On Thursday the 9th of September me, Adam and Tia hosted our music workshop which lasted 1 hour and 35 minuets. Meaning we ran over time by 5 minuets, this is not too bad however it shows that we could have managed our time better by maybe being quicker when transitioning between sections of the workshop. Or maybe helped students with their struggles at a faster rate. This workshop was difficult as many students often left the room and returned 30 or more minutes later, this meant we would have to explain to them what they missed in the workshop as well as help them catch up with what they missed . I am proud with how we dealt with issues like this as every student finished the workshop with a finished track to a high standard.
Lewis. B Feedback
Tia, Adam, Isaac Community Music Session
Arrived early and plenty of time to set up and prepare.
Tia was confident and started the session and took a strong lead, starting with the game to start them off. Tia managed to explain it well, but it took a bit before they totally understood it but Tia kept it going. Game got them warmed up and ready engage. The group were lively and very verbal which made it a welcoming session.
Adam took over and started well with a confident approach got the clients attention. Explain each drum could have explained the different beats first a bit more but ok in the end, could have got them to create a beat with each beat demonstrated.
Tia jumped straight in to helping and very natural, Adam and Isaac needed prompting. Could have asked to listen to them and join in a bit more. It was obvious how nervous you were at this point, but you kept trying which is the most important thing.
Isaac was standing back a lot but started to warm into it.
Towards the end of the rhythm section, it started to lose pace a bit.
Tia took charge well and asked clients to stop and be quiet so she could introduce the next section, this section worked better as they got started before you went round and listened and helped. Tia sat down and helped the client play in the chords and this worked well.
As one client left, the youth work had to leave and there was a bit of time where it seemed like you might lose a few but you managed to keep on and they soon can back and re-joined in the process.
Isaac explained melody well and helped the client a bit but could have demonstrated with their own track.
You did lose a few students but that is part of this type of workshop, but it didn’t seem to faze you at all.
Overall, this was an excellent workshop that demonstrated your planning and effectiveness as workshop leaders. Sometimes and pace and focus could have been improved to keep engagement but there were also a lot of distractions and noise which didn’t help the focus of the session. The session worked well, and the clients were all able to produce tracks effectively with a quality to their finished pieces. There was a lot or positive reinforcement to give the students confidence, which in turn helped them to developed quality track.
Individual Reflection
What went well?
This final workshop went very well and showed major improvement since the mock performance for a variety of reasons. One big improvement I made since the mock performance was my definition and explanation of what melody is. In the mock performance I struggled to explain this topic, however in this performance I explained it a lot more clearly which enabled students who are not familiar with melody to understand it. I explained melody by saying in pop music it is often the the notes that singers are singing through the lyrics, I also said if a song does not have lyrics the melody is most often the musical line that you can hum or sing along to. Most students understood melody from this explanation, however I showcased the melody of jingle bells to people that still didn’t understand to give them an example of a real melody. This helped all students understand melody, one person even sang along to it further reinforcing the definition of melody. Another good thing I did in this workshop was give students helpful guide lines to making melodies, because some people had never composed melody before I helped them by telling them to stay in the white keys (C major). This would avoid them going off key and therefore help them make a great sounding melody, I did however say if they were comfortable with scales and key signatures that they could feel free to use the black notes. This information did help a few students make their melody.
In this session I also shared extended techniques people could implement into their melody to make it sound more professional, one example of this was the use of the sustain pedal. I explained that the sustain pedal holds down the notes for longer after you have moved your finger off of them, I also said it can make the melody flow more fluently and calmly. This helped the students I explained it to create a more delicate and gently sounding melody, therefore sharing this information was helpful to many students. I also explained to people that if they were not happy with the default grand piano on garage band that they could change it by clicking on the piano icon, this made everyones music take different approaches and therefore created more variety between the tracks of everyone and give them more creative freedom. I also told people that they could change the octave on the piano, I also explained that the higher up in octaves you go the higher the pitch goes. I also said the lower the octave the lower the pitch, this knowledge made one student use the piano as a high twinkle effect in his track which sounded very cool and experimental. In conclusion all the knowledge I shared on melody was very helpful to everyone and resulted in people having more creative freedom with their tracks, this was better than the mock as I did not help people as often as I did in this workshop nor share as much information.
