Autumn Livewire central evaluation

Transcription

1 Autumn Livewire central evaluation Contents 1. Introduction 2. Staff 3. New volunteers 3.1 John Mason 3.2 Raye Harvey 4. Amber Song resident artist 5. Participants 6. Livewire Discussion Day 7. Mark Loughman and Rich Adey 8. Revised Timetable 8.1 Deeper listening workshop 8.2 Self-portrait and Headlines workshops 8.3 Instrumentalists mind-mapping 8.4 Monday 8.5 Vocal workshops 8.6 Genre workshops 8.7 Tuesday morning 9. Rest of the week

2 1. Introduction Livewire central is one of the central parts of the Livewire project. It is a development week held in The Pavilion on Castle Green in which c.25 participants are guided by a team of music leaders to develop original material over five days (each running from ). On the Sunday following this week, an all-ages, alcoholfree gig is put on at The Jailhouse nightclub in order to showcase the work from the week. The latest Livewire central ran from 27 th -31 st October, with the gig on 2 nd November. For this week, a number of large-scale changes were brought in. This evaluation will attempt to clarify the changes that were made and find the impact they had on the experiences of participants, volunteers, trainee leaders and music leaders. Awesome, creative um... hm... can I say awesome twice? - A Livewire participant gives three words to describe Livewire 2. Staff Sam Meehan (SM) Course leader Anthony Murphy (AM) Course leader Nicky Jaques (NJ) Music leader, song-writing Hannah Davies (HD) Music leader, song-writing Josh Lamdin (JL) Music leader, instrumentalist Chris Butts (CB) Music leader, instrumentalist Stevie Callender (SC) Volunteer, instrumentalist Daisy Bloy (DB) Volunteer, song-writing Jamie Duggan (JD) Volunteer, lyric-writing, production Catherine Flower (CF) Volunteer, photography Amber Song (AS) Volunteer, artist Raye Harvey (RH) Volunteer Jon Mason (JM) Volunteer

3 3. New volunteers This Livewire central, two participants requested to be involved in a volunteering capacity. These were RH and JM. Also, Catherine Flower rejoined the team after around a year s absence due to college commitments. 3.1 John Mason Unfortunately, JM was not in attendance at the Livewire Discussion Day (detailed below). In addition, he was not present for the Wednesday of the week and was not sure until the Sunday whether he would be present at the gig. All this led to him having a loosely defined role and ultimately feeling under-used during Livewire central. 3.2 Raye Harvey For me to actually do more. All the other volunteers have been helping out and I wasn t sure what I should be doing. I was never really sure where I stood -JM, when asked what would make his volunteering experience better RH was present at the Livewire Discussion Day and reported that it had helped her understand the role of the music leader in more depth. However, it was felt that, as with JM, there was still not enough distance between herself and the participants and that she had not gathered enough of the relevant experience to be effective in her role. In the case of both JM and RH, it may be more beneficial to institute a new role as peer mentor. Whilst they both lack the experience to operate effectively as volunteers, given a role such as peer-mentor, they may be able to retain their position as participants whilst being recognised role-models for newer participants and taking a degree of responsibility in song-writing, performance support and pastoral support. 4. Amber Song resident artist During this Livewire central, we were lucky enough to welcome Amber Song, a recent alumnus of Hereford College of Arts, who spent the week creating original artworks inspired by the lyrics participants were working with. Once complete, the work was consolidated into a slideshow which was displayed at the gig. This was a wonderful and original way to document the work that was being completed and will be something we look to include again if keen artists are identified and available.

