Rachel’s Blog

Process and Product are two aspects of community arts which are sometimes considered to be opposing, or to a degree mutually exclusive. I was recently reminded of the debates that raged on about the importance of one, or the other, by an email I received from a student of music and community practice asking which, in my work, do I focus on?

First of all I want to think a little about what process and product mean. Put simply, process is the way we do things, and product is the end result, something tangible like a performance or a CD. I’d like to suggest that the boundaries between these are far more blurred, and we need to look more broadly at what constitutes ‘product’ when working in the community development sphere. For example, the special events that have so far been organised in connection with the Age Concern singing programme (see WittFest and SingFest) were important milestones and focal points for the singing groups involved; punctuation for the rest of the term. For groups who aim for largely soft outcomes, a bi-product of the process is the meeting for coffee at another point in the week.

I have recently been trying to explore more challenging repertoire with one of my groups, with limited success on my part, mainly because of my learning curve in guiding groups through more challenging songs, but also, from the groups perspective (I would posit) because learning more challenging material pushes towards a goal (product), and the purpose of the group is to have fun and build relationships and grow social capital. All these things we are doing – until the music started to get harder (albeit for a couple of weeks) which undermined the confidence and therefore enjoyment of the experience. In this case process is far more valuable than any perceptible product. Indeed, the product can sometimes undermine the process.

The process/product argument is a useful stimulus to get the cogs turning about outcomes. By far the most exciting projects I have been involved with in my short career is one in which outcomes (soft and hard, but mainly soft) were discussed at the beginning – we started from the end and worked backwards, which worked wonders for the creative development process as it gave a real freedom of approach. I didn’t start from what I usually do, I started from the most important thing, what the client will get out of this, whether that be through the ‘process’ of the project, or the ‘product’.

The group singing Jerusalem, accompanied by Sally Mears on piano

Today is the UN’s International Day of Older Persons, and to coincide with this it is UK Older People’s Day. This initiative is in its third year and the theme this year is Full of Life. It is a day to celebrate the achievements and aspirations of older people, and their contribution to society . To mark this, together with Sally Mears, I organised a day of singing at the Abingdon Resource and Wellbeing Centre. Groups came from Witney, Abingdon and Dean Court, joining the service users of the day centre.

We sang songs from all over the world including Bella Mamma from the Torres Islands, Viva Viva La Musica from Italy, Mozart’s Alleluia, and an arrangement of Mozart’s most popular tunes ‘A La Kart’. Other favourites including Doe a Deer from ‘The Sound of Music’, and Jerusalem.

A highlight for me was when a participant went and sat down at the piano during the break and played some wonderful classical music. She received a standing ovation!

There were many positive comments throughout the day and everyone left smiling with a sense of achievement. One person said how much she enjoyed listening to the harmonies in the singing, and another said he felt ‘buoyant’ after singing.

Yesterday I spent the day shadowing  a musician working as part of the Arts in Trust programme in Cheltenham General Hospital.

I felt a little apprehensive about the day, as I have been blessed not to have spent a great deal of time in hospital – in fact, the last time I was in hospital for reasons relating to my own health was in my early teens to sort out a fractured finger bone. I have never spent a night in hospital.

After walking through the corridors, looking at the photographic exhibition ‘Air’ created by a local artist, we met with Peter outisde the oncology unit. He had brought minimal kit with him – keyboard, stand, stool and extension lead.

As an observer I felt in the way, and as though I was invading the patients’ privacy, which I was in as much as going into hospital can be incredibly disempowering as you hand over control to your body, and with it your dignity. I think it is interesting that the NHS is organised in ‘Trusts’ as we have often no option but to trust our doctors, nurses and other care staff.

Trying to be discreet was difficult – but I endeavoured to follow the advice of my friend, a nurse who said ‘try not to be embarassed’.

The stroke and rehab department was a wonderful place; light, airy (good air-con) and spacious. Each bay had 4 beds but in a larger space than the oncology ward bays which held 6 beds. A new photographic exhibition was up around the ward, showing pictures of local parks. It was created in conjunction with the physiotherapists to incorporate ‘rest stops’ symbolised by pictures of park benches, every 4-5 metres.

The experience of being in a hospital was an education in itself – getting used to the different sounds, the smells (not always good), and seeing the way in which medical staff work. One of the things that surprised me was how natural it seemed, seeing a musician tucked into the back of a bay – Peter had previously said at the training day that he wanted to blend into the environment, and I think he did that amazingly well – the choice of repertoire certainly helped (a choice of gentle jazz pieces, with continuous flow between different numbers).

