Tarnishing my data

Hello all you people looking for a picture of Dawson crying, how’s it going? It’s a pretty funny picture, I agree. ha ha ha.

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So, one of the things that has been occupying a lot of my time in the past couple of weeks has been the finishing up of the second year of the Create This! music course, mixing songs, getting everything finished, paperwork, blah, blah… It’s now over and i have my friday nights back after 2 years!!! my word… what am i going to do?

I know, i’ll write a blog about it…

Create This! for those of you that i haven’t talked/punished at length in person about it, was an accredited training course (the only one of it’s kind) for young people with a learning disability… We supported them to write and create their own music, form bands, record their own music, in groups and as individuals, and also write and record soundtracks to films. Whilst also having learning disabled tutors, including members of Beat Express. It’s hard to fully describe what we did over the course of 30 sessions in the year, I think if i tried here it would become beyond rambling and it would detract from how amazing it was.

It’s the first big project I worked on after joining Carousel and it has been, not wanting to sound too dramatic, a life-changing experience and I have learnt A LOT. I’m proud to say that over the whole 2 years of it running I didn’t miss one session, I was at (in one mental state or another!) all 60. I’m sure if you ask any of the people i’m in bands with then they could attest to how annoying it’s been hearing, “Nope, can’t do it, it’s friday night… working”. I’ve missed countless gigs, parties, festivals, holidays for the course. I did play up the fact that sessions might not be able to run if I wasn’t there, but in reality I just didn’t want to miss any of it. When I talk to people about the friday nights I do focus on how much fun the sessions usually are… often making a ridiculous amount of noise, writing some of the most insane songs ever and spending the majority of the time smiling and laughing. There have been a few moments though, talking with parents and carers especially, when I realised what may appear as arsing about and having fun for a couple of hours a week is actually one of the most important things in a person’s life… a genuine chance to express themselves and communicate with others. It made me re-think a lot of what i think about playing music, the people on the course and the environment have been so inspiring… to get to be somewhere so creative and free. I know it sounds wank but i feel lucky that i’ve witnessed and been a part of some pretty incredible things, just down to music.

Luckily the work with all the graduates of the course is continuing in various forms after the summer and i’m sure i will keep you posted on all that jazz (or heavy metal). For now though you can check out Shut Up and Listen! – the new website that we’ve just launched, which is going to help promote and shout about learning disabled music. you have been warned! oh and tell your friends :)

SUCK IT!