A Plumstead musician is using his skills and experience to change the lives of South African children through music.
Sebastian Guile started the Harmony Music Foundation this year, after his own personal hardship which inspired him to help others.
Sebastian travelled to Saudi Arabia about four years ago to teach music, but shortly after he got there, he contracted a strange stomach bug. While he recovered from the bug, his health continued to deteriorate and by the beginning of 2012 he was so sick he couldn’t even get out of bed.
More than 20 doctors later and after losing 25kg, he discovered, about 18 months ago, that he had Celiac Disease, an extreme gluten sensitivity. With this knowledge he had cut gluten out of his diet, which meant his body went through a detox process, which Sebastian says was worse than the illness itself.
Being ill gave Sebastian a lot of time to reflect on the things he thought were important to him and being passionate about music education, he decided to get involved with “teaching people who really want to be taught”.
After a lot of research and developing his ideas, Sebastian came up with the Harmony Music Foundation.
He researched legal processes for non-profit organisations, syllabuses and even how to source students before co-founding the foundation with Tammie-Ann Barnes and Tracy-Lee Green.
Right now, he targets schools and children’s homes that don’t have music programmes or ones where music programmes aren’t properly developed where he teaches music and uses it as a therapy for the children.
He currently works with the SA Children’s Home in Gardens, St Anne’s Home in Woodstock, Christine Revell Children’s Home in Athlone, Margaret’s House in Lansdown and Heatherdale Children’s Home, also in Athlone.
Top on Sebastian’s list of priorities at the moment is finding teachers who can help him with his project, so he can expand to more schools and homes in different areas.
“I’m not 100% better yet, but I’m slowly taking on more as I feel better,” he says.
Sebastian uses what he calls an implicit teaching model where concepts are learnt through games.
“I’m trying to make it as fun and engaging and as different from a regular music class as possible,” he says, he will use the song “We will rock you”, for example, to teach children about body percussion by tapping out the beat with their bodies.
He also uses vocables, or sound words, to teach a rhythm and exposes children to different instruments, like chimes or banjos that they may not have seen before.
In terms of music therapy, Sebastian uses instruments to help teach children to express or communicate their emotions.
Besides looking for volunteer music teachers, Sebastian is also looking for donations of instruments for the children he teaches and venues that they can use for performances.
He uses “treats” to encourage his students and donations of prizes he can use for this as well as anything that can help with the costs of running the foundation would be appreciated.
To help finance the foundation, Sebastian is also currently on stage at the Willowbridge Barnyard Theatre where he’ll be playing drums for “Born to be Wild”.
His dream is to build the Harmony Music Foundation into a full-time music school with the hope of employing at least six teachers and working with at least 30 schools.
Anybody interested in helping the Harmony Music Foundation can call Sebastian on 073 600 7194 or email hmf@harmonymusic.co.za.
For more information about the Harmony Music Foundation, visit www.harmonymusic.co.za.
Original Source: Peoples Post