5.1 Top tips from a musician
Throughout these documents we thought it would be good to hear from musicians delivering the work to give you their top 3 tips for working as a Noise Solution musician. Click to watch the video
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In a first session I’m often trying to have as much impact as possible through quick wins. I want that participant to have experienced creating their own track/realised that they can play piano chords and created a video to accompany their first track - all captured and mirrored back at them in their feed
‘Quick wins’ are a great way of engaging a participant, especially early on. It’s really important for them to feel good about something they’ve made in session 1, when their expectations are probably at their lowest.
What are the sorts of things we do to achieve that? We often start by offering a bunch of options to them and see what works best. One of the things we’ve found especially great for quick wins is:
Offering teaching piano chords in half an hour. We do this using our easy shapes based method “Would you like to learn piano chords in half an hour?without having to learn any theory! This can be a huge engagement win. You can see how I teach that using the following link and your participant can learn in their own time learn how to do do this here
Technology is also brilliant for this. For example using loops that they have chosen and arranged to start a great sounding track. Making sure they feel safe as they discover they can create music using loops is often massively impactful for young people (demystify the process). We have access to huge ranges of loops through Loopcloud which we get for free. It links with your daw (Via a VST) temp locks and transposes any of millions of loops into the right key - which you then drag into your DAW - amazing. Link to Loopcloud is
in your community pages - Let us know you want to use it and we’ll get that set up. You tell us which email account you want it registered to - we tell them and they remove the ask for credit card details and payments.
YuMu or Bandcamp/Reaper/Ableton? - it doesn’t matter what the DAW is, the process of dragging and dropping a beat/bass line and some arpeggiated synth lines together, arranging them to taste adding the odd FX…never fails
to engage people. Especially when they’ve been given the choices about what to use (Autonomy). We are able to give people Ableton intro licences - let us know if your participant wants one?
To have even more impact though once you’ve done that, how about easily creating a fantastic music video.
You can then make a really cool music video using some software we have access to Rotor. Upload an MP3. The software analyses the tempo, you then choose from 1000’s of amazing video clips and it adds filters, and cuts are
placed at appropriate points from it’s analysis of the tempo. Looks amazing. Upload to their feed - and in the post ask other group members what they think about it! (Details of how to access are in your community pages)
All these things are done with half an eye on capturing the reaction of the participant - did they think this bit or that bit was amazing?. How did it make them feel? Ask them and record what they say using video/audio/text, whatever they are comfortable and add it in the session as a post - so parents and key workers see that reaction!
Craft that story in a way that gets engagement from the audience.
From an SDT perspective, you’re creating a portfolio of the participant being engaged and excited and good at something - (promoting and growing a sense of competence, and sharing that through the Noise Solution story to create that sense of relatedness with those viewing and engaging with the story.
In the end reflection video, ask how it feels to be able to make what they’ve made? Or How much of that was yours? How many decisions did you make? We value this much more than an abstract idea of the “quality” of what’s produced. It’s all about making them feel like they’ve achieved something and giving them an insight into their own abilities, but sometimes people need to be guided into learning to reflect on that. You’ll often hear from participants that they didn’t think that they would be able to learn piano chords, write lyrics or create a beat, but have then realised that they can. They need to have that reflected back at them and their group of adults need to see it to recognise it.
But to really have impact those wins need to be quick, at least initially. These wins often pave the way for them believing they are capable of doing even more. We’ve got a section specifically on how to record reflection video’s later.
There is always a community of musicians to ask for advice as well about what’s worked for them
5.3 Being the storyteller
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The ‘Digital Story’ is….and we can’t say this enough…not just about what happened. It’s a big part of how we have impact. Traditionally in mental health and education/ social work everyone works in isolation from everyone else, especially the families who are often left in the dark about what’s going on. The ‘Digital Story’ allows everyone to come together around this fantastic story of the young person being successful - but it’s a story that needs cultivating, curating and creating and that’s a big part of your role.
What does a good Noise Solution Story look like?
This is perhaps one of the most important questions that you, as a musician, can reflect on. And there are no cookie-cutter answers. Every musician delivers a session in a way that reflects them, the participant and the particular skills they have. Each session and programme will look different. However, every good session will contain similar elements.
A good Digital Story weekly update should include ALL OF the following, in every session where it’s possible:
• Three or four photos;
• Some video clips of the participant learning a skill (keyboard, guitar, Ableton, etc.)
• A video of the track/music they have created in the session; ideally with a rotor video - so it looks super slick to those watching
• A video or audio reflection on how the session went (Vital). Best done in conversation with you. Ending with “out of 10 how was this weeks session?”
