"Music for the Joy of Music": the work of Coventry Music

So enthused am I with Coventry Music's "Live On Stage" project that my previous article on the subject burst through the confines of the "Hot Music Live" platform: many thanks to HotMusicAl for fixing the damage.

Consequently, that one "only" focused on their Summer Gig Night and my interviews with some participating band members and tutors. There simply wasn't room to include overviews from the management perspective & so I was really grateful that Coventry Music Lead Mark Steele could spare me the time this week to help with this & to give a broader outline of what the organisation does beyond this one project.

It has its roots in the well known & well loved Coventry Performing Arts Service and has evolved into this format from 2017 and indeed works In many other contexts besides rock bands. However what really impressed me was how Mark emphasised time & again that they did not want young musicians to feel "funnelled" into narrow contexts for their talents: for example dealing with rock & classical music in separate boxes (some of those I had witnessed playing rock are also in youth orchestras).

If you read my previous piece, you'll see again & again how it wasn't just what was going on which caught my imagination but how it was done, why it was done that way & the importance of values to the whole system.

Some things he had to say were pretty revelatory & I am delighted and encouraged to pass these on to you. He was, for example, much more optimistic than I might sometimes feel that the young musicians they work with reject narrow genre restrictions: it would seem that these, which frankly worry me, belong more to older generations & alas the media. Not being as informed about Grime as I should like to be, I was not aware of how many artists were moving from used synthesised sounds into working directly with what we might have categorised as "classical" string sections.

To start with Live On Stage, Mark clarified that this particular strand dealt with helping musicians in a band context: they receive their individual instrumental tuition for example separately. Although 75% of Loophole had worked together previously, this is not a requirement: those joining the programme usually do so as individuals & are then introduced to other potentially compatible musicians on other instruments so as to form & develop groups within the supportive environment at The Tin. (There is also a wonderful network whereby if a band is lacking say a bass player, the team can put a call out to schools to see if they know anyone suitable).

Mark also stressed the importance of working at The Tin: not only does that draw on the quality of resources of both the venue & the team (several of whom teach on Live On Stage) but they feel that delivering the programme within a genuine rock performance environment ("authentic spaces") has benefits which identical input in say a school hall could not match. Equally, the "traditional" groups will be working at The Albany Theatre this coming year. That's the level of thought which has gone into the project design.

For an entity which takes a really holistic view of music, it's not terribly surprising that partnerships are central to their ethos. Though Arts Council funded, Coventry City Council is a key collaborator and of course so is the Tin and many others as we'll see.

Participation in instrumental learning (involving some 6,000 children a week)  is of course the basis upon which all else rests (it's worth noting  that Mark's own background is in brass playing and he continues hands on involvement via occasional cover of rehearsals) but it's impressive how giving students a chance to play collaboratively is central and groups exist catering for players from age seven.

Some cater for specific instrumental groupings (there are flute, wind, brass strings and guitar/ukulele groups) and there are the Junior Voices Choir and Coventry Youth Choir for vocalists. Beyond that are fuller ensembles like Coventry Music Orchestra, the Musical Theatre Group, the Session Band (which is a Big Band: playing jazz, swing, blues, pop & rock) and the Sparks groups at two locations which allow beginners to play together. There is also the Canley Samba Group. I think that rather speaks for itself!

These, while totally commendable are relatively easy to conceptualise: howeverthe SoundLab strand is even more cutting edge and which throws all possible barriers to one side. I commend its online page to you for further details: https://www.coventrymusic.co.uk/directory-record/11/soundlab-cov

And those are just the regularly running and long term programmes. The team also devise discrete projects: for example the "Positive Choices" one which culminated in a  collaborative album called ‘In These Towns' : more at https://www.coventrymusic.co.uk/news/article/32/positive-choices-album-launch.

Then there is the "Barriers to Bridges"  project run by Joe Cook to draw "upon the young people's life experiences, observations and frustrations" to create articulations via music of their feelings about issues such as "youth violence, mental health, the education system and social justice".

