The Process
Relational
Being part of the Buddy Beat reduces social isolation, improves self confidence and builds lasting friendships. Rather than focus solely on technique and performance, sessions are structured to build upon participants' innate relational capacity, supported through an intuitive and exploratory approach to music.
Reflexive
Because of the interactive nature of the music, participants relate to one another in ways that mimic other forms of interaction (e.g. turn taking, making eye contact, and sharing a mutual focus) without the specific pressures of self-disclosure that might occur in conversation. In this way, music acts as a form of social exercise - paving the way to more complex forms of interaction (by which we mean conversations at the tea break!!).
Reciprocal
Group members move through a progression of musical exercises designed to enable:
Self expression and identity formation
Listening and attuning to others
Building dialogue and reciprocity
Group collaboration and interaction
“The Buddy Beat was set up in 2007 as a collaboration between occupational therapist, Jeanette Allan, and community musician, Jane Bentley. The socially inclusive group structure remains deeply rooted in Occupational Therapy principles, while the musical methodology has been developed by Jane and the group. It has been informed by Jane’s PhD: developing a model of Integrative Musical Interaction - focusing on the social and communicative aspects of group music making. You can find more about Jane and her work here: Art Beat Music"
Stage 1: Thursday mornings
Weekly workshops form the core of our work - and are open to anyone with a lived experience of mental health difficulties. At present, there is no time restriction on membership - our longest-serving group member has been coming for 12 years! In this way, participation contributes towards ongoing self-management of members' health and wellbeing.
Stage 2: Performances
Members who wish to take things further can take part in a variety of performance opportunities - from community events to conferences. As far as we can, we like to build an element of participation into all our performances, so that audience members begin to understand what it's like to be on the inside of the music, rather than the outside.
Stage 3: Community workshops
Finally, members shift role from 'service user' to service provider - and help run and assist in a variety of community-based workshops, ranging from older people's groups and care homes, to young people, and people with additional support needs. Several of our members have been through the Village Music Circles drum circle facilitator training - and are now developing their own musical community work.