Pursuing Own Interests

30th October 2018

I am thinking that once I have built up a good rapport with Exposed, I might tentatively suggest some of my own ideas for longer articles. This is for two reasons. Firstly, since the first big article I was asked to write, everything else has been much smaller (maybe two or three lines) designed to give snippets of information about upcoming events. As such, I feel that I do not get much opportunity for creative freedom in my writing. Secondly, many of the pieces I’ve been asked to write have not been strictly music-related (often about theatre, exhibitions or food). Of course, I realise that this is the reality of journalism and I understand that you can’t always write about what you want to write about. However, I am worried that it my internship might therefore not be so relevant to my degree in music and to the Special Project module. As such, if I could make some interesting music-related suggestions then it would make the internship both more fulfilling for myself and more relevant to my degree.

11th November 2018

Yesterday I emailed the editor at Exposed magazine with a list of a few ideas of my own. I sent a range of ideas which of course were tailored towards my own interests but also covered completely different angles on music, including more conceptual academically focussed articles (e.g. devaluation of music through streaming), community-based articles (e.g. local music charities) and more general articles (e.g. research into local music scenes, groups and new music venues I’d heard about).

I chose to email rather than ask in person for numerous reasons: firstly, because I didn’t want to put him on the spot if it was inappropriate for me to make suggestions, or if he wasn’t keen on any of my ideas, and secondly, because we have just started working on next month’s issue meaning there is much less pressure from an approaching deadline. I wanted to get the timing right, BUT there was a staff training day this Friday meaning that the office was closed, so I took this as an opportunity/ excuse to send a tentative email, rather than asking face-to-face.

15th November 2018

Much to my relief, the editor at Exposed replied to my email giving me the go-ahead for one of my ideas: an article on Lost Chord, a Sheffield based charity which uses music to communicate with dementia patients. My idea is to write an article which promotes the charity’s work, as well as promoting the health benefits of music in general; something I feel that many people are unaware of. The editor at Exposed told me that this fits with their ethos because it supports a local charity and promotes positivity and community spirit.

I emailed Lost Chord straight away and arranged a phone call with the founder of the charity. We spoke on the phone today, discussed interview options and agreed that it would be nicer to meet in person. I would ideally like to visit them, but they are based outside Rotherham which is quite difficult if not impossible to get to on public transport. So instead we arranged to meet up and have a chat the next time that she [founder of Lost Chord] was coming to Sheffield.

6th December 2018

After a couple of separate attempts to get in contact with Lost Chord, I still have not had any further response from them, so I believe that it may be a dead end. However, I would still like to pursue my idea of writing something about the health and wellbeing benefits of music as it’s a topic that interests me and I’d like to be able to use my knowledge and access to university resources to help others.

After going to a talk at the University of Sheffield about homelessness by Cathedral Archer Project, this gave me a new idea. Homelessness is something that I’d really like to help out with, and during my time at university I have read many articles about the benefits of group music-making for homeless people (and mental health in general). I had a look on by Cathedral Archer Project’s website but couldn’t find any regular group music sessions, so I decided I would email them to see if they were interested in starting one, and if so, whether I could help them to get it going.

My hope would be to chat to the CAP team about the benefits of group music-making and to inspire them to set up a regular workshop or choir which the homeless people in Sheffield could attend to help them to interact, make contacts and increase their sense of belonging and self-worth. I would then love to write an article about it in Exposed magazine, which would publicise the music project as well as the work of the Cathedral Archer Project more generally, and perhaps even inspire similar projects elsewhere. As far as I’m aware, not many people know about the benefits that music can have on the brain as research in this area is still relatively new. I therefore feel that writing an article on this topic would not only be an interesting read, but it would also raise awareness about the potential power of music and encourage everyone to use music constructively as well as recreationally. Also, given that the community element of my last idea went down with Exposed, I feel that this idea is a safe bet.

My worry is that there are too many potential pitfalls where this idea could fall down. First, I would need to meet with the CAP team to establish that they don’t have anything similar running already, and to check that this is something they would be interested in. Then, as I am in no position to run the workshops myself, I would have to find an existing community choir or musical group which would be willing to run a separate choir/ music evening for the homeless. Finally, in order to make this whole process relevant to my degree, I would need to ensure that Exposed magazine would be happy for me to write an article about this topic.

28th January 2019

Having had a positive initial response from Cathedral Archer Project, things have since gone quiet. This is probably because the charity is run by volunteers and may be under a lot of pressure, especially over the Christmas period. Although this is disappointing, I am trying not to let it dishearten me. It would probably be more effective to drop in and talk to them in person, so I may do this when I’m back in Sheffield after Christmas.

In the meantime, continuing with this community and wellbeing theme, I have discovered another charity called Open Door Music: “a mental health friendly group where people get together to jam, socialise, build friendships and pursue musical ambitions” (https://sheffieldflourish.co.uk/our-enterprises/open-door-music/). I have emailed them to ask whether I could interview them with a view to writing an article about their work. It would be even better if I could go along to one of their sessions to get a feel for what they do.

The trickiest part about all of this is knowing when to involve Exposed. I don’t want to ask a charity if I can interview them before I have the go-ahead from Exposed, because Exposed might not like the idea and I would then look unprofessional to the charity. However, I equally don’t want to keep emailing Exposed about potential ideas that keep falling through, because that also looks unprofessional, even if it isn’t necessarily my fault.