Blues and Roots Ensemble offers workshops to secondary schools to all pupils from Year 7 -Year 13. The band has had experience working with GCSE and A level music students as well as whole Year 7 & 8 classes.

The focus for these workshops is about learning to improvise, using the music of the great jazz composers of the past as a guide. The band is happy to work with musicians on any instrument and of any ability and all school ensembles.

Blues and Roots Ensemble can offer bespoke arrangements and tailored concerts that enable young musicians to share the stage with world class jazz musicians in a public context.

The experienced educators of Blues and Roots Ensemble pride themselves on being able to take music that is structurally and harmonically complicated, and simplify it to make it accessible to students - while still keeping the essence of the music true. 

The secondary school workshops are available for jazz bands that are already established in schools or as a way of introducing to instrumentalists within a music department.

As with all Blues and Roots Ensemble workshops, there is a great emphasis placed on the social and historical context of the music and the purpose behind Charles Mingus' compositions.