Over the last year, ten-year-old Katherine has developed a real love for the violin and eagerly awaits her lessons every week. AMBER’s support has enabled her to join a local String Group, where she is able to practise her violin playing, as well as learn to work in a team of sighted peers. It also allows her to have one-to-one lessons with an experienced teacher who is able to adapt the lesson and materials to Katherine’s needs. All this has given Katherine the confidence to perform in front of large audiences both at school and in the String Group.

Katherine says: Music helps me to think of creative things – without music I wouldn’t have such a creative mind to think up different tunes and how to play them. Learning to play an instrument can make you feel very successful. I have been very successful lately and my teacher congratulates me when I have done things well, which encourages me even more. I hope to bring my experiences and achievements with me to help me settle into my new secondary school next year and to show people than even though I look different and can’t see as well as them, I am still similar.

  It has only been a year
  since 13-year-old Sam
  lost his sight completely
  and had to have one
  eye removed. Although
  he has been blind in the
  other eye since birth,
  this was very sudden.
  The same week that he
  lost his eye, he told his
  mother that he would
  like to learn to play the
  drums and, from that
  moment on, his mind
  was set.

Sam was thrilled to begin weekly drum lessons at school, and even more overjoyed when an AMBER Music Award allowed him to buy his own drum kit. Without AMBER, this would have been impossible as he has five other siblings, one of whom is autistic, and both his parents are both full-time carers. His drumming has provided him with a great sense of achievement. He loves to practice every day and enjoys showing his friends his new skill.

Sam listens to music and tries to copy the beats, and is giving his whole family lessons on how to play the drums properly. This has really boosted his self-confidence, as well as giving him time on his own, time for him, with no medical problems to think about.

An AMBER Music Award has enabled ten-year-old Callum, who has severe sight problems, to take ukelele lessons. He is racing ahead learning all sorts of tunes and melodies, becoming more and more confident and louder at singing, and now looks up rather than looking down at the floor.

 

  Recently, Callum played at
  a local Living History WW11
  event, where he played
  extremely well. He really
  seems to enjoy performing.

Like his sister, Eleanor, nine-year-old Joseph has blurred vision, cannot see colours, and has a dislike of bright light. He is a very ‘rhythmic’ child and wanted to learn the drums from an early age.

The AMBER Music Awards paid
for an electronic drum kit for
Joseph, along with drum lessons.
Joseph has a natural talent for
the drums and looks forward
with great excitement to each
lesson. He enjoys the tactile
feedback he gets through
the drumsticks.

Joseph’s drum teacher describes
him as, “an enthusiastic and
talented pupil, who is making 
the very most of his lessons
and is showing good progress”.

Joseph was so awed by his sister's progress that he, too, auditioned for the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and was accepted. He now has lessons in piano and orchestral percussion at the college and rock drumming outside the college.