Together Apart - ‘Our Band’ - OAE / Plymouth Music Zone & City College Plymouth working successfully in partnership despite Covid-19

Plymouth Music Zone has had the privilege of working in partnership with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAE Education) for many years now, but somehow this project has felt significantly important when working together (yet apart) due to Covid-19 restrictions on our lives.  ‘Our Band’ in Plymouth is a collaboration between OAE, PMZ and staff / neurodiverse / disabled students from City College Plymouth Skills Development course.

February 2020 was the last time ‘Our Band’ worked together in the same physical space (see photo!) in the main hall at PMZ.

Little did we know at that point that what was to follow was a complete adaptation of our working practices, as well significant changes to how all of us live.  The Covid-19 pandemic and a first national lockdown was just lurking just weeks around the corner.

At that point we were ironically working on an original song called ‘called "We Are". This song was exploring ideas about what it felt like to be a musician and part of this ensemble. Two of the students came up with lyrics, including:

We are strong, we have fun, together we unite as one...we are proud to have found this sound

In many ways, nothing has changed in terms of what it means to us in human terms to work together musically. In other ways, EVERYTHING has changed. We have all pined for the glorious (taken-for-granted) days of working very much in 3D with all the elements that make up a meaningful and connected musical experience - body language cues, possibilities for adapting materials, access to instruments, positioning ourselves best for learning in different ways, eye contact, toe-tapping, laughter, reacting to emotional landscapes, peer-supporting, the ability to respond within a millisecond to something subtle and barely seen….

….all reduced down to an abstract 2D experience in little separate boxes, masked faces and all of us completely dependent on the technology that makes it happen at all and then in very basic terms, the speakers and screens being used to transmit ourselves backwards and forwards, with the hope that on the other end of the wires and electronics, all can be received and perceived along with what’s originally intended.

In between the projects, the OAE collaborated with us in Plymouth via email / file sharing / zoom and we were able to contribute to an original piece called the 'Together Song' which we broadcast as part of our summer 2020 series. 

Online Workshops - Nov 2020 with Our Band at City College

Day One of the project allowed us to explore how everything was set up with the OAE at Cecil Sharp House in London. The musicians were able to work together safely (at that time) in the same space. This particular space just so happened to be one of the rehearsal spaces features on the Strictly Come Dancing Series, so we were expecting at the very least a few pirouettes!

Karl Meyer (Music Programme Director) and myself (Creativity & Learning Director) were guinea pigs for testing sound / camera angles etc. The orchestral musicians were spending the day creating resources, planning and setting up for the project delivery.

City College remained closed to visitors, so we worked with the situation to provide support from PMZ by using me (Anna) to be the in-between person with communications with the college where needed, engaging with all the online activities (including using instruments where needed), planning for internet drop-out and troubleshooting throughout the delivery of sessions. I also ended up encouraging the ‘chat’ function so that when we couldn’t ‘hear’ responses from the other end, we were able to get some kind of two-way communication e.g. making choices and offering feedback to the musicians.  

Days Two and Three were packed with musical activities for the different groups on the receiving end at City College via Zoom. The original students engaged in ‘Our Band’ were scattered across different ‘working bubbles’ at college, so everything was adapted for these students who were known to us as well as completely new participants. In this way, many more students were able to experience the project than originally intended - at least 33 joined us over this time, plus a lots of different teaching and support staff. It was fantastic by all accounts.  

The students were able to learn about specialist instruments that were not familiar to them, get up close to the action on specially placed cameras (e.g. drum cam!), hear the work of composers of early music, as well as original music created by and through the project. Many used signing and a couple of groups were able to access basic instruments as well as engage in body percussion among other things. 

I felt that we all collectively learnt so much about what was possible and ultimately very positive about working differently in this way. Collaborating with these AMAZING musicians, the brilliant James Redwood and Cherry Forbes, the seemingly impossible happened.

I felt reassured that genuine connection could happen, we could continue to work with passion and integrity and that we would take aspects of this way of delivering work into the future, with particular regard to possibilities for making the experiences more accessible for all.

