Blog

Background

During Covid-19 SoCo delivered Music For The Mind, an online weekly songwriting programme for service users of Southfield, a specialist mental health inpatient service, as part of our Southampton City Council funded Community Learning programme. Participants explored various lyric writing techniques and activities and, following the easing of restrictions, recorded their original compositions at Hightown Studios.

Tell me about your musical background and interests

When I was about 14 or 15 I found Drum’n’Bass and fell in love with it. I just love the heavy bass lines. I just remember going to a Drum’n’Bass rave and there was a guy on the mic and I thought, you know what, I’d love to do that, and that was sort of the turning point for me.

I started writing lyrics when I was 15. The older I got the more focused my lyrics became and they started being about me and my life or the lives of others. I started off writing for Drum’n’Bass and wanted to be a Drum’n’Bass MC and did an open mic at a club in Basingstoke. The guy who runs it asked me if I wanted to headline the next show. So I was quite happy about that but unfortunately alcohol got in the way – I was quite drunk and had to leave. I think I really found hip hop at around the same time too.

What activities did you take part in and how did they impact you musically and personally?

First off, I found Jim really accommodating – he seemed like a really nice guy. We had zoom meetings every week going over different techniques of writing and some other activities. It changed the way I looked at things and I think I have improved – more like the use of language. You can be more abstract with your lyrics is what I got from that. It was good to give me another way of looking at things. It’s given me the opportunity to go in a different direction and I’ve written quite a bit lately. It’s always interesting to hear other people’s opinions on things, especially when they know what they’re doing.

It was good to get in the studio and to see how it worked – the production side of it. It was really nice getting in the booth and getting a proper mic – the whole process really. It definitely supported my confidence. Performing on the mic in front of people, even though I’ve done it years ago, it’s quite different. When you’ve been in hospital for 3 years it knocks it out of you but getting in the studio, yeah, it’s amazing! Very empowering. I got in the booth and they’d give me a bit of feedback and then I’d get back in the booth. Getting in the studio and just hearing positive feedback from people that’s what really did it for me.

I just love music, listening to it, making it. Getting stuff off my chest is good you know. It feels like a release of negativity. I can put it out in a song rather than sit and deal with it. Music definitely helps when it’s been a struggle.

“From the very beginning Louis was engaged, enthusiastic and keen to show me the lyrics he’d previously written and what they meant to him. I’d noticed that there was a real lack of confidence not only with his creative work but with social interactions with me and we spoke a lot about how lyric writing could help to improve his wellbeing. As the sessions went on his confidence notably progressed and he started instigating more and leading topics and areas of discussion. When he took part in the recording session at the studio he was really buzzing and focused on learning specific recording techniques and the whole process. It lifted his confidence and gave him the ability to look at his own talent and his own music and to understand what he needed to do at that time to make it the best it could be.” – Jim Chorley, Community Music Practitioner, SoCo Music Project

What do you want to do next?

I write lyrics pretty much every day and I’ll be going down to a friend’s studio in Portsmouth after the lockdown to record. I wanna do open mic nights and eventually do some gigs. That’s the foundation because I wanna be traveling the world sharing my music with people.

“Louis was really keen to get involved with SoCo due to his passion and talent for music. The programme facilitated this passion brilliantly, providing him with the confidence that his work was of an excellent standard as well as guiding him to consider different techniques for songwriting. Jim was really adaptable to the direction that Louis wanted to take. Having the opportunity to record his own work in the studio was a real high. Taking away a high-quality recording I think really improved his self-esteem and showcased his talent to the rest of the unit.” – Lydia Lansdowne, Occupational Therapist, Southfield

Hear Louis’ track, recorded at Hightown Studios, below:

SoCo Music Project – Community Music Practitioner/s

TITLE: Community Music Practitioner

CONTRACT: Freelance

HOURS: 0-6 hours per week (may include some unsocial hours)

SALARY: £15 – £30 per hour

LOCATION OF WORK: Southampton and surrounding areas

SoCo Music Project are looking for a Community Music Practitioner/s to join our team to lead on the delivery of our Southampton City Council funded Adult Learning Programme for 2020/21. There are 4 roles available and applicants may be interested in one or a combination of these contracts. When applying, please indicate which of these you are applying for.

