Music & PaddleBoat

A Report on a Participatory Music Project with Two Special Schools

Funded by Youth Music

From September 2023 to July 2024 we worked in the Deaf Academy and Millwater School, trialling different participatory music making with young people with a range of needs.

We wanted to share a snapshot of the project & our findings with the local arts & teaching community.

Background to the Project

PaddleBoat Theatre Company was founded in 2014. We work extensively in mainstream and SEN schools to co-create theatre with young people.

We've always been passionate about sharing stories that make a difference to our audiences, break down barriers and engage isolated communities with the arts. In recent years, we have been developing our theatre practice to focus on inclusion, as our schools work brings us into contact with a wide range of children with additional needs.

We became interested in strengthening our skills at offering participatory music as part of our work. It is something we have tried to include in our work in the past, but have not had the resources to explore properly.

THE SCHOOLS

Both Millwater School and the Deaf Academy are based in East Devon. We have been working with both for a number of years, offering drama workshops and shows in their schools. Both schools had expressed a need to offer music to their students, but lacked resources within the classroom to offer it. Many of the students have had no or very limited experience in music, with some students thinking that music was 'not for them'. Since the Deaf Academy moved to Exmouth in 2020, the schools are geographically very close. We wanted to design a project where we could offer music across both sites, encouraging collaboration and shared learning.

The Practitioners

We were lucky enough to collaborate with the following music artists and organisations

Isgard Wild

Mark Brudenell -

Sound Communities

James Carr -

Drum Devon

Laura Loft -

Laura Loft Music

The Project

Two of our aims were:

To trial a range of musical styles to see which had the most impact in wellbeing - focusing on enjoyment, aspiration and attitude towards music.
To assess which musical style is best suited to a group of students through observing their engagement, enjoyment and ability.

Songwriting with Boomwhackers

Djembe & Samba Drumming

Digital Music Creation

Music Making Styles

Foley

Sensory Music Making

Enjoyment, Attitude & Aspiration

We wanted to know whether the students across the schools had a positive experience trying music, and if it could impact how they felt about music in the future.

At the start, we asked students to choose a word about how they felt about being involved a music project.

the Deaf Academy

Millwater School

With a range of responses it was clear that some students were hesitant about music. Many of the students at the Deaf Academy had had negative past experiences with music, and some of the students didn't know what to expect as it was something different to what we had offered in the past.

It was important that this project was an enjoyable experience for the students involved, so we wanted to track how they felt about each musical style. We used two main evaluation tools - agree/disagree statements and emoticons that the students could circle.

From our ongoing and final evaluations, Drumming and Songwriting with Boomwhackers were highlighted as favourites - with 57% & 60% of students choosing them. 80% of the students agreed that they enjoyed both techniques.

the Deaf Academy

'I liked playing the drums best because it was easy to feel the sound through the vibrations' - Student

Millwater School

'Making up songs made me feel happy' - Student

'I liked doing digital music because it was relaxing and calm' - Student

When asked, approx 70% of both the Deaf Academy & Millwater School wanted to continue drumming, songwriting or digital music. This showed us the project had made a positive impact on their aspiration to continue music after the project.

We wanted to track if our project had made an impact on how they felt about music as an activity. Most students from both schools were unsure about this - possibly because they had only tried certain styles. Some students said that they felt the same, whilst those that agreed said they enjoyed music more as they felt upskilled and 'because I know it better’.

Which style is best?

We observed students throughout the year, trialing which musical style we felt was best for the schools, based on to what extent the style scored in these elements.

Engages the widest range of students
Enjoyable
Applicable (students can physically play or use instrument)
Attainable (student can improve their musicality)

Encourages creative expression
Students are inspired to continue the following week
Improves attitudes
Builds confidence

Digital Music

Students were able to link their cochlear implants & hearing aids directly to digital sound equipment via bluetooth, so many were able to access the music that way. Because it was done individually or in small groups, it meant that students found it less overwhelming and easier to focus than some of the larger group activities.This meant that they could successfully create music and, vitally, listen back and reflect on what they had created. For students that had never done any music before, this was a key moment where they were empowered in their skills and creativity.

Drumming

For the profoundly Deaf students, drumming worked well as it was the most resonant instrument we used and students could feel rhythmic patterns through their hands and body. Many of the Deaf students could access low frequency sounds but struggled to hear higher pitched music. Therefore the large, lower samba drums were particularly successful. Some students noted how the drums are easy to learn as you can learn drumming patterns visually and physically.

We saw many students really thrive with the drums, with students that might normally struggle to focus or engage in the classroom excel and eager to learn more or perform solo sections.

the Deaf Academy

From our findings, both drumming and digital music creation scored highly across all the factors. Drumming included Djembe and Samba drums, alongside a variety of world percussion instruments. Digital music creation included using Chrome Music Lab to compose melodies, recording voice and using a MIDI keyboard to record a range of digital instruments.

Millwater School

For Millwater, we found that students adapted best to Songwriting in groups. For this we used Boomwhackers to create melodies. Each coloured Boomwhacker played a different note in the musical scale and students were able to choose which colour to add to the musical grid. Therefore even the students with more profound needs could make a link between a different colour and different sound and help choose which colour to add next.

We also supported students to create lyrics, based on existing song structures. These were completely student led, so were representative of their creative choices. Using existing structures meant that we could introduce the musical concepts of verse and chorus.

We found that student enjoyed and engaged well with using the Boomwhackers - they were easily played by every student and students could quickly progress in musicality, copying rhythms and melodies. Students were able to express themselves by using the Boomwhackers to create melodies. Writing down their melodies and lyrics helped empower their class decisions and built confidence.

The students changed the lyrics to 'The Wellerman' then created their own melody to match.

How Can We Know For Certain What Is Best?

The above is a snapshot of the research findings we made through the project. As the year progressed we worked with more students and trialed more musical styles. We know that it is difficult to say for sure a particular musical style is 'best' and we found this when working with such diverse young people. But we found the process of testing different techniques with student feedback and observations a useful tool for making sure young people have their voices heard and choices empowered within music teaching.

Validating their Creative Choices

In addition to understanding music's affect on wellbeing & trialing which style is 'best', the most important aim of this project was to engage young people with a variety of musical styles. We wanted to validate their creative choices by recording and creating videos for their music. In Summer Term 2024, we recorded songs written by students at the Deaf Academy. Some of these students they had never recorded or heard their voice before.

Tips for using music in SEND schools

We asked the practitioners we worked with to share some tips based on what they had learnt during the project

Keep instructions to a minimum and offer a few little and easily accessible activities so as to keep interest but have plenty of ideas in your back pocket ready to adapt.

Don't strive for perfection but rather engagement. Work with the students interests and feeling of the group & to let the students guide their rate of progression.

Keep asking yourself the question of accessibility and inclusivity. Don’t assume someone can’t do

something and adapt it.

Focus more on feeling the music from the outset rather than learning prescribed parts, this will enable a more natural participation.

If you're doing digital composition activities, adding a simple visual element to composing helps students follow and understand.

Let go of your own expectations for outcomes and guide going with the flow and expect moments of magic!

'I loved recording our songs. It gave me lots of laughs with my friends and made me more confident with singing' - Student