin

Plymouth Music Zone works in a range of residential care homes across the city, and this song is performed here by the wonderful Barbara Wakley at Devonport Views - just down the road from our building. 
Barbara, who had been told not to sing when she was a child always thought she couldn't sing, but when we heard her fantastic voice, we couldn't help but think of the inimitable Eartha Kit!   We love Barbara's version of this song "What Are We Going to Do with Uncle Arthur?"  written by  Alexander Faris and Alfred Shaughnessy.   It 
featured in 1970s television series Upstairs, Downstairs.


What Are We Going To Do With Uncle Arthur?

A gorgeous rendition of a familiar song rewritten by Margaret from our Stroke Association group, who has everyone joining in with bells and voices as we get into the festive feeling!

The Stroke Association group comes along to PMZ every week and Margaret is famous for her marvellous cakes, keeping us in trim(not!) 

If you'd like to help PMZ run workshops like these and many others for people facing challenging times in their lives why not join in with "PMZ's 12 Donating Days of Christmas" and either text Luck13 with the amount you'd like to donate to 70070 or go to our webpage to donate here:https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/donation-web/charity?charityId=1001189&stop_mobi=yes

Thank you.  Without your help, PMZ couldn't raise the £500,000 per year it needs to continue its work using music to change lives.

PMZ & The Stroke Association - Margaret's new version of Jingle Bells

This new group have only been working together for a few months and they are already having a great time making arrangements of some classic songs as well as thinking about their own original material. Here is the John Denver song, 'Leaving on a Jetplane', including vocals, Guitar, Celtic Harp, Piano, Percussion. A beautiful session - we wish you could have been there!

Leaving On A Jetplane, Cover by The Musical Misfits

An instrumental version of our classic Ants in Your Pants Song....so you can create your own lyrics. 

If you love this, then perhaps pop a little donation in the PMZ pot, but at the very least please spread this joyous little number far and wide.

PMZ - Ants In Your Pants - No Voice

Zghayroun

This joyful, catchy, moving and hilarious little number was created by our fabulous 'In The Zone' group at St Luke's Hospice over the past few months together. The group meet to help one another through bereavement and loss, using music to help with the journey. 

The piece was co-created by choosing a note each to form the initial melody. Then our dear Jack said "That just sounds like a waltz - I think it has to be..." and so it began. With the backdrop of the hospice, we found ourselves waltzing across the ambulance bay and into the car park and off to our home and still couldn't get rid of the tune a month later....here is a room recording from the conservatory at the hospice where we meet fortnightly. Music bringing us all some healing. The lyrics gathered momentum over the following weeks. We hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it!

Jack's Waltz - St Luke's Hospice, Plymouth

PMZ's Intergenerational Coordinator Rob Tilsley lives with tinnitus, as many people do. Here he has attempted to recreate roughly what his experience is. In Rob's case, it's relatively mild. To get the volume about right, set it so that it would be drowned out by a chorus of crickets, or a gentle waterfall.

Read Rob's Blog that this clip relates to here: https://plymouthmusiczone.org.uk/im-a-musician-and-music-doesnt-sound-good-to-me-any-more/

Rob's Tinnitus - Warning - Unpleasant sound

Learning Support Assistants from Plymouth City College did a fantastic job of getting stuck into making music together and singing during a Youth Music funded training support session in March 2020 before lockdown in the UK. Here they are doing something rather special...

Teamwork Instrumental City College LSAs

Original Song City College LSAs

Cuca Nandy Nandy City College LSAs

Live recording from a performance of The Fish Hearted Bride

Fix You - Tonality - FHB

Home Comforts’ is an original song created during lockdown, from the ideas, photos, videos, emails and musical conversations between the members of Plymouth Music Zone' bereavement support music group run at St Luke's Hospice, called 'In the Zone'.

Many thanks to the group for making this possible!

Music and lyrics are created and performed by Anna Batson (PMZ's Creativity & Learning Director / Music Leader) who brought all the ideas together in this composition and also features a little bit of a melody in the Ukulele inspired by Kevin Warner, who dusted off the piano and shared this familiar tune with us a little while ago (It’s actually from Dvorak’s beautiful 9th Symphony (New World) 2nd Movement played on the Cor Anglais. It’s also been used in a certain famous Hovis bread advert. It was a lovely way to think about how music means different things to us at different times.

The lyrics are here:

Home Comforts (July 2020 by Anna Batson / In The Zone, St Luke’s)

It’s March 2020, we’re trapper in a tricky global situation.
The virus is spreading, we find ourselves in endless contemplation.
The green shoots appear in the spring, the sun wakes as usual. 
Hear the bees getting busy, they’re making sure flowers are fruitful. 

The waves still roll in, though I’ve not actually seen them for eight weeks. 
Talk to my family, see faces stuck inside the screen. 
At the edge of the pond, a little green frog’s smiling at me. 
I wonder what secrets she knows so amphibiously! 

We’re still together – and yet we’re apart…
We’re still together – making musical art, oh and
We find comfort in ordinary things. 
Skyping and typing and Zooming and growing our hair!
We find comfort in extraordinary things,
And the people out there, are the people who care. 

Pick flowers from the garden and fill up the house with their colours. 
Brighten the day – send a message of love for each other. 
Musical friends reach out, like internet angels (ahhhhhh)
Dust off old pianos, tap rhythms upon kitchen tables.

We’re still together – and yet we’re apart…
We’re still together – making musical art, oh and
We find comfort in ordinary things. 
Skyping and typing and Zooming and growing our hair!
We find comfort in extraordinary things,
And the people out there, are the people who care. 

The world hides outside inside radios, TV’s and computers. 
National appeals as the world seems to turn inside out. 
Walk in the woods, use my breath as an anchor for my mind.
Sit under the cherry tree – coffee and cake, passing time.  

We’re still together – and yet we’re apart…
We’re still together – making musical art, oh and
We find comfort in ordinary things. 
Skyping and typing and Zooming and growing our hair!
We find comfort in extraordinary things,
And the people out there, are the people who care.

Home Comforts

Here's a little (not perfect!) socially distanced room recording of the lovely old baby grand piano in the PMZ building and Anna and Steve singing for the first time since March 2020 to let you all know we are thinking of you xxxx

When so many things are out of our control..."Let it Be" and do our own little bit to keep each other positive and safe.

Let It Be Tribute Mp3

Here Comes The Sun - The Summer Sing (2007)

A wassail to gently bring us into the New Year with PMZ's Operations Manager, Steve Blake.

Here We Come A Wassailing

MUSIC MAKING A DIFFERENCE - Plymouth Music Zone is an award winning community music organisation providing high quality music making opportunities for people of all ages and training for adults. 

We passionately believe in the power of music to make a positive difference to people’s lives. We achieve this by working with highly skilled Music Leaders who can respond to the diverse needs of people of all ages and deliver practical music workshops that are vibrant, engaging, inspiring and fun.

Plymouth Music Zone

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