What it’s like being an ArtsTrain music leader
We’re incredibly lucky to work with a brilliant array of professional musicians who produce our sessions as music leaders. As well as holding many years of experience from the music industry, they work hard to create safe and inspiring spaces where our young people can flourish. Our music leaders are experts at nurturing and pushing our groups to explore their creativity and grow in confidence.
We often hear from our young people about their experiences at ArtsTrain. In this blog we’re handing over the mic to hear from our music leaders about what they enjoy and find rewarding about their work.
Creating a secure and safe environment for participants
Our music leaders create environments where participants feel safe and secure to be creative. This is critical for encouraging a sense of belonging, and for the personal and musical growth of our young people.
“I think it’s beautiful to witness people coming out of their shells and make magic basically [through] the music. It’s very rewarding to watch that.” — Music leader
“Finding it, catching it and finding ways to help a young person who might be struggling with their communication, whether it’s verbal or nonverbal, because music is a type of communication. They might not want to say anything. And they might just do it all through the music.” — Music leader
“ArtsTrain provides an environment in which people can feel safe and comfortable to grow. And even if you don’t get it right the first time, you can try again, and eventually get there.” — ArtsTrain alumni
“I felt heard. Especially in that period in my life, in terms of my musical talents I wasn’t too confident on my singing. A lot of the time I’ll tell them ‘listen, I’m really scared. I don’t want to do it’. But the music leaders will be like ‘you know what, you got to believe in yourself. You can do it.” — ArtsTrain alumni
Our young people tell us that they feel heard and seen in ArtsTrain sessions, both musically but also through the music leaders taking the time to listen to them about whatever they needed to talk about.
“One thing that’s really good about ArtsTrain is the freedom that’s given. It wasn’t like a teacher-student vibe, it was more like a mentor. There are some things that I couldn’t say to my parents that I was able to speak to the music leaders about. It’s good to have that sort of connection with a mentor who can help you with your music and also help you with your life.” — Artstrain Alumni
Through taking time to establish a trusting relationship between music leaders and young people, we find our participants are able to make considerable creative and personal growth during their time at ArtsTrain.
“Some young people have that perfectionism trait that blocks them from actually trying or doing things because they’re like, ‘No, this is not good enough’. So [participant] had a lot of that. And it was stopping the process of creating. It was a bit hard as well for her to collaborate with the rest of the group.
Week by week, the ice melted and she enjoyed collaborating more. She studied songwriting, she came one day with a song that she wrote herself on her iPad, she said ‘I actually wrote a song the other day, and it was really nice’. She connected more with her voice, and with the whole collaboration work that we were doing altogether. When we did the rehearsal before the open mic night, last week, we figured out how much of a performer she is.” — Music leader
Flexible and adaptable approach to music leading
Supporting and nurturing young people calls for highly flexible and adaptive approaches. Our music leaders use a range of personal and professional styles, often being responsive to what is needed ‘in the moment’, involving a range of strategies for listening, coaching, feeding back, refining and modelling.
“I always felt listened to and valued within ArtsTrain, especially when it came to feedback/what we wanted to get out of the project.” — ArtsTrain Alumni
Music leaders know there is a balance needed between support and encouragement, and stretch and challenge, and this comes down to the individual participants’ needs.
“It’s a safe space and you feel confident to be able to just be how you are with each other. Whether you are trying something new or not, you feel like you can because people aren’t going to sit there and judge you, they are going to help you. Push you to try and make progress.” — Participant
We know that ArtsTrain sessions are crucial in how they approach music-making outside of a school environment. For many young people, time and patience are critical elements for helping grow their confidence and explore creative ideas they wouldn’t have the freedom to follow in the classroom. Our music leaders told us about the ‘flow state’ some participants reached in sessions, but it can take time for this to happen. Having the flexibility and the time to be able to support this is important. This music leader reflected on how they judged ‘pushing’ a participants’ abilities, and how patience was particularly important:
“Every young person can get to a point where they can voice what they need to voice, but it takes time.” — Music leader
Similarly, instead of a strict hierarchy between teacher and pupil, during our sessions, co-creation is key, where the creative process starts with ideas or stimuli from music leaders, and young people are encouraged by music leaders to shape their work.
“With the [ArtsTrain] workshops there’s the co-creating element, which is so special, because everyone has the input of giving their own ingredients to the making.” — Music leader
Being responsive to and understanding of broader issues
Many of our young people face difficult circumstances, and we’re proud to have developed a creative environment where our music leaders have genuine empathy and an understanding to support our participants through the music they make. The outcome? Many young people report that the sessions have a positive impact on elements of their wellbeing.
“It’s their story, their journey, their outlet, their therapy. In [participant’s] case, when she saw the benefits of collaboration in terms of encouragement, and other elements she could tap into with her peers and their confidence on stage as a group. We found that she had strengths, hidden strengths, and then it was contagious when she knew that she could, it boosted her confidence and self-esteem.” — Music leader
Our music leaders pointed out that for many young people, simply showing up consistently was enough of an indication of motivation, even if they didn’t actively participate in the session.
“For some young people that can be huge. Just the fact that they turn up, and they come every day, for some of them and they stick around, even just a small amount of engagement is a really good sign that they are getting something out of it. Being able to commit to the project and just be there. For some young people that really do face some serious challenges in their life, we can never underestimate how huge that kind of attendance and retention is.” — Music leader
Being reflective practitioners
Something that unites all of our music leaders is that they are open and curious to learn alongside other practitioners and participants:
“I took this job straight out of uni and before then I was used to being taught. It was really challenging navigating being front and centre as a leader, guiding young people, showing them what to do and supporting them. I had a bit of impostor syndrome because I still felt like a young person that needed help myself! So, it’s been quite amazing learning from more experienced workshop leaders and gaining the confidence to do it on my own.” — Music leader
This feedback was gathered by Sound Connections and tialt (There Is An Alternative), who we commissioned in 2021 and 2022 to research how our programmes affect wellbeing, considering participant’s creativity, motivation, self-efficacy and musical communication before and after taking part in an ArtsTrain activity. Read the full ArtsTrain Report.