The Guardian - Sirin Kale
Janice Turley runs the steel band for the visually and hearing impaired in Stockport every Tuesday. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian
When Janice Turley was 39, she was focused on her career as a teacher – perhaps a little too focused. She’d retrained after bringing up her children and was in her second year as a primary school teacher in Hulme, Manchester. Often she’d put in 70-hour weeks. One of the school governors said she needed a night off.
The governor took Turley to see a steel band at a local school. It was taught by British-Trinidadian musician Arthur Culpeper, one of the pioneers of steel band music in the UK. The room was big and draughty, but the atmosphere was brilliant. “There was a chattery buzz,” says Turley. Learning to play steel pan was addictive. Culpeper was gentle and patient with newcomers. “Arthur stuck me on the bass,” Turley remembers, “I never looked back.”
Thirty years on, and Turley, now 69, teaches steel pan to a group of 15 visually and hearing impaired adults down the road in Stockport. Every Tuesday at 9am, she arrives with her husband, Barrie, to set up the rehearsal space. Sometimes her friends Keith and Irene, and her sister Pat, help. Because most players are visually impaired, they cannot read sheet music. Turley has created a system of brightly coloured stickers, stuck to notes on the pans, so players with partial eyesight can follow along. The stickers are tailored to suit each player’s specific visual impairment.
“I sit at the bass player’s section,” Turley says, “and shut my eyes. I think about how he can move. Can he twist far enough, to strike that note?” At 1pm, the players arrive and natter away. When Turley wants their attention, she does a drum roll. The session finishes at 2.15pm, and Turley and Barrie pack everything away. She feels exhausted. “I come home and lie on the floor,” she says.
Replies