Skills Lab: Creative Communities, Day 1 – Narratives in music making

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In December 2020 we launched Skills Lab: Creative Communities – industry-led training for musicians to develop their skills and lead workshops. We kicked off the course with our first online session, Narratives in music making. Led by singer-songwriter Abimaro Gunnell and multi-instrumentalist Aga Serugo-Lugo, the group explored narrative based creative music making, including the writing of their own opera!

Participant Carli recorded a video diary of her impressions of the first day, where she shares her thoughts on how it helped her to think about her own practice, and pushed her out of her comfort zone.

Watch the Vlog here:

 

Another participant, Roderick, wrote about their experiences of the first workshop, and how it helped to develop their confidence:

“On the first day of the Skills Lab 2020/2021 I had a really good time. The day was well planned considering it was the first online workshop they or I had done. The leaders were inspiring and engaging. I only wish it was in person so I could interact more effectively with them and the other participants. I have no formal experience in song-writing and am not the most comfortable improviser or vocalist as a classically trained trumpeter but I did dabble in these areas during my degree. This first Skills Lab session, although it was a daunting topic, made me realise that the areas I considered weaknesses of my own musicianship are actually quite strong and are enough to use professionally. It was great to be filled with this confidence and discover evidence that those activities in my degree were worthwhile and have paid off. I feel much more confident in my singing voice, which has always been an insecurity to me, simply from engaging in this workshop. I could easily go away and plan a music workshop night or an activity for my scout or cub group that involves song-writing, singing and improvisation. As well as for any other groups of any age! I’m really looking forward to the next workshops to see what else they can bring to my musical abilities.”

To find out more about Skills Lab: Creative Communities, read our blog post here.

To book your place for individual days or the full-course (at a discounted rate), see ‘Related Events and Media’ linked below.

We are hugely grateful for the support of Help Musicians UK, the Scops Arts Trust, The Garrick Charitable Trust, The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust and The Cultural Recovery Fund to help cover the costs of these courses, thereby ensuring accessible pricing for musicians in these challenging times.

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