We did a mock workshop in front of the rest of the class. We did the whole workshop as if it was the real thing.
I would say that this went pretty well, everyone who we gave the workshop to completed the goal of the workshop, which was to create a song on Garage Band. This wasn’t a true representation of the workshop as people on a music course already know a bit about making songs on Garage Band, so it won’t be as easy to teach the actual workshop compared to this. Also it wasn’t perfect, there will still mistakes and things to be improved.
Our introduction was a bit weak, we didn’t properly explain what the plan and the aim of the workshop is. The reason why this happened is because we were a bit nervous leading up to it. Being nervous can make you rush things a lot of the time, so delivering this introduction was pretty rushed as we were still unsure on how to properly deliver a workshop at this time. Which made us more nervous which then made us rush it more. However after doing this mock, we learned that it’s not actually a scary situation, and when delivering something like a workshop, it’s best to keep calm, try and not get nervous and it will go a lot better.
A big issue we had was keeping the students silent/under control. As this was our first time doing anything like this, keeping students in check is probably the most difficult part of this, especially when music is involved. We came up with a system, which admittedly was a bit of a joke as we were doing it in front of our mates. This system was having a chart on the whiteboard, a good and bad side, and putting people’s names on the respective side depending on how they’re doing. This could work with primary school kids or younger kids, however with 14-18 year olds (which is our target audience) that won’t work. As pointing out their bad behaviour usually makes them do it more than helping. Pointing out good behaviour is good, as it makes them feel noticed for doing good which makes them do more good. However this wasn’t a good idea, and wasn’t executed well either. Keeping them quiet is also a thing we struggled with. This is difficult as you need to be assertive but not be too shouty and be reasonable. We didn’t really do this as a lot of the time they were talking over us. For next time we need to be a lot more assertive when talking to students. However we had a good idea with getting them to share their work after they did it, only if they’re comfortable with it. This could be developed so we discussed why it’s good or how it could be improved.
Another issue is that for the start of the session, me and Isaac weren’t the best at going around and helping people. This was due to us talking and trying to figure out how to best run the session. However we should have done this before, instead of figuring it out then. By the end, we got more involved and started to help everyone. This won’t be an issue in the final workshop as we will have it planned out and we also now know we need to keep this in mind.
We did the ice breaker, which went pretty well. However the main part of this game is to introduce people to each other, however as they already knew each other the point of this game was made redundant. There were a few mistakes as we were rushing the point due to the point I made earlier. However we did a good job with this game overall, adding to it by making it two leaders instead of one, which makes the game more fun.
My section, the rhythm section, could have been improved. I was pretty nervous when delivering my bit, so it was very rushed. I’ve already talked about what I learned from this and the importance of it. Another thing I could’ve improved on is my actual explanation of the sequencer. Such as what the instruments on the sequencer are and how to use them effectively. As well as giving examples such as dance music has the bass drum on all four beats of the bar, and rock music has the bass drum on 1 and 3 and the snare on 2 and 4. This didn’t matter as much in this mock, as the music students already knew about all this, so they knew what to do. However in the actual workshop I will need to give a good explanation or they won’t know what they’re doing.
Isaac’s part was about melody, and he did pretty good with this section. He was clear in explaining what the task was. However he didn’t know how to explain what a melody actually is, and what the point of it is in a song. This will need to be known and explained for the final workshop, however overall he did a good job with this section.
Our last section went well with adding vocals, as it was a nice addition. However we could’ve expanded it more onto different things such as sampling, or beatboxing or another instrument. We will keep this in mind for the final workshop.