4 5. Participants At this Livewire central week, we had 22 participants. Of those, four are looked-after children, nine face financial deprivation, four are NEETS, two have special educational needs, one speaks English as a second language and one is home-schooled. Two were referred from Nova Training, one from SHYPP, three from Close House and two from the county s Looked-After children s participation group. In total, eight bursaries were provided. 6. Livewire Discussion Day On Friday 10 th October, all music leaders and volunteers listed above (except JM and SC) attended a Livewire Discussion Day, run by SM. Throughout the day, SM ran workshops for the music leaders that would feature as part of Livewire central. After each workshop, the group took a step back and analysed the benefits of the experience they had just had with reference to the Youth Music Quality Framework and in the context of the upcoming week as a whole. I thought it was a really useful day for all of us, actually doing the activities really helped us get into the mindset and the zone for the tasks. I really enjoyed the day overall - HD reflects on the Livewire Discussion Day Through this process, all music leaders and volunteers had an input into the new workshops that would form a large part of Livewire central (see section 8, Revised Timetable ). It meant that music leaders and volunteers had experience of the workshops that were subsequently run at Livewire central and were able to guide participants with a greater degree of confidence. It meant music leaders primarily engaged in instrumental work had an understanding of the song-writing process participants would partake in. It also prepared staff for the upcoming week, rather than arriving on the 27 th with some of them not having been engaged with activities of this kind since the previous Livewire central. 7. Mark Loughman and Rich Adey For the last three Livewire central weeks, the final two hours of each day were run by Mark Loughman (ML, rapper), Rich Adey (RA, DJ and multi-instrumentalist) and Jenny Frost (JF, vocalist). The other music leaders would finish at and this smaller team would lead participants in developing material in specific styles including hip-hop, reggae and street soul. Given the growing bank of music leaders at the disposal of the Livewire project, it was decided that this time we wanted to ensure the inclusion of those who have not had as much of a chance to be involved in the project. In addition, we felt extra time could be apportioned to allowing trainee leaders and volunteers to gain valuable experience and for

5 them to spend time being properly supervised by the more experienced music leaders. This is further compounded by the indefinite, and possibly very short, time limit currently set on the project. For these reasons, it was decided that the final two hours of each day would be given to the team listed above rather than employing ML and RA for this Livewire Central. 8. Revised timetable It was decided prior to Livewire central that this amount of extra time would be put into providing participants with workshops, representing opportunities to learn new skills and create a stronger sense of community and comfort within the group. This included the following: 8.1 Deeper listening workshop This was a workshop run on Monday morning with all participants. Whereas previously instrumentalists and singers were split into two groups at the beginning of the week, all participants worked together for this morning. During the workshop, a series of songs were played to participants. Participants would then have to decide whether or not they liked the songs by walking to one side of the room. Groups were then formed to discuss why they did or didn t like the song in question and notes were taken. After a short discussion, participants gave feedback to the whole group based on the notes they had taken. Participants fed back that this workshop gave them the tools they needed to communicate with other musicians for the rest of the week. Music leaders, trainee leaders and volunteers fed back that this workshop gave them an understanding of the sort of tastes and personalities they were working with. Everyone fed back that it made them more comfortable with the whole group and strengthened the feeling of community. 8.2 Self-portrait and Headlines workshops After lunch, the group was split into instrumentalists and vocalists. The vocalists were then engaged in the workshops listed above. The Self-portrait workshop involved participants drawing a self-portrait with their eyes closed. The pictures were then collected and handed out at random for other participants to write two descriptive words on each picture. The pictures were then handed back to their authors, who were asked to write a four-line poem based on the picture and the words. The I think the workshops built up my confidence for writing lyrics the next day to be honest. It definitely did because, even though I found that first workshop a bit weird, I found that it really helped me to do my lyrics. You can just say to yourself I don t like it because it s got this backbeat behind it or I like it because the beat is really repetitive and smooth. I remember when I was 9 I tried writing songs from my guitar teacher and she told me you really need to get your confidence up. I didn t know how I was going to do it but I think Livewire has really helped me with that. - A Livewire central participant reflects on Monday s workshops

