Solomon Islands District - Music Workshops

After months of planning we were very excited to welcome music teacher and professional musician David Hedges at Henderson Airport in Honiara on Thursday, 1st November.  David is a friend and colleague from Melbourne who we got to know during our previous appointment as the Corps Officers at Cranbourne in the south east suburbs of Melbourne.  David is a music teacher at several schools in Melbourne and plays in a jazz band and a Bruce Springsteen tribute band on the weekends.  He is also an active member  of the worship team at Cranbourne Corps where he plays piano and saxophone. David’s musical talents across a variety  instruments and his teaching experience made him my first choice when considering who to invite to the Solomon Islands when local musicians expressed their desire to learn how to read music and how to play a brass instrument.

Prior to Vanessa and I coming to the Solomon Islands, another colleague, Andy Postlewhite from Wonthaggi Corps, indicated that they had a supply of unused brass instruments that the Corps would be happy to donate should they be needed.  At that point in time, we had no intention of imposing a brass band onto the Solomon Islands, as we wanted the expression of worship in The Salvation Army to emerge from within their culture. However, their enthusiasm to start a brass band led us to accept this generous offer.  So, together with a number of  other donations of music and instruments organised by David, these brass instruments made their way to Honiara.

The Music Workshops commenced on Friday, 2nd November at the Rove Police Band Hut where our learners joined in with the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) Band. We were warmly greeted by the Police Band members who allowed our learners to sit in on their rehearsal and then invited our guest music teacher to conduct their band as they played an arrangement of ‘The Young Amadeus’.  Following their rehearsal, the RSIPF band members remained for the afternoon to sit alongside our learners to provide support and coaching.  Their presence was an enormous encouragement to them and a great help to David to ensure our learners got the most out of the workshops.  It was such a joy to watch the interaction between the RSIPF and The Salvation  Army!  By the end of the afternoon the newly formed brass band learners were playing simple tunes.  Following the brass workshops, the Honiara Corps Worship Team gathered in the evening for a session with David.  This provided an opportunity for our very  talented musicians to showcase their skills along with David on his saxophone, to everyone’s delight.  The local musicians really appreciated David’s feedback and input into furthering their musical development. It also provided a good opportunity to introduce some brass charts to familiar worship songs to demonstrate how contemporary and brass can complement each other in worship.  A brass arrangement of 'I Give You My Heart’ demonstrated this well and was practiced up for use during our worship service on Sunday.

On Saturday we moved from the Police Band Hut to the Police Youth Club for the day, which provided a larger space to accommodate members of the public who had expressed interest in joining our music theory workshops.  Solomon Islander musicians have amazing talent in being able to play music entirely by ear but most of them have never learnt how to read music.  This evoked a high level of interest on the Facebook Event we created for David’s visit.  The Saturday workshops built on the knowledge learned the day before for the brass learners and provided more detailed music theory that was applicable for all of the musicians in attendance.  It was also great to see a number of the RSIPF band members join in on these sessions for their own musical development, with some commenting favourably about the quality of David’s teaching and the materials he used. The day ended with ‘An Evening with Dave’ where I interviewed David about his music background, faith journey and why he agreed to accept my invitation to come to the Solomon Islands.  In between David’s compelling story he performed a couple of items on his saxophone and trumpet.  Of particular  enjoyment was David’s rendition of the gospel hit “People Get Ready”, which had the audience singing and clapping along.

Our Sunday morning worship service provided the first opportunity for our newly formed brass band learners to perform before an audience after only two days of tuition.  The congregation were amazed and delighted to hear their progress in such a short time.  The room was filled with cheers, laughter and applause at the sight of the very first Salvation Army Band for the Solomon Islands.  A couple of the Corps leaders even commented that this was a significant step forward in the growth and development of The Salvation Army  Solomon Islands.   The inclusion of brass into the worship by David and myself with the song ‘I Give You My Heart’ really lifted the worship musically to another level and David’s reprise of ‘People Get Ready’ was a huge hit.  A  prayer of dedication was offered over the donated instruments and the brass learners, dedicating this new music ministry to the glory of God.

The final event and climax for the weekend was a Sunday evening concert at the AOG Church in Burns Creek.  This 4 hour concert featured our guest musician, The Salvation Army Brass Learners, RSIPF Band, Honiara Corps Worship Team, Destiny Church Dancers, The Holy Cross Boys (Honiara Youth) and a number of other individual items.  There is so much that could be said about this event but words cannot quite capture its significance and impact for the Burns Creek community.  Burns Creek has been a hot spot for crime and anti-social behaviour for many years with the police only ever entering the community in a law enforcement capacity.  So, when a bus load of police officers disembarked outside the church armed with musical instruments, it didn’t take long for a very curious crowd of people to gather.   The RSIPF Band was definitely a highlight of the evening, but so was the performance of our brass band learners.  Over 180 people witnessed this historic evening and celebrated the musical talents of young local musicians.  The atmosphere of worship was electric and the strong sense of community extraordinary in this settlement of Malaitans on the fringe of society.  Both the RSIPF Band Director and the local Pastor acknowledged the evening as a significant moment in the development of community relations between the police and the community.  Our expectations for the weekend were far exceeded!  

We are immeasurably grateful for David’s generosity of his time, talents and resources to turn our vision into a reality.  He has left a musical legacy that has laid the foundation for the ongoing growth and development of this music program in the Solomon Islands.  We are also very grateful for the new partnership that has been forged with the RSIPF Band and look forward to continuing this relationship into the future as we work together to raise up a new generation of brass musicians.