ReMarkable Arts - one young person's journey

Music4U and ReMarkable Arts have been working with young people in coastally deprived Withernsea and have found - once again - how vital the power of music is for changing lives!

Music4U

Music4U is a key strand within the National Centre for Early Music's creative learning and participation programme, which seeks to build a more musically inclusive England. Music4U reaches across York, Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire and provides musical engagement and development opportunities for young people aged 0-25, particularly targeting those whose life circumstances make it difficult for them to otherwise access musical learning. The current Music4U project has developed from fourteen years of experience as a Youth Music Action Zone and subsequently a Musical Inclusion provider.

ReMarkable Arts

ReMarkable Arts is a key delivery partner of the Music4U programme, providing instrumental and vocal development and ensemble opportunities to young people across the East Riding. Recently, ReMarkable Arts has been developing links in some of the more coastally isolated and economically deprived part of the region, to increase access to positive musical activity for young people living in these challenging circumstances.

Working in Withernsea

As part of this drive to reach out to areas of need, ReMarkable has been delivering taster workshops in Withernsea, targeting young people who would not normally have chance to get involved in music-making. Interest in the project was drummed up through a pre-project performance from young people already working with ReMarkable in other areas, which gave young people in Withernsea inspiration and incentive to get involved in developing their own musical skills. Held at The Hut – Withernsea’s Youth Club – the taster sessions themselves brought together a variety of young people, from different backgrounds and with different levels of experience. One of these young people was Leanne*

Leanne’s Story

Leanne was originally signposted to the taster sessions by her social worker, who had been advised by local Family Services of Music4U’s offer to young people in this area. Leanne already had an interest in learning the guitar but had previously had limited opportunity to play, as she could not afford her own guitar and was reliant on borrowing her friends’ instruments for short bursts of time. As such, it was hard for her to make any real progress. When she came to the ReMarkable Arts taster sessions, she was able to borrow an instrument and have dedicated practice time on it, as well as expert tuition from the ReMarkable music leaders.

At first, Leanne was reluctant and shy but, with encouragement, she began to play. She freely admitted that, at the start, she felt that she would “rather die than ever have to perform in from of people!” However, with support, she quickly developed her confidence and skills and was able to perform on the guitar in front of a dozen of her peers at the end of the project. Leanne is now keen to continue her musical development and plans to join in with future ReMarkable projects in Withernsea, planned as part of the 2016 Music4U programme, which involves – remarkably! – a large scale performance event at Bridlington Spa, called Let’s Rock.

Although Leanne says she “still struggles” socially, she is able to “find common ground with other people through music” and her peers and tutors have already seen “an increase in her confidence, both as a performer and as an individual”.

*names have been changed out of respect for the young person’s privacy.