Learning Outcome 4

The music in the community unit was one of the best units from this course. It consisted of various events such as the open mic night at Magoos which we organised as a class, the Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat show, my 'An Introduction to Drumming' workshop, and a good look into community music in general through my information pack. I will take a look at each of these individually and review how each one went, and how they benefited the local communities involved.

The information pack was quite helpful for me, as although I wrote it, it made me think about community music from a broader perspective, looking at why it happens, what it's good for, and what impact it has on people of local communities. It's definitely encouraged me to take part in more community music and to get more involved in organising events in my local area.

Like I said in my post on Joseph, I am incredibly pleased that I took part in it, as it was a great experience that benefited both me, all the others who took part, and the local community and college in general very much. I think that an event like this is a great way to be part of something big, and is a very satisfying feeling when you play an entire show which you've spent months preparing for to a sold out group of paying people.

My drumming workshop was interesting despite the lack of two people who didn't show up. It feels good to have inspired three people to get more into music and drumming especially. I can now see why people get a satisfaction from teaching, as it is quite rewarding to see people improve simply from your input. I think that I could have done some more interesting stuff in it, and if I was to do another one, I would definitely invite those people back and see if we could get into some harder stuff!

The open mic night demonstrated to me how it is actually not all that difficult to get a community event organised. Places like Magoos were than happy to let us perform at their venue, as it benefited both us as players, the community of people who came down to watch, and the venue for getting more people to their bar.

I look forwards to getting involved in organising and participating in more events in the future, and since I am taking a year out after this, I will take the opportunity to put more time into music.