Earlier this year Raven Housing Trust ran a very successful music project for young people at the RNIB Soundscape Centre in Redhill. The project was funded by Barclays bank. It gave 12 young people between the ages of 10 to 16 the chance to take part in an exciting music project.

Hardbeatz was co-ordinated by St. John De-Zilva from www.djworkshop.co.uk. St. John brought together a group of professional session musicians to work with the young people over the course of the nine week project. The young people decided to form three ‘groups’. Over the course of the project they were supported to learn to play instruments, write and arrange their own songs, record the songs in Soundscape’s recording studio and give a ‘live’ performance of their songs to an audience at the end of the project.

Raven was keen to make this project something ‘special’ and different. We wanted to give young people a chance to do something they wouldn’t normally do, learn some new skills, gain self confidence and of course have fun.

Raven was delighted with the outcome. In hindsight it was a tall order asking young people, most of whom had not played an instrument before, to write, record and perform a song in six sessions. But all three groups managed to do this, thanks in no small part to the expert tuition and encouragement to the session musicians and St. John who organised the project.

I would recommend this kind of project to anyone who wants to work with young people through the medium of music. I would also recommend St. John De-Zilva to arrange and run it.

Here are some of the comments from the young people:

What was the best bit of Hardbeatz for you?

What have you learned from Hardbeatz?

As a direct result of this course I know that at least three of the young people have decided to continue learning to play the instrument they began learning during Hardbeatz and two others want to continue writing songs.

All the young people said they really enjoyed the project and learned lots too. Their parents and relations were all very impressed with the public performance and were delighted that Raven had supported such a great project.

Andrew Furtek
Resident Involvement Manager