General Comments and Observations

It was hugely inspiring to witness the professionalism and dedication of the OAE to making the project happen, in particular by Cherry Forbes. Her care towards her colleagues and every single individual she worked with, from participants to support workers is nothing short of inspirational. It was really interested to hear all the considerations and adaptations being made to keep colleagues safe and connected at the same time as creating genuinely meaningful and high quality experiences. Just being around someone who works in this way is uplifting and motivating. 

I valued planning and reflection sessions with Cherry and the OAE team associated with this project. The collaborations have always meant a lot to me and my own practice, but somehow the volume and the emotional colour was turned up quite a few notches during the time of the pandemic! The project was reassuring, refreshing, inspiring and perfectly timed to inject some much needed positivity for us all.

The planning and attention to detail, flexing around the ever-changing needs of the college staff and students was amazing. We went from working on the idea of potentially being able to work with students at college in their bubble groups in person, to possibly players broadcasting using PMZ facilities in Plymouth, finally to working remotely between London and Plymouth with myself as a kind of link person between the two. I worked from home when it became clear that no visitors were going to be able to access the college.

So many barriers were presented to us: The college were not allowing visitors and the students were learning in strict ‘bubble’ groups. This meant that the students who would have been developing and tracked throughout the original planned project were now within other groups of students and spread into about 6 groups in all. One of the groups included a student who had just tested positive for Covid, so both the class bubble and their teacher then had to self-isolate at home, so would not be able to access the sessions after all. The students at home were not able to join the zoom sessions. However, adaptations were made and considered so that the students who missed out would be able to watch at a later stage.

In addition to the barriers and challenges presented to us by the Covid-19 situation, we were additionally told that the students weren’t going to be allowed to make any increased noise because they were in classrooms that were in the same corridor area as the college Principal and that those classrooms were not sound-proof. Singing was not allowed (or at that time was expected to be the case). However, signing and use of body percussion would be ok. Some classrooms had speakers that were working fine, others might have problems allowing us to see into the room. All staff were doing their best at the other end to help. Some tech-savvy students also stepped up to try and help and this was just wonderful to witness, particularly as some of these students were new faces to us.

Having the continued presence of a peer support young person in the group was really wonderful. Monty was able join us for part of the time with his drums and instruments at home. His journey with the OAE and the groups I think has been a powerful one. My previous experience of meeting Monty was only brief – he was drumming in one of our PMZ advanced young people’s groups (AllStars) and I would see him on his way in and out of the building or in the band. I also had the privilege of the sessions we did manage to do in person and witnessed him reacting to support and suggestions for improvement from the OAE team. This was clearly building his confidence. It was also good for the students who had worked with us before to recognise familiar faces from PMZ.

It was great to see Monty in a different context other than PMZ. In his own space with his instruments – really immersing himself and focusing in on the experience (despite his difficulties with internet connection). It was again, very emotional for me to see him in this way. Independent, yet at home and able to contribute so much more fully than I would have anticipated if I’d have been asked the same thing last year. I could really see a much more confident individual, great musician and someone who was more interested and reflective in what was going on elsewhere in the virtual space. Lots of smiles…said it all.

Challenges

Audio – problems with feedback meant we were unable to hear the students' audio on the other end. Very frustrating in terms of having feedback and in-the-moment interactions.

Interactions – sometimes it was difficult to tell from tiny images of the students in one of the frames (wearing masks and sat at individual desks) how things were being received. It was absolutely joyful when we could see people moving / signing / thumbs up and making suggestions in the zoom ‘chat’. We had to slow down our expectations of this in so many ways, but interaction was most definitely there and the most rewarding and wonderful thing to witness in terms of human and emotional connection despite all the challenges. A challenge, yes, but a resounding success in so many other ways.

