7.Reflection and Conclusions

Thirteen sessions were successfully run at Burnfoot Hub with twelve young folk attending and six young people who engaged fully with the music programme offered. Burnfoot Hub staff were supportive and positive and the parent interviewed was full of praise.

In practice this seems like a success story affirming the health and wellbeing effects of music making in a community setting and allowing access to music for young people who might not otherwise get the chance.

However this is, to me, is an unfinished initiative in that the evidence and evaluations as well as the final few sessions were conducted hurriedly under the looming shadow of the COVID 19 pandemic. More data and interviews were not able to be performed. With hindsight more video clips done weekly would have been beneficial rather than many very short frames in a short time frame. Initially it was felt that endless recording would affect engagement and provide an atmosphere of playing to the ‘camera’. The focus was on teaching and building up trust and concerns were that an evidence driven ethos might detract from the workshop in hand. Only latterly did a degree of uncertainty creep in and hurried what should have been a robust, thorough evidence gathering procedure.With community performances planned for the Border Reivers Festival, based in Hawick, over the weekend of the 22nd & 23rd March and a slot of busking at the local Morrison’s supermarket not to mention the BIG Burnfoot Hub café performance for the 30th March this was going to be the moment the band revealed itself locally. Unfortunately all had to be cancelled.Without this introduction to the community a major aim of the project – community involvement – did not fully happen. That is not to say that it will not happen in the future but consolidation of the weeks of workshops could not occur. There was also dwindling attendance in February and March due to the impending fear of coronavirus.

Timing wise, even without the pandemic, a start earlier in the autumn time would have allowed more of a continuous run of workshops. In practice (Appendix 6) there were four sessions with a gap for an in-service day and one last December session. January’s start was delayed due to an unexpected reflooring issue so the gap between 9th December and 20th January was not ideal for young learners where continuity and relentless routines need time to embed. A February in-service again meant a break and then there was the aforesaid issue with the world pandemic (which none of us could have foreseen).

Evidence wise it became obvious that the 1:1 interviews were not ideal for the young people. Despite knowing the interviewer and having been prepared in advance they displayed a reticence during the course of the interviews not shown previously. This illustrated the dangers already mentioned of the use of words in ‘in-vivo coding’ and suggests a diagrammatic colour approach in the form of a game might have worked better.

It also proved difficult, despite having a dedicated evidence gatherer as it were, to gain hard and fast data during workshops. The extra adult was often needed to tune instruments, lead percussion groups and generally adopt a hands on approach to the workshop.This was an issue highlighted by other community projects (see ‘Theory in Practice’).

However this project highlights the travails of life in the community and the issues that can never be predicted. Enough evidence was gathered to demonstrate the benefits of community music. The problems faced, though great, were not insurmountable and the project will to be continued under the wider umbrella of ‘Riddell Fiddles’ with the hope and live music can see another day in an adaptive ever changing format. The six young people identified will continue to receive free tuition and lessons and act as young ambassadors to the ‘new band’ in the future. This project has allowed me to set up a group, research literature pertaining to community music and evaluate the outcomes critically.

Sheila Sapkota 14007570. Burnfoot Housing Estate. Community Music Project