Peoples’ responses were mixed but generally positive. Some people applauded, requested particular songs or styles, and nodded/tapped along, sang (or tried to) and thanked Peter at the end. One woman said “you have fed my soul”. On the other hand, some people appeared to ignore what was going on, and in one bay as we walked in, a woman said ‘no, thank you, not interested’ etc – and although others said they wanted to try perhaps just one song, another woman got out of bed to ask us to leave after a few minutes of music. Not so good. This certainly raised questions for me about the ideas of consultation and consent. As I’ve already mentioned, the loss of control on entering hospital is so great, that I wonder if part of the reason for objecting to the music was a desire to exercise control over the environment, especially as there is so much activity and noise in the mornings on a ward, it must be good to finally get some quiet later on in the morning. Do you really want another group of strangers wandering in?

I was sceptical about these concerts when I first heard about them. Will sick people want to be disturbed? Won’t the musician get in the way of important medical procedures? If it’s not participatory will they make any difference?

A few examples of why music on the wards is positive:

1. I saw a man smile and nod along for the duration of the concert in his bay, about 20 minutes

2. The staff appreciated the music, and it became a talking point between staff and patients on the wards

3. A man on the stroke and rehab ward was attempting to sing along – potentially a rehab intervention?

I am really hoping in the future to go and perform for a day in hospital. Certainly it will be the most honest audience I’m ever likely to come across.

I’m trying to get better at logging/blogging learning points from different experiences – Tim Davies of Practical Participation has suggested a technique which is simply to think of ’5 things I learnt from…’. So that’s what I will be trying to do from now; sharing my learning in a very basic way.

image courtesy of zenera cc

Despite being very behind with my blogging (partly due to house-move/no broadband for 2 weeks) I am really happy that a couple of people stumbled upon my blog and have got in touch, expressing interest in this field of work.

I thought I would write a quick blog post detailing the moves I have made over the last year, which hopefully will give others who are just starting out an idea of the processes and time scales I am working with…

August 2008: Started day job in Oxford. Made email enquiries to arts and health related people – they gave me further contacts… contacted further contacts (Community Development Worker (CDW), Oxfordshire County Council (OCC))

September 2008: International Music and Health Conference

October 2008: Meeting with CDW, OCC – puts me in touch with Age Concern CDW – first booking made for a ‘taster session’ at Age Concern Activity Day – attended Arts and Care Conference

December 2008: Taster Session at Age Concern Activity Day – 8/10 participants say they would like to take part in a singing session again

January 2009: Singing session with an Age Concern supported coffee club – further booking made for July 09

March 2009: Start ‘Singing for Fun’ group in Witney – running weekly for up to 10 weeks as an initial pilot period, supported by Age Concern and the District Council arts funding

April 2009: Business development – spent a day working out a business plan

May 2009: left the day-job! Made contact with CDW in different areas through Oxford Disability Information Fair – wrote to around 20 local residential care homes with ‘marketing materials’

June 2009: Wittfest! – start to pick up extra, one-off sessions in different contexts, some as a result of mail-shot to resi care homes

July 2009: – Conversations with Sing For Your Life about running 4 ‘Roadshow’ Silver Song Clubs in Oxford – more, extra, one-off sessions

August 2009: – Silver Song Club Roadshow – extra, one-off, sessions – discussions begin re event on 1st October UN Day of Older Persons…

That is roughly the journey I’ve taken – a big part of it is staying connected, being willing to do stuff for free/ on the cheap at first and being and staying visible by being responsive and saying ‘yes, no problem’

It would be really good to hear from other freelancers how they started up? What worked for you? What didn’t? Please feel free to use the comments box to share your journey.

Music Leader South West ran a training day in June entitled Making Music For Health. The purpose of the day was to get together with musicians and others working in the field of arts and health, and to discuss our experiences, and to explore opportunities for music-making in health-care settings. Although it was specifically for musicians in Gloucestershire, I thought I would hop over the border to find out more.

