Excited children filled the Jazz Arena waiting for CBeebies YolanDa’s Band Jam at Cheltenham Jazz Festival on Monday 2nd May, the last day of the festival.

A full venue, we didn’t have to wait too long before YolanDa and her band, The Band Jaminals took to the stage.

The entire show was so much fun. The children otherwise known as the band jammers, were so eager that they were dancing all around right from the very beginning.

Teaching kids all about musical sounds, styles and terms such as rhythm and tempo through fun dance moves, children and parents were having the time of their lives. They were jumping up and down, swaying and pretending to be various animals including Dinosaurs and more.

Bass Face was a great song to get the children interacting and learning about pitch. This encouraged confidence in the children and let’s face it, the adults too. There was no room for adults to be shy or embarrassed at this show.

The funnest and funniest part is when the drummer fell asleep!! He must have been up late the night before enjoying all of the festivities that Cheltenham Jazz Festival had to offer because he fell asleep about four times and we, the audience, had to keep waking him up!!!! We all knew that he had fallen asleep because YolanDa and the band were teaching us about tempo and whenever the band played fast, the drumming suddenly got really slow and it was because the drummer had fallen asleep again and again!!!

Staying awake for the rest of the show, we were treated with many more fun moments including Bout That Noise. That song taught the children all about dynamics and when the music was really quiet, the kids got down really low and as the volume went up the kids reached up and jumped up high.

The audience were so engaged in all the fun throughout and there was so much energy. In fact, this was the most alive audience we had experienced all weekend.

The band are all exceptional musicians and it was such a fantastic experience for the children to not just learn about music but to experience the music live and appreciate all kinds of instruments and to just be free to express themselves through this music, whether it was through the dance moves they taught us or through their own freestyles.

What a fun show and a wonderful learning experience for children.