Reflections on Music Spaces in lockdown by Max Wheeler

When lockdown hit there was a real concern that our Music Spaces might not translate well into an online offer. In fact it turned out to be a brilliant project which has highlighted several very interesting outcomes.

T is a young man on the ASD spectrum who struggles to engage with mainstream provision, is home schooled and had not attended Audio Active/SoundCity provision before. He has come every week without fail, collaborated with other group members and is now putting together a release for a youth label run by other young people in an entirely different county! Seeing his confidence and ability to socialise each week grow has been a real joy and his journey from day one is, to my mind, really significant. 

He received track of the month on VIP Studio Sessions for his collaboration with G and seemed really proud of this. His overall attitude to his own work has really improved and it has been amazing to watch him actually lead the session at times, teaching other group members about synthesis and music production. 

G is a young woman who was participating in the Dormans project in Crawley but who has engaged every week with the online offer doing some amazing work, collaborating and really making strides in terms of her professional development, production skills and songwriting. She has made massive progress in all of these areas and for me one of the best things has been seeing the way that she has taken ownership of the Youth Label ‘Moretime’ which was in the early stages at Dormans. She has led on branding, design and label management and is now in a position to not only make music and release it but to be a leader in terms of helping other people releasing their music on the label. It's also been brilliant to talk about the significance of young women taking these leadership roles and how impactful that can be on their peers. 

I was deeply impressed by how supportive she has been of other group members and understanding in terms of working with younger participants who are maybe not at her level of professionalism. For this reason I recommended that she take part in the Audio Active Music Leadership program in the future - something she was really keen to do!