Some key aspects of the day:

• Gathering Voices, a Bristol-based organisation that works with young people, focussing on singing and percussion from around the world, did an energising warm-up using a simple approach to rhythm and voices.
• Prof. Norma Daykin of University of West of England gave a brief explanation of Why Music in Hospitals? Key points included the research finding that there is the strongest evidence for beneficial effects of music on health, over the effects of other art-forms; live music is known to reduce anxiety, heart rate, pulse rate, and reduce levels of stress hormone cortisol, and is therefore a useful additional treatment in pre- and post-surgical wards. She also emphasised that using the arts in healthcare not only has an effect on the patients, but also on the staff and on the wider organisation.
• Kathryn from Arts in Trust described the work they do taking musicians into wards in Cheltenham General Hospital and Gloucester Royal Hospital. She described how difficult it was to recruit musicians, as working in a ward can be very difficult and scary if you don’t know what to expect. We later heard from Peter Gill, a pianist who plays in hospitals for Arts in Trust. He described playing in a hospital ward as “playing within a scenario, not competing with it”.
• Jacqui of Music Leader South West described an example of good practice, where musicians played in the waiting room of a paediatric consultant. The parents and children were awaiting, often, scary diagnoses, and the presence of a musician helped the child and the parents feel more relaxed, which, the paediatrician reported, made them much easier to communicate with.

It was such a worth-while event to attend, and particularly enjoyable as a large part of the afternoon was devoted to singing and drumming.

A few months ago I received an email from  the Age Concern community development worker I work with, asking if I would like to take the Singing for Fun group to a festival in Long Wittenham, near Abingdon. This year was the 10th annual Wittfest, or Long Wittenham’s Charity Music Festival.  It is free to go along, and any money raised is divided between 2 charities. This year the charities were Pets as Therapy and Age Concern’s Singing for Health programme.

We were given a room from 4.30 in the afternoon, but the weather was so warm and beautiful, and the room a little small, we all decamped to the front garden of the pub….

Now, this side, you sing this bit....

It was great fun to be singing outside – many of the passers-by stopped to join in, and as we continued the crowd grew. At it’s height there must have been between 30 and 40 people, all singing in 4-part harmony.

As well as the act of singing together being a truly wonderful community activity in practice, it also serves as a living metaphor of Diversity + Unity = Harmony.

I was very pleased with the way our session went – the Singing for Fun and Health group from Abingdon really enjoyed themselves, and it was great for them to meet the Witney group, who were still on a high when I saw them on Wednesday. They all had a wonderful day out, and described Wittfest as ‘their own Glastonbury’. A great deal of credit is owed to Lucy Quinn and the proprietors of The Plough for the fantastic organisation that went into the weekend.

I think we’ve signed up for next year! You can view the photos here.

I’m just home from a residential care home, having led a short ‘taster’ session. It was seriously challenging as well as being enjoyable too.

It is a fairly large residential care home, with a fantastic ethos – the activities co-ordinator frequently takes some of the residents to the pub! As with larger numbers of people, there is bound to be a greater diversity of people in terms of their abilities/limitations. Having previously met some of the residents, I wasn’t quite prepared (in terms of variety of songs/resources) to cater for the different levels that I found there. Although the session went reasonably smoothly, and part of the reason for this taster session was to gauge people’s needs, I was disappointed that I had not been able to engage with every person, and draw them into what I hoped to be an enjoyable and uplifting musical experience.

Having said this, many participants did enjoy themselves. Some were singing along and using percussion instruments to beat (or shake) in time. I think a small change of mixing up the people of different abilities would help enormously, as it would enable the less able people to feel more involved.

Key Learning:

• Take in more material than you plan to use, including songs of varying complexity, from the very simple, to the more difficult.
• Develop songs or activities to assess people’s different levels.
• Underline the importance of a tailored music session and emphasise the point of a taster session
• Don’t be afraid to ask staff for small changes in the set-up. They want the sessions to be positive, as much as you do.
• Enjoy it! Even if you feel like you are struggling, keep going, keep being enthusiastic, don’t give up.

A couple of weeks ago I ran a session which went really well. Looking back on the session plan – which is happily written in purple felt-tip – I could see why:

• I thought very carefully about each song
• I experimented with soundscapes, and vocal sounds, not just on songs and song-words
• Many of the songs used very simple guitar chords so I could concentrate more on interacting with the participants
• We varied dynamics, speeds – almost resulting in seasickness during What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor?
• I introduced simple descants over well-known songs
• Participants were encouraged to think of their own words for verses

All of these things, as well as other elements relating directly to the singing and the use of percussion instruments, I feel helped the participants feel more confident about their musicality and the range of sounds they can produce. So, why can’t they all be like this? As I gather new repertoire, inevitably, some of it might be a little shaky – it may take me some time to develop the activities around a song. The key is to keep things relatively simple and to rely on the range of emotions we can employ and convey with our voices.

It was good to see another hospital embracing singing as an aid to people’s health. I find it interesting that it is referred to as singing ‘therapy’. Yes it is therapeutic – but isn’t it simply singing?