Solutions

I became a kind of in-between person to support the facilitation – in a way this was not dissimilar to when we work ordinarily in the PMZ building (aside from missing the access to instruments and resources) . It became helpful when I was interacting on the zoom typed ‘chat’ and trying to spot additional things such as hands-up or signs that perhaps the players / James may have missed on the other end whilst they were concentrating on what they were doing. I was also able to assist with a few tech suggestions.

I was able to ‘hold the fort’ as a co-host when the wifi timed out in London and the musicians momentarily disappeared.

Interaction – it was sometimes difficult to read body language in the room (in addition to the masks covering peoples’ faces). Sometimes people were out of shot or leaning back into their chairs. It wasn’t clear if they could even hear us, but all of a sudden we would get a thumbs-up or wave and this interaction increased as we got more deeply into each session. I was able to help by observing these interactions as best as I could and feeding this back to the players and James in London.

I personally really loved being able to talk to the players, make comments in the ‘chat’ and feel like I was almost in the same space. I felt involved, included and able to express myself more easily than I thought was going to be possible.

Unexpected Outcomes

Emotional Impact – I had begun feeling quite strangely anxious about the whole thing. How could I be of any sort of help? How would it feel? What if Zoom didn’t work? What if people didn’t turn up? What if my computer has a meltdown after all the hours on Zoom? These things all melted away quickly as James carried us into the musical experiences and I worked out that I might just be able to support in the way that I usually do – just a little differently!

I felt very extraordinarily moved the first time I heard all the musicians working together. I could see the body language, the eye contact, breathing together, bows coming down, rounding off phrases….these things all meant EVERYTHING to me that day. It didn’t wear off as we continued to work together – but that first time really stuck with me as something very special.

I found myself using my own body language in a more obvious way than usual (as much as was possible seated and on zoom!).  I wanted to expressively demonstrate my interactions on the zoom screen to try and encourage the students as well as the players. It worked well and some of the OAE told me that it really helped them to see this happening too visually.

I was really exhausted after the few days from all the intense concentration on every moment, but it was a rich and wonderful experience. 

I had felt genuinely connected despite all the challenges. It was such a relief to see other people and to see the players operating from the same space doing ‘normal’ musician things! The technology / Zoom had completely enabled this – exceptional to think that we were not working in this way a very short time ago and may have implications for accessibility in the future alongside more conventional sessions again!

Many of the City College students were a lot more comfortable with the technology than I was expecting. (This has been something that we have noticed with some other PMZ groups, particularly with individuals who find group social interactions difficult – a new kind of confidence and different ways of sharing their thoughts and feelings unlocked by being in safe spaces at home and using technology to express themselves). It was also wonderful to see some students supporting college staff (with varying degrees of comfort using the technology)! Lots of mutual learning going on.

Musically it was more interesting and creative than I was expecting. I found myself listening more intently somehow. I was drawn into everything that was happening through the use of different camera angles (e.g. drum cam!)and in terms of future workshops, I think there’s a lot that could potentially be used to augment and improve our other kinds of access to musical experiences, particularly for those who aren’t able to physically come to live music settings.

As always I loved the way that I could still feel very much ‘in the room’ thanks to the beautiful way that James guided both myself and the groups in the way that only he can!

My young puppy, Luna learnt to sleep and relax on my feet throughout the sessions! She’s not normally allowed into any of the workshop settings, so it was great that she could pop in and virtually say hi to the team and the students! It added to the feeling of the unique setup – working from home in my living room with all my ‘things’ around me. Having an intense and moving experience and it took me a while to listen to the silence at the end of it all. I sat with my headphones still on for a while, gradually returning to my own space and reflecting for a little while longer on what had been a really beautiful experience all round.

I felt able after the project to confidently try some of the ideas and presentation techniques in my own work on zoom with some of my adult PMZ participants.

Finally - Thankyou Cherry, James and the OAE – you are consistently wonderful and the world needs you now more than ever! I am proud to be working for PMZ and the opportunity to connect in this way. Our Band means so much to me and to so many more of us in Plymouth! Hope through music making – long may it continue….together or apart.