Another element that was improved in the workshop since the mock was student, this element of the workshop could have been improved however it was vastly improved since last time. As in the mock I only interacted with students tracks a few times however in the final workshop I interacted much more often. Though my interaction with community members wasn’t as often as it should have been when it took place I was both kind and helpful to everyone. When I found that everyone in the session was getting on with the task without struggle I would ask politely if I could listen to their track. After listening to their track I would give them positive feedback and tell them why I liked it, for example someone in the workshop had a very good drum beat therefore I complimented their music on the good rhythm of the music. When others where struggling with navigating around garage band, creating their music or adding effects or techniques to their instrument I would help them and resolve their issue. One example of this was when a student didn’t know how to go onto the piano layout on garage band, in this situation I clearly explained to them step by step how to get to it. Therefore I was helpful in terms of helping resolve struggles in the workshop as well as listening to people’s music and giving them positive feedback. At the beginning of the session I also had to leave the room with a player when playing the ice breaker (guess the leader) game at the start to make sure they did not cheat. I tried to make friendly conversation with everyone when outside the room with to make them feel comfortable and get rid of the awkward and silent energy while waiting to go back inside the room. This worked very well as everyone engaged in conversation and felt a lot more comfortable with talking to me throughout the session.
Overall one of the biggest strengths in this workshop was communication as I had to clearly explain complicated topics of music such as; rhythm, melody and harmony in a definition that beginners could easily understand. I also had to be confident and loud in my speech so that everyone in the room could hear me when explaining specific themes of music. There were moments were my vocal communication could have been improved, however for this most part my communication throughout the session was great.
What could be improved?
I am proud of my performance in this workshop, however there are still many different things I would do differently in order to deliver a more effective and more informative workshop for everyone. The biggest weakness I have shown in this workshop was lack of confidence, this is because early on the workshop I could be seen shying away and not talking to students often. This caused the workshop to lag behind as students were struggling more without as much attention, I would avoid this issue in future by delivering my self in a more confident manor and forcing myself to walk around and interact with students. The cause of this issue was my nerves as I was very anxious about teaching a group of new people, this is because I have never taught a group of people before therefore I was not confident with teaching nor interacting with students as much. However as I got further into the workshop my confidence improved and I more often interacted with students and helped them improve. By the end of the session all my nerves were gone and I was able to deliver our workshop more effectively and help people at a consistent rate.
To also improve this session I would spend more time with students struggling with melody, I would do this by improvising a melody on their track. Hearing an improvised melody on their track may cause them to be inspired, therefore helping them create a great and professional melody. Unfortunately in this session I did not do that, as instead I only gave them a definition and example of melody therefore I could have put more time into it. I could have also maybe sat down with students as sometimes it can be uncomfortable if someone is stood up next to you while you are sitting down, this is because it can be intimidating to people. Tia did sit down during this workshop with the student which allowed her to teach more effectively with the student. Therefore if I was to do this workshop again I would do this for the benefit of the students within the workshop. The biggest weak point I had in the structure of the session was helping students with rhythm, this is because I do not personally have much experience with drums therefore I struggled to educate people on parts of the drum kit. To avoid problems like this from arising in future workshops I would do research on different parts of the drum kit to educate myself on it, this would then allow me to confidently explain the use of different parts of the drum kit to people effectively.
Group Reflection
What went well?
This workshop session required a lot of teamwork and co-operation to pull off, there were many moments were we worked very well as a group however there is still some room for improvement to make the session more professional and organised. One moment were we showed professionalism in the workshop was at the very beginning were we arrived 15 minutes early, giving us time to set up and prepare for the session. In this extra time that we had the we set up all of the Ipads to be on the screen for the drum pad, this would avoid us having to teach the students how to open garage band and find the drum pad. Therefore this helped us save a few minutes of time in the workshop, the start of the workshop was also very smooth as we introduced ourselves and the goal of the workshop clearly allowing all to understand . The Icebreaker game we planned also worked very well as made everyone more relaxed and energised, meaning we were all ready for the session. We then moved onto the rhythm section around 15 minutes after the session had begun, meaning the session plan’s time management was working very effectively.
Adams leaderships over the rhythm section showed drastic improvement since the mock, this is because he began to explain to the group different styles of drum beats used in various genres of music and how to create them. This explanation helped inspire students when they were making their drum beat, Adam was also very clear and confident in his speech when explaining rhythm, which reduced the amount of confusion surrounding the topic meaning many people were happy and confident when creating there drum beat. However there were some people struggling with creating a drum beat, however we all worked well as a team to help the group make a good drum beat allowing them to progress their track throughout the session. Tia worked very well throughout this session as she was very confident when helping students who were struggling, at points she would sit down with them and work with them on the Ipad until they were happy with their track. Her teaching methods worked very well in the session and allowed us to progress the class fairly quickly.
