My Tunes - Music Leader Blog

My Tunes 3 continues the legacy of My Tunes, with Take Art, Actiontrack and young people in four Pupil Referral Units working together to make and record music in a range of styles. This work has been made possible through a grant from Youth Music and financial support from four area PRU schools.

For most of the week here at Actiontrack studios in Taunton, we play host to a great number of young people from the local area, all taking their first steps into music discovery through the MyTunes3 scheme. We welcome students from 8 up to 18 from a variety of backgrounds including Targeted Youth Support, nurture groups, PRU’s and adoption agencies.

Our musicians who are themselves active international musicians, touring and recording in their own rights, place students at the heart of every session that we deliver, taking their interests as our starting point, allowing them to make and achieve their own goals.

Through working with Actiontrack the students have had the opportunity to learn a variety of instruments including drums, guitar, bass and keyboards, often culminating in the creation of bands at the centres that the young people attend, playing new music or covering their favorite artists

Many go on to write and produce their own songs, dissecting works by artists they admire as inspiration, before moving forward with their own music composition. Our skilled team are then able to nurture them through a wide range of genres as they create their own original pieces. We can produce the entire track, including working through lyric writing, singing techniques and record a professional sounding track, based on their character and inspiration.

Our new DJ set up has also been popular amongst many of our participants. This teaches them to learn how to beat match, mix and use the effects to create DJ sets that are then recorded for them to take away. The project has not only produced some fantastic creative material but has above all been a very positive and accessible environment for young people to try out things they never thought they could, building confidence, communication, trust and task management skills and musical knowledge.

For many the My Tunes sessions have been a stepping-stone to further education and other musical projects, and we hope to continue this throughout the project!

Take Art works with Actiontrack to provide a music service for young people in Somerset. With a focus on excellence, ambition and accessibility, we work with music partners, youth groups and schools across the county to deliver an exciting participatory programme that includes performance and professional development.