Continuing our theme on the blog this month celebrating arts and cultural organisations delivering Arts Award, Zawedde Walusimbi, Music Project Worker and Course Tutor at Higher Rhythm in Doncaster describes the music activities their young people do for Arts Award in the lead up to their annual ‘Stage Invasion’ event, whether it be technical, production, or performance aspects.
Higher Rhythm provides opportunities and services in the music and media industries across Yorkshire and beyond. We offer a dynamic mix of creative options within a single, accessible hub. This includes recording studios, radio broadcasting, courses (including further & higher education), artist / industry development, creative projects, events and volunteering opportunities. We work with partners, local to global, and deliver programmes, supporting more people to access and grow sustainable careers in our ever-evolving industries. We deliver music-focussed Arts Awards throughout the year, ranging from Discover to Silver levels.
Stage Invasion
Arts Award is a major component of ‘Stage Invasion’, one of our long-running projects which involves working year-round with young people in Doncaster schools. Each project year culminates in a live-music finale at Doncaster's leading music venue, The Dome, where the young music artists perform on the big stage with full professional production, to an audience reaching 500. Up to 18 groups / performers showcase their original music on the night, ranging from soloists singing ballads, to six-piece rock bands, all representing schools from across the city.
Whilst the live performance is the largest public focus of the project, throughout the year our facilitators are dedicated to introducing and nurturing the skills of music making in young people aged 11 - 19 years old, particularly those who struggle to access music education. Our facilitators run songwriting workshops and introduce young people to music production through YuMusic and Logic Pro X on the premises of our partner schools and organisations, as well as our own premises during school holidays.
Inspired to create
During our music making sessions, our facilitators use the artist research elements of Arts Award (Discover Part B – Find out, Explore Part B – Explore, and Bronze Part C – Arts inspiration) as a starting point for delivery with our young people, rather than starting with the Part A activities. This can mean using a line from a song by a favourite artist to start a verse or using a motif to start a digital composition.
Working ‘out of sequence’ helps us to solve the common problem of young people saying that ‘they don’t know where to start’. Using their favourite artist as inspiration, who by this point, they have already discovered a great deal about, means that the young people have something tangible to hook into which gives them an idea of something to work towards.
Whilst they may not be versatile composers and multi-instrumentalists at this stage, they know where to start.
Sharing the process
The sharing elements of Arts Award (Discover Part C and Explore Part D – Share, Bronze Part D – Arts skills share) can be particularly daunting for young people who are shy, especially when they are sharing the artistic process of the work they have created. For the younger people that we meet offsite, we use YuMusic (an online platform that we have access to through our project funder, Youth Music). This software enables access through any device that is connected to the internet and no download is required. With the removal of this barrier to access, young people get to learn the basics with one of our facilitators and then have the freedom to make music on the go or at home (Discover Part A – Discover, Explore Part A – Take part, Explore Part C - Create and Bronze Part A – Explore the arts as a participant). We have found that these sessions have been important in continuing engagement with young people, particularly those that aren’t interested in performing on stage but love making music.
To make sure that the skill-sharing element is clear and consistent, we include pauses to allow the young people to make notes on the tracks they’ve added and the sounds they’ve included and why. This avoids them losing track of the process and enables them to explain their decision making more effectively. We have found that pauses after about 10 minutes are most effective, so that memory is still fresh, but deeper concentration is not being interrupted; both factors that can lead to frustration.
At the end of the music making, we play each person’s song, and they give a short presentation, explaining their creative choices. Due to the nature of YuMusic, as facilitators we get to see how often the young people are using the software. It’s always encouraging to see that even after the sessions have ended and the young people have received their Arts Award certificate; they still log back in and continue to make music.
Stage Invasion - a different kind of sharing
For young people that are less interested in the technical side of music and more motivated by performance, arts activities focus on lyric writing and melody composition. After multiple sessions with our songwriting facilitator, young people take the songs they created at the after-school sessions, to the end-of-year finale; ‘Stage Invasion Live’. Over several years these songs have ranged from the sentimental and solo singer-songwriter, to political themes and metal bands. In all cases, even though the songwriting may be facilitated by us, all music is fundamentally composed by the young people.
These sessions have enabled the young people to open up in their self-expression and develop their collaborative working skills. As an example of how the creative process drives and nurtures motivation and positive collaboration, in 2025 a project participant who was a member of one of the bands, moved to a different school mid-project. Determined to see what they had started through to the end, they invested even more of their own time to continue to work together with their peers and still perform at the show. Here are some of the lyrics written by this young person:
I’m always a believer,
Holding on to hope,
I do it all - so that I -
Can cope
Heart full of gold,
Eyes bright as pearls
I want to be loved
In a perfect world
Through Arts Award, we don't just enable young people to develop skills and gain a certificate to recognise their achievements, we have the privilege of supporting them to enjoy positive experiences with friends and create memories that they can hold onto.
Photo by Higher Rhythm of 'Stage Invasion'