• Adults with mental health issues. 3-month programme @ £700
• Adults with learning disabilities. 3-month programme @ £700
• Adults in recovery from alcohol and/or substance misuse issues. 6-month programme @ £1500
• The elderly and those with dementia. 6-month programme @ £1800

The Community Music Practitioner/s will work closely with the Project Manager to deliver accessible music-making opportunities that develops skills and supports improvements in the health and wellbeing of the above participant groups.

The key purpose of this role is to utilise accessible instrumentation, techniques and technology to increase access and opportunities for participants facing disabling barriers. Weekly sessions will be delivered face-to-face where possible (or remotely through online platforms) and will enable participants to explore music through performance, technology and composition.

We are looking for a Community Music Practitioner/s with practical experience of leading or assisting workshops with one or more of the aforementioned participant groups or in community settings, both in group and ‘one-on-one’ settings. The successful candidates must have experience of planning and evidencing the impact of music engagement with vulnerable groups.

Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check is essential for this post.

The Role

• To work with the Project Manager to develop the Adult Learning programme
• To provide engaging and relevant music-making opportunities for adult groups in a variety of settings (supported accommodation/community spaces).
• To plan, develop and provide activities that will support participants to progress in their musical/creative interests.
• To provide evidence and evaluation that demonstrates the impact of the project, and to ensure the project is providing the best support for participants.

Personal Spec:

Access to own transport to attend sessions and meetings based in and around Southampton.

Essential:

• Excellent musical skills (performance and/or music production)
• Experience in project working, planning and service development.
• Experience of working with vulnerable adults, community groups or in community settings.
• Able to work creatively and responsively.
• Confident report writing and presentation skills
• Ability to structure music sessions that respond to interests of participant group and that support progression
• Strong people management skills
• A positive and enthusiastic approach to work
• Be able to communicate clearly and listen and understand people’s needs
• Ability to work weekdays and to start in September/October 2020

Desirable:

• Experience in Community Music
• Degree level qualification
• Music Qualification
• Youth Work Qualification
• Experience of using online tools to deliver remote sessions

To apply please send a CV, references (these will only be contacted if your application is successful)  and evidence of your community music practice (Evidence might include a statement about your practice and your influences, a link to a video a project you have worked on, a sound or performance outcome of a project you have worked on, an evaluation report about a project you have worked on) to mark@socomusicproject.org.uk by 5pm on Tuesday 1^st September 2020.

SoCo Music Project is an equal opportunities employer.

Future Sounds – Rosewood Free School

Reflective Blog by Ignacio Agrimbau, SoCo Music Project

Context

Reception class teacher at Rosewood became particularly interested in developing a series of 1:1 case studies, but also to find ways to combine their sensory integration and physio work with group interactive music-making. Following feedback of vocal improvisation sessions concerning engagement and interaction, Esther was commissioned with the expansion of the school curriculum to include a full section on vocalisations, to which we have contributed to.

Esther has since been put in charge of expanding the Rosewood curriculum to emphasise aspects of vocalisations. Ignacio has supported this with a piece of writing in which he outlines his approach to vocalisation in interactive music facilitation.

Reflections on Vocalisations

My approach to vocalisations does not follow a clear scheme or system. It is a combination of my training in performance and improvisation, some text composition, my training in intensive interaction, and some readings on SEN-D pedagogy and music therapy. It is tricky to remember the stuff that I assimilated over the years. But above all it wasbuilt on practice, following some quite influential experiences or readings.

I first started experimenting with the kind of vocalisations that you heard me doing in sessions in a very different context. It was when I was mostly working as a composer, and I was part of a group of musicians giving concerts on what is usually known as ‘sound poetry’. In other words, poetry that barely has any semantic sense, but it relies on the sensations and references of the abstract sound of the language, and the intentionality with which it is performed. That was explored by Italian and Russian futurist sound poets and composers, as well as throughout the Dadaist movement in central Europe. There were many re-incarnations of that, but I do not know them very well. I remember I was very impressed by an article that somehow summarised the aesthetic and technical principles of sound poetry performance. It was written by Jon Erickson in 1985:

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-Language-of-Presence%3A-Sound-Poetry-and-Artaud-Erickson/f866cb03ebebd3a1b7787f1e610a9d6a93897322

I found the principle of ‘language of presence’ more helpful than most of the readings I did on intensive interaction or music therapy. It is mostly because it focuses on the expressive impulses behind vocalisations, rather than the technicalities of how interaction unfolds or how the voice is produced.

