Professional Relationships in Community Music - Part 3 - The Session

Session recap – what happened

The following is a personal account of how the session unfolded from my point of view. I offer some opinions, analysis and thoughts on how the session went, and how it felt as the event organiser, facilitator and participant.

The session began after a pizza lunch where all participants socialised and spent time together. The room was set with chairs in a circle, an upright brown piano brought onto the edge of the circle. A box of percussion instruments was laid in the middle of the room. This box contained claves, small drums, chimes, wooden percussion instruments with sticks and beaters.

Those who had brought instruments were encouraged to get their instruments out and warmup if they wished. A member of the participate team elected to sit at the piano and others to select a few instruments from the box. They were encouraged to try out these instruments so they could get a feel for what the possibilities might be.

Once all participants had taken their seats in the circle, I welcomed everyone to the session, thanking them for coming along and for being open to the next 90 minutes. I gave them the overall structure of the session, stating that whatever they were able to contribute was all that was required, both musically and spoken. The session would start with 5-10minutes of free improvisation. There were no right or wrong answers for this, just play as you feel you should, join in, communicate and we will see where the music takes us.

I then gave an overview of the ethos behind Appreciative Inquiry, that we are focusing on the positive relationships and giving detail and personal experience. Following the first improvisation we would break into pairs to discuss relationships between freelance community musicians and managers, coordinators, administrators within learning and participation departments of arts organisations. I emphasised that this may be the BSO, but it may not. I also stated that there may be other relationships outside of this field where such a relationship was experienced.

They were to share examples of where these relationships have been most positive. Their partner was given a template to help guide any notations and take notes on what was said. They were encouraged to notate this however they saw fit. To support this many different colours of pens, card, scissors and tape were provided alongside standard writing pens.

I then shared the permissions required of them (they had already received this in email), stating that should they wish to be anonymised for this research then they should let me know. Each person had received a permission form to complete.

Confident that the group were with me, eye contact was clear, smiles were reassured and expectant, I gave a short countdown and the first improvisation began.

Opening improvisation (See appendix 1.1 for recording link)

It began with a low drone, spacious and sparkling. A rising riff was repeated, offering a first motif to create the music from. This opening had lots of textural sounds, with most players content to be part of the overall sound. Space was there for a melodic phrase; however, none took this space, preferring to remain as part of the larger textures.

Within this texture there were swells, ebbs and flows with various players coming to the fore and fading out again. The texture vibrated with this flow. Trombone, melodeon and accordion came to the fore and exchanged answering phrases against chromatic and clashing harmonies which grew and fell away in small resolutions.

This opening contained a strong sense of feeling each other out, with all players watching closely and exploring this texture together, seeing where it would go.

An accordion riff arose, driving a more insistent rhythm. Players responded to join in a feeling of instability before the pulse and rhythm solidified. Here the texture was full and rich, feeling as though this section could grow and develop it quickly subsided into a more hopeful rhythm before fading into held notes and textures with a sparse flute melody sitting on the texture. Still feeling unstable and questioning the held chords moved against a high drone with others swelling underneath and around the chords. These opposing ideas did not take hold and faded into a bass note on the piano, a note played in such a way that the end was on its way. As players faded, this coda was drawn out, with uncertainty, fun and amusement being felt across the group as we waited to see who would end the improvisation. This uncertainty was broken through laughter as the improvisation closed.

The first improvisation contained a sense of feeling each other out. This is characterised by the thick textures and chaotic phrases. No player took charge with different players starting ideas without taking control. Individual parts were somewhat static in their range, with many phrases repeating within their same pitches. The ending was drawn-out with a sense of uncertainty as players used short notes, sounds and phrases to explore the closing of the improvisation. These became sparser and there was a sense of questioning as we searched for the ending. The improvisation closed with a pregnant silence, heavy and intense as the group looked to each other with inquiring eyes and silently asked ‘have we finished?’. After a period of 5-10 seconds, which felt longer, a quiet laugh broke the silence and I thanked the group, releasing the tension and moving the session on to the next stage.

The group was split into pairs with the BSO associates and the management staff working together. These pairs were allocated with a few considerations. It was important that there was a mix of people in these groupings. This was requested by BSO Participate Management who were keen that we worked together and used this time to reconnect as well as explore the session. The template was shared along with the primary stimulus: Tell a story of when a professional relationship has been at its best.

The room was loud, the discussion rich and animated. There was a strong feeling of engagement, of listening, or prompting, enquiring and discussion. After twenty minutes of discussion the group came back together. Here are some key quotes from what was said (see appendix 2.1 for full transcriptions):

·       one of many things was a mutual understanding between the freelancer and the project manager or employed person because actually it's easy to forget how each of us are feeling.

