Realtime Arts Tips On Working With Young People In Challenging Circumstances

This is the first of our posts by about working on Sounding Off, a music technology and songwriting project funded by Youth Music for young musicians in challenging circumstances in West London.

Sounding-Off aims to inspire and engage young musicians in challenging circumstances through Arts Award courses in music technology/creative songwriting, performance, and spoken word. The project creates unique performances based on young musicians ideas of empowerment, life in London, and overcoming challenges in their lives. Sounding Off has been running since September 2015 and we have been working with small groups of young people in PRU settings and those at-risk in mainstream schools. We have found that the most effective way to engage young people with emotional and behavioural needs is to begin with short one-to-one sessions catered to thier musical tastes.  For example, Tyrese liked UK Grime and enjoyed rapping so we started sessions by listening to his favourite music and emulating beats using Logic Pro. We gave him a mic and for the first couple of sessions we just let him freestyle. Gradually he became more comfortable with us and is now enrolled on our Arts Award Bronze course, is producing high-quality music, and has brought in two friends to sessions to rap with him.  Some young people prove much harder to engage and require substantial emotional support just to come into the sessions.  In this instance we have found that keeping in touch with school staff and support workers has led to better results because they can encourage the young musicians when we are not there. This has been particularly effective where young musicians have been learning instruments or singing and school staff have actively helped with practice schedules and mentored practice times.  We only see the young musicians once per week and have found that it is only now, six months into the project, that many feel comfortable enough to express themselves freely.  We have found that the key to getting the best results from the young musicians is being willing to try many different musical routes, and above all, remembering to be compassionate and kind even when you are faced with the most challenging behaviour.