Brendan's Youth Leadership Blog

A fantastic blog by Brendan, all about his Youth Leadership, his engagement with the Jack Drum Arts Youth Music Programme 'Wear Making Music', and the impact of the Global Grooves 'Future Leaders' programe -

I have been doing samba drumming for a while now about 6-7 years and through this time I have progressed in both skills I have already got and new skills that I obtain and will obtain. One of these main skills is the actual drumming when I started drumming I put myself on the hardest drum to play because it appealed to me most and it has set me up for now because as I have played it and learned beats and rhythms for me to play I then realised if I could play that drum then I really could learn any drum in the kit and I could transfer these skills to different drums, instruments and real life.

Leadership, Confidence and Self Esteem

Through all of this hard work I have been able to gain more confidence in myself and the way I act and my social skills towards others and I am now in the position where I travel the country and europe to lead shows to perform and to teach people how to drum. I have been in many big parades such as Manchester pride, Brazilica (Liverpool), Stockton surf, whitley bay carnival, Liverpool pride and Newcastle pride. I have drummed with different bands too such as Runaway Samba, Baque De Ogum, Juba De Leo and Global Grooves and I have done collaborations with bands such as Drumdin and Baque De Axe. With this confidence I have been able to go to Brazil and Belgium to be able to drum and take part in more carnivals and parades. I have also been able to transfer this confidence to the real world and I have been able to approach and talk to people in the street when I have needed help and someone to talk to. With the mental health problems I have such as anxiety and depression I have had to try and overcome a lot of different problems within my own brain and well being before I could start to conquer problems within the samba drumming and artistic world. The fact that drumming made me more confident made me more able to go to courses such as Future Leaders down in manchester.

Future Leaders and Workshops.

Future leaders is a youth program focusing on music, visual arts and dance. There are a limited amount of spaces for each of the courses and I was lucky enough to be accepted onto the course twice in a row which was an amazing opportunity for me and opened my mind further and further in the views of leading a samba band. The course was built of week and weekend residentials that were packed full of workshops, speakers and tie to cooperate with people who are around your age and involved in the arts in a positive way. Many of the people who are involved in the future leaders program like myself are very enthusiastic towards their art form and are very inclusive of everybody who is there and the majority want to use their artform to help the world and to make their community a better place. I loved the fact that Future leaders gave me a lot of opportunity to do many great things around the uk as this has been the main stepping stone from band member to leader.

Jack Drum Arts.

I have been a part of jack drum for a while as I said earlier and this has been the biggest thing in my life that has really molded me to who I am now. Most of a week I will spend my time at the Jack Drum building doing workshops or some form of work around the building such as drama or drumming or helping around where I am needed. I have been many places with jack drum such as Brazil and Brussels to do many different types of drumming such as Maracatu, samba and cuban drumming. Jack drum however are not only a place that I go to do work and drum and do activities it is also a chill place where I can talk to people about my feelings and I can also use jack drum as a safe space for me to go when I really don’t feel like I belong anywhere. Through all the help that jack drum have given me I feel like I have been able to create a strong connection with in my friendship group with people who I feel safe around and people who I trust to enough to be able to talk about my problems and my life with. With in Jack Drum I have built a network of people who I can turn to for help and look to but also to get opportunity and cease it for my own benefit and for the benefit of others.

Conclusion.

I feel that the drumming and the drama and the activities has helped me not only progress as a Leader but also as a person. With all of the support I have gotten from various people in my experience drumming I feel I have became much more confident and much more happy with my life because I finally feel I have somewhere that my life can actually go.