YMCA Digital – Trainee Music Leader Blog
Shaan Kaur - 22-05-2018
Ran at NGY Myplace Nottingham every Friday, I have been delivering a 10-week vocal workshop, targeted at young people from socially excluded background. I have had 4 participants overall, who I worked with to develop skills such as; confidence, song writing and performance quality. In preparation for my 10-week workshop, I developed a plan that consisted of a breakdown of each session along with icebreakers, aims and outcomes. This added structure to the 10 weeks and allowed me to remain organised and inform the young participants of what was to be expected week by week.
Initially, the aim of these workshops was to add consistency to our sessions, we thought it would be ideal to have a solid group to work with as opposed to drop-ins and monitor the development of our participants instead of having different people every week just dropping in. This would not only be an issue for us as staff to monitor the development of each new young person but it would also affect young people that were consistently at sessions and keen on moving forward and developing their own skills, which we did not think was fair.
Each member of staff worked towards planning a 10 workshop with the skills they had and we allocated a day for each to be delivered. For example our workshops ranged from: DJ Skills, Drum Clinic, Arts Award, Production Skills, Big Band and Vocal Zone. Our aim was to put on a wide range of workshops in order to cater to a variety of young people.
For my first session, I allowed everyone to get to know each other through the use of icebreakers and general conversation, which gave them some independence and meant that I could analyse their social skills. As well as this the session was used to ensure that all induction forms were filled, for example; consent, music and development, attitude and behaviour and wellbeing forms. This gave us an overall insight of where they were at in their development and well as their feelings about life in general which we had to handle sensitively as some of the young people come from troubled backgrounds. The wellbeing forms for example, were incorporated for us to monitor and reflect on their wellbeing without having to put them under pressure and speak about it. We would review them at the end of each session and then raise any issues we had regarding the young person. The forms were filled out on the first and the last session so that we could see if any development had been made and in what area, if not then we would make improvements through our delivery.
Overall I really enjoyed leading this 10-week workshop as I developed and learned a lot about ways to overcome issues and how to be a better leader in general. For example I had two girls in my session who were both sisters, they frequently argued as sisters do which disrupted some of my sessions. I acknowledged the issue but I was mindful of everyone around so therefore I took him or her to one side and just raised my concern in a calm manner and just pointed out that it can be disruptive at times, which they responded well to. Despite this, it continued for some of my next session, which resulted in me having to again repeat the issue to the girls and come up with something strategic plan, which meant others, were not distracted. For my next session I placed everyone's folders next to their allocated seat, with the issue in mind I placed both folders on separate sides of the table. When they arrived I didn’t raise any issue, instead, I just asked everyone to sit next to their folders, which they had no issue doing. During the icebreakers and activities throughout the session I had no issue with both girls, which meant placing them away from each other worked.
Another situation I had to face was with a (A), she came in for the first session struggling with anxiety which resulted in her having a panic attack and crying uncontrollably. This was a lot to take in for my first session however it was my job to ensure her that she was in a safe environment and that we were only here to help and support her. I lead her away from the entrance and took her into the computer room, which was empty in order for her to resume herself and calm down. I remained calm and reassured her that everything was okay, as well as this I tried to laugh with her and create a relaxed atmosphere to distract her being upset and scared. Eventually, this worked once I had told her what to expect during the 10 weeks and all the potential opportunities there were to make new friends and gain new skills. She was not keen on performing at all initially and shied away from the whole group, with little interaction. However by week 3, I was singing a karaoke song and challenged her to sing a little bit and she was ready and confident enough to sing with my support, which was a major improvement in comparison to how she started. By week 5 (A) was ready to sing independently and would not put the microphone down which was a clear demonstration of how much she had improved n confidence through the sessions and with her social skills through how she interacted with other young people. This made me feel proud and I really enjoyed working with her.
The young people enjoyed the fact the sessions were relaxed as it made them comfortable to perform which was nice to hear because I focused on creating a relaxed environment by ensuring everyone at the start of each session that we were here to help and support each other and it was okay to make mistakes. As well as this I turned off the big lights and turned on the warm spotlight, which created a warm atmosphere to work in.
If I could change anything I would have printed song lyrics prior to the session instead of leaving it up to them to choose the song and then printing them during a session as I found it can break the focused atmosphere in sessions at times.
