WEA courses

Come and join us on this friendly and supportive course which will support you on your journey from music listener to music maker! Try out a range of different music making activities that will allow you to develop and explore your music making skills, as well as building your knowledge of practical music theory. The course includes activities to explore your potential in music making on a physical or virtual keyboard, as well as wider music making skills including singing, digital music making and performing. You will be supported and encouraged to share recordings of your music making with the group.

Come and join us in this friendly and supportive online course to develop your music analysis skills! You'll have the chance to listen to and discuss a range of contemporary music, from film scores to songs, to develop a better understanding of the powerful effects that music can have on a listener. There will also be opportunities during the classes to have a go at creating your own music, as well as playing parts of existing music. This will be done through tutor guided exercises in note recognition, aural skills and improvisation.

Start your musical journey with our Beginners at Rhubarb Farm course. Learn the basics of playing an instrument, reading music, and creating simple compositions. Ideal for individuals with little or no musical experience looking to develop their musical skills.

Serge Prokofiev (1891-1953) composed some of this century’s most widely loved music – be it the ballet Romeo and Juliet or his work for children Peter and the Wolf. Yet due to his itinerant lifestyle and the secrecy that cloaked his final years in the USSR, he remains one of the least understood musicians of this century. This course will explore the full range of his 130 compositions in various genres through active listening, YouTube videos and live music, and will make comparisons with some of his lesser-known contemporaries. This six session course is face-2-face and is suitable for students at all levels. No previous knowledge is required and detailed background notes will be made available via Canvas, the WEA learning platform.

Away from any specific film movements or ‘waves’ relevant to their own countries, some filmmakers seem to earn greater acclaim internationally, often making films set outside their own native country, yet still telling the stories and expressing the themes they wish to portray. We examine what some of these, perhaps universal, stories and themes are, what are the stylistic approaches they use and just how and why these manage to resonate with critics and audiences. Are all these films received with equal praise within the director’s home country, are they seen as ‘selling out’? And regardless of what the director themselves might intend or state, are there still conscious or unconscious echoes of national cinematic movements within their work? And what role might financial sources play? Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon received praise yet the director was regarded by some as ‘selling out’ or ‘exploiting’ himself to the West. Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element could be viewed simply as a Hollywood sci-fi with a French Director, yet does the director add far more as an outsider, making more intellectual comment than one may expect from a commercial genre-movie. Not unlike Peter Wier’s Witness and Jane Campion’s The Piano, so many of these works which despite their creative diversity, also evidence their director’s own unique cinematic voice. Likewise, Wim Wenders recent Perfect Days, set in Japan, how far removed is it from the director’s early underpinnings of German Cinema? Perfect Days (2023), Couching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000), The Piano (1993), Witness (1985),The Fifth Element (1997).