by Author Pete Moser

Published on

You are here:

WAYS INTO WORKSHOPS

"Blood and Olives" - the title of a song about learning. Intrigued ?

You had to be there to understand it! Where ... here at The Hothouse in Morecambe where 20 musicleaders and 3 tutors spent a weekend thinking, playing, questioning and sharing ideas about working with people to make music.  In about 2003, we created a brillinat 2 day structure working with Hugh Nankivell, Steve Lewis and Katherine Zerserson and before we created COMMUNITY MUSIC: A HANDBOOK. Now with the brilliant Beth Allen (voice +) and inspirational Leon Patel (beats+ ) we reinvented the structure and took people on a journey that considered many different aspects of musicleading within the community.

Saturday morning - “Participants will have the opportunity to work with all of the leaders in the course of the morning actively exploring some core principles of workshops practice and a range of different approaches. Participants will also form home groups which will meet regularly for small group reflection and review throughout the weekend”  With an ongoing focus on reflection we invited people to interupt the process at any point and ask why / what / how ?

ME - YOU - OTHER.  Beth talked about stopping at any point to think about what was happening to you yourself, to the person you are delivering to and to the whole group... interesting activity to try out..  

We sang, we played, we discussed working in circles, creating songs, failure, the use of language, managing groups and more. We filmed, recorded and I made a complete diary of activity to share. We gathered great quotes ... “It’s about intention not accuracy”  “Play this and share the love”....

Who was there? Some who had many years of experience and wanted to reconnect, others just starting on a pathway. People from Manchester, Colne, Blackburn, Preston, Morecambe, Lancaster, South Lakes. 

And what happens next ? We link them all to the networks running in the North west that should develop their skills and keep them connected to each other. Working with Rodney Adams at More Music and Kate Lowes at Brighter Sound, this programme for developing skills and experience for working with young people in challenging circumstances will go on and on... and sometime I'll sing you the song about the olives!