Writing and recording music remotely with a group of musicians with learning disabilities. Part 4: Developing ideas

Our project developed from a lyrical idea the group had developed, wanting to express the feeling of remaining positive during the Coronavirus UK lockdown. It has been unprecedented time of isolation for all of us and even more so for many people with learning disabilities. We all felt passionate about exploring the topic with a positive mindset. Alongside the ‘Creative Moment’ segment of our weekly sessions, the group began writing some lyrics expressing their feelings. We found that group music and discussion work in sessions was complimented by utilising visual tools like a mind map (above pic)

'Lockdown cheer up' the title of the song was created along with verse and chorus parts. Each band member contributed lines to the song which were created in our online remote sessions. We all thought it would be interesting to alternate between the different band members contributions rather than each band member having a separate verses. We used colour coding to help distribute each band members lines evenly throughout the song (See lyric PDF)