Pedestrian

Concept 2019

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Concept At Northampton College

This week (17th - 21st February 2020) has been the spring half-term holiday here in the East Midlands, and the Concept team have been in Northamptonshire at Northampton College delivering their latest residency. Young people from the Russian, Tamil and Ghanaian supplementary schools worked with our team of professional musicians and music producers to create their own original music, with extra support provided by students from the Northampton College Music Department.

It’s been brilliant working with the very talented music students; they are studying Level 3 Music Performance and Level 3 Music Technology and have given up their half term to be involved in Concept. Charlie, a student from the course, was surprised at how fun and inclusive the week had been for all involved: “when we were told we’d be part of teaching music for our work experience I thought it might be boring, a bit school-like. I was really surprised at how much fun it was!”

The music students have been working with the Concept team to help the young people create and record their music, as well as teaching guitar, drums and keyboards. It has been a great opportunity for the students to get fully immersed in inclusive music-making and to gain experience of workshop leading. 

Emma, one of the students, began her musical journey as a participant on Concept a couple of years ago and is now on the Level 3 Music Technology course. Emma said: “I enjoyed working with the young people, especially helping to write lyrics and playing piano to help create the young people’s song!”

The young Concept participants chose the theme of ‘power’ to draw inspiration from and to help shape their compositions and songs. They have found ways of expressing individual responses to the theme through the choice of instrumentation, the style in which it is played, the use of dynamics and the way in which the music is arranged. Some of the young people have written song lyrics exploring topics including community, politics and women’s empowerment. 

 “I have really enjoyed writing the lyrics with Tian”, says Anton, a young person from the Russian supplementary school. Tian also began his music-leading journey as a Concept participant a few years ago in Leicester, and is now a valued member of the Concept team. 

Timurs said “I have learnt how to play drums this week”, and Nik shares that: “I have tried the electric guitar and really enjoyed playing it” 

In addition to learning instruments, composing, and recording an album of music, the young participants have also completed an Arts Award qualification at Discover and Bronze levels. One young person has been able to continue their Silver Arts Award journey throughout the residency. It has been a very productive week indeed! 

Early in the week the young people had the opportunity to learn some new skills in beat-boxing and using the loop station, they then shared their new skills with each other as part of their Arts Award. Music leader Elio Andrade worked with the young musicians from the college to develop a performance, which was enjoyed by all and reviewed as part of the Arts Award by the participants. 

It was great to see the young people trying so many new ways to create music, trying new instruments, playing as part of a band, composing music on the computer and having the opportunity to record in the college’s industry-standard recording studio. They were also able to learn about the music industry and the different ways that a career in music can be developed. 

The album, titled ‘P6WER’, contains a whopping seven tracks created by the young people, and we can’t wait to share it! We will be performing it to a supportive audience of friends, parents, carers and members of the college team on Friday afternoon. There will be lots more news from the Concept residency at Northampton over the next few weeks, check back to find out how the performance went and where you can listen to the new album! 

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Showcase Rehearsal

On Wednesday last week (27th November) Concept participants teamed up with Core Actors to rehearse for their collaborative performance at The Core in Corby.

The young musicians and actors used the themes of light, travel and space. Set in alien landscapes and on distant planets, the theatre production tells stories of life on Earth and journeys through outer space.

Music created by the young people during their Concept project residency is threaded throughout the performance, providing the soundtrack. It also features live performances from young Concept musician Jo, who performs his original song Barren Worlds and Atmospheres.

The music used in the production is taken from an album created by the young people called Keep The Light On. The songs on the album were shaped by the themes of culture and light, with the young musicians discussing the autumn season and recent celebrations of Diwali, Halloween and Bonfire Night. The group explored light through different lenses, focusing particularly on light, dark, shade and differences. The album embarks on a journey through challenging times but offering solutions and brighter times ahead.

The showcase performance took place on Wednesday 4th December; we’ll be back soon to tell you how it went and share photos!

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Concept Young People To Perform in Shared Showcase

Today we’re looking ahead to a shared showcase event between Concept and The Core in Corby that will bring together Core actors, the youth theatre group at The Core and the young musicians and producers who have taken part in Concept.

