5 Things I Would Like to Develop Further Now I’ve Finished The Junction by Dan Tween (Youth Band Leader on Base Studios’ The Junction project)
1. Being Able to Teach Children Equally with All Different Abilities at All Levels
When you get given a group of younger musicians that have either never worked with each other before or even worked with anyone else before, this can prove to be rather challenging. One thing I would like to explore and develop more are the ways of getting around this barrier so that even if you have students coming in with a 3-5-year age gap, you can still find ways of making them well together as a team. I've made lots of progress but want to keep learning!
,2. Being Firmer When Necessary
Something I’ve always found difficult is being assertive, so, for example, if one of the project members is messing around, constantly on their phones, or not listening, then it is my role to correct these misdemeanours. Being as it is my role to also keep them engaged, if a member becomes disengaged then something must be done out of respect for everyone else in the group. This is an area in which I have always struggled in as I like to try and keep everyone happy with as little confrontation possible. This, however, does not work in all cases. I felt very fortunate with my group as there were very few occasions of misbehaviour when I needed to be firm with them, however I still feel this is an area of which I need to work on within the teaching environment.
3. Engaging Younger Musicians with Original Music
I feel like it is so easy for musicians to fall in love with playing cover songs which, more often than not, tend to be just songs that they love to listen to. These can’t always be the best to play. Agreeing on the fact that when playing a show during the early stages, it’s great to have a couple of tracks up your sleeve for people to sing along to, however, the earlier you get started on writing your own material the better. My aim is to try and bring out the creativity in everyone and to show that those cover songs that they love to play are actually someone else’s original music, so strive to become the next band/artist that people want to cover!
4. Acquire a Wider Knowledge in Varied Instrumentation
I find that my knowledge is already pretty wide within music, however there were some instances within The Junction project where I found myself longing to help the drummer out but could not explain to him exactly what I meant, neither could I write it out as I lack that knowledge of scoring drum parts. Granted, this is not something that everybody could do, but I found myself giving the most tips to the singer as that is the area of music that I am most familiar with. I'd love to develop more of a working knowledge of the instruments I have less experience with!
5. Finding Ways to Get the Best Out of Students
Nowadays there are so many distractions for students such as the internet, phones, TV... that it leaves real little room for practising. All it takes is a little bit of practise a day, and then when it comes down to the final show/project, things would be so much easier, and your abilities will grow in leaps and bounds. Finding ways to keep students interested and engaged in their art is something I'm very much interested in and want to develop more resources and techniques to encourage students to want to practise at home.
I've really learnt a lot through my experience as a Youth Band Leader over the past year and I'm looking forward to what the future holds as I know that I want to do more of this kind of work!