·       T had turned up to one of P concerts, 2 1/2 hours drive to rural area to see a concert and then left. But it was important that he was there.

·       Organizations trusting you and you trusting them, and the support and all of that sort of thing allows for people to be creative and build on their own strengths.

·       it's taking the time to decide to be culturally supportive as an entire organization.

·       the outward showing your gratitude for your work was an important part.

The team then swapped to new partners, broke off to have the same discussion with a new person. Again, these pairs were decided in the moment but informed by the discussions before the session. The group came back together after around 20 minutes and shared what was discussed. Here is some of what was shared (see appendix 2.2 for full transcriptions)

·       She was talking about how working with an organization that was culturally open for people. How working in an organization like that makes you feel more at ease and how that changes the relationship.

·       what grew over the time to a sense of trust with the creative collaboration and how fulfilling that was with the different roles within that.

·       one specific relationship that felt very enabling. Enabling because there's this framework and skills and experience which has your back to enable you

·       Those relationships allowed for growth and allowed for things to develop and get better and trust to build.

Following this, the group was thanked and invited to improvise together once more to close the session. Participants were asked to choose the same or new instruments from the selection or get the ones they brought with them. They were encouraged to try out some sounds or warmup. Before starting they were reminded this was an invitation to play in whatever manner felt right to them. There was a silence, then the closing improvisation began.

Closing improvisation (see appendix 1.2 for full recording link)

It began quickly, with a dramatic and full opening. All participants letting go in a chaotic flourish, a release and celebration. This faded into an interesting texture made of individual phrases weaving and working together to create a space with a sense of togetherness. Percussive elements along with scales, trills and stabs rose and fell here, with players making space for each other and taking the space offered.

A warm and comforting section emerged with trombone melodies and a confident pulse taking centre stage. Repeated low bass notes gave this a solid grounding and assurance. A sense of fun was clear in this section, with the group locking riffs and rhythms together and enjoying the groove. Melodies were handed around and exchanged, with phrases and answering phrases working together. This section built quickly before it slowed down with players punctuating across the groove. The pulse faded and hopeful trombone phrases led a final crescendo followed by piano and accordion mirroring each other as the music ended naturally with a feeling of completion. There was a 10 second pause as it closed, with a few sighs of satisfaction and was broken by a participant from the group who thanked everyone for taking part with a smile. The group laughed, thanked one another, I reiterated my gratitude to them, and to BSO Participate for enabling this session. There was a meaningful sense in the air, as if what we had just experienced together was important in some way.

This sense of gratitude was a characteristic of this second improvisation. It had a positive and respectful core to the interactions with lots of smiling and eye contact across the group. Musically it had a very strong ensemble opening with all members playing strongly and creatively. The playing was full of dynamic phrasing with an increased level of pitch range within the individual parts alongside an increased level of rhythmical teamwork over longer periods. To me this signified a level of comfort playing together, an increase in personal and group confidence, a celebration of the group and occupying a similar space, accepting each other without the need to shift or change.

In Transdisciplinary terms I would argue that the second developed a higher level of what we search for, what Montuori refers to as a ‘rich and complex understanding of the phenomenon’ (Montuori, 2013). The group had a clearer sense of identity, of themselves as a group. The session was responsible for the development of this understanding as each participant delved into this creative and cooperative inquiry and accessed more of themselves as an integrated group.

This was a very successful first workshop. The aim was to bring two groups of people together from the same organisation who work in very different ways, to use music as a means of transforming a space and to delve into some deep discussions around when professional relationships are at their best. All of this was achieved, and fun was had along the way.

Follow up

After the session an email was sent to all participants thanking them for taking part in the session. It also reminded them that I would be grateful to receive verbal feedback via the WhatsApp voice notes function, focusing on whatever elements of the session felt most pertinent to them. I received feedback from nearly all the participants.

Here is some of what was received (see appendix 2.3 for full transcriptions):

·       The improvised music was, I think, really successful

·       I've really enjoyed that session today and thought the topics incredibly valuable.

·       Those conversations where we have mutual respect and mutual understanding are super valuable and it was really lovely to play

·       it’s a really valuable topic

·       I think there is opportunity to go deeper

·       I felt like the session that we did discussing positive relationships and partnerships in a community music setting was really beneficial

·       People were more interested in talking about a relationship which they perceived to have been overwhelmingly positive. Rather than the finding a good relationship between a manager and a facilitator

·       I think it will benefit future partnership working by us having a clearer understanding of each other's roles and priorities

To be continued in Part 4 - Sense Making