Those who participated at the rhythm workshop at Bozca-Der, which is one of London’s largest and most active non-governmental organisations, lived an unforgettable experience.
Rhythm is the term used to describe the pattern of regular or irregular pulses caused by melodic and harmonic beats. Percussion instruments are the most popular musical instruments people want to learn how to play. During lessons, students are taught how to produce this art by feeling the beat of the music through the rhythms of the heartbeat and this talent is embedded into their subconscious mind.
Bozca-Der, a charity who is serving Turkish speaking communities in London, has been holding events and has launched courses, of which the rhythm workshop was the most recent event held free of charge last Saturday. Music teacher Hüseyin Murat Sığırcı supervised this workshop, whom the public was invited to regardless of whether they owned a musical instrument or not. Men and women from all age groups attended this event.
“LISTEN TO YOUR HEARTBEAT”
Some of the people who attended the workshop pointed out that they easily harmonised with others, learned new things and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Sığırcı, who volunteered to supervise the event, implied at the end of the workshop that he was impressed with the turnout and the level of participation.
He said: “everyone can produce music. We helped the participants discover their humane talents. Thanks to our heartbeat we are familiar to sensing rhythm and once that skill is developed, extraordinary pieces of work can be produced. Those who attended the workshop discovered that they could produce music by correctly clapping to, or clicking their fingers to different beats. This workshop was an opportunity to answer any questions in practice to those who want to attend our percussion courses we intend to launch.”
The rhythm workshop lasted over two hours and the turnout was impressive, despite taking place over the summer holidays. In the last part of the workshop, participants were divided into separate groups and produced original pieces of music with the compositions Sığırcı prepared. This was followed by jointly singing along to the ‘Karlı Kayın Ormanında’ song accompanied by traditional Turkish instruments, “bağlama, bendir, taf and davul (drums)”.