One problem in the workshop was that people would often leave and return 30 minutes later, when they returned they would then be behind on their track meaning we had to help them catch up. This meant we had to talk to them and explain to them what they missed and we would help them catch up, as a team we dealt with this issue very well as we balanced our attention fairly between all students. Meaning we did not neglect any students as we shared attention evenly between everyone. This shows that as a group we had great time management and communication throughout the workshop which allowed us to effectively teach the workshop. Throughout the overall workshop Tia and Adam were very consistent with talking to students and helping them create their tracks, this shows great skills of attentiveness and communication which resulted in everyone developing finished tracks.
Tia explained the harmony section of the workshop very well as every developed high quality and great sounding chords in their track, Tia also gave them guide lines when creating their chord progressions to avoid them creating sounds that wouldn’t sound so great in the music. For example she said that people should avoid using the diminished chord on the end as it typically does not sound great when used in chord progressions, this would help the students narrow down which chords they should use in their chord progression. Tia’s clear explanation on harmony left few students confused, meaning many were confident when using their chords. To help the group add their own creativity to the music we went around demonstrating how to change the guitar used in their tracks, we also explained how guitar pedals worked so that they could add more depth and creativity into their music. Overall the harmony section went very well as by this point in the session we were all confident with teaching people and helping them with their tracks, as at the start of the class we were all a little bit nervous however we all got more confident as time went on.
While I was explaining melody Adam and Tia would go around and make sure everyone was following my guide on how to access the smart piano instrument on garage band. This showed great teamwork and organisation skills in the workshop, our teamwork in this workshop allowed us to help students at a faster rate and therefore progress with the workshop. By the melody section in the workshop most of the group had left, meaning we only had three students left to teach in the group. As we had three of us teaching we automatically gave ourselves one individual to focus on as it made the teaching process more effective, this teaching strategy we used showed great initiative at the end of the workshop. The fact that there was only very few students left in the workshop also made more chill and relaxed when teaching, because we only had to focus on one student each instead of around three or four like at the start.
What could be improved?
The biggest weakness in this session was our ability to manage time, which overall resulted in not getting to complete the session plan we had talked about. The part of the session we had missed was the section were we ask people if they want to add; vocals, a fourth instrument or use a sampler. Thankfully at least one person did manage to get onto this section of the workshop and finish it, however everyone else was only just finishing the melody stage. The cause of this issue was poor time management skills, therefore if I was to do this session again I would be more aware of how much time we were using in the session. I believe the part of the session were we wasted the most time was the transition between the rhythm section to the harmony section, time was wasted here because half the group had finished their beat while the other half was still working on it. We was not certain what to do in this situation so we just waited 5 more minutes until everyone was done, this caused us to lose pace and set us back in time. If I were to do this again I would teach the half of the session that was done how to do harmony so that they could progress instead of them being bored and waiting, this would allow us to progress the workshop faster and allow us to complete the full plan. Once the other half of the group had completed their beat we would help them catch up on harmony so that they could finish their track in time for the end of the session.
If we were to do the session again I would also like to improve the harmony section, this is because I believe Tia could have shared more information on chord progressions. The main example of topic of harmony I think Tia should have mentioned is chord progression formulas used in pop music today, an example of a pop chord formula she should have mentioned is (I-V-vi-IV) this is a chord formula often used in pop music today. I believe if she shared multiple examples of formulas it would allow students to get more inspiration when making their chords, and also allow them to make professional and high quality chord progressions which are used in pop music today. There was also a point in the workshop where Tia’s communication with a student came of as abrupt, this happened when a student was playing their track out loud and Tia said “Could you not play for a second”. Tia did not say this to be rude, however the phrasing and arrangement of the sentence can be seen as rude and insulting to some, therefore I think another way we could improve this workshop would to be careful and considerate when speaking to the group. As in the worse case this form of speech could have offended someone if they were emotionally fragile.
Conclusion
Overall I think this workshop went very well, especially considering this is the first time any of us has tried to teach a group of people how to make music. The workshop was also a huge success as every student that stayed for the workshop finished it with a high quality piece of music which we all enjoyed, we helped people progress their track through positive feedback and polite communication. Despite the great things we have done in this workshop there is still some room for improvement which I have mentioned above. I think this workshop was a success due to our hard work and dedication to the module as well as the detailed plan we had discussed and documented on digital space. Overall I did in enjoy sharing my knowledge of song writing with the people in the workshop, as well as helping them create a great music track on garage band. The main reason I enjoyed teaching people is because I liked the idea that I could be inspiring people to make music and continue song writing as a career or even hobby. Therefore this module was great fun and it would be great to have a opportunity like this again, considering how I could improve my teaching from this workshop session.