My favourite intensive interaction author is Phoebe Caldwell; she’s been a huge influence. The literature coming from music therapy, community music or specialist music education usually focuses too much on ‘singing’, and sees vocalisations from that angle – which can be a bit limiting, as it risks projecting a model to understand the different uses of the voice based on neurotypical cognitive mappings.

Although we know that different parts of the brain become involved when we sing, we don’t really know how that plays out with individuals with PMLD. Still, there is some very interesting stuff about how music motivates vocalisation. In my experience, I found that sometimes sustained instrumental sounds can motivate vocalisations from PMLD participants more than the voice. I never figured out the reason for this, but it might have to do with the fact that sustained
instrumental sounds are associated with intonational rather than speech like utterances in a very instrinct level. I am sure there are writings out there about this. Here are some I know:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3651031/

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0022429419890328

At school you have a copy of ‘Approaches to Communication Through Music’ by M Corke. I respect it is a pioneering but, as it discusses intensive interaction in a music-making context, but I did not find it helpful. There is barely any discussion of what actually happens during the moments of interaction, and discussion is concentrated on the type of activities that frame those moments.

Some people approach vocal interaction entirely from an angle of vocal production experimentation. Again, that approach can be useful, particularly to expand the repertoire of vocal sounds, but provided that is sensitive to the impulses that motivate vocalisations. The great aspect of this approach is that you can connect with children at the level of sensory experimentation; this can be revealing particularly when regardless of the harshness or softness of theutterance, the drive behind the vocalisation is sensory exploration. Yvon Bonenfant, who for a while did some research at Rosewood, specialised on that.

Finally…there are other professionals that interpret intonational, or blurry speech-like vocalisations as prototypes of melodic constructions based on core tune types. They are (hopefully!) aware that children do not always intend them this way but interpret them like that in order to include them in compositional processes. You can pick up on the core gesturality of a vocal gesture and make a tune or beat out of it, and in such a way you include that participant in themaking of a composition.

I have used this method a few times, but in most cases I kept it quite literal, so that it was very clear to the participant that the new bit of the piece was based on her input. Other practitioners take it much further (the most extreme example I know was a blurred downward vocalisation from a girl with SLD which turned into a definite, harmonised and orchestrated melody performed
by the full BBC symphony orchestra and a huge choir). That might sound amazing, but there is the issue of mediation and focus. Who has done ‘we hear’, how close does the end result feel to the child, and who are we playing this to?

SoCo Music Project were recently asked to deliver a holiday music engagement programme for young people as part of The ICE Project, a partnership between Hampshire Cultural Trust & Hampshire Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (run by Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust), promoting the use of arts for positive mental health.

The overall aims of the The ICE Project are:

• To use arts & culture to promote positive mental health; raise self-confidence and self-esteem and inspire other young people
• To create an outlet for young people to creatively share their experiences and opinions
• To use art in its various forms to create a conversation that improves understanding, compassion, people’s views and knowledge of the subject
• To give vulnerable and at-risk children and young people the chance to experience and participate in extraordinary arts and culture

We sensitively crafted and delivered a series of music sessions that were designed to not only educate and inspire, but to enable interpersonal relationships between our participants to form and flourish. As always, our approach holds our participants at the heart of its design, and we delivered activities that took into consideration our participants needs, their musical interests and challenges that they may be facing in relation to their mental health. We ensured that these activities would gently challenge and empower them whilst developing them both musically and personally, providing a creative outlet for expression.

Sessions explored creating music compositions using music technology apps on iPads, drumming exercises, Songwriting, poetry and lyric writing and singing exercises. To create a safe and supportive environment whereby participants felt confident and happy to explore and discover their own musicality and to take creative risks, we introduced various music games, which we used as icebreakers to help relax the group and to teach participants useful music terminology.

