A view from the workshop floor: What skills and qualities are demanded of today's community music workers and how can they best be taught?

Abstract

A view from the workshop floor: What skills and qualities are demanded of today's community music workers and how can they best be taught? 1 KEYWORDS community music skills training ABSTRACT This paper considers the following questions: Do existing models of training, based in higher education/conservatoire institutions, equip today's musicians with appropriate skills to work in community settings and can vocational training be incorporated within conventional music courses as options, or do we need to see specialist full-time courses? Using the Abraham Moss Centre as an example of practice, outlines of the key skills needed to be a community musician are described. In conclusion, this paper suggests that instead of adopting a top-down approach to training, providers might ask those directly involved in the work what kind of training they think is important.

The Process, Challenges and Opportunities of Developing a Curriculum in a Creative and Therapeutic Arts Undergraduate Degree Programme

“…There has been discussion from practitioners, employers and artist organisations about the development of educational provision for Participatory Arts, nationally and internationally (Moss & O'Neil ; Price ; Buttrick ; Consilium ; Low & Mayo ; Burns ; Ford et al . ).…”

“…There has been discussion from practitioners, employers and artist organisations about the development of educational provision for Participatory Arts, nationally and internationally (Moss & O'Neil 2009;Price 2010;Buttrick 2012;Consilium 2012;Low & Mayo 2013;Burns 2014;Ford et al 2018). Some practitioners advocate caution in developing an overarching curricular approach: '[There is a] danger of creating a curriculum for working in participatory settings which could potentially stifle creativity, diversity and the ability of artists to respond to the specific context of the setting that they are working within' (Taylor 2013, 21).…”

“…However in subject areas such as the arts, where cuts are seen in funding, practice and education (Chatzichristodoulou ; Filimowicz & Tzankova ), there is unfortunately a case to be made to demonstrate the ongoing rationale for a university education. This is further magnified in a unique programme, one of only two in the UK, which trains undergraduate students in Participatory Arts; a challenging practice to define:

Indeed community arts practice seems to be commonly defined by what it is not: formal education or therapy… Price ( , p. 332) compares his multifunctional position … as being akin to a ‘human version of a Swiss pen‐knife’ as he switches between ‘lecturer, facilitator, youth worker, confidant, advisor technician and child‐minder’ .(Swindells et al . , 348–9)

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“…Indeed community arts practice seems to be commonly defined by what it is not: formal education or therapy… Price ( , p. 332) compares his multifunctional position … as being akin to a ‘human version of a Swiss pen‐knife’ as he switches between ‘lecturer, facilitator, youth worker, confidant, advisor technician and child‐minder’ .(Swindells et al . , 348–9)…”

Get-in-the-groove music: Rhythmicking with young children

“…David Price (2010) bemoaned the inadequacy of existing models of training within post-secondary institutions for addressing the wide array of musical and communication skills necessary for CM work, but the FTs for the GGK-Music programme were able to successfully utilize their training and experience in ME within a CM setting, blending the two through choice of repertoire, releasing their tendency towards 'teacher control', balancing formal and informal learning behaviours and, as previously addressed, communicating with families as to the continuation of GGK-Music activities at home.…”