The Sonic Garden: Building a project facilitation team. The value of associate artists, embedding apprenticeship opportunities and collaborating with classroom teaching staff
The Sonic Garden is a project exploring unusual sound making possibilities, DIY instrument design and building. Lifesize delivered a pilot project over ten weeks in the spring of 2021 at Saxon Mount, a SEN secondary school in Hastings, East Sussex. The concept of the project was to create an exciting environment for pupils to re-engage with learning and group work after the long period of disruption caused by the Covid 19 pandemic. We planned the project to be innovative, unique, and memorable. We wanted to facilitate activities that the pupils would be unlikely to experience in their regular school music lessons but that would complement the curriculum and support the school music teachers to further engage the pupils in their lessons. They would have the chance to be creative and experimental, playing unusual instruments, collecting field recordings, manipulating recorded sound, and designing and building instruments.
When devising the Sonic Garden project we were aware that the Lifesize facilitator team would need to have a variety of skills and work closely with the school teaching staff to realise the project to its full potential. As project lead with a keen interest in the subject matter of DIY instrument construction and accessibility I was wanting to collaborate with someone who shared this interest but had a different perspective to bring to the project.
We were very excited to have been able to collaborate with Frank Moon (pictured). Frank is a composer and multi-instrumentalist based in the UK. As a composer, much of his work is for the stage - dance and theatre, though he also writes for screen and live ensembles, and performs widely in many contexts. Prior to joining the Sonic Garden facilitation team, Frank had just completed a community music project which involved DIY instrument construction. As well as having the honed skillset of an experienced community musician he shared a keen interest in the diverse world of musical instruments from all around the world, Frank was the perfect person to collaborate with and brought a lot of great ideas to the project.
Since our organisation Lifesize began delivering community music project work we have wanted to create training CPD opportunities for the facilitators we work with. I believe investing in the skills development of the people you work with is key to the development of an organisation and the sense of wellbeing experienced by the facilitators as they develop their practice. Jack is a young trainee music facilitator who was once a project participant on a music for mental health and wellbeing programme. Over several years he has progressed through a series of apprenticeship opportunities. This project held some new valuable development opportunities for Jack as a trainee to experience. Working with young secondary SEN pupils in a school environment was a new and exciting experience for him.
'I really enjoyed this project, it was something new for me as I haven’t worked in a school like this before. I am learning more about how to be music leader.'
Jack, Lifesize trainee music facilitator
Working closely with the school teaching staff was undoubtably one of the most important parts of our project workplan. We were fortunate to have been warmly welcomed into the school environment and offered lots of support by the teaching staff. We embedded plenty of collaborative planning and evaluation opportunities within the project. The teaching staff know the pupils well and can clearly see the impact the project work was having. With this clear perspective they could see whether our approaches were successfully engaging pupils and advise us accordingly. This dialogue and sense of collaboration is the most important way to make sure a project can reach its potential
'Through listening activities and developing an awareness of sound the pupils have shown improved attention skills. They have enjoyed completing tasks that have clear results enabling them to celebrate achievements and build confidence. The pupils have been encouraged to plan and design sounds and devices throughout the project which has improved their planning skills. Through discussing how sounds and music makes them feel the pupils have explored different viewpoints with their peers. Adaptability was a key strength in all stages of the project. Although there was a clear and thorough plan in place in place, this was altered and adapted in response to the pupils.'
Music Teacher, Saxon Mount SEN school
For more info about Lifesize / to contact us:
lifesize.org.uk
