Reflections on the training of young music leaders

Jack Kingslake, music leader and trainer with AudioActive, discusses the highs and lows of delivering training to young aspiring music leaders in Brighton.

As we sit down to plan for the delivery of another round of music leader training for young aspiring music leaders in Brighton, I feel like this is the ideal time to reflect on the previous courses that I have delivered for Audio Active with my esteemed colleague Max Wheeler, and to open-up the discussion around this topic, in the hope of gaining insights from the wider ‘youth music’ sector.

The four 10 week courses that we have run to date, set out to prepare young musicians, producers and rappers for working directly with young people; specifically, the vulnerable and potentially challenging young people that engage with the regular workshops that we were running with the Youth Offending Service in Brighton, as part of a Youth Music funded project. We are currently recruiting locally for a new cohort of young music leaders, who we hope will go on to work on various programs of work that we are delivering across the south coast.

Recruitment

Recruiting the right people for these courses has been one of the biggest issues we’ve faced as a team. Initially we recruited young people who were too young to take on the role of music leader at the end of the course. This became clear during the shadowing stage of the course when the trainees worked alongside the course leaders to deliver workshops, and they defaulted to the role of participant, clearly feeling that they lacked the authority to take control when working with young people of a similar age. In response to this, we increased the age of the trainees on following courses from 15-19 to 18-25, which has worked much better.

Another issue we faced with recruitment was a serious lack of female applicants, meaning that we ended up positively discriminating towards any young women who applied, giving places to participants whose musical ability wasn’t at the standard we needed for them to feel confident as teachers and role models. It has become clear that a high level of skill and authenticity within their specific field is needed for young people to feel confident within the role of music leader, and as we recruit another cohort we need to be confident that we are giving this opportunity to young people who have what takes to work in this challenging field. Meaning that our role is to give them a better understanding of the sector, help to develop their leadership skills and an opportunity to try out their ideas within a supported environment.

What we have covered

Based on the assumption that most of the trainees had the relevant musical / technical skills for the role, the focus for our training has always been to make sure they have an understanding of the responsibilities of a music leader, how to be a positive role model, how to create a positive learning environment and how to plan effectively, as well as sharing a lot of the specific techniques that we have developed over the years. We have also put a lot of emphasis on supporting them to develop their own individual approaches that suit their personality and skill set. These have been realized through their delivery of regular weekly sessions with targeted groups as well as intensive week-long workshops in the school holidays.

Outcomes for the trainees

Whilst lots of our trainees have gone onto gain sporadic paid work as music leaders for AudioActive or other providers, a few have gained regular work in this field. I am however personally disappointed that more of the trainees haven’t managed to sustain careers as music leaders longer-term, but I feel this is more a reflection of the wider sector than the quality of our training. Many of those who finished the training with some regular music leadership work, despite being very talented and passionate, reluctantly ended up finding full time jobs in other fields because they were unable to subsist on the irregular and part time nature of the work. Those who have managed to continue as music leaders have been the ones for whom music is their life, and music leadership is one part of a portfolio music career.

Even those who haven’t managed to continue as music leaders have still benefitted a lot from the process. Many have gone onto work on other youth projects, others have gone onto higher level music education and others have fed back that the experience has given them the self-confidence they needed to move forward with their lives.

The one thing that ties together each of the elements within the training that Max and I have been delivering, is its basis in reflective practice. Our trainees are continually asked to reflect on their role as musicians and as potential role models in the lives of others, and for many of our participants this has been the first time they’ve been asked to think in this way. I feel that whatever our trainees have ended out doing with their lives this grounding in reflective practice should have provided a positive framework for their lives.

Points for discussion

Why have so few of our trainees managed to sustain careers as music leaders?

Should we continue to offer music leader training when the sector is already flooded with people who can’t get enough regular work?

Why is it so hard to find young women who want to work in our area of music leadership (i.e. challenging circumstances, urban music)?

What are the essential things that need to be taught within music leader training?