Liverpool Central library was abuzz with music making on the last Saturday of August before children headed back to start the new school year. While many people presume libraries to be a place for peace and quiet to immerse in a book, they are also great community venues for host events, celebrating learning and questioning as a fundamental part of life.
Children were encouraged to take part in a variety of free music making workshops delivered by Mako Digital Arts CIC and other organisations such as Wigan S.T.E.A.M to get music playing and creativity flowing. Creativity is a major part of our core values as we believe it is essential for many children to be able to express themselves as a part of both personal and educational development within the early years.
Music Matters was the last event that took place as part of the Culture Matters project envisioned through wehearttech CIC, a social enterprise that aims to explore technology within the local community. The Music Matters event combined both making music digitally and traditionally. Music is integral to culture alongside innovation and so to be able to show the relationship between the two was very rewarding for everybody who took part in the drop in sessions.
At our own workshop, we delivered a music making session getting children to use iPads to experiment creating songs using loops and DJing. This workshop is designed for beginners so there was no need to be musically savvy to take part. This an ideal starting point for those interested in music, technology and creating. Participants got to create music with each song tailored towards the learners own style and musical preferences, be it rock, dubstep, or any other genre. This freedom allowed all of the young people to express themselves creatively during the session.
Wigan S.T.E.A.M demonstrated the integration of music and coding with “Sonicpi” and Laura Pullig’s “Plant Synths” workshop shows the biological aspect of music through interaction of plants and conductors to make sounds. Not to leave everything to be lost to the world of technology, Ronnie brought along his array of ukuleles and guitars to promote the traditional sense of making music. Children were hands on with instruments having fun and learning outside of a static environment.
Delivering digital music making workshops is one of the many activities that we do as part of MakoDigital Arts CIC. We work to help inspire younger generations to understand the latest technology. With our strong focus on expert teachings to help people learn talents that they may be unaware of. This is an unmeasurable reward which we believe brings upon a stronger sense of belief for those whom we work with.
We would like to thank wehearttech CIC, for the planning of the event, funded by Children in Need. Alongside with the partnership companies that we worked with to deliver an innovative experience for many children to enjoy. Also to many of the staff who worked behind the scenes in order to bring the memories and experiences of the day to life with videography and photos. We hope that we can deliver many similar events in the future following the success of Music Matters.