Programmes devised and led by our team of young people.
Architects of Sound Network:
A meeting place where everything is led and decided by the network members.
Laying foundations, building creative journeys together.
A space to reflect together on the creation of new music.
Support for devising youth-led events, experiences and projects.
Youth Voice
What matters? Sometimes it’s about letting the music do the talking…
Young People are equal members of the Moor to Sea Music Collective and play an essential role in shaping both us as an organisation and the work we design and create.
There are always important conversations to be had, sometimes these are captured in Podcasts and Musical Commissions, sometimes it’s Arts Activism and Advocacy.
Starting Out In Music - Podcast
Co-creating with Moor To Sea - Podcast
Boundaries and University - Podcast
Musical Roots Events
Events commissioned, designed, curated and organised by young people.
Musical Roots Event at The Glade 2021
Lead by young people to provide an opportunity for them to perform, share and create together. At a time when being together safely, performing or being an audience were severely limited, young people identified this as something important to them.
The event was planned to celebrate summer coming to a close and to look forward positively to new starts on the horizon. Making it an inclusive event, for young people from different lived experiences, was a priority. It was a joyful meeting of people through our shared music. We found our way back to playing together – performing, and connecting through shared musical roots – old friends coming together outside amongst the trees and new friendships forged.
Young people collaborated with people they’d never met before, as well as with friends on something new. They worked on their own musical interests and supported other young people to explore music that was important to them. Everyone who wanted to perform did, and everyone had a chance to surprise themselves. This incredible community created such a supportive atmosphere that even usually reluctant performers felt safe enough to stand on a stage. We had songwriters, DJing, skill-sharing and tons of singing. We invented games with instruments and bouncy balls, we learned to play other people’s favourite songs.
The question we were asked most by the end, and after the event was – “When is the next one?!”
As it began as a response to requests from young people, Musical Roots has also given a space for young people (and not so young people!) to explore and express the kind of opportunities that they want.
When is the next one? We’re working on it!
Thank you to TNL’s Local connection Fund and South Hams Council for their support
Song for our community
This project worked alongside young people in one rural area during lockdown. An invitation to collaborate in a songwriting process went out across social media and responses came back from a collection of young people. We decided together to design ‘A song for our Community.’
People contributed ideas to a piece that was built word by word. This became a much larger, intergenerational response that played out over a closed Facebook group and encompassed ideas from the wider members of the village community. The young people curated these ideas and formed them into a final response and lyric structure. We used Bandlab, an online Digital Audio Workspace, to connect with each other musically. We built the ideas for the song together here. Young people recorded their ideas and musical offerings from home, simply, using this free platform. The piece evolved in a ‘musical consequences’ style. Each person’s musical contribution made a change to the dynamic of the piece and affected how the next person added to it. This became a really dynamic way of co-creating music together. Everyone could influence the piece in a way that worked for them and take it in any musical direction they chose. No one’s ideas were shut down and the piece became what it was because of this freedom.
Co-creation process enables you to authentically capture Youth Voice. When you make together, you have to listen carefully and understand what people are looking to contribute. Power becomes balanced. When we work musically, quiet voices have an opportunity to be heard. Working musically enables you to find a language for difficult and complex feelings and help us find a way to hold on hopefully. Being adaptable and open to new ideas can lead to unexpected, positive outcomes during even the most challenging of times
Holding on Hopefully
Between salt and sea river and rock
There is room for you and me to breathe in air, shared
Laying under the same sky, we are pulled by turn of the tide
Howling back to the call of the wild
And broadly speaking, we’re holding on hopefully
We shut our doors again
And with arms ready for unfolding, hands for holding
Breathing in, carefully taking steps, cautiously
Holding on, hopefully
