Sing, write, create...we can all do it!!
As a part of my work for NMPAT (www.nmpat.co.uk) I have the privilege of using the art of songwriting to encourage, inspire, and to build confidence and self-esteem in young people. It is both an honour and a great joy to be able to do this.
Recently, whilst running a workshop alongside my colleague (Alice Nicholls) a whole new song was created and completed with a group of young people in about an hour! The session went as follows:
As a part of my work for NMPAT (www.nmpat.co.uk) I have the privilege of using the art of songwriting to encourage, inspire, and to build confidence and self-esteem in young people. It is both an honour and a great joy to be able to do this.
Recently, whilst running a workshop alongside my colleague (Alice Nicholls) a whole new song was created and completed with a group of young people in about an hour! The session went as follows:
A young girl was learning to play the bass, but then remembered she had recently written her own song. We then asked her to sing it to us....she made her way to the corner of the room, and facing the wall she began to sing this wonderful melody...as her confidence grew she turned around and faced the group continuing to sing to us, in acapella might I add - and very in tune! (we later discovered she was singing in G-minor, which I would say is a hard key to sing acapella!)
The song truly was beautiful, but what was more remarkable was to hear and see this young girl sing in front of her peers, adults, and complete strangers with great confidence and belief in what she was singing.
The whole group quite quickly rallied around her - one girl took the acoustic, I took the bass, Alice jumped on the piano, and others grabbed the Djembe's! We began creating and arranging the music around this song, and pretty soon we were all playing AND singing together too!
It was wonderful to see a group of young people come together, support each other, and create a piece of music that if heard on the radio wouldn't be out of place at all.
I look forward to working with these young people again, and I have no doubt that more music will be created and I will again be inspired by their creativity, their confidence, and their support for one another :)