Questions and Answers

I recently attended a training day in Leicestershire, facilitated by Phil Mullen, focusing on working with Children in Challenging Circumstances. Delegates were asked to present questions for discussion, and one of my questions was "Is there a place for instrumental or culturally specific music delivery within the context of working with CCC?"

You might wonder why I asked this question, as surely all music has its place?

The reason for my question was that there seems to be a great deal of focus on songs and songwriting for young people who face major challenges in their lives. As a facilitator whose work includes leading a great deal of traditional African drumming, I was beginning to feel that perhaps my skills were not as valuable as those of the rest of the Musical Inclusion Development Team (MIDT) at NMPAT (www.nmpat.co.uk) who all offer songwriting options in their portfolios.  Songwriting is, after all, a very personal way to explore and express some of the deep issues that the young people are dealing with.  Can learning traditional rhythms from West Africa be equally relevant?

Several days later our MIDT arrived at a residential secure hospital unit in Northamptonshire, to deliver taster sessions for 14-18 year olds with chronic mental health issues, including PTSD and conduct disorders, leading to behavioural and educational challenges.

During planning meetings with staff at the unit, we had learned that they have a Djembe Drum Circle run by staff each week, and a range of other music activities, including guitar, drum kit and piano lessons, for which there is a waiting list.  I suggested opening our tasters with some traditional African drumming, which would be an immediate link between the young people and our team.  We then travelled to Brazil (not literally!) for a Samba Reggae session, and culminated with improvisation-based composition, with students and staff playing a range of tuned and untuned instruments.

This day's work answered my question in a way that discussion at a training session had not.  Perhaps I had forgotten what happens each time a group of people of any age, ability, gender or ethnicity enters a space that is full of drums, surrounded by a circle of chairs.  In that circle we all have our place.  We can be as visible or invisible as we want.  There is a leader whose job is to create a safe and supportive space where rhythms can be learned, absorbed, played, heard and shared.  Those rhythms and drums can stay in their traditional place musically, but they can also be used to play and create music that crosses all boundaries, working with any other instruments or voices in any genre.  I absolutely learned that my place in the team is equally valuable, and the improvisation at the end of the day was absolutely awesome ... particularly the drumming, I thought :)