Music Leader Trainee Profile - James Rhodes-Baxter
James Rhodes-Baxter has been working with More Music as a trainee music leader on projects in Brierfield and Burnley since 2014. Here he tells us what he has learnt from the experience so far.
Q - What’s your musical passion?
A - First and foremost I'm a singer-songwriter. I love the process of shaping words on a page, or a nice-sounding hook or chord progression, into a fully fledged song. I love performing, playing around 100 gigs each year, around the north-west and further afield.
Q - What have you done before (gigs/teaching etc)
A - I’ve always enjoyed helping other people to learn, and prior to working with More Music I'd given basic guitar lessons to friends and family. I was really interested in working with groups, but I'd had little experience in terms of leading workshops.
Q - What have you done with us?
A - I’ve been involved with several More Music workshop projects across Lancashire, working with groups of young people (8-18 year olds), alongside more experienced music leaders, and support staff from other organisations such as InSitu, and SomewhereTo. My role was to support the workshop leaders with a view to eventually leading sessions myself.
Q - What are the three key things you’ve learnt by doing this?
A - I’ve learned a lot from my work with Moremusic. If I had to pick three key things these would be: - enthusiasm in you breeds enthusiasm in your group. Positive energy is catching! - Be prepared: good session planning is paramount, as is evaluation after each session. This helps to identify what worked well, and what could have worked better. - Be flexible: despite the best laid plans, it's useful to be able to adapt the session if circumstances change.
Q - What are you up to now?
A - I’ve just finished a four-month songwriting project with PRS for Music, called 'Songs for Manchester'. I'm playing lots of gigs, and running open mic nights in east Lancashire. Alongside this I'm writing songs for my debut album and planning a UK tour to promote my current EP. I'm looking forward to more community music work, and hope to be involved with future More Music projects.
Find out more about More Music at www.moremusic.org.uk