And it's not just schemes emanating from the team: they also work with partner organisations such as Creative Optimistic Visions for "Fire in the Youth".

From this, one gets the clearest of pictures of the team's desire to positively build inclusivity rather than just draft programmes & hope young people join. There are obviously all sorts of social expectations & notions of who "can" participate in music making & they are reaching out & inviting members of groups hitherto excluded from & alienated by traditional models of delivery of tuition & development. Which is massively encouraging.

In a similar vein, Arjun Jethwa has a remit of Connector (his work is funded by Young Sounds UK) to remove barriers to young musicians from low income families from accessing opportunities.

Understandably, they feel that they are achieving a great deal: "as a project, Live On Stage has been a great success: the outcomes are much greater than we ever thought we'd have when we first launched". However the outcomes are much more than just the high profile successes like Project Overload & Loophole ("ridiculously amazing" as those are) winning "Godiva Calling": it's just as much about personal fulfilment of every member. Paths people follow after graduating from Coventry Music programmes range from studying music (e.g. at BIMM) to maintaining it as part of their lives recreationally while pursuing other careers. He also emphasised the value they see in being part of the programmes for a few hours each week in relation to dealing with issues such as stress from other parts of their lives or lockdown. This is associated with building other skills necessary in a band (such as communication) which are transferable to other contexts. He cited one of their best musicians who after graduating from BIMM is off to train as a mental health nurse, a role in which music can be put to therapeutic use.

Mark enthused in great detail about so many projects which they have been part of where frankly genre straitjackets were flung away (but I'd better be succinct or I'll need HotMusicAl's help again) and there are more in the pipeline: again featuring partnerships with the likes of Media Mania (who empower and upskill young people).

He linked this to how the team has built, bringing in members who refuse to pigeonhole music and musicians & reflect this in their own practice, including the roles they take on & projects which they help with.

I wanted to tease out too how the organisation managed the responsiveness and flexibility to bring the now Tin employed Nina McLean-Ellmann straight from the participant side to playing a role on the delivery side & Mark put this down to creative way in which they worked: they have both permanent staff & freelancers so can bring in anyone suitable who has the appropriate talents to contribute.

We talked too about various issues which young musicians had to contend with, from the stresses of academic work to the expectations of others & yet when I witnessed so many of them recently, I noted how relaxed they all seemed: on stage, backstage, being interviewed etc. Mark ascribes this to the educational approach of the team ("the events are important but they are just celebrations of what they've achieved, not the be all & end all" accounted for the laid back vibe at the Summer Gig Night).

We then moved onto exploring my concern at how the joy of learning in schools has been replaced by outcome driven activity and how the work of Coventry Music might be a corrective. Interestingly, Mark had earlier summed up their approach as being "music for the joy of music" (which is I think the tagline for this piece) and underpins pretty much everything else above.

There are not only those programmes which mirror the school year: Coventry Music have summer activities in collaboration with the Library Service and these support musicians down to those in Early Years.

From there, every child has a pathway through the provision, but he repeated their opposition to funnelling individuals alone narrow pathways ("a conveyor belt"). They want to "start people on a journey and then the pathways open out".

I learned so much from Mark & I hope it was as inspiring to you as it was to me. In addition to writing future articles on bands from Live On Stage, I feel keen to explore some of the other projects in more detail too, so keep an eye open for those.

Just as I was finishing processing all this information, this postscript manifested itself: as you'll know from my review of Art in the Park in Leamington, Live On Stage bands The New Obsession & Lucent, whom I'd mentioned in my earlier article, appeared on the Youth Stage curated by Leamington  LAMP: an organisation with similar values albeit a different scale: so there's yet another partnership & proof of the dynamism at play. Unsurprisingly Mason was part of the team running the stage: more surprising was Indira from Lucifer Sky and Bar Pandora on LAMP's stall demonstrating "biodata sonication": which was getting plants to play synthesisers (a bit of a digression I admit but I felt you'd like to know).