The Core actors have been working with innovative theatre practitioner Jenny Sheehan to develop a range of new devised and scripted performances around the themes of light, the moon and space travel with The Martian Chronicles as an inspirational starting point. The Concept young musicians and music producers have the opportunity to share and perform their recorded and live music in collaboration with the talented young actors in the youth theatre group, and have developed music inspired by the themes to share at the showcase.

The Concept Shared Showcase will take place on Wednesday 4th December 2019 in The Lab at The Core in Corby, full information and booking is available by calling The Core Box Office on 0153 647 0470.

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Culture and Light: Concept Residency at The Core

The Concept 2019 – 2021 team have had a busy but fantastic week delivering their second music residency at The Core in Corby.

Ten young people took part in the project, with some travelling from as far afield as Kettering and Wellingborough especially to attend.  Half the participants had never been to The Core before, so the residency represented an opportunity for them to connect with an important arts venue and cultural hub.  Some of the young people were looked after children recruited through a local partner organisation, while others had become involved with the project after discovering it online and on social media.

As with other residencies, the young people were supported to create a concept album based upon a theme of their choice.  There was much discussion but the young people eventually settled on the theme of culture and light, influenced by the autumn season and recent local celebrations of Diwali, Halloween and Bonfire Night.  The group explored light through different lenses, focusing especially on light, dark, shade and differences.

Throughout the week the young people have grown dramatically, improving their knowledge of both music and music technology.

One young person learned to master using a loop station and Logic Pro to create a dance track, using skills such as constructing, composing, arranging and producing music.

Two young guitarists used their skills to create a bass track, which they played beautifully.  They were supported by professional guitarist Jon Kendall, but wrote and composed the work themselves.

Jon also worked with one young musician on her singing technique, helping her to refine her pitch and control her vocals, resulting in a marked improvement.

On Wednesday the young people were treated to an impressive ukulele performance by professional musician and spoken-word poet Jenny Hibberd, who was then on hand to provide input and support the young people’s musical process.  In particular, she helped the two young guitarists to develop poetic lyrics for their track.

As well as developing musically, the young people also successfully achieved accredited qualifications: five young people were awarded an Arts Award Discover and five were awarded an Arts Award Bronze.

At the end of today, the last day of the residency, the young people will share their final tracks with the group, their friends, and family.  However this isn’t the end of their involvement with Concept or The Core, as they will have the opportunity to perform live and showcase their music at Grow Festival 2020, which will take place in Corby on the 7th – 8th February next year.  Before then, on Wednesday 4th December 2019 The Core will provide a special show featuring its actors and dancers; the recorded tracks the young people made will be used as part of the dancer’s performance and the young people will also have the opportunity to perform on stage themselves.  Both events represent important ways for the young people’s music to reach more people and widen their audience.

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Interview With Young Creative Tian Mhende

Welcome Concept fans!  In the second blog post following up on our music residency last week, we interviewed talented young creative Tian Mhende.  Tian was originally a participant on Concept in 2018, and has since gone on to engage with project The Drop and has become a Trainee on Perfect Score Press Start sessions.  Last week he joined Concept as a volunteer looking to develop his skills as a music tutor.  We chatted to him about his experiences so far and his plans for the future.

Tell us how you came to be involved with Concept.

Originally I started on the project as a participant.  Several people had mentioned Concept to me: the team at YEP (Youth Education Project), Wavey (Naji Richards) and Shay (Akshay Sharma).  I had already been involved with some projects, including The Drop with Pedestrian and a poetry one with Shay, so doing music at Concept was definitely of interest to me.  At my first week-long residency I got so into it, I created three whole tracks!

I then got involved in another Pedestrian project called Perfect Score, where my role required that I be DBS checked as part of their routine safeguarding procedure.  I thought it would be great to learn properly how to be a tutor, since that’s something I’m interested in pursuing.  Concept was the first project I was really involved in and where I got to perform; it actually lead to me getting my first headline show!  That was really exciting for me, so when Kate (Concept’s Project Manager) asked me to be involved in this Concept residency as a volunteer I jumped at the chance.  It all came full circle!

What were your first impressions of Concept?

