(By Faith Gonsalves, Project Officer, Music Basti)

I really do enjoy writing - but after a lot of convincing my sister Pattie Gonsalves, set up the account for me to blog about my work, and to have a lot of contributions from my team, as well as people interested in our work, or interested in contributing ideas toward it.

I'll try to write about what Music Basti is doing and finally create a space that the people who support our work from a distance, or online can read and share in, and also be able to really understand the people behind behind "Music Basti" !

The information below will really help you understand what we do, and how the project began. 

The next post will talk about the people behind the project - please keep reading and do let me know what you think !

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The story behind the project

Music Basti began in 2008 as a response to the reality that a majority of children are deprived of arts based education and exposure. The children that Music Basti works with are “children- at risk”, i.e. they may be street children, runaways, and orphans, abandoned by their families, society or education. It is important to build the skills of participation and inclusion along with protection, self-confidence and awareness, and a sense of self- worth. These are values and attitudes that help children excel in school and outside. 

The project began with the support of “Dil Se” Campaign, Aman Biradari to support and uplift the dignity of street children, at Uma Pandey Home with 70 boys.  The model began as an exposure program, to create a space for learning and interaction with young artistes who could share their music and experiences with the children, it wasn’t a student- teacher paradigm but one where a large group of children were free to come in listen, share and have fun!

The children loved the concept and the program, and they were excited to see who would conduct the weekly workshops, and looked forward to them eagerly.

Music Basti worked to train and identify young musicians, their motivations and planned workshops with them. 25 workshop programmes were hosted at Uma Pandey Home (August 2008- March 2009). Documentation through the creation of a short film, ‘Music Basti’ (15 minutes) for awareness and information purposes was created, to screen in colleges/schools/festivals/ and other, along with a concert by Delhi based eclectic fusion band Advaita, on November, 2008. In March 2009, Music Basti featured an original performance with the boys from Uma Pandey Home, performing a song composed for the event, “Yeh Pal”, by Tarun Balani and an ensemble of Delhi musicians from prominent bands such as Advaita and Farid Kot.

Following this, from March 2009 with the enthusiastic response of volunteers and the music community, Music Basti conducts programs at 3 centers in Delhi, with over 250 children, through many different programs that include concerts, workshops, performances, etc.

The response to the project is interesting and encouraging, and regular assessments are important to ensure that children and keen and motivated to learn. To ensure this, it’s very important to take into account children’s learning interests and pace, and to base the program upon this. There is no single response to the program, different children enjoy different elements, some enjoy singing, others learning, yet others enjoy the thrill that comes from touching an instrument for the first time, and some prefer listening and watching performances.

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WHAT WE DO

At present there are over 250 children in total who are part of the outreach of Music Basti.

Music Education Workshop Series and Content Development

Over 100 workshops in total conducted with a total of 200 children so far, and 50 sessions with volunteers on training and skill building in order to implement these workshops effectively. 

Music Basti is working on a project of Music Modules that involves research and partnerships to plan, create and pilot a lesson-to-lesson format (incorporating music education with a focus on developing rhythm, melody, pitch, music awareness and appreciation, through a combination of non- formal and formal teaching methods, message driven songs and activities), based on the learning needs and desires of the children, to create a child- centric community development model.

This project is 2-year project (2009-2011) to create a collective of musical experts and institutions, performers and teachers to collaborate to create Music teaching modules in order to make the music- workshops and lessons accessible, by making them easy to teach and replicate with different groups of children.

This project has the support of Bridge Music Academy.

Special workshops & concerts

Exposure programs and concerts are organized on a monthly basis, to promote music awareness and appreciation.

These workshops have featured national and international artistes including Carrie Newcomer (folk and country), The Xylopholks (1920s ragtime), The Yale Gospel Choir (gospel and jazz), Aditya Balani Group (jazz quartet); Advaita (eclectic fusion), Dr Madan Gopal Singh and Group (sufi-folk), Vedanta (Indian fusion), Five8 (glam rock and funk), Cyanide, Vishal Dadlani, Warren Mendonsa, Drift!, Swarathma and others.

The Song- Project

In 2010-2011 a song- writing and composition project is being designed, to involve smaller groups of children to create their own music, aided by renowned musicians and/or bands for different components of the song, i.e. writing, composition, arrangement, accompaniment, performance and or recording.

This project is being carried out with the support of the Ahimsa Project.

The Instruments Project

In 2010-2011 a project is being developed to involve groups of children to own and play instruments in order to create their own music.

This project looks to set up a self-sustainable model by motivating and engaging musicians across Delhi to volunteer through teaching instruments they play and/or teach. Along with this, it is mobilizing and collecting secondhand/ used instruments for teaching and learning purposes, and sponsorships for new instruments.