Take It Away....Play music and help Children with Cancer....Get Involved!
Written by Holly Monday, 21 December 2009 10:39
SlavetoSound is supporting a unique partnership between Arts Council England and CLIC Sargent's Practice-a-thon campaign to encourage people of all ages and abilities to pick up a musical instrument and play their part for children with cancer. Music stars including Russell Watson, Gary Barlow and Jamie Cullum along with rising star Dani Hamer (aka Tracy Beaker), are backing the campaign to get more people making music, having fun and raising money for a good cause.
Whether you're an aspiring or experienced drummer, guitairist, keyboard player or violinist, Arts Council England's 'Take It Away' Scheme has been set up to make it easier for you to get your hands on the instruments and equipment you need!
Take It Away is an Arts Council England initiative that offers an interest free loan (0% APR) of up to £2000 for people to buy musical instruments, supporting musicial equipment and tuition, through a network of 265 participating retailers across England. Best of all, you can use Take It Away to buy any kind of instrument you like...from Accordians to Xylophones and digital instruments in between! As well as the instrument, you can add on additional items to your Take it Away loan like a gig bag, stool, sheet music and even lessons if the shop you're using offers them!
The scheme is open to all UK residents over the age of 18. For further info go to http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/takeitaway/
Whatever your style of music, no matter what instrument or playing ability is, you can join in on your own or with your band.....the idea is simple: HAVE FUN MAKING MUSIC AND TO RAISE MONEY FOR A GOOD CAUSE AT THE SAME TIME!
And for extra inspiration, participants have access to a series of exclusive online tutorials of hit songs including Take That's Back For Good, Motown classic 'Heard it Through The Grapevine', Oasis 'Wonderwall' and 'Run' by Snow Patrol. By signing up to the CLIC Sargents Practise-a-thon before March 2010, you can access the tutorials free of charge from the Show Me How To Play website; www.showmehowtoplay.com
Musician Russell Watson says "Making Music has given me a focus, enormous enjoyment and has got me throughsome very dark times. I'm best known as a singer and consider the voice to be an instrument that requires plenty of practice, but I think it's fair to say that having tried to play guitar, that will certainly require a lot more practice for me! Roll on Practoce-A-Thon! I'm playing my part and I'm delighted to be raising money for children with cancer in the process".
Sign up now at www.clicsargent.org.uk/music and play your part in raising money for children with cancer.
(Take It Away was launched in July 2007 and at date over 25,000 customers have used the scheme for the purchase of over £15 million worth of musical instruments and associated equipment.)
CLIC Sargent: is the children's cancer charity, formed in 2005 after a successful merger between Cancer and Leukaemia in Childhood (CLIC) and Sargent Cancer Care for Children.
