by Author Will_Simpson

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Reflection makes good practise!

Relfective practise leads to captured evidence promoting the value of a project

I began my internship with musinc, the Teesside musical inclusion resource in February and have had the chance to work in various community music settings. One of the requirements was that I completed the ABC Level 2 qualification in Youth work. This has helped me to understand my practice as a community musician working with young people in challenging circumstances.

I feel the youth work qualification has given me great insight into reflective practice and a strong theoretical base to my approach to community music.

 

I have been working with a group who are having difficulties with formal education. After four weekly sessions with the group progress has been made, far beyond what their teacher expected.. They have responded brilliantly to guitar tuition as well as having improved their school attendance and behaviour.

In the first session I allowed the group to come into the studio and get a feel for it before anything was introduced. I placed myself in a comfortable seat before they arrived and was casually playing some recognisable riffs on guitar in a laid back way when they came in The group responded well to this as it was very informal and no assumptions had been passed on.

Since the first session the group have developed as young musicians and have begun learning pop songs on the guitar.

I have also introduced some informal music theory and rhythm exercises.

The Level 2 qualification is built around reflective practise. I use simple question and answer reflection practises.

Each week I have kept a reflective account of what worked and what I learned:

What worked well?

After teaching the group 4 chords on the guitar I noticed that some of them had the chord changes down faster than the others and timing between the chord changes were not going well. In order to facilitate this we each choose a chord we were comfortable playing and began a round robin of chord changes.

What didn't work well?

Before initiating the group chord changes each young musician was learning the chords and changes individually, this resulted in a lot of noise and frustration from the group, different people learning at different speeds.

What did I learn?

After breaking the chords down into individual parts and creating a round robin of chord changing the music began to flow into a coherent ensemble. This sounded good and the group was given a boost of confidence and appreciation. This can be used in future sessions as it can be built upon.

What can I do better next time?

The exercise of chord changing and group participation can be extended on and used to create some form of musical game in which rhythm and timing is improved upon. “

Opportunities such as the intern-ship with musinc Teesside are great for someone who would like to become an active community musician.

The tools I have gained and the value of the experience itself will be difficult to measure.

Using reflective practise can give some indication of this value and I would recommend this method to anyone who is using music to engage with young people whether they are young musicians or young people with no previous musical experience.