Our participants’ confidence increased as their familiarisation with the others in the group, and the music leaders grew. This enabled them to engage whole-heartedly. A culture of respect and honesty was present throughout the sessions, which encouraged strong peer support amongst our participants, and friendships to blossom. They crafted some wonderful music compositions, which can be heard in these recordings:

Reflection time in the sessions fostered exploration of positive expressions from the young people about their experiences, with them seeing untapped musical creativity emerge and them having a heightened awareness and understanding of how music had been and could continue to be a tool for self-expression.

Some quotes from our participants:

“I feel very proud of what I created and I didn’t know I could achieve this”

“I felt able to open up and stay true to myself. I felt valued, I didn’t have to change myself to fit in”

“I felt I belonged in this workshop and participated. I worked well with everyone”

For more information about SoCo Music Project visit www.socomusicproject.org.uk and for more information about The ICE Project visit https://www.hampshireculturaltrust.org.uk/the-ice-project

The ICE Project is co-funded by Artswork, Hampshire CCG and the Coles-Medlock Foundation.

SoCo Music Project is delighted to announce a series of fun and exciting after school music-making sessions for young people with visual impairments. This project, funded by People’s Postcode Lottery, will enable students at Toynbee School to engage in unique workshops that encompass a variety of compositional and recording techniques. It follows a successful programme of creative engagement with Toynbee students last academic year, and will enable them to continue developing their musical journey whilst working towards accreditation through the Arts Award.

This project is part of SoCo’s substantial youth provision, working in Special Educational Needs & Disability settings across Southampton and Hampshire to provide innovative, creative intervention for a range of participants.

With sessions currently under way, Jim Chorley, Creative Practitioner at SoCo Music Project, is delighted to have the opportunity to continue working in partnership with Toynbee School and Global Music Visions C.I.C. to support the development of participants’ creative and social outcomes;

“It has been a joy to work with the young people in the VI unit at Toynbee. Their musical creativity and enthusiasm is both inspiring and infectious. I’m looking forward to support the development of their considerable song writing and recording talents”.

For more information about this project, contact mark@socomusicproject.org.uk

On the 15^th May 2017 The CHAOS Network hosted an afternoon of discussion and exploration about how, as artists and arts organisations, we can better measure the impact of our work. The session came out of a conversation from a previous Network meeting, and it was felt that a focused session, that included representatives from local authority, funding bodies, the commissioning unit and academia would be useful for all parties.

The CHAOS Network began in 2010 to provide an opportunity for creatives in the city to get together and talk, debate, share and promote the cultural offer in Southampton. CHAOS stands for Creative, Heritage and Arts Organisations of Southampton. Its inception coincided with SoCo Music Project taking on a new open creative space in the city and identifying a need for networking for creative in the city. Now a rich community of practice, the CHAOS Network has always been an open forum and welcomes new members from all creative backgrounds.

Creative practitioners and organisations in the city deliver a wide range of activities, many of which have a strong social impact. At a time where accessing funding is becoming more challenging, and local authorities are moving toward more commissioning based models, it’s becoming more important than ever to measure and evaluate the role of the arts in our communities. It is often the case that we can provide stories of how engagement with arts, music, theatre, film and more can improve mental health, enhance life chances, aid recovery, and even save lives. Often, however, these stories are anecdotal and lacking in clear evidence. How can we take these stories, these life improving activities, and ensure we are measuring and evaluating with credibility? Strong evaluation helps us to understand (and to learn from) the effectiveness of our work while also providing evidence of its impact. Where this impact can be aligned to local/regional/national priorities, it can put us in a strong position to access funding, commissioning and contracts that look to address these priorities. This could include a wide number of agendas, such as employability, health and wellbeing and behavior change.

The Measuring the Impact of the Arts event in May was attended by a cross section of artists/arts organisations, local commissioners and academics. A session on evaluation and frameworks was led by David Walters from the Winchester University Centre for Arts as Wellbeing, and city priorities and outlined by Moraig Forrest-Charde from the Southampton Integrated Commissioning Unit and Councillor Dave Sheilds, the Chair of the local Health and Wellbeing Board and cabinet member for Health.

