Songs of Hope - Words and Music of Bereaved Teenagers - Plymouth Music Zone
Plymouth Music Zone's "Music for a Change" Project, funded by Youth Music enabled us to collaborate with local charity, Jeremiah's Journey to support a group of bereaved teenagers through a creative musical experience.
These amazingly brave young people wanted to share their story of loss to support others in a similarly difficult situation as themselves. The aim was to create a piece of original music from scratch to upload to their website for other bereaved children and young people to listen to and encourage them to also express their feelings about the challenges they face.
This fantastic project brought with it many challenges. As a Music Leader, I was concerned about how appropriate it was to ask certain questions and what might happen if I did. How brave could we all be? How could we create a way of trusting one another in a short space of time and talk / write / sing openly about some very painful circumstances?
It was important for us to communicate clearly with our partner organisation throughout the process to check that they also felt the young people were being supported appropriately. Before and after sessions, we met with a representative of Jeremiah's Journey to talk about how the young people were doing that week and whether there needed to be any special considerations. It was also extremly important that we had time to talk and reflect on the sessions after the teenagers had gone home and to express to one another how we had been feeling too.
Despite our initial anxieties, it became clear that the whole project was made a lot easier by the strength, love and creativity of the young people who were involved. It was also about the background communication and careful planning with our partner organisation, Jeremiah's Journey to help us create something powerful with integrity and sensitivity. We wanted it to be 'owned' by the teenagers in order to help them gain confidence in expressing their emotions through music and words and to share it with others. We also wanted it to be a high quality piece of music that they could be genuinely proud of.
I watched as they began to blossom over the weeks and months - becoming confident to say or write down anything that might 'pop into their heads' that could become part of the song. They were developing musically all the time - exploring new instruments, getting to know what was possible with some music technology, singing in front of others, sequencing the material and getting stuck in with the production side of the recordings. One of the young people even came along with a Saxophone that had been bought for him because of his growing commitment to playing it, and for him to use specifically on the final recording.
Our starting point was to create a journey-map on a 6-metre long piece of carpet lining paper, using written words and pictures. We all contributed to it whilst chatting, munching popcorn and drinking juice (Music Leaders, young people, Jeremiah's Journey staff) until the young people were independently trying to get as many memories and thoughts recorded as possible. There seemed to be a growing sense of urgency coming from them - a waterfall of ideas and shared experiences, bringing them together as siblings, friends and support for one another. The words written along the top of the map simply said: 'before, then, next, now, future' . We then began to look for any common threads that ran through their memories and thoughts. The word 'fishing' along with drawings of fish and nets were emerging strongly, so this began to form a chorus, along with 'clouds' and 'love'.
It seems appropriate to share the words of the song with you here...
Catching a Cloud to the Future
Verse 1
The stars are out there as my life is changing.
It’s ok to feel lots of feelings at once.
The stars are dimmer than all the rest.
They’re not as bright as they used to be.
Verse 2
Before things changed, things were familiar.
Sharing food together and happy times,
Chocolate spread and feeling full and happy.
Family love and exciting lives.
LOVE LOVE LOVE
Verse 3
Then things changed for our family.
How will things ever feel alright?
It’s ok to feel mad sometimes.
Things feel different to my normal life.
LOVE LOVE LOVE
Verse 4
It is good to remember loved ones,
Like the stars shining in the night sky.
Do the things that still make you smile,
Like eating curry, get a pet snake, or have a tractor ride.
REFRAIN
Love, love, love (at the same time as… “Remember, remember, remember” “Like ringing in your head” (X 2)
CHORUS:
I’m catching a cloud to the future,
Love, love, love.
Stick with your friends and family,
Love, love, love,
Everything’s gonna be alright,
With love, love, love.
Cast your feelings into the sky,
Love, love, love.
I’m catching a cloud to the future,
Love, love, love.
Stick with your friends and family,
Love, love, love,
Everything’s gonna be alright,
With love, love, love.
Cast your feelings into the sky,
Love, love, love.
I’m fishing into the future,
Love, love, love.
My stars are shining bright,
With love, love, love.
I’m fishing into the future.
Love, love, love.
My stars are shining bright
With love, love, love.
Verse 5
Now we know love is important.
It helps us through feeling empty and sad.
But through healing and friendship,
It helps us through all the difficult times.
Love, love, love (at the same time as… “Remember, remember, remember” “Like ringing in your head” (X 2)
CHORUS
I’m catching a cloud to the future,
Love, love, love.
Stick with your friends and family,
Love, love, love,
Everything’s gonna be alright,
With love, love, love.
Cast your feelings into the sky,
Love, love, love.
I’m fishing into the future,
Love, love, love.
My stars are shining bright,
With love, love, love.
I’m fishing into the future.
Love, love, love.
My stars are shining bright
With love, love, love.
Jeremiah's Journey Teenagers Group with Plymouth Music Zone (Anna Batson) 2014
The last thing I want to write about is simply to thank the young people involved for making this project happen in such a positive way, despite all the challenges that it brought. We laughed and cried and sang about being human, and what it means to love and lose someone close to us.
Here a link to an article by Sarah Waddington published in the Plymouth Herald about the project that includes some photographs taken by the young people and anecdotes about the impact of the work:
Jeremiah's Journey themselves where you can hear the track...
http://www.jeremiahsjourney.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do/teenagers/catchingacloud/
http://www.jeremiahsjourney.org.uk/
and Plymouth Music Zone....