Music can be a very powerful way of encouraging confidence & self-esteem, helping people to socialise and engage with other people, providing an expressive and creative outlet, learning to appreciate something beautiful and explore personal interests, or simply having a laugh and “lightening up” for a while.
Some participate in group sessions where we play lots of music-based games to help understand the basic concepts of music such as rhythm and pitch. We listen to music together, basing our own activities on this and then improvise together, encouraging everyone to listen to each other.
Others have one to one individual sessions. Many are learning to play musical instruments such as the piano, violin and recorder, although we are hoping to include more, such as the flute, clarinet and brass instruments. This is a great way of helping self-esteem and confidence as it really gives a sense of achievement. It’s great to see how engrossed people can become and how exciting it is when they have cracked something new.
Others learn to sing and it has been lovely to discover that some people have beautiful voices. Others have been learning harmony and exploring composition.
It is always encouraging to see these skills developing in people and their pride and self-confidence along with them.
