Musical Allotment - Reflections by a Young Person

We recently took part in our first ever musical jam on the Wild Earth allotment. Staff and participants were tasked with finding a place on-site to sit by themselves and take in the area around them, then find a garden item in said area that they could use as an instrument. A garden fork, plant pots, a small plank of wood, watering cans and the lid of a burning-bin were among those found around the allotment, along with an upturned garden bin used by our music teacher as a drum. A scraping sound was achieved by dragging a short length of bamboo cane along the indentations of a foot-tall segment of a planting bed separator.

Our music teacher taught the participants few rhythms to follow. All had a lot of fun! One young person spoke about how much they’d missed face-to-face musical sessions with Wild Earth, and that they really had enjoyed the activity. Another wasn’t so vocal but was clearly enthused, even taking to dancing! One young person, who had been struggling that day, gave the music a go and found he too really enjoyed himself. An absolute win in our books.

Louis said, “Music brings good atmosphere. I miss live music. Live gigs bring out a part of my personality I didn’t know I had. We’ve not been able to do this sort of thing during Lockdown.” At the end of the session, he said, “I loved the drumming! I used to do the drumming, and it’s been good to be able to do it again. It’s created an enjoyable atmosphere.”

Mohammed – “It’s been a long time since I did any music (not on the computer), so I’m happy.”