jedmilroy

About jedmilroy

Jed Milroy is General Manger and Youth & Community Director of Tinderbox Collective

Posts by Jed Milroy:

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Traditional Scottish Hip Hop

We had a fantastic time working with amazing YMI Borders Tutors on a Traditional Scottish Hip Hop training day. The idea came when Sara Alakus who is newly in post as YMI Creative Learning Officer in the Borders got in touch to ask about Tinderbox helping organise a Hip Hop project in a Borders primary school.


Sara explained that she was really keen to get some Hip Hop into the work that they are doing in the borders but was aware that it wasn’t exactly the genre of choice for the current tutors on the team. When she mentioned that the team are quite strong on Trad music Jed remembered a project he had seen recently at the Highland YMI day in Inverness. Jack Hughes and …. had been running a project that took a fiddle tune and used it as a basis of a track for writing rap.


The basic idea of the project was to put a Hip Hop beat under a traditional Scottish tune, teach a class to play the harmony chords and have the class write rap or spoken word to perform over it.

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Jed asked Sara if she could go back to the team and ask if there was a suitable Borders tune that has a decent story associated with it that we could use as a subject for writing rap or spoken word about.

The team came back with the perfect tune, Tam Lin. It’s an epic borders ballad and with a cracking tune.

For the training we spent the morning working with tutors on techniques for helping pupils write rap and planning the afternoon session. In the afternoon we went to deliver our project in Newtown Primary School.

The whole thing went to plan with the pupils getting totally into the story and writing some brilliant words. They joined in on percussion, tuned percussion, keyboards and Ukeleles. We finished the day with a full performance of the finished piece. Check out the video below.

Everyone had an absolute blast!

 

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Howdenhall Project Report

Here’s part of a report on our project at Howdenhall from their resident music specialist Gavin Wiltshire. It has been absolutely fantastic to work with him on this project. Thanks  to the YMI for making the connection and funding the work.

Tinderbox members from a plethora of disciplines worked alongside Howdenhall’s resident music / music technology specialist to deliver a programme of intensive, engaging, challenging and interactive music workshops. Steered entirely by the young people – participants took ownership of their project, being immersed in the creative environment – networking with and instructing professionals, communicating ‘at their level’ and expressing themselves whilst gaining core skills in the music performance, composition, music technology and music production – to create a product that was tangibly their own.

Why did we do it?

Each young person is present at the school because A) they or their families are a risk to themselves or to others B) they have been intercepted on a trajectory of criminality and C) the criminal justice system is waiting for the young person to reach the age where they could be trialed as an adult and then sent to prison for their respective offence(s).

The young people attending the school at any given point are often some the most at risk members of society, with the cost to shelter, educate and care for the highly bespoke needs of each young person, per year – running into several hundred thousand pounds.

In the very nature of the school, it is negative circumstances that have led the young people to be where they are, but stakeholders from all areas of life – Police, social work, family support units, the NHS and beyond who all have a vested interest in seeing positive outcomes from these young people, and as such – the potential impact of a programme such as this – a tactical deployment of musicians at the top of their game – punches far beyond its weight in terms of reach, value money, and future impact on society.

How did it go?

The impact of the project was broad and deep, and is best measured against the specific situation of each participant, case studies below:

Young person (A) suffers from profound mental health issues, frequently self harms and struggles to engage in most classes – often storming out of classes and needing restrained. Young person (A) did not want to engage in music making per say, but instead interview each of the visiting musicians, asking them questions about their life – and combined with recordings of them playing their instrument, created a sound collage. Young person (A) also photographed the instruments / performers for her use in the art class and really enjoyed having new material to work with. I was hugely impressed at the positive attitude young person (A) displayed in every session, asking relevant questions and showing a genuine interest, not having to leave the classroom even once – showing real confidence and comfort in the environment, when in the past adapting to new situations and people has proven difficult.

