Elinor has been supporting some of the 13+ music focus sessions and she writes about her impression of what’s happening for young people:
What’s special about this project is the way it’s helped young people develop their confidence, direct themselves and collaborate, creating a unique and improvisational sound. Working on the project I saw the way neurodivergent kids and young people are supported. I’m autistic myself and was a pretty anxious teenager, so I can see how important it is for young people to have a safe space where they can do good work. When they feel motivated and their needs are fully understood, they can feel calm and comfortable to experiment musically, growing their skills and confidence. It really felt like music was this exciting thing for everyone to enjoy and contribute to.
What’s special about this project is the way it’s helped young people develop their confidence, direct themselves and collaborate, creating a unique and improvisational sound. This is a charity I’ve worked with for a number of years, and it’s completely changed my life as a neurodivergent person. I’ve developed my own confidence and learned so much from my colleagues and the young people I’ve worked with. I’m constantly blown away by the calibre of what these kids produce, and how this comes from such a safe and welcoming place.
What’s special about High Peak Community Arts is the way neurodivergent kids and young people are supported. I’m autistic myself and was a pretty anxious teenager, so I can see how important it is for young people to have a safe space where they can do good work, where they feel motivated and their needs are fully understood and where there are boundaries without shame or anxiety.
Improvisation is really good for neurodivergent, especially ADHD kids because it keeps things really interesting and stimulating, less pressure and you can ‘feel’ the music rather than being tied down to sheet music, as is often the case in mainstream music lessons. The structured collaboration begins with constructive direction from Gareth and Rizzy. They direct the young people so they get to grips with the instruments, numbering arpeggios or using a repeated pattern so they’re initially able to contribute together.
The combination of improvisational and agreed upon structure means that the kids have structure to anchor them, practice and improve, while allowing them to relax in the performance and sound fresh, a bit like Indian music, where there is an improvisation within a certain chord progression and structure. They have the security of knowing broadly what happens next – whilst not getting bored or nervous about doing things ‘wrong’. Being able to make mistakes allows the young people feel safe to be themselves, empowers them and workers to get stuck in and stay motivated.
Joe, a young person playing ukelele and improvising to a Twenty One Pilots song he says he ‘hasn’t heard before’ and Toby, a volunteer delivering stratospheric electric Hendrix licks, tell me that ‘It’s good because you get to collaborate with people you wouldn’t have normally collaborated with’.
Gareth and Rizzy give young people a positive space to be in charge of their own learning, which equips them for the real world through confidence and regulating their emotions and behaviour towards others. I’ve heard Gareth & Rizzy use very technical terms, not pamper the kids by not using the official terms, but also the kids definitely do have a ‘feel’ for the music and say things like ‘just play notes that sound good’ and vocalize like ‘badoo woop!’ and grin when the sound is really good. The young people involved have restructured big swathes of sections as well as their own individual solos. I can see that self-directed work leads to teaching others and personal development. There’s a method to the madness; the group collaboratively structures, restructures and rehearses the arpeggio sections in order, so they have something to anchor them in the final performance.
Improvisation also keeps it really fun, fresh, sounds really good, pan-genre almost. The yowling guitar, crunchy cowbell-xylophone, crisp hi hat sparkle, changing instruments, experimentation, gnarly bass, music mutates organically, nostalgic yamaha, hiphop beats, dubstep crunch and growl.
Behaviour is managed effectively by allowing young people to make good decisions. Gareth tells me that the young people are given a choice; they can collaborate or leave the session, and that ‘emotions are contagious, for example, if the kids are being really silly, I’ll be super serious’. This helps healthy emotional regulation, a sense of calm and consistent positive behavioural outcomes. This ensures that situations where young people don’t want to behave properly are managed.
Gareth uses questions as direction, where the young people once comfortable are equal collaborators in the music. Later on in the learning process, I can see the young people using these directing methods with each other, and making suggestions about how to direct the music together. In the session on Saturday, the young people even voted on how to polish and improve the song they’d created together, drawing up the arpeggio sections together and vocalising or using instruments to illustrate it.
As a worker on this project I got the opportunity to learn as well, with a young person showing me how to make dubstep music which was a bit of a childhood dream of mine. It was really fun and being able to ‘mess up’ makes you want to continue. I can see that it makes the young people feel calm and comfortable to experiment musically, growing their skills and confidence.
It really felt like music was this exciting thing for everyone to enjoy and contribute to.
I’ve worked with one of the participants since 2021 and I can personally see a huge transformation seeing him from being quite reclusive, at times controversial within the group, to becoming really engaged with the music and even working with us as a volunteer and valued member of our team. I’ve seen him show younger people to learn. It’s really helped him come out of his shell, work on his craft and help others. The Summer School and High Peak Community Arts’ subsequent music projects like this add a huge amount of value to these young peoples’ lives.