Building on the success of regional series, for the 2024-25 academic year Musical Mondays has gone national! Schools across England tuned in to the first concert of the series on 14 October, with performances by Blank Face (aka Josh Whyte) reaching over 15000 children.
Blank Face’s music is genre defying and his concerts reflected not only his West African musical heritage but also the creativity of his own original music: his speciality is freestyling in genres as diverse as gospel, hiphop, Afro and RnB. Pupils were invited to get involved by suggesting words and ideas which Blank Face improvised into a unique song, combining as many of their suggestions as possible. The concert’s chat feature gave schools the opportunity to share their thoughts on hearing their own song, and left them wanting to create their own:
“We think you are so creative – one of our values!”
“How can you think up improvisation so quickly?”
“That was so clever! Well done!”
“Fantastic job getting in so many of the words”
“They loved his improvised song and wanted to make their own too!”
Children were introduced to the djembe, a West African drum, and its different sounds. They enjoyed learning about its history and then joining in with a drumming workshop exploring a variety of different rhythms.
A highlight for schools was hearing Josh perform his own songs. The music was a hit with pupils and classes requested links to Blank Face’s socials so the children could discover more of his music for themselves following the performance.
“My class clapped every time you performed even though they knew you couldn’t hear!” – Teacher
“That was amazing!’” – Pupil
“You’re the best musician ever” – Poland Class
Throughout the concert, pupils asked Blank Face questions in the chat about his musical style and inspiration. Josh was able to share his journey to becoming a professional musician, giving ‘ a sense of inspiration for what children can achieve.’ (teacher feedback) ‘Gives the children ambition and inspiration to work towards.’
Head of Tri-Borough Music Hub Stuart Whatmore shared his thoughts following Blank Face’s performance:
“I just wanted to say thank you for the first Musical Mondays session that happened yesterday. I really enjoyed seeing it all happen, and it was great to see the interaction between the participants via the chat and Q&A. I thought Josh was fantastic, a real inspiration to the young people and very positive messages.”
Thank you to our music service partners: Cumbria Music Hub, EdSential, Essex Music Hub, London West Music Hub, North Tyneside Music Hub, Nottinghamshire Music Hub, One Education Manchester and Resonate for their support in bringing Musical Mondays to schools across England.
Learn more about Musical Mondays and see the programme for the rest of the series – including the next concerts on 9 December – here.
