For my fourth year at college, I have to spend at least five days doing professional placement. This can be anything from performing professionally, such as with an orchestra or in a pit for a musical or other show, to orchestral management, concert organising, teaching … etc.
For my placement I knew I wanted to do something involved with music therapy, specifically working with children or adults with learning difficulties! I am currently working with a man known in the community as ‘The Music Man’. He works with a variety of children with varying needs by going into their schools and doing workshops with them. He has also been able to work with BBC NOW and WNO, both individual players and the orchestras, to put on concerts for the children, so that they can experience a new sound world and be in a different situation to what they are usually in.
I have worked in special needs schools and workshops previously, for my GCSE work experience and with Touch Trust in Cardiff, but it is something I havent done properly in a while. My first day at the school I am currently working in reminded me how much I enjoy this work! I love seeing their eyes light up when they hear different sounds. The curiosity and unaltered interest into playing instruments in different ways, something that is taught out of us in mainstream schools, and seeing the benefits they have from each session.
I took my ukulele into the sessions, and was able to walk around the group, playing basic chords, letting the children have a go if they wanted, and the response I got was incredible! Some were fascinated, wanting to touch the wood, the strings, interested to see how the sound was made. Others were happy to sit there quietly and just listen to what I was doing. Even in the children who had extreme disabilities you could see a response. I know a lot of people expect a visual response when working with special needs, but sometimes, the biggest and best response is them not doing anything!
I have been in twice now and will be going in again in a couple of weeks, this time to spend a full day in the school, spending the morning in the music sessions and the afternoons volunteering in the classroom!
Spending time in the school has reminded me of my passion for working with children, especially those with learning difficulties! Eventually, once I’m settled in an area permanently, I wish to set up my own workshop, most probably afterschool type thing, for children with and without disabilities. I grew up with an Aunt who is mentally disabled. Because of this, I grew up with an understanding of how to act around her, which I could then transfer when working with other adults and children with disabilities. A lot of people who have not grown up in similar circumstances do not understand how to act around them. They can be patronising and uncaring, although this is often not intended, and although we can learn how to interact in a more appropriate manner, I think it can help if we learn from a young age, and we can begin to accept it as norm and don’t think twice about what we do.
This is why I wish to set up a music workshop for mixed abilities. The children can learn musical concepts and can also see how each other work, both beneficial for those without disabilities as for those with. It will also give mainstream children a chance to understand the differences at a young age, meaning they grow up with a better appreciation and understanding. Music is a good way to express oneself, and a good way to be creative. At mainstream schools, experimentalism, to a point, is often taught out of them at a young age, but at the school I am working at, they are encouraged to explore sounds more. Although they can’t get away with everything – throwing an instrument across the room is not encouraged – the sounds that they hear and they create are incredible, because they look at the instruments in a different way to us. I want to explore this further and encourage mainstream children to think this way too, so that they see the world in a different way, and are more willing to explore.
Its not for everyone, Im sure many people would disagree with me, but I believe it would aid children’s growing up and could open a whole new world to everyone involved!
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Spirit and Sound 