 

Young person (B) has complex learning difficulties and suffers from ADHD. He struggles to focus and contain his energy and is obsessed with his iPad. Young person (B) took to the project like a duck to water, immediately adopting the dual roles of producer / engineer – calling the shots and communicating his ideas to the musicians clearly, and with passion – whilst handling all of the technical processes, setting up the microphones and operating the recording software. Young person (B) became visibly more relaxed and was delighted at the end result – an orchestral reinterpretation of his favourite video game soundtrack.

Going far beyond music – Tinderbox engaged and integrated into the critical STEM (Science, Technologies, English and Maths) classes with workshops on hardware synthesis, circuitry and game sound design – demonstrating the application of music based skills in the non musical environment.

The project proved not only therapeutic to the individual, but fostered communication and interpersonal skills, stimulated a broad range of conversations, empowered the participants to speak up and speak out – gave confidence and showed the young people involved a few different outlooks on life, with new faces and other ways of thinking. Cumulatively the overall trajectory of the lives of the young people involved has been downwards, that is why they are at the facility. Although it is impossible to know whether had these young people been exposed music and the arts at an earlier age, if their situation would be different, but we believe we have had a positive impact on this trajectory, and have been there for the bounce.

 

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Seamab Christmas Party at Airth Castle

What a privilege for some of the Tinderbox Community team to be invited to play at the Seamab Christmas party at Airth Castle.

Seamab is a residential primary school in Kinross for children in care. Most of the children at the school have very limited contact with their families, if any at all. Clearly it’s incredibly important at this time of year to help the children feel that Christmas is special for them as well as for everyone who has a family they can spend it with.

The party at Airth Castle really was a special event, we played the usual musical party games and also had performances from the young people of party pieces they have prepared over the term at school.

Such a lot of talent and enthusiasm there!

 

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Opening Aberdeen Music Hall with Sound Collective

It was great to work in partnership with Sound Festival to help to kick off the Sound Collective over the last few months. We met a whole bunch of enthusiastic and talented community musicians who are working with a range of young people in the Aberdeen area.

There have been 3 creative hubs who have been doing songwriting, instrumental tuition and musical experimentation.

We helped them to bring it all together for a very upbeat performance at the opening of the newly refurbished Aberdeen Music Hall.

What an amazing building. Very much hoping to be back there with the rest of the Tinderbox Collective at some point.

 

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A Taste of Zimbabwe with Rise Kagona

A new challenge for some of the Tinderbox Orchestra. Rise Kagona, a founding member of Zimbabwe’s Bhundu Boys, dropped us straight into Misodzi Pamatama (“Tears On My Cheeks”) for his workshop with us. Thanks to Multi-Culti and the Womad Foundation for making it happen.

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A New Term Of the Tuesday Hub

It was a fantastic first Tuesday Hub of the year for Tinderbox at North Edinburgh Arts tonight. An age range of 4 to 25! So much talent and enthusiasm. Great to see everyone sharing the good vibes. Looking forward to the whole term, especially our gig at Central Hall for ‘All Wrapped Up’ on 13th December, raising funds for Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity. Bring it on!

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Changing Perspectives at Wester Hailes Film and Moving Image Festival

Very excited to be seated in luxury at the Odeon Lux in Wester Hailes to see some films from the talented young people of Wester Hailes Education Centre and Screen Education Edinburgh. Can’t wait to see the film that the Tinderbox IO re-scored ‘Changing Perspectives’ on the big screen. Great to see all the hard work having a legacy.

Here’s the film again:

https://youtu.be/dpEEpnzPI24

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Taking The Band To Seamab

It was a unique experience all round when 6 of the Tinderbox Collective went to play at Seamab School last week.

Seamab is a residential primary school for children who have suffered trauma and loss. The beautiful rural setting and incredible staff team make it an incredibly healing place to be for everyone involved, but it can be difficult to offer some experiences to the children.

