THEY are not usually ones for blowing their own trumpets but the members of Beatroute Arts are particularly proud at the moment.

Though it has brought one problem. So successful have taster sessions in their Take a Bow project been to teach music to primary school children in the Balornock area, they no longer have enough instruments to go round.

"We weren't expecting the uptake we had," says project manager Jenny Reeve. "It is brilliant that so many kids are coming in but the trouble is we don't have enough instruments to teach them.

"We could apply for funding but that generally takes two to three months and we aren't guaranteed anything, so it could take a while."

An appeal on Jenny's own Facebook page for people to donate old instruments lying in their loft or garage brought in five violins. Jenny decided to ask across the city if any musically minded people can help.

"The El Sistema project in Govanhill offered us some instruments that were donated to them and they aren't using at the moment," adds Jenny.

"We need cellos, violas and violins, not that we'd turn down offers of other instruments, but they are in the greatest need at the moment."

Set up in 2004, Beatroute Arts operates from its own arts centre in Wallacewell Road, offering a variety of programmes to young people aged from eight to 25 years old.

Tuition in classic rock instruments, from guitars to drums, bass and vocal coaching, also offers use of a recording studio and rehearsal room.

While a wider arts night gives youngsters the chance to try dance, drama and musical activities.

Now in its third year, Take a Bow has three tutors and an ever-increasing number of young people keen to learn an instrument, at a time when schools no longer have the funding to offer free music lessons.

"Traditionally we're teaching classical music but in the broadest sense," says Jenny. "The way we're working at the moment is that in among the lesson times, because we have such a high number of children, we are basing it all around musicianship skills.

"So we have glockenspiels, xylophones, and we some highly skilled workshop staff who follow a music-making approach called Orff Schulwerk, developed by composer Carl Orff.

"He had forward-thinking approaches to how he felt we made sense of the world around us, especially with music. His approach looks at the whole child and it works with our innate sense of musicality.

"It's very adaptable and the idea is that we learn through play and using our bodies to understand rhythm, melody and form without sitting at a desk and trying to drill it into your head. So it's a much more fluid approach."

It is a vital resource in the area and Jenny is emphatic that if Beatroute Arts wasn't there, kids would be missing out.

"To be able to provide a free opportunity for young people take part in an arts-based activity allows them to really explore their potential in a way they perhaps haven't been given before," she says.

"Music and the arts are quite unique in the way they are able to support everybody in different ways.

"It's not just about the musicality or the actual skill set the person learns, it's about the confidence, the self esteem, the communication, the socialising, the ability to listen to other people.

"Depending how you view it, some people don't hold the arts in particularly high esteem but I would argue to the contrary. Our numbers have always been extremely high and I think that speaks volumes about the need of the service in the area."

Last year more than 200 young people used the centre, which is currently being refurbished and due to reopen by Easter. They get a lot of back-up from the local community, especially at their performances and concerts, held every quarter, usually to a standing-room only audience.

"We have had a tremendous amount of support, we just try and respond to the needs and wishes of the people who live here and provide the best we can the activities they want and need," says Jenny.

The next project for Beatroute Arts is to develop garden grounds around the centre, with raised beds, vegetable plots and a clever musical touch.

Outdoor instruments will be made to create a musical pathway around the green space.

"We want to make it an artistic space, to tap into the connection we have with our natural surroundings and try and take it out to the garden," says Jenny.

That sounds like music to their ears ...

Anyone with an instrument to donate can contact info@beatroutearts.com, facebook.com/beatroutearts or phone 0141 558 1387.