by Author harmonia

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6 years in the game.

6 years in the game. And what have I learnt?

6 years in the game.

And what have I learnt?

I entered community music during a period where funding for the creative arts appeared to be in abundance. During those times organisations (who had offered placements and more established practitioners) could confidently claim there were plenty of opportunities, well, if you displayed the right attitude and skill set. I felt confident that I 'd entered a career enabling me to use my music degree and fuse it with a passion for education, ignited by teaching ESOL/EFL abroad.

The transition to becoming self-employed was slightly arduous (taxes, cold calling, websites and HTML…), but fun. Being in control of my workload, having greater influence in the clients I wished to work for was exciting!

I must accredit organisations and courses such as Birmingham City Council's 'Flying Start', Sound it Out, Sound Futures, Music Leader, Spitalfields Music and Creative Partnerships - (a significant number of whom are no more) for positively contributing towards my Continuing Professional Development. The training and guidance I received from often high-spirited and experienced practitioners enabled my confidence to flourish in workshop delivery, it was also down to these courses that I was able to converse in the vernacular of my clients, becoming more au fait with edu-speak needed to ease potential clients.

 

Two and a half years I rather crudely wrote on my personal blog (think I had been listening to a lot of Hip Hop):

"Been in this community music game for a wee while. It’s a hustler’s life for sure, getting used to not knowing where the work is coming from, but still makes me nervous to the core. Mum reckons I shud do a PGCE, says she scared of seeing her babies struggle, she didn’t put us through uni with this in mind. Sometimes the 9 – 5 seems real tempting but nah! Still gonna hang in there, hopefully the universe will provide. Some workshops go amazingly, some leave me sad, but still gonna fight to be the best that I can."

3 years in, I was busy, really busy, and hopping between two cities. I wrote music for a chamber orchestra and young voices, I started to incorporate live use of music tech into my workshops. Composing more, bands and paid gigs! During this busy period when it came to workshop delivery I started to feel a bit bored, bored of my workshop style, the same old phrases, recycling activities. My reflective practice clearly stated I needed to develop a new language, set of material which would excite me. Nathan Portlock in his blog post "Innovate...or..DIE! states"

"As professional Music Leaders who are committed to reflective practice we innovate naturally without realising it; “OK that worked but this didn't. How can I improve this for next time?”. This is an innovation because it hones your existing methodologies by making them more successful, engaging and efficient.  If we don't reflect then we won't innovate and if we don't innovate then our career will suffer."

I was committed to reflective practice; post-workshop critiques were the saviour of unforeseen challenges, assisting in connecting with and addressing the needs of my participants. What I needed to do was take that next step and develop new material which corresponded to the changes I had experienced. One of the biggest lessons I learnt along my community music journey, was that in order to truly be inspiring, to impart skills in performance, music was something I needed to be doing, and for the first few years I spent so much time delivering I failed to find time to perform. The lack of balance has shifted, I've received commissions from dance companies, performed in live dubstep, soul and reggae bands as well as classical ensembles. A return to the stage, feeling pre-performance nerves inspired my workshops. I could recount tales to participants and deepened engagement. I also felt more qualified to talk about the area and confident in my introduction to participants. I would really recommend to any community musician who has lost touch with playing to reconnect, not matter how small the audience or short the performance.

I have also learnt more deeply about the role of the community musician, where we fit in the landscape of society, how we manoeuvre it:

For example community arts are vital because:

• engage with people and involve them deal with demanding and sometimes onerous issues such as discrimination, deprivation and inequality • gives people who are often subject to social exclusion the opportunity to gain greater levels of self-esteem and seek paths to employment - the Respect mentoring project strives to help young people at risk of anti-social behaviour to reassess their life choices in a non-threatening way • can help people celebrate achievements • consult creatively with local people - creative ways of consulting with the community can engage excluded groups - • non-threatening path to lifelong learning - engages people disenfranchised with education system • raise the profile of an area - presents positive image of an area celebrating its uniqueness, community arts can be become good news stories • develop community capacity  - involvement of local people in organisation of community projects develops new skills such as project management and fundraising, which are transferable to other community initiatives • stimulate cohesion amongst neighbourhoods - brings together group who may have expressed conflict to develop a project, develop skills and work toward a common aim.

Although we practitioners could be seen to be bottom of the food chain; with funds eventually trickling down from Department for culture, lottery, Arts council, Local authorities and extended schools etc. we are necessary. Without us there is no delivery, no project, no-one to connect with communities. The more experienced community arts practitioners is able to become a tactician, to placing themselves in a position where they are versed in the vernacular of stake holders, knowledgeable about the different initiatives requiring their services, and able to forge deep connections to enable greater autonomy and control over the work they do.

With this knowledge, I feel my workshop skills are gradually improving. I know I still have a long way to go in my music workshopping journey.