SEE EXAMPLE REFLECTION IN THE VIDEO
• You can also use the Digital Story to share any links to helpful websites (tutorials, free VSTs) that may be useful or to YouTube videos which the participant enjoys and finds inspirational.
We don’t intend for you to take photos and video footage only to upload it all when you get home (though sometimes that might have to be the way it works). Ideally, best practice is that we want the capture, uploading and sharing to be driven by the learner and for it to literally be part of the session. If they have ownership of the sharing process, they are more likely to care about the comments and the feedback they receive.
Get them to post some of the footage! In the session.
How do you present what’s happening in an engaging way that gets engagement from all those busy people? Well the first thing is it needs to have good content and that content needs to look good.
• Use your phone in portrait mode ! So video looks good in the ‘Digital Story’
• Use a small tripod
• Try and make sure the audio is well recorded and clear
• Think about exciting photo’s that are well framed and composed
What you capture needs to present in a way that tells a story of that weeks session, and what people are most interested in is not how they learned to play something but how it made the participant feel - they need to be front and centre. When you see something hit home, that gets the participant excited or makes them feel they have achieved something - even something really simple, you need to capture that moment, or feeling, or reaction in a way that lets the viewers into what you’ve seen.
It’s ok to take time out of the session to do this - it is part of the whole process.
Sometimes you can do that while it’s happening, sometimes you do that afterwards by asking them questions that are open and hopefully worded in ways to make them realise that they are being successful.
For example “That was amazing, how did it make you feel doing that? “How many of the creative decisions around that were yours?” Always trying to get them to reflect on themselves being good at something - because that’s what they need to hear and it’s what will engage their family and key workers to comment when they hear it!
It might be video or it might be quotes that you add of something they’ve said, obviously you ask them if it’s ok to add them to the digital story - d if it’s positive post it as a quote!
Did you know you can use the @ sign, and then the group members names (for the key worker or family members). This brings people in, they get
notified by email when they are tagged - Good practice is asking those in the group questions so they reply and contribute to the ‘Digital Story’ encouraging discussion from others.
5.4 Here’s what a ‘Digital Story’ looks like
Above is an old story, rich in content and posts so you can see what one might look like
5.5 Have fun: It’s important
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This is why you’re here right - making music is and should be fun. These sessions are an opportunity for you and the participant to enjoy yourselves listening to, talking about and making music. There are no rules about how you do this, we should be reacting to the interests of the person we’re working with and always checking that they are having fun - but sometimes they need a helping hand to get started, so here are some idea’s.
As a way to start you could for example use YouTube to learn about what they are into and find out what they would like to be able to do. So you could start by asking them to paste links to they favourite tracks in their Noise Solution story.
You might end up exploring something you’ve never done before, which is great as you’ll be learning from them. Always try and be playful and have fun but be led by their interests. You’re building an environment and a relationship that allows them to be themselves and a space where they can achieve something that they want to achieve. Remember all those fun musical moments you’ve had in your life and aim to make these sessions like those moments!
If you’re in a session and what you’re doing isn’t fun, stop doing it. You don’t have to stick with something you’ve started if it doesn’t feel right. Remember there are lots of options and different ways of making music. It can be solely software based, instrument based, singing, lyric writing, video making and any combination of these. It should feel fun for you as much as it does for them.
Research tells us that that the number one indicator of success in education/ therapy/mentoring is whether the participant feels like the person they work with likes them and is interested in them - achieve that trust by having fun together!
It’s also really important that we deliver this in a way that we know helps participants to improve their well-being. By that we mean using what we know about SDT to enhance the sessions. (visual of SDT Venn diagram)
So for example, let them feel they have a say in decisions about what they are creating, be led by them, (give them choice/autonomy)
Realistically praise them when they do something well - capture that in their Noise Solution story (capture competence)
Encouraging them to think about reflecting on those successes and sharing them with people through their story (help create relatedness)
We love seeing you having fun and what you help them create and more importantly the families and professionals working with the young people like hearing about what you create and how it makes them feel.
5.6 End Session: Celebrate and end questionnaire
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The last session is an opportunity for you and the participant to celebrate their journey. It’s often very eye-opening for them to look back at their time with you and to see what they’ve achieved in that time. Session 1 will feel like a long long time ago and celebrating with a guest or two can be very powerful.
Invite a parent or key worker into the end bit of the last session, someone who has followed the story and who your participant knows and trusts. We want to help participants shed negative opinions they have of themselveshaving them watch themselves be good at and enjoying something around people they trust is a great way to do this. We also like to acknowledge that this isn’t the end of their journey, just the end of their time with us. Hopefully you’ll have ben discussing in reports with their professional about what a suitable progression will be for them, since session 5 or 6.
