Young musicians for heritage project: Can a music-based heritage project have a positive effect on well-being?

This paper examines the intrinsic potential for well-being outcomes in a heritage-related music project. We look at how creative activities that are embedded in a community can serve to enhance the cohesion and well-being of communities through the work of its youth groups. The paper also examines the important roles of partnership working and peer mentoring and how they need the time and resources to be nurtured in order to ensure sustainability and self empowerment as long-term legacies of arts-based community well-being initiatives

Facilitating musical composition as 'contract learning' in the classroom: the development and application of a teaching resource for primary school teachers in the UK

Despite national initiatives in the UK such as Creative Partnerships, an organization formed in 2002 for exploring creative approaches to learning in the classroom, there is still a gap between aspiration and practice. This is especially evident in the teaching of musical composition in primary schools, partly because there seems to be a profound fear of music, especially for many primary school teachers who are not music specialists, and a lack of knowledge of participatory practice. This article describes the development of a resource for facilitating compositional processes using classroom management skills, as adapted from Knowles’s ‘contract learning’. I will also highlight the creative tensions raised by the sometimes conflicting approaches of instruction and facilitation