Rebecca Kinge, a Southampton-based community organiser, coordinator for the emerging Creative Places project and Director of The Southampton Collective Community Interest Company was in attendance and has provide some useful notes from the event:

David Walters from University of Winchester gave us summary of his background and experience. Having been a musician he recognised that ‘things happen in an audience’ and he went on to work with gay men with AIDS and HIV in New York City and set up a community choir, where life and death was celebrated. Seeing the powerful impact of music making, he later established a community music venue in Hampshire (CODA Music Centre) which worked with everyone, formal education and informal music making. He then moved into the academic world, setting up a centre to study arts intervention in health and social care.

Points from David’s presentation:

Commissioners are cautious, they need evidence to support their decisions about investing in services. David made a number of points about how evaluation is included:

• Often evaluation is tacked on at the end because the artist sees a need to demonstrate a particular point.
• However, evaluation is subjective, and can show unintended outcomes and impacts. An objective evaluation has strength and power.
• Good evaluation should be unique to every project. Much of the work takes place at the beginning.
• Evaluation needs to change as you go along. It is important to try and recognise at the start where the pinch points may be, where the evaluation process may need to change direction.
• Evaluating in an arts context can be challenging, it may not always be clear what the impacts are a direct result of the work that the artist is doing and what is a result of the environment around or some other factor.
• Reflective practice is to be encouraged.
• Wellbeing can be subjective. Universities can help with measurement techniques.
• There are a number of evaluation techniques, quantitative, qualitative and case studies. Mixed methods are increasingly encouraged and seen as valid.
• Economic evaluation. There is some strong cost benefit analysis of the impact of the arts. Dr Simon Opher made powerful argument about this, see this Artlift case study and BBC article here.
• David also mentioned evidence that singing can help with chronic breathing and how the perception of pain can be changed.
• Clearly define what went into a project, so that it can be replicable. Being able to replicate the work is important to commissioners. It is necessary to be clear about the skills that go into a project, and not just those that are particular to an individual who is involved in delivery.
• Moraig Forrest-Charde (from Southampton Integrated Commissioning Unit) talked about the importance of knowing who the audience is, understanding the commissioner. Commissioners may have very little knowledge of arts interventions, so explain it clearly.
• Dave Shields (Councillor with Cabinet responsibilities for Health and Wellbeing) talked about the other alternative interventions that may address the same issue, e.g. employment services, policing.

Representatives from the Southampton Integrated Commissioning Unit provided an outline of city priorities. These included the reduction of loneliness and isolation, helping those furthest from the labour market to move towards employment, and behaviour change (including tackling obesity and smoking cessation). As mentioned above, commissioners are cautious and would require strong evidence that arts interventions are effective at tackling these priorities. It was suggested that an advocacy document that highlights the positive work in the city would be useful, and that a priority for arts organisations should be to engage with the wider community sector. Commissioners and councillors are happy to continue this discussion and would welcome communications from organisations and individuals highlighting potential innovative solutions to city priorities.

There are many useful websites and tools that can help us to better evaluate our work, here is a selection:

• Public Health England Arts for Health and Wellbeing Evaluation Framework. Here is an important framework developed by Daykin and Joss. It provides guidance on appropriate ways of documenting the impacts of arts for health and wellbeing, whether through small scale project evaluations or large scale research studies. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/arts-for-health-and-wellbeing-an-evaluation-framework
  
• Google scholar for accessing existing research and evaluation.
• www.creativeandcredible.co.uk Arts and Health evaluation resource, tools, tips, guidelines for evaluating Arts & Health projects.
• The Arts Observational Scale (ArtsObS) is a tool for the evaluation of performing arts activities in healthcare settings. Downloadable and useful tool to measure the effect of an arts intervention.

Other useful tools for evaluation and measuring the impact of the arts/community activity include:

Inspiring Impact

http://inspiringimpact.org/

Evidencing Impact Value Calculator (created for social housing but can be applied more widely to calculate social value)

http://www.hact.org.uk/value-calculator

Adrienne Pye, Senior Consultant for Evaluation at the Audience Agency (www.theaudienceagency.org) recommended the Evaluation Toolkit from ixia, public art think tank http://ixia-info.com/research/evaluation/

It was agreed that this event was the starting point, and that the conversation should continue. If you would like to be part of this conversation please contact me at: matt@socomusicproject.org.uk