Ulster Scots Fife & Lambeg Drum Class

The Ulster Scots Agency asked me to assist in a pilot Fife & Lambeg Drum Class at the Boys' Model School in Belfast back in January 2008. The pilot lasted 16 weeks and proved a great success.

During the early few weeks of the project I was assisted by Denis Morrow and George Holmes. There is no history of either the fife or lambeg drum in the school, so it was a new and challenging project. With the support of Mrs Sharon Baird - Head of Music, I firstly gave a workshop to 52 pupils on the history of the fife & lambeg drum tradition in Ulster and from those who attended, I set up the classes 3 x classes in drumming and 1 x class fife - 38 students participated.

Over the next weeks the pupils really enjoyed the new classes and many showed great promise - some were time wasters who were sent back to class as expected but the majority stayed and embraced the tradition.

The class was so successful that by the 'New Term' in September 2008, the school wanted the classes to continue the Agency also incorporated into the project along with the tuition 3 x educational trips - visit to Lambeg Drum maker, drum painter and fife maker. The school with the help from the Agency also purchased their own lambeg drum that was later painted.

The picture above shows the Minister for DECAL Gregory Campbell, Mr David Cargo, Belfast Education & Library Board, Belfast Councillor Jim Rodgers with myself and some of the students from the classes. As you can see the drum finished well and was very well played at its unveiling by the Boys'.

The classes are still going well with in the school - it has brought many benefits for the school, attendance is up on a Monday - increased interest in the Music Dept. over demand in the lambeg & fife classes and of course a keen interest in the Ulster Scots Tradition with in the school.

This class has been a great success - a new initiative taken with apprehension but those who took the initial decision had great vision & trust - and very much with a 'leap of faith' by the Ulster Scots Agency and of course the Boys' Model School. It has worked out well and I still hold classes on Monday's at the school.

Other schools have shown a great interest in this project - Glengormley High School, Rathfriland High School and now Castlederg High & Movilla High Schools have taken the plunge and are keep to take traditional Fife & Drum classes during school hours.

As their tutor it has been a very challenging but rewarding experience being involved in the Ulster Scots Tutor Programme - I never saw myself as a musician or even a music tutor, nevertheless we all have some hidden talent somewhere - even me!

HMA.

How Did Get Into This

Following on from a previous post regarding my job - Well the Ulster Scots Agency continued to develop ideas and projects in the area of Education and my experience of the Ulster Scots Tradition convinced me that if the Tradition was to flourish / develop a huge investment of time and resources was to be put into the Education sector.

After School Clubs - This was a further realisation for me that the Ulster Scots Agency was moving down the correct avenue. Ulster Scots After School Clubs were being developed in schools throughout Ulster it involved a 10 week 1 afternoon per week where children would stay after school to learn about various aspects of our Ulster Scots Culture. For example music & dance, history, language etc, tutors would visit the schools and provide a workshop on there preferred subject - Mark Anderson Fife & Lambeg Drum, Keith Lyttle Fiddle, Gary Blair Language and so on. My experience of these clubs was very positive - children, parents, teachers, board of governors, principals we all very enthusiastic about this 'new' initiative. Children are just so interested and keen to learn - it is at times overwhelming and many, many times I left the schools with very excited children wanting more and more Ulster Scots. I was getting Paid now - although I was still technically employed in my real job! Getting paid for this work - my hobby was very strange - I had given my time in the past voluntarily without payment.

The next stage was Ulster Scots Peripatetic Music Tutor post - What? Yes, well I looked up the dictionary to see what Peripatetic meant first then I applied for the job as a travelling music tutor. I was successful and began work on 7th November 2008 on a 1 year contract to work as a self employed music tutor for the Ulster Scots Agency!

How I got on will be revealed in a later post along with a few photo's!

HMA

How did I get into this?

As you can see from my profile I am presently employed as a Peripatetic Music Tutor working as a self employed basis for the Ulster Scots Agency. Now how did this come about - well I ponder that question every day!

I have been actively involved with the fife and the lambeg drum tradition since the middle of the 1990's, I am not born into the tradition - by that I mean my family are not fife of drummers. I was very interested in the tradition and enjoyed listening to the music. I wanted to learn to play the lambeg drum but despite asking various people - no one would teach me, most did not know how to teach, others would not teach me because they did not have the time - they said!

So how do you learn to play one of the most iconic musical instruments in Ulster? Most people associated with the Lambeg Drumming Tradition are Orangemen who are members of various Orange Lodges and unless you join a particular Orange Lodge, you won't be taught to play the Drum, simple as that. Unknown to me at this time although it became more evident as the years progressed there were many people in my position, who wanted to learn to play these instruments, but they did want to join an Orange Lodge to learn how to play them?

I am an Orangeman of 28 years standing and can fully understand the quandary people were in, so with the help of 3-4 other like minded men – back in 1999, we formed Conlig Drumming Club - Conlig is a village situated between Newtownards and Bangor and had a tradition of Lambeg Drumming back in the 40's and 50's - an all too familiar story of a once thriving tradition. We found a man Robert Paden and his friend Trevor Shaw who agreed to teach us the rudiments of lambeg drumming.

As the years progressed we introduced the fife to accompany the drumming at our Club, hence the club grew into a thriving group, musicians and other interested people came along to enhance their knowledge and interest in the Ulster Scots / Fife & Lambeg Drum tradition – they were great times.

Conlig Drumming Club had been asked to assist the Ulster Scots Agency in a number of Educational projects that they were developing, Summer Schools were first and our club agreed to help. These were very successful and enjoyable- sadly our members did not have the time to take the project further - but I remained very keen to develop what I saw as a wonderful opportunity to bring the fife and lambeg drum tradition to the next generation.

There is obviously a lot more to it than that, nevertheless that is a brief synopsis for now.

More in the next post!

HMA