Weeks 33 34 35 & 36 Commencing 3rd February 2014

The last month has seen the introduction of a new orchestrate session which involves young people from the music hub. The basis of these sessions have also been to work on performances for the Celebration at the contemporary in April. However these sessions have differed in the sense that some of the young people that attend these sessions have been classically trained and are able to read music and play instruments that some young people may be less familiar with.

In these sessions the young people are being challenged to change the way they create music as out of the five compositions that will be produced from these sessions only one will be produced in a conventional form.

The last few months has not only been great for the development of young people but also myself and musical growth because people are being challenged to make music in a way which could be seen to be unconventional to them  it is initial making them come out of the comfort zone to achieve. This is something which at times can be quite worrying as the outcome may be uncertain, on the other hand, with the right effort, attitude and mentality this can produce outstanding results. 

The main focus is always the result the journey is just the process it takes to get to it but by enjoying the journey process you become more appreciative of the end result. One way to ensure that the result can always be appreciated is by using a different journey for example using a different structure to create a new piece of music, stepping out of your comfort zone. Music is freedom of expression but by always using the same structure, same method, same scale, same melody and same tempo the result will be thereabouts the same thus taking the freedom away from expression giving you just predictability.

"If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got."

Weeks 28 29 30 31 & 32 Commencing 6th Janurary 2014

Over the past month there has been a great development on the tracks for the performance in April as all the young peoples roles are now firmly established they can now concentrate on expressing their their performance and roles.

It is really great to see such passion brought to the sessions by some of the musicians and their enthusiasm and determination to always want to improve and run through the tracks until they feel that they are 100 percent happy with them. This month the idea of all musicians working together despite experience and knowledge has been successful and paid off again. So much so that I have been particularly impressed with young person's d and e as this change in the way in which they work with music has been a challenge over the past couple of months.

At first it was hard for them to adapt to the tempos that were being used for the tracks and fit their style into the music however, after taking a step back and listening to what was going on around them they were able to adjust their style so that it could fit into the stylistic approach of the tracks. This made me really happy as this showed their commitment towards the work they were doing as they could have easily said that they did not want to be involved in the performance anymore but they decided to continue. This was highly commendable of young person's d and e as this shows a real testament to their musical growth over the last couple of months.

With only a couple months out from the big performance in April the key focus is going to be to tighten up the the tracks and ensure that the young people are themselves ready as for the majority of them they would have never performed at something of this scale before.

Weeks 24 25 26 & 27 Commencing 2nd December 2013

The main focus for the performance sessions this month has been to work on a variety of tracks to perform at the celebration at the Contemporary in April. This has given many of the young people the opportunity to collaborate and work with other young people that they do not usually produce work with. This has also been good for many of the young people's musical growth by giving them the ability to come out of their comfort zone as many of the mc's that attend sessions are used to just having studio time and rapping over a track. 

These sessions have helped them to be more involved with the creation process of music from the offset by seeing how it is being implemented and also by having more input in the creation process instead of just writing lyrics for the track. This is something that many of the young people are yet to experience. 

Looking back over the past month I believe that this process has and will continue to be beneficial for all the young people involved. This is great way to work collectively which forms a sense of togetherness and also helps to improve on their knowledge and understanding of structure, rhythm, melody and communication skills all of which are vitally important for the final performance in April.

One of the drawbacks of having performance sessions of this nature is that there are still going to be some people that do not feel comfortable performing in front of other people because this just not the way that they practise. One reason for this may be that they feel nervous however, as I discovered over the past month this has not been the case. The reason why this was caused is that some young people are scared of making mistakes when performing.

One thing that helped me to combat this problem and get the point across is a video I discovered on You Tube (see link below) with Anthony Wellington. The topic of the video was 'The Infinite Field of Ideas' What I took out of the video and what was also the main point of the discussion was that the instrument used to play music is just a tool and this can also be expressed on other instruments for example,  drum kit, bass guitar and vocal. He went on to talk about how the lack of theory knowledge can be what is missing and restricting a musician from expressing their ideas. 

The reason why this was useful is that this impressed on me that the young people come from different musical backgrounds furthermore, their knowledge and understanding will differ leading to different confidence levels when it comes to performing in front of people. However, by ensuring them that music music is an infinite field of ideas and freedom of expression is important they will be less likely to be disheartened by mistakes and focus on the freedom of expression and the infinite field of ideas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-GMSKM_HkE

Weeks 21 22 23 & 24 Commencing 4th November 2013

The young creatives have been working on performances to enter the battle of the bands competition at the Christmas party in December. It has been great to see the confidence and self drive that the young people have been bringing to the sessions over the past month. This is reflecting that many of them are becoming more comfortable performing in front of other people which is vitally important if they are going to perform at the battle of the bands competition next month.

