Making music with Fairbeats has been a big part of life in London for Shanuga (aged 14), Rubishaa (13), Vithya (11) and Santana (9). It’s helped them become firm friends, grow in confidence, and progress from beginner ukulele players to accomplished guitarists acting as mentors to younger children.
All four girls come from families who arrived in Britain from Sri Lanka. They now live in the London suburb of New Malden, and go along each school holiday to Fairbeats’ ukulele and guitar club in nearby Kingston.
Fairbeats has been working with young people from various backgrounds including refugee, asylum seeking and new migrant families since 2009. Through music-making, Fairbeats has helped hundreds of children and families play an active part in cultural life and become more settled in the UK.
Youth Music is currently funding a two-year Fairbeats project working in the London boroughs of Kingston upon Thames, Wandsworth and Lewisham.
Working together to reach more families
It’s half term and the girls have just finished leading the club’s end-of-week performance. Each time the group meet up they play a new repertoire of songs – both cover versions and original pieces which they compose together. They also take part in other creative activities including art and dance.
The club is clearly popular: some of the members, including Shanuga and Rubishaa, have been coming back every holiday for the last five years. The children, mostly primary school age, tend to get involved through Refugee Action Kingston (RAK), one of a number of local support charities who’ve partnered with Fairbeats.
By working with community organisations like RAK to recruit new participants, Fairbeats has been able to reach lots more families, and many of these wouldn’t otherwise have had access to music-making opportunities.
Communicating through music
The children who attend Fairbeats projects come from all over the world. At their age they may not be fully aware of the (often extremely difficult) circumstances their families have faced. But having to settle into a new life and learn a new language is a challenge in itself.
Group leader Lydia says: “The special thing about making music is that anyone can do it. Even if the children aren’t speaking that much English yet, they can still take quite an active role in joining in, whereas maybe at school they’d be missing a bit because of the language barrier.”
Having the chance to interact with others through music has given the children confidence.
Gaining confidence and musical skills
Lydia continues: “Often the children will come in looking very nervous at first. But after a while they’ll be answering questions and having their own ideas for creative music-making.”
And she’s full of praise for the musical development of the group too. “It’s amazing how much they remember each time – the chords, the musical knowledge. With the older ones, now they’re actually leading things themselves, which is brilliant.”
Shanuga, Rubishaa, Vithya and Santana are role models in this regard. They now get the chance to practice their leadership skills by mentoring the younger group members. All four have also gone on to take guitar lessons at home thanks to a Fairbeats bursary.
Friendship and relaxation
The girls share a love of pop music – Justin Bieber, Little Mix, “everything basically!” says Vithya – while all agree that their favourite song to play is ‘7 Years’ by Lukas Graham. They’re full of answers when asked their favourite thing about the Fairbeats guitar club.
It gives them the chance to share what they’ve learned on the guitar and help other children improve. It’s helped them meet new friends, and cemented the friendship between them – “we’ve actually become very close after this,” agree Vithya and Shanuga.
And when you consider that lots of young people taking part in Fairbeats projects are overcoming tough challenges as their families adjust to a new life in the UK, the positive emotional effect of music-making is especially important.
Vithya sums it up: “Making music makes me feel relaxed – even if it’s upbeat music, it makes me feel relaxed.”
Youth Music would like to thank Fairbeats for their help with this case study. A special thank you also goes to the National Lottery for the public funding we receive each year through Arts Council England, without which none of this amazing work would be possible.