This was the first time many of the children had experienced a live band up close and the first time the band had been to Seamab, so we were all pretty blown away.

The most amazing thing has been that some of the young people who are now making the trip to Edinburgh on a Tuesday evening to join in our Hub at North Edinburgh arts were able to see some of the tutors they know so well from the Hub letting their hair down and jamming in the band.

More of this ahead we hope!

 

 

 

 

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Howdenhall Kicks Off

We kicked off our YMI project at Howdenhall this term performing with a lineup of cello, mandolin, drum kit, oboe and MC. An unusual combination!

It seemed to go down well with the pupils and staff at the school.

Each of us musicians will be visiting the secure unit over the coming months to take part in a huge recording project headed up by the pupils and overseen by the fabulous Gavin Wiltshire, music specialist and workshop deliverer with ‘Heavy Sound’.

Luci Holland will also be offering Synth Building and Game Design tasters as part of the project.

We’re looking forward to hearing what comes out of it at the end.

 

 

 

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UNCON Taster

Check out the amazing moves of Maciej, one of the Tinderbox Champions. He’s giving a taste of what’s in store for those of you coming to UNCON at Perth Theatre on Saturday. We’re really looking forward to getting involved. We hope you’ll ready to break out some moves with us!

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Volunteer Opportunities

This is the best time of year to get involved with Tinderbox. We’re just about to start all of our planning and training for the year ahead and there is plenty of opportunity to get fully involved in all of the exciting projects we have on the go.

Volunteers are incredibly important members of our team – none of our projects would run without the talent & effort of our voluntary musicians, tutors, mentors, coordinators, youth workers, photographers/filmmakers, artists, and more.

If you are interested in joining Tinderbox as a volunteer, please email admin@tinderboxcollective.org to find out more on how to get involved and what projects might suit your experience or needs.

We are especially looking for brass players and keyboard/ piano players and singers to help support our Tuesday Hub this term.

Below are various opportunities available to people who join our volunteer team from September – December 2018

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TRAINING: If you are planning to get involved this term and register as a member of the team it would be very useful if you could make it along to these training events…

Child Protection Training, 2nd October, 5-8pm, NEA: Graham from LAYC will be offering us training on best practice for keeping young people and ourselves safe in our projects. Places are limited so please do email admin@tinderboxcollective.org to book a spot.

Youth & Community Team Training, 9th October, 5-8pm, NEA: A chance to share ideas and perspectives on our work. Why we do it, what we do it for, what do we want to do next. Making plans for all of our upcoming Youth & Community projects.

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TUESDAY HUB:

23rd October – 18th December, 5-8:30pm, NEA : The beating heart of the Tinderbox Youth and Community programme. Volunteer whenever you can or come every week. It’s all about being part of the Tinderbox Community. Sharing our passion for music, performance and life in general. This is a first level engagement drop in hub so it’s open to anyone aged 10 – 18 to drop in and have a first go at playing an instrument. If you’ve not been before and you’re interested in coming along please email admin@tinderboxcollective.org.

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OTHER OPPORTUNITIES: There are a number of projects and away trips in need of support this term

Last two Mondays of each month, 5-6pm, Amazing Harmonies Choir: This is a new project that has been started with a local choir to engage young people from the BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) community in Muirhouse. Sam, Christy and Jordan are bringing instrumental workshops on keyboard, guitar and percussion to a group of 20 young people who have mostly been singing so far. Anyone to help with general group management and supporting the workshops would be great. Please email admin@tinderboxcollective.org if you’re interested.

22nd September, 1-2pm, Perth Theatre, UNCON: UNCON is a National Youth Arts conference organised by young people at Perth Theatre. It will be an all day event, but we are delivering a 30min workshop as part of it. The plan is to do a bombastic interactive demonstration of basic conducting inspired by Mike Kearney’s ‘Suggesture’ method. We need from someone to look after our merchandise stall and also to film/ photograph the event. Please email luci@tinderboxcollective.org if you’re interested.

