Peer learning and Maracatu in the North East!
We’ve had some great activity with Switch It. If you don’t know the project, Switch It is a musical intervention for vulnerable young people from Hartlepool in the North East of England. The programme supports young people’s social and emotional development through targeted musical activities delivered by a team of specialist music leaders and youth service practitioners.
At our recent Participation Group we invited Sam Ward-Hardy from Jack Drum Arts to deliver a Brazilian drumming workshop for our young musicians. For those who don’t know, Sam is a young leader who received a Winston Churchill Fellowship Grant and recently travelled to Brazil to spend five months studying traditional and contemporary percussion.
Sam’s visit was a real eye opener for our young musicians for many reasons; firstly Sam’s experience in Brazil, his enthusiasm and skills as a workshop leader gave our young people a great example of what can be achieved when you put your mind to it. The workshop was also a chance for our young musician’s to experience something completely different, learning Maracatu rhythms and playing traditional Brazilian instruments was new to every young person and was a great way to learn about different cultures and traditions. This experience really took our young musicians away from the comfort zones of their preferred instruments and familiar musical genres and challenged them both mentally and physically (me too!) learning complex multi-part rhythms, I have to say they rose to this challenge and succeeded in learning and performing two rhythms; Ijexe and Ogum; well done Switch It!
Some comments from young musicians; “Fantastic, was great” “amazing night” “great but really loud!” “My arm is dead!”
We wanted to show our young musicians some potential career/development opportunities and that there are different routes for different people, Sam said “I have taken a very non-traditional and non-academic route in terms of working within the community music scene, so you don’t need to necessarily be good at theory or have to have loads of grades, instead have lots of passion and drive.”
The workshop gave Sam an opportunity to work with a new and different project, he says this increased his understanding of working with young people “they were a very quiet group so it required a lot of energy to make sure the workshop moved forward with momentum.”
I can’t understate the value of young people learning from their peers; I was really pleased to see a young leader inspiring other young people, sharing their experiences and growing as a music leader through the process. I wanted to write this blog to highlight the benefits of peer learning and young leadership programmes, I know this is valued and nurtured by many in the community music field; I thought I’d celebrate here!
Keep on grooving!
Tim Coyte Switch It Project Coordinator