6 pictures and verses were then laid out for all participants to walk around and see. The Headlines workshop followed, for which participants were organised into groups and given a newspaper article to write a short song about. Each group was accompanied by a music leader and a volunteer and, once the song was complete, they came back and performed the piece to the whole group. Feedback from participants on these exercises was very positive. They said that it helped them with confidence when they came to writing lyrics for the songs they would perform at the end of the week. Participants who had not been to Livewire before said it gave them a valuable insight into the process of song-writing. Feedback from staff and volunteers was that these exercises had a clear impact on confidence, ability and speed of work for the following day. It gave them a further insight into the tastes and personalities of participants and further strengthened the sense of community. It was claimed that there was innate value in writing lyrics to no end, with participants realising that their throwaway lyrics were viable and even of good quality, adding further confidence in their later tasks. 8.3 Instrumentalists mind-maps Whilst vocalists ran through these workshops, instrumentalists were asked to draw a mind-map centred on the word musician. Feedback was that this exercise was more engaging for younger participants who had less experience of similar exercises. However, older participants became more receptive as the task went on. 8.4 Monday Talking about things like employing practice and organisation into musical activity I think did prepare some of the participants for the gig environment in terms of what would be expected of them on the night and in musical events after. JL reflects on mind-maps Overall, the way Monday ran was seen as highly beneficial. Participants had a good level of confidence before starting writing material for the final performance and a sense of comfort in the community was developed. This is a structure that will be repeated, with changing content, in future Livewire central weeks. 8.5 Vocal workshops On Tuesday morning, vocalists were split into two groups. One began to write lyrics for their original songs and one were engaged in a vocal workshop looking at breathing and basic vocal techniques. After an hour, the two groups switched. I learnt quite a bit like don t always use your lower voice or you may damage your voice. I thought oh my god I m never doing screamo again! - A Livewire participant reflects on the vocal workshop

7 Originally, this was planned to be run by JF, but unfortunately she was unwell and was not able to make it. As a result, another artist was contacted to run the workshops. This artist didn t have a rapport with any members of the group and it was mentioned by a number of leaders that she seemed nervous during the sessions. However, there was a lot that was of use in the workshop and it provided the main music leaders a point of reference when working with the singers later in the week 8.6 Genre workshops On Tuesday morning, the instrumentalists were all grouped into one room and worked on creating different versions of the song Monster Mash. The group suggested genres (including punk, R&B, Disco, funk, metal) and then tried to play the song in those genres. This piece was not originally intended to be included in the final performance at The Jailhouse as it was thought that there would not be the time to perfect it. However, the participants were proud enough of the work that they had done that they were keen to include it nonetheless, and Monster Mash eventually made a high-quality finale to the night. The genre workshop was brilliant. The young people thoroughly enjoyed it. We covered a vast amount of genres. If this was to be done differently I would like the young people to aid each other (i.e. a more experienced musician aiding others with how to play a genre accurately and authentically) and to place more emphasis on getting the young people's 'take' on a genre (i.e. why playing in a specific way suits a genre etc.) - CB reflects on genre workshops 8.7 Tuesday morning Overall, Tuesday s workshops were not seen as so beneficial, the main problem being that the vocal workshops delayed singers getting started on their lyrics. They were still useful however, particularly so for the instrumentalists who, even without a vocal workshop, still have to wait for the lyric-writing process to be over before making a start on original material. In the future, we may keep the genre workshop in place and either try different methods with the vocal workshop (such as using JF who is more comfortable with this client group and uses a style more suited to their tastes), or omit it entirely.

8 9. The rest of the week Basically I ve always wanted to be in the music industry but because of some past history I couldn t do that but Livewire s really brought that to me and I m really getting into it and just hoping to make the most of it The rest of the week ran essentially as it had at previous Livewire central weeks. Lyrics were completed, put to music and then worked on with full bands. Finally, all participants performed at a gig at The Jailhouse on 2 nd November with a good-sized audience. One thing to note is that sound-checks on Sunday - A Livewire participant on the were completed in record time. This was because the night of the gig confidence and comfort that had been built up at the beginning of the week meant that very few participants had to run through their songs more than once (i.e. the process was a sound-check and a refresher rather than a final rehearsal). Overall, it was remarked by music leaders and participants that this had been one of the most relaxed Livewire Centrals they had been involved with, whilst no dip in quality was recognised. It just gets better every time! - Parent of participant remarks on quality of the music at The Jailhouse gig, 2 nd November