18th October, Time TBC, Wardieburn Harvest Event: We’re hoping to take a small group of performers from our Tuesday Night Hub group over to Wardieburn community centre to participate in a Harvest event on the evening of 18th  October. General youth work support to help chaperone the young people would be great. Please email admin@tinderboxcollective.org if you’re interested.

22nd October, 11am-2pm, Leith (Venue TBC), Multicultural Family Base Ceilidh: Sam Lowit, Niki, Jed and Rob have been playing at a number of these events over the last year. The MCFB is an organisation who support families in Edinburgh who are facing challenges to do with cultural integration. These events bring all of the families together for lunch and live music. Any musicians who would like to join the band for some folky tunes or even a performance of their own would be very welcome. Email jed@tinderboxcollective.org if you’re interested.

24th and 25th October, Daytime, National Museum: Hailey and Mike are leading a series of early years workshops at the National Museum on Chambers St. These will be free and open to anyone who shows up. The content will be based on Hailey and Mike’s work at the Sick Kids hospital. Anyone able to join in with early years songs and music games would be a great support, please email admin@tinderboxcollective.org if you’re interested.

12th November, Evening, Love Music Choir Visit: We’re planning to take a group of participants from across all projects to the Love Music Choir performance at the Usher hall. It should be a pretty inspiring experience going to see a 300 strong community choir. Anyone able to help chaperone young people would be massively appreciated. Please email admin@tinderboxcollective.org if you’re interested.

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Sink and Tinderbox at Pianodrome

The Pianodrome is a beautiful creation. The band ‘Sink’ and their extended community of volunteers have put blood sweat and tears into making a nest for sharing creativity and inspiration with the rest of us. What a joy it was to collaborate with them on one of their pieces ‘The Knife’. Hopefully there will be plenty more of this to come!

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Summer Songwriting

Check out this song written and recorded by young people on our Summer Songwriting course.

Great lyrics and a well catchy tune, sometimes these things just work out really well and this was one of them.

We wrote and recorded the song together over 4 sessions as part of the wonderful North Edinburgh Arts Summer programme in collaboration with Studio Ember.

Let the feelings out!

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Rumba De Bodas Collaboration

We had great fun collaborating  with Rumba De Bodas as part of Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival at North Edinburgh Arts.

What an amazing band, full of energy and enthusiasm. Great for all of the Tinderbox team and participants to get inspired by.

 

Also a great suggesture workshop led by Mike Kearney to kick the evening off.

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Changing Perspectives Re-Scored

Our Intermediate Orchestra did an inspirational job in creating a new score for this brilliant film made by the young people of WHEC with Screen Education Edinburgh.

The course was for young people aged 10 – 18 who can play 5 notes or more on a musical instrument. None of the young people had done anything like this before and most have never written any music before.

We spent 10 weeks using our natural powers of improvisation and creativity to develop new scores for two films led by the musical Jedi, Mike Kearney.

All of the musical ideas came from participants and the course culminated with us making a live recording of the soundtracks which you can hear below.

Here’s the audio from our second film ‘Summer In Scotland’ from the Scottish Film Archive. We don’t have permission to share the film here, only the audio.

 

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Tinderbox Tuesday Hub

It’s been another fantastic year for the Tinderbox Tuesday Hub. Great shot here of everyone practising ‘Roar’ by Katy Perry ready for our end of term gig on Tuesday 26th. It’s going to be a great night! Get your tickets here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/tinderbox-collective-end-of-term-concert-tickets-46764584130.

 

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Tinderbox Collective is a community of young people, musicians, artists and youth workers, based in Scotland.  We are a registered Scottish charity, under the name Tinderbox Project, no. SC042825.


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Email
admin@tinderboxcollective.org

Address
Tinderbox Project
North Edinburgh Arts Centre
15a Pennywell Road
Edinburgh EH4 4TZ

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