This month I have been particularly impressed with young person d as they have shown maximum effort when in rehearsing their tracks for the competition. Not only has their effort been impressive but also their attitude towards working on their performance as they have shown commitment and dedication by not wanting to give up practicing until they know that they are able to perform the tracks correctly and at the same time making minimal mistakes. 

Weeks 16 17 18 19 & 20 Commencing 30th September 2013

This month the sessions have improved dramatically by a great degree (these sessions have always been well attended but now they are even better!) and this is something which is great to see as it clearly indicates how individuals are improving as the weeks go by. 

One of the main reasons I think that the sessions have become even more successful this month is that between Nina Smith and myself we now have an adaptable structure that allows us to work with a lot of individuals to create performances/music that requires them to be involved using the maximum of their musical ability as they are the key focus in the sessions not ourselves. 

The importance of this structure that we have devised is that what we do individually does not over shadow or impact other individuals performance thus making the sessions more enjoyable for individuals irregardless of their musical knowledge or experience. This is vital to every session as this means that all the individuals involved within  it can go home feeling that not only did they contribute towards the sessions but they also contributed in the right way.  

Something that really inspired me to think about this and improve the way in which people learn in general but in particularly music and the individuals I work with is a Ted Talks video with musician Victor Wooten (see link below) One of the key aspects I took from this talk is music in itself is a language and as baby's we are trying to learn our native language, when we speak and pronounce words incorrectly our parents never correct us for that. Therefore the same should apply to teaching music particularly at the early stage as this not performing in a sense we are learning amongst advanced performers so that we can then go and "perform" with little or no mistakes in the future.  

After watching this video this really made me think about the individuals that I work with and what I am trying to achieve with them and how I am trying to inspire them. I can't make them a perfectionist as that is something that only they can do themselves and requires a lot of discipline. However, through a more adaptable structure I can help prepare them for their individual musical journey's and inspire them to be the best that they can be musically and that is my aim through:

Focusing on what individuals get right -  This is one of the most important elements when preparing anyone for their musical journey and vital for keeping motivation high. I am not trying to say that everything they will do is correct but as musicians we strive for perfection but it never starts out like this as many will say that. However, if I focus on the effort and the things that the individuals get right this helps to maintain motivation, interaction effort and performance. If I tell them that they have played x,y and z wrong that is more likely to decrease all of those attributes. Therefore focusing on the positive is the right way to go, the negative is still important but instead of bringing it into the light we let the light shine over it and in time these negatives will become positives.

Enjoyment -  Regardless of level or ability music is about enjoyment the great quote from Bob Marley, "The good thing about music is that when it hits you you feel no pain", is the essence of what music is about. Music is an enjoyment process that is another reason why at this stage I am not too interested by the mistakes that individuals make but rather on the importance of the enjoyment factor and the connection that the individuals make with one another. 

Involvement  - No matter how big or small your roll (instrument/ only play during section a, b or c etc)  within the band for that session just like a football match a band is like a team. Musicianship is about teamwork there may be an overall leader but there is no "I" in team.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zvjW9arAZ0

Week 14 Commencing 16th September 2013

Working with Nina Smith again this week has been great, I can see that (young person c) has really enjoyed what these sessions have entailed and over the past couple of weeks it has really helped to improve his performance by a great measure.

However, the most common issue I have found during these sessions at the moment is that there are some young people that have the confidence to perform and work on new material and there other young people that either have been playing an instrument for a short time or do not play an instrument at all. There involvement in the sessions is just as important as the young people that are confident at performing. Therefore, I think there needs to be a slight change which will be very beneficial for each young person that attends these sessions.

To move these sessions forward so that the young people may have a greater benefit I think that more structured sessions will open up a variety of opportunities:

Having more structured session will be a great benefit for the young people as this will allow them to create aims that can be achieved in or out of sessions on a group or individual basis.

Working on group performance will also help to improve the key attributes of teamwork and in addition will aid individual performance.

Week 13 Commencing 9th September 2013

Open mic night – from the outcome of the previous two events, delegation of duties was required to ensure this next night would run smooth and be successful. During this week a meeting was held to discuss and delegate each task that needed to be completed. I now feel more confident in going into the next open mic night as each trainee has been were given a role in line with their strengths and capabilities.

  

Working with Nina Smith for a two hour session enabled us to gain the full attention of the students, once directed they were very enthusiastic in participating in the session. Having the involvement of a professional artist gave a real boost to the students there as they saw actual benefits to doing what they were doing.

This session has taught me that when teaching sessions there is the need at times to introduce artists that are already established within the music industry to enable the students to see that each session of learning is necessary to attain their success and career. Each student in the session was fully involved and needed little encouragement even when playing the simplest of instrument.