It’s great to do a final reflection video that includes the guest, or guests, to get feedback on how the programme has been for them, getting an insight into what they’ve seen and how they think it’s impacted on their young person.
The other important thing to capture in the final session is the end questionnaire. Just like the start questionnaire, the end questions are available on the participant’s page . They’re the same questions and give us data that shows us if and by how much the participant’s well-being is improved (This is vital for us).
We can start trying to collect this from session 8 rather than wait till the end, so we improve the chances of collecting the data
IF WE DON’T GET THE END QUESTIONNAIRE DATA THEN THE START DATA IS OF NO USE TO US _ WE HAVE TO HAVE BOTH START AND END DATA TO BE ABE TO DO THE COOL STUFF THAT GETS US ALL THE WORK WE GIVE MUSICIANS
If you miss it you’ll have to chase them after sessions and in our experience that can be really tricky, much much easier to catch them when you have them.
5.7 Creative software available in the community
Rotor
Rotor is an amazing website that allows you to upload the MP3 track you’ve created with your participant and helps them to create a music video. It analyses the track looking for tempo and presents you with
masses of professionally shot clips that your participant can click on to choose. When you have enough clips it renders them, adds cuts and filters and creates a stunningly professional video that you can then publish on the participants timeline.
It is a brilliant tool for helping to project that sense of competence for the participant - “I made this and it looks, and sounds, amazing”. It takes a little time to render so build in about 30 minutes at the end of a session to have enough time to choose clips, render, download and still have time to do the video reflection with your participant.
It’s brilliant!
To get a log in we just need to give them your details (email address) and they’ll set you up and give you free credits
Loopcloud
We do a lot of loop production, so access to the latest sounds is crucial. Loopcloud are one of the worlds biggest sample content providers and they have their own platform that they are happy for us to use. This is perfect for when you have a participant who says “I only wanna make dark psych core dub metal folk”. You can find the genre and have authentic sounding samples in that genre at your fingertips.
The details for setting up an account are within your community but it might be easier to just speak with us - essentially we need an email from you that you’ll use to set up the account.
You can lock samples to a key and or tempo and you can add a VST/AU to your DAW and it’ll sync with Loop cloud so you can audition in place/key etc. Once you’ve selected a bunch of loops you like with a participant you can simply drag them in. Ready to create!
Noise Solution 2023
Loopcloud 5 Introduction - https://youtu.be/bfZ6Cs3Nx9U
YuStudio
https://charanga.com/site/secondary/yustudio/
Online Browser DAW that works even on phones, really accessible - musicians sometimes also use Bandcamp which is free and easy to use
We’ve also been in talks with Ableton. If you want something more sophisticated for a participant then we do have access to licences for the intro version (but very capable) of Ableton - you need to request a licence for this and we’ll provide one for you. If you don’t have Ableton we’re happy to give you one of these licences to learn with as well. Talk to us.
Other tools
Reaper
Reaper is an amazing DAW that works on both Mac and PC, we’ve used it really successfully for years. The fact that participants can carry on using it, as they can download it for free, has been really important for progression for lots of participants.
You can access it here: https://www.reaper.fm/
There is a fantastic Reaper tutorials repository here: https://www.reaper.fm/ videos.php
Sample Radar
We may be able to access loop cloud but participants can’t. If you want to point them in the right direction to access for legal samples then you can’t really do better than https://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/free-musicsamples-royalty-free-loops-hits-and-multis-to-download
You should be able to go here to access all of that training in one place. Book mark it and go back to it when something comes up that you want a refresher for.
If you’ve got any questions after all of that then go to the WhatsApp group and ask. There is no such t hing as a silly question.
We’ll be in touch almost weekly anyway, we’ll see your reports and see your ‘Digital Stories’
Notes:
Appendix
It might feel daunting but remember we’ve got loads of musicians brilliantly doing this and they were felt as daunted as you when they started! Even Jimi Hendrix was rubbish at guitar the first time he picked one up - this takes practice and we are here to help.
Hopefully we’ve broken down everything in detail in this training aid above and it’s other parts 1 through to 5. Our intention was to deliver it in manageable chunks.
You are also going to shadow someone else for the first couple of sessions; you’ll have a Noise Solution ‘buddy’ too ask questions of and we’ll be on hand to answer questions as well. You are not alone! but we thought a complete quick overview of the ten weeks might be a useful as well. So there is a link to one below.
Click here to see a handy PDF reference you can download that is an overview of a set of sessions. It details what it looks like for you when we break down what needs to happen each week?
Notes: