March 2024 Newsletter
Hello First Timers,
Wow it is almost spring time, so dust off those musical instruments and get ready for a busy season 3 of our workshops & events.
First Timers 1st Birthday Party
3pm Sunday 10th March at The Music Workshop
It is so hard to believe that just 12 months ago we launched Folkestone First Timers with no idea what we were really doing or how the great community of Folkestone & Hythe would respond. Just one year later we have gone from nothing to something really special. Everyone in our community - tutors, participants, volunteers, venues & local musicians have made this a really special precious thing.
To celebrate we are throwing a free birthday party on Sunday 10th March. There will be cake, kazoos joy & laughter. As we’re sure some of you will want to perform, we will have an open mic set up too.
Open Mic Night at The Music Workshop
7pm Friday 8th March 2024
Our regular OPEN MIC event has moved to a Friday at The Music Workshop. Get into the swing as spring approaches & blow way those winter blues by sharing your talent. This event is open to any performer - music, comedy or spoken word. The Music Workshop has plenty of instruments and equipment which you are welcome to use on the night.
No need to book, just turn up and put your name down. This is a free event. Click here for more details
Season 3 Workshops Are now Available for Booking
We have now released our Season 3 Workshops which will include the usual ones - Guitar, Bass, Drums & Keyboards. We have yet to schedule our vocal workshops - but worry not they will be coming later in spring. In addition we are including a new music production/songwriting workshop. Click here for more details
Summary of workshops & Events in March
8th March 7pm - Open Mic @ The Music Workshop
10th March 3pm - Birthday Party @ The Music Workshop
12th March 7pm - Keyboard Workshop @ Community Network
14th March 6.30pm - Band Practice Club @ The Music Workshop
26th March 7pm - Keyboards Workshop @ Community Network
27th March 7pm - Bass Workshop @ Community Network
28th March 6.30pm - Band Practice Club @ The Music Workshop
29th March 7pm - Drumming Workshop @ Community Network
All these are listed on our website where you can find out more information. Click here for more details
Fundraising
Folkestone First Timers relies on funding from you through ticket sales, our events and through donations from funding organisations. We have been very lucky to receive some money from our local town and district councillors already this year.
We will need to continue to raise funds throughout 2024, so if you have an idea or would like to run a fund raiser, please get in touch - we’d love to hear from you. One of our founders, Peter (aka BaffledSpaniel) has completed a running challenge in February covering 170km in just 29 days and raising an incredible £655. Thank you generous donors. You can read more about Peter’s challenge here.
May the music be with you,
Folkestone First Timers HQ
FEB145 Challenge - Running 145km in 29 days
One of our founders, Peter Sheridan, likes to run so we encouraged him to take on a running challenge to raise money for Folkestone First Timers. He came up with the idea of running an average of 5km a day for the whole month of February. And as it is a leap year that means 29 days, a total of 145km. Sponsor Peter Today.
Update frollowing my final run of 12.4km. Wow it's been an amazing month finished off on a beautiful day with a 12.4km run to hit a total of 170km. We have raised an amazing £605, thank you so much lovely generous donors. All your money will go to supporting First Timers get into music.
Check out Peter’s posts for each run February.
January 2024 Newsletter
Happy New Year Folkestone First Timers,
We hope you all had a lovely holiday and that 2024 will bring you many musical gifts.
We already have an exciting start to 2024 with our last vocal workshop (held over from last year), 2 band practice sessions at a new central Folkestone venue - The Music Workshop and our very first Open Mic night. In preparation for the 2024 seasons we are also putting out a call for volunteers.
Band Practice Club - The Music Workshop
6.30-8.30pm Tuesday 9th January 2024
We had a great turnout for our very first band practice in December so we will be adding these to our regular events. For this one the songs are
Otis Redding - Respect
ELO - Don't Bring Me Down
The Beatles - Get Back
Taylor Swift - Shake it off
Ben has lots of plans for these session and he told us recently - “I’m thinking in future, we should do themed band practice sessions, for example, this week it’s Motown! The next it’s Country! The next Punk!” So come along these are gonna be huge fun. We are holding a second session on the Tuesday 23rd January.
These sessions will cost the same as our workshops and are payable on the door - £5 regular price, £2 Reduced Cost of Living price and concessions are available for unwaged and those who have limited income. Cash please as this means all the money goes to cover our costs.
Open Mic Night at The Music Workshop
7pm Saturday 13th January 2024
We are jointly hosting our first OPEN MIC event with Josie and Dan at The Music Workshop on Saturday 13th January. Blow way those Christmas cobwebs and get up on stage to share your talent. This event is open to any performer - music, comedy or spoken word. No need to book, just turn up and put your name down. This is a free event.
Volunteer Opportunities
We will be running lots of events and workshops in 2024 and we need you. If you are interested in volunteering to help out at workshops or events then reply to this email. We also would like to hear from you if you are interested in developing live sound engineering skills. You can help out at events or perhaps help our acts craft their live sound.
New Website & YouTube Channel
Over the holidays we have updated our website to include all our events,some fab photos and some videos from our first FOLKESTONE FIRST TIMERS LIVE event. Check them out and if you would like to write a blog or send us a picture or video we’d be very happy to share them.
Click here to see our new website
Click here to see our youtube channel
May the music be with you,
Folkestone First Timers HQ
Assembling a Community
Folkestone First Timers join in at Sunday Assembly Folkestone, a secular community gathering bringing people together on a Sunday morning to share stories, music and cake.
On 3rd December some members of Folkestone First Timers joined the Sunday Assembly band to perform in front of a large audience. With just a few days to rehearse we had to draw on all our, very limited, experience in getting up to speed quickly with the four songs - Let Me Entertain You (Robbie Williams), Let it Be (The Beatles), Let it Go (Idina Menzel, Frozen) and All I want for Christmas (Mariah Carey). It was a fantastic event although it did feel a little strange belting out numbers on stage with a full band at 11am on a Sunday morning!
Sunday Assembly is a worldwide movement that holds non-religious Sunday gatherings where people come together to share music & cake and hear from people talking about their passions. A local member of our community, Kirsty Hogben, spoke about her passion for sea swimming all year round and how it helped her well-being coming back from injury. Kirsty is now a sea swim coach helping others to find joy in the sea. Kirsty also likes cruffins. This youtube video shows how sea swimming and cruffins are a match made in heaven.
You can contact Kirsty via her instagram page - Kirsty Sea Swimming
You can find out more about Sunday Assembly Folkestone here - Sunday Assembly Folkestone
Where it all began
It all begins with an idea to help others learn music later in life.
Folkestone First Timers was originally inspired by a Guardian article in October 2022 - A new start after 60: I joined a garage band and found my inner punk (click here to read it). It was about the experiences of someone later in life coming to music and the movement in Leicester was called Unglamorous Music run by the late Ruth Miller.
I was inspired not by the story but how it reminded me of the joy I got in learning music later in life. As a child I had no interest in anything other than listening to music. So it wasn’t until 2018 when I decided that it was time to learn to play an instrument. Buying a cheap keyboard on ebay and largely self-taught, music and keyboards have been a huge part of my life since then. You can see my first years of piano in a video below.
So with the support of friends and people who I didn’t know I thought let’s set up a programme here in Folkestone to help people make their musical dreams come true. What happened next is nothing less than incredible as you can see on the pages of this website and our social media. With the support of these fabulous people this would never have happened
Florence Glen
Vanessa Clark
Senet Yohannes
Nick Pollard
Wendy King
Ben Pinhorn
Pedro Dias
Lorraine Lucas
Debbie & Mark @20th Century Speedway