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.

Weeks 11 & 12 Commencing 26th August & 2nd September 2013

Looking back to the first training session with Phill Mullen it was very successful.   I was therefore looking forward to this next session.

The experience and knowledge I gained with regard to teaching and applying various methods and techniques to ensure each session is interesting for the students, I count as invaluable.  However, I realised that I need to ensure that during each session there is adequate time to answer all questions as this will ensure that the student(s) does not feel that they are being ignored or what they have to say is not important. Also this will help me to feel satisfied that I have delivered a good session.

I have gained great satisfaction in being trained to deliver arts awards in bronze and silver level, this has now equipped me to guide and assess students studying for this award which will give them a sense of achievement and a step towards pursuing their ambitions.

This was the second open mic night which was yet again a great success but slightly let down the organisation of the event. To ensure this does not happen again we need to delegate roles for each trainee and check prior to the event that everything is in place.

Week 10 Commencing 19th August 2013

This past week has been another great experience for me assisting on the YMCA day camp at Rushcliffe School. What has been great to see throughout this week is fun and intuitive ways to learning and these are techniques that I will take forward into sessions in the future. The young peoples willingness to partake in every activity without complaint is what made this week really special as it showed to me that through the use of the training and careful planing sessions can be made enjoyable. 

What went well?

The young people wanted to partake in anything which required a demonstration of an activity or  to be one of the main roles for the task of the day. For me just like the majority of the previous sessions the young people at Rushcliffe School were filled with a lot of enthusiasm.   

What did not go so well?

The attention of the young people would sometimes dip throughout an activity when it came to a more crucial part which required more attention. For sessions of this nature the young people could have benefited with some of the tasks that were set being less intense and more interactive.   

Weeks 8 & 9 Commencing 5th August 2013

Learning from the taster day and using more elements of VARK in the one on one instrument tuition lessons and production sessions has really helped me to provide fun, interactive and educational sessions throughout the two weeks of Music Mayhem. In particular the first week where young people turned up filled with enthusiasm wanting to learn about production.   

What went well?

Taking Phill Mullen advice in hand has helped me a lot with one on one instrument tuition throughout the two weeks of Music Mayhem. I was able to make tuition fun and enjoyable for young people at the same time as being a learning experience. 

The young peoples enthusiasm and willingness to learn even after technical difficulties.

What did not go so well?

For a lot of the work I did with young people on production during the course of Music Mayhem I could have benefited from having a structured plan which would have helped me to show young people various stages of production in a more organised way. However, this did not take away from the young people learning the basic elements of production but it is very important to take using a structure plan into consideration in the future for sessions of this nature.

Week 7 Commencing 29th July 2013

The first open mic night was a great success for me in terms of performance although it could have been a lot better in terms of the running and organisation. it was great to see a variety of the many genres of music in which the young people have been working on in sessions. The stand out act for the night was (young person b) he stole the show for me his clear distinctive character and personality had a positive impact on the audience as they were clapping along and engaged in his songs. What was also really great to see was the confidence in some of the performers as I have previously mentioned they have been filled with nerves when practicing in the performance space. This is a testament to their development and how much they have progressed as an individual and a performer.

If there is anything to take away from the sessions this week in particular the open mic night it is that events of this nature need to be more organised to run more smoothly as this can help to encourage more young people to perform.

Week 6 Commencing 22nd July 2013

This has been a great week for me musically as the music leader training that I have undertaken with Phill Mullen has really help to broaden my horizons and teaching techniques for instrument tuition and rhythmic demonstrations In a general nature. One of the key problems that I stressed to phill during this training was what approach to take when working with a young person on one to one instrument tuition this was particularly for people starting out.  

What I have taken from this training is similar to what I learnt at the taster day with people having different learning styles. Also to add to this, the importance of making instrument tuition fun. This is something which I had not thought about prior to the training with Phill Mullen. I can recall when I first started playing up until now abd how much fun the learning process has been for me. Therefore this is something which will be of high importance when I am starting out with instrument tuition as I want to make sure that the learning process for the young person is as fun and enjoyable as possible as these sessions are not imperitive but may help open up doors for their future and career path. 

This week it has also been great to see more young people performing songs in the performance space, whether they are covers or their own material. What is really great about this is that despite a few of the young people saying they are nervous they are still finding the confidence to perform in front of other people. This also provides a great opportunity for any of the young people who are willing to perform at the first open mic night.

There are two key points which I will take from the training this week with Phill Mullen. The most important but simplest of these is to make instrument tuition fun for the young person as this is what will help then to enjoy it. The second is to minimise the use of theory in the early stages of teaching as this can become very confusing for the learner even more so depending on their learning style. These two points have given me more confidence for when I am teaching one on one instrument tuition as my key focus will now be to make the lesson rrearding and afun experience at the same time.