by Author simonsteptoe

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Youth CHAOS - their first gig!

Youth CHAOS ("Chatty Happy Activities On A Saturday") is a youth group for young people with special education needs and learning difficulties aged 16 and above. 

There are 20 young people who regularly attend the group and together they have a wide range of needs and difficulties to cope with that impact on their lives including:  Autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Cerebral Palsy, hearing impairment, Downs Syndrome, Oppositional Defiancy Disorder, Battens Disease, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Anxiety and many more.

Once a month they meet with musicians from Northamptonshire Music and Performing Arts' (NMPAT) Musical Inclusion Team to work on a wide range of musical activities including:

  • songwriting
  • beatboxing
  • live looping
  • DJ-ing
  • singing
  • instruments
  • rapping

The group have been working on their music for nearly four years now, and over that time have made massive strides in developing their skills, expression and confidence both as individual artists and as a group.  In 2019, they have worked with musicians, Kate Rounding, Daniel Johnson, and Akshay Sharma, focussing on writing their own material and songs, using different digital music technologies to develop their own backing tracks, and perfecting their performance of the material until it is ready for a live performance. 

Their great achievement this year has been to write their own song, "Jealous Heart", together with a backing track for the song derived from a live looping session.  They recently performed the song as part of their very first "Open Mic" event on Saturday 13th July 2019 held at Topstones Activity Centre near Leicester. This was also a chance for individual members of the group to sing some covers including: "Mercy" by Duffy, “Speechless” by Naomi Scott from the recent live-action Aladdin film and “How Can a Moment Last Forever” by Celine Dion from the live-action Beauty and the Beast film. Having the confidence to perform these songs in public is a real testament for how far these young people have developed as artists and creators.