Author Archive for admin



Second-hand Decodamaze for sale
If you’ve been reading all about the new Music Gym Hereford (or indeed the original Music Gym), and ever found yourself wishing your local area had something similar, this might just be the chance you’ve been waiting for!
We’ve been contacted by Adventure Unlimited of Brighton, who have a barely used Decodamaze that [...]

New sites are live

Just thought I’d put up a quick post to say we’ve finally got the new Music Gym site up and running at www.musicgym.org , Tom’s now got a personal blog over at www.multisensorysolutions.co.uk and I’ll be making a concerted effort to get this blog back on track!
Matt.

We’ve written several times lately about people and organisations who’ve inspired our thinking. It was sad news at the weekend to hear of the death of Mario Barp who was a huge influence on Tom and John in the early days of Decoda.
Mario was an activities organiser at Highglades day service in St Leonards where Tom [...]

The early days of Music Gym: 2007 article by Kay Green
Although we’re now the Music Gym Ltd and no longer Decoda, there’s still alot we can learn from those early days!
Amongst the squash courts and practice nets at Horntye Sports Centre in Hastings is the Decoda Music Gym, an area designed for experimenting and playing [...]

Squiggly Who?
Is it an octopus? Is it a fish? The strange colourful creatures that
live in the sensory gazebo of a Music Gym are in fact Squiggly Normans.

Intensive Interaction and the Music Gym

Angela Lane is the local Intensive Interaction Project Manager and last Friday she visited the Music Gym to see how it fits into what she’s doing.
If someone with severe learning disabilities and/or autism is still at an early stage of communication this is a valuable approach to passing on the pre-speech fundamentals of communication. It’s [...]

PMLD Link

I only discovered this publication recently and it’s a mine of useful information. It describes itself as “the bulletin of news and information for everyone working with people with profound and multiple learning difficulties”. It’s an informal journal aimed at carers and practitioners working with people with PMLD of all ages and in all situations.

Sunny Chana’s work on display in the Music Gym

This is Twilight – one of the stunning works of digital artist, Sunny Chana, that we’re projecting in the Music Gym in Hastings.
Sunny, who’s based in Birmingham, contacted us about displaying his work in the Music Gym. As we set up and dismantle the equipment each week that wasn’t feasible so we offered instead to use [...]

Before we became Decoda we were Count Me In, taking musicians into local day centres and homes. Count Me In was born one evening in a pub in Hastings. Everyone in the pub was watching Rag Mama Rag, the acoustic blues duo but I was watching Dave,(not his real name) at a table next to [...]

If you’re looking for ideas to extend a sensory room this is the first of a series of short films showing how we use Soundbeam in our work with people with profound disabilities. We include switches for those who can use their hands – they encourage manipulation and introduce the idea of making something happen.
The [...]