I thought it was good!  It was the first project I was shown where an organisation gives young people an opportunity to create their own project, with support from professional musicians.  It was more guided and aimed towards the goal of producing a concept album, I think that helped me a great deal as I was then able to go on to create my first solo project, which I released on Spotify. Pedestrian was recommended to me as a place where I could learn music craft, as well as have access to recording and producing technology.

What lead you to want to volunteer on Concept?

The fact that I want to become a music mentor!  Being good at performing is a great thing but even though I’m starting to emerge as a successful artist on the local scene, I still don’t get paid gigs every single week.  Getting the experience in mentoring means that I can build a career doing something I enjoy, rather than relying solely on recording and performing.

What’s your experience been like during this week-long residency?

It’s been fun, seeing how young people that arrived with no confidence have grown and developed.  At first a lot of them seemed nervous and reluctant to engage, but I worked with four young people and they all ended up with really solid songs that you could listen to.  It’s good to help people improve their confidence.  It was great to work with Shay too since he’s seen my full journey: from participant, to headlining show and now learning to become a tutor – as I say, I’ve come full circle!

What is the most enjoyable part for you?

Seeing the growth from someone who has no rapping experience that then puts together a track in a week – it’s mad!  I wouldn’t be able to do it, when I look back to when I first started I wouldn’t have done half as well as the young people here – some of their stuff is better then my earlier work that I released on my SoundCloud!  Seeing their confidence and ability in music develop is a really good feeling, you feel like you’ve helped.

Tell us more about your headlining show.

I performed at Echo Factory, with seven support acts!  That was a really big deal for me, as up to that point I’d been doing open mics.  I had my name and pictures on the flyer, the lot.  I thought ‘wow, I’m good’!  During the headline show I performed a track with Shay that we’d created - that was our first time performing together, it was really fun.

What are your aspirations for the future?

I’m looking to develop my professional music career: getting as many shows as I can and putting my music out through distribution companies.  Music is one of those things you can really have fun with, and I honestly believe I’m good enough to make it and earn a good income, whether that’s through tutoring, or rapping and being on stage.  I enjoy everything to do with music: the writing, creating and recording; the performing and the teaching.  Anything where I can teach people how to write lyrics is great!

So what’s next for you?

Finish my next song!  This one is about children who don’t have options or confidence and use music to support themselves emotionally.  After that, I’ll be involved with the Perfect Score Press Start sessions, I think we’re going to London next week.  I also want to release my own EP.  They’re the next few steps.

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Rowan Warner-Leicester: From Work Placement Student to Tutor

The first residency of Concept 2019 - 2021 was a huge success, thank you to all involved!  During the week we borrowed a couple of our talented creative practitioners for a chat, we’re sharing the first of those with you today.  Rowan first joined the project in 2018 as a placement student, since then he’s blossomed into a confident creative practitioner and has rejoined the Concept project as a music tutor.  Read on to find out more about Rowan and his work on Concept!

Tell us how you first got involved with the Concept project.

I did a Masters degree in community music, and needed to do a work placement as part of that, so I contacted Pedestrian and asked if I could do my placement on the Concept music project.  Now that I have graduated I have returned to Concept as a Music Tutor and Arts Award Supporter for this residency.

What experience have you gained from working on the project?

When I first started, I gained experience of all sorts of things!  Tutoring young people, helping them develop music skills, teaching them to play instruments, as well as production and recording.  I was involved with lots of different ways of imparting music skills to young people.

It’s been about a year since then and my confidence has grown a lot; I feel much more experienced.  The hands-on practice has really benefitted me, and my desired development as community arts practitioner.  I feel much more comfortable teaching production and guitar playing.

What is your role with Concept?

I help with all sorts of music making, as well as helping the young people achieve their Arts Award qualification.  Earlier in the week I did some guitar tutoring; one of the young people recorded some chords to go into their track.  We have a fantastic team in that everyone has different musical strengths: I’m a guitarist and instrumentalist, Rob (Robert Heslop) is also an instrumentalist but is more keys focussed, Shay (Akshay Sharma) is really good at making beats and Tobi (Tobias Gibson) is just amazing at everything technical to do with recording!  It’s great that whatever route the young people want to go down there’s someone to support them, whatever style of music they want to make.

