Community music

[JamesBass]

Just wondering if any of you guys and gals out there are involved in anyway with any music based charities or community projects?

Part of my current studies (HND in Music Performance) is based around community music and how music is more than just a product but also a tool to help people with, there are many different genres of music out there and they can affect all of us! I'm sure that most of you when younger had a certain song you loved and wanted to learn so did, however not everyone has the opportunity to do this, perhaps they don't know just how accessible music is or don't know areas and environments where they can practice or get involved with it i.e.; Youth Clubs, projects or any other charity run or council run event geared towards music. I'm looking for any projects you guys are involved with or know of, just gather sources for an assignment. All help is greatly appreciated!

If anyone is involved or wants to get involved please feel free to reply and get involved, music is such a powerful entity more so than I EVER knew!


Many thanks,

James

[Dood]

I am a project and team leader of a media based project delivering sets of workshops to participants with complex and special needs. The project, based at the prestigious Snape Maltings in Suffolk is very specifically designed to meet the needs of the participants. We use music and other media (along with quite ground breaking technologies) to create a brilliant environment to deliver our workshops and showcases each term.

The project is a huge amount of fun for all involved and is ran by a very experienced team. We concentrate on using the project to build key and soft skills, (communication, confidence, life skills for example), delivering training and mainly, showing how easy it is to derive a huge amount of enjoyment from making music.

I've proud of this project because it really is so rewarding. Our end of year shows have been truly stunning.

Community Music is very important and it makes me sad to see that some really great worthwhile clubs are having to struggle due to cuts in funding.

[url="https://www.facebook.com/aldeburghmusic.education?fref=ts"]https://www.facebook...ucation?fref=ts[/url]

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[Len_derby]

I do a lot related to church activities. I currently spend about ten hours a week on it and get in an average of two performances per week.
If that's the sort of community activity you might be interested in get in touch.

[JamesBass]

Thanks for the reply Dood, your project sounds amazing, and is exactly what I am researching in to. I'm guessing you guys are finding funding hard to come by! In your experience, do you think there is a lack of musicians getting involved?

I've become quite interested in the effect music has on people, especially the special needs and elderly. I did a bit of research relating to how music effects the brain especially in people with Alzheimer's, and it was fascinating and so touching!

We all get those days where a song that we haven't heard for months or even years pops in to your brain and you hum it all day long, so it stands to reason that you can use that effect to help people?

If you don't mind me asking but could we get an email correspondence going re your project and it's funding? It would be most helpful!

If you're interested take a look at this video, just shows how music can do so much good

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/AlzheimersCommunity/alzheimers-disease-music-brings-patients-back-life/story?id=16117602