This was our final workshop, which we delivered to youth in mind in Bradford They were a very vocal and energetic group of people, which had its pros and cons. It was difficult to keep them quiet, and took quite a lot of attempts sometimes. They weren’t the best at listening either, which meant we had to explain things a couple times, which obviously isn’t a bad thing. However when not many people listen and you have to go over it a many more times, it can get a bit infuriating. They were also really welcoming, they weren’t being rude on purpose, they were just enjoying the session. They had pretty good energy and it was actually really fun to deliver it to this group of people.
First off was our introductions, which went as well as they could’ve gone. We introduced ourselves and what we’re here to do. Tia led this part, and did it really well. There isn’t much to comment on this, it was just a standard introduction. After that we did the ice-breaker game, which was a good start to the session. Tia also led this, and did a good job of explaining it. However it took a while for the clients to totally understand it. The point of this game was to get everyone warmed up for the session, and introduce everyone to everyone else in a fun way. However, the clients already knew each other, so the game didn’t have as much meaning as it was originally meant to. It was a fun way to introduce us three to them even after the introduction. The game took a while to get going, however once it did and everyone understood it, it was a pretty good game.
The next part of the workshop was the sequencer part. Which was led by me. And I think I improved a lot from the last time I delivered this. I was trying my best to be confident from the beginning, which came off well as I seemed confident. However keeping them engaged was a bit of an issue, as once I started explaining everything a lot of them either started talking or started messing about with the sequencer. Which wasn’t easy while trying to explain something to people and a lot of them weren’t listening. I could’ve gone into a lot more depth about the sequencer, and what’s a very common beat and how to effectively use some of the instruments on it. However, as most people were already getting on with it or they knew what to do, I just decided to let them get on with it. I also thought it was better to explain stuff individually, as with this group they listened a lot more if they were spoken to individually. This maybe wasn’t the best thing to do, but this section still went well. Tia went straight into helping people, which was great, however me and Isaac needed a bit of prompting. This was due to nervousness. We all were pretty nervous, which was probably quite obvious to everyone. But we kept trying and pushed through it. However once we started helping some people, we got over that hurdle and was able to for the rest of the session. It slowed down at the end of this section, it lost its pace. I think this is due to it lasting a bit too long, and due to me not stopping it quick enough. As people were getting very distracted from the work because a lot of them have finished, I could’ve stopped it before so it didn’t lose pace.
The next section was the harmony section, which was on the smart guitar on Garage band. Tia led this section. This was another successful section and was probably better than the rhythm section. As they listened a lot more when Tia was explaining, as they were already engaged in the session after doing the rhythm section. So they knew what they were doing a lot more than during the rhythm section. As most people needed it explained twice during the prior section, it was mostly people needing help more than not knowing what to do. Again we went round and helped as much as we could, but this time me and Isaac were helping from the start, so everyone got help at least once during this section. During this section, one person had to leave which meant the youth worker also had to leave. A couple people also wandered in and out of the session for the rest of the session. However we just carried on, and didn’t let it faze us. This also meant we could help the people that stayed a lot more. We could focus on just a few of them and help them throughly and in detail.
The next section was the melody section, which was led by Isaac and was on the smart piano on Garage band. As there were less people, the explaining was listened to well again, and focus was kept on Isaac. His explanation was good and they knew what to do, however an example could’ve been good to further develop his explanations. This section was probably the quickest and easiest, as there wasn’t loads of people left at this point, so it was pretty short compared to the other two. We continued to help them and cause there were less people left again we could help them pretty thoroughly. There isn’t much to comment on this section, it was just good.
Our last section was vocals, which mostly turned out to not be vocals. This section was led by all 3 of us, as we all just explained together and all helped people. This section only had three people left, so we had one person each sort of. We thoroughly helped people in this section. Most of them used the voice effects on Garage band, where you can make your voice sound like you’re in space, a robot, squirrel etc. This is where they found fun from this section by adding some silly vocals a top of their work. In this section specifically, we all really helped these people, as we could focus on one person, we gave them a lot of tips and ideas. This was another good section.
All in all I think we did a really good job of this workshop. As it wasn’t the easiest session to deliver, as there were a lot of distractions for us and the people who we were delivering it to. The focus of the group also wasn’t great, as well as people leaving. However we didn’t let it faze us, and we carried on the the best of our abilities. As well as giving a lot of positive help and trying our best to get the group to make the best work they can. And the people who stayed till the end, enjoyed the workshop and got a good track out of it.