What have you enjoyed the most about working on Concept?

I enjoy teaching and helping the young people to be creative with music.  Lots of the young people have ideas but they don’t know how to replicate them on the instruments or express them musically as they have no experience, so helping them to get those ideas out there is really satisfying for me.

Concept is a really great project because the young people collaborate to create an album in a week and have their own track ready by the end of it, which is a big achievement.  I think they get a lot of satisfaction out of it, and having musicians on hand to help them do that really supports them.  In other environments they may not have the skills or technology to create or produce their music the same way.

Is there anything about Concept that has really made an impression on you?

I love how creative it is!  It’s helping the young people get their creative ideas out with musical skills, while a lot of music education generally involves learning to play an instrument and developing the skills required to do that.  You learn your chords and earn your grades, which can limit your creativity because you learn to play well technically but don’t get to make your own music.  Music is such a creative discipline and that is not used enough in music education.  I come from a classical background, learning to play first flute and then guitar, and I think the creative and writing side is one of the most important aspects of music but isn’t valued enough.  What I love about Concept is that the creativity comes first and the music skills are learned through the process of creating the music; expressing yourself is the main priority.  Fostering creativity is for me the most important part of music education because music gives people the chance to express themselves.

Do you see a difference in the young people after they’ve been involved with Concept?

Usually on Friday (the last day of the residency) there’s a great sense of celebration.  We have a sharing session with people close to the young people, which involves playing the music they’ve made and sometimes enjoying performances.  There’s always a buzz, which shows how important it is to them.  We’ve actually had some young people do a residency with us more than once; I’m not sure if it’s because they are familiar with the project or that they recognise us, but they seem more confident and have been able to get on with their music making much easier.  It’s been great to see that progression, and I think it’s helped the people who are new to the project to settle in.

What’s next for you?

I’m doing lots of music work: I teach guitar and run community classes, one I do is a ukulele class.  I’ve just moved to Northern Ireland so am trying to expand into other things and build up those connections with local arts organisations where I can get my foot in the door.  I’m enjoying teaching a mixture of age ranges and backgrounds.

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Before The Battery Runs Out

The Concept 2019 - 2021 team have been delivering our first week-long studio residency - and what a week it’s been!

A team of experienced music practitioners guided and supported a group of talented young people to create their own album themed around a concept of their choice, the theme they chose was ‘Before The Battery Runs Out’.

The young people developed their concept by beginning with a discussion, which explored transition and changes. They came up with the idea of a timeline, which represents a lifespan or life journey. Along this line are life events: some big, some small, but all part of the journey. The title began with the idea that we travel the 'life line’ with the hope that we will arrive safely at our destinations along the way without falling too far from the line or ‘before the battery runs out’.

The title reflects a feeling of urgency but also the sense of humour that accompanies the young musicians, lyricists and music producers in their journey.

The young people have worked hard to create eight original pieces of music that comprise the album, and along the way have tried new things and developed new skills such as learning and playing guitar, developing their own ideas, using a loop station, writing lyrics, using Logic software, rapping, writing melodies, and production aspects including sampling, composing, arranging and recording.

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Concept Launch 2019

Concept Launch 2019

We are delighted to welcome back our nationally recognised Concept music project.  Founded in 2015 and hosted by Pedestrian. Concept offers a weeklong studio residency for 14 to 18 year olds with the opportunity to collaborate with professional musicians, music producers and industry specialists to create and record an original album of music based around a shared concept or theme.

Young people across the East Midlands will be able to develop their musical, lyrical and production skills and working as a production team they will gain confidence, communication and social skills. All this while achieving a new qualification!

Key achievements for Concept 2018 include: 75 participants, 45 tracks recorded, 85% participants achieved Arts award.    

Check out the links below for more information and previous works from Concept 2017-2018.

Official YouTube page, featuring Concept playlist: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiKTuSODnUiqZTe2cLuwKVA/playlists

Concept Evaluation report booklet: http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/451833/28102022/1553608062133/Pedestrian_Concept_Evaluation_Report_2018.pdf?token=DQtrTBKmb%2BsP8G%2BwjlOmGe7i2d4%3D

 Additional information can be found on the website: http://www.pedestrian.info