My name is Przemyslaw Straus, I am a Music Technology and Sonic Arts student at Queens

University, Belfast, where I have been studying at the Sonic Arts Researching Centre for 3 years.
Personally I have chosen this field of studies because I always have been interested in two areas,
which I really like - music and computers. This education programme contains many absorbing
aspects of using computers in the field of music, where I could carefully explore my skills in
programming musical applications, recording techniques, virtual studio techniques, or find out how
acoustics work. Moreover the Sonic Arts Research Centre at QUB is an interesting place to visit,
where talented people develop new trends in the musical arts [ ].
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During the last two years of my education, I attended a work placement at the arts agency called
Beyond Skin. This is an institution based in Belfast, which is famous for professional interactive
music workshops in schools in Northern Ireland and is a leading light in its field. Each of these
interactive sessions provided an absolutely great musical connection between workshop
participants and musicians, who represent different parts of the world [ ]. The workshop
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participants, who were pupils of different ages, have always created a positive and joyful outcome,
which certainly affected the social, interpersonal and creative spheres of their lives. As confirmation
of these facts occurred over a period of time, Beyond Skin has been frequently receiving very
supportive and enthusiastic letters from different institutions and private persons, who have
expressed good and positive opinions regarding the high and professional level of the workshops
preparation or with a view to inviting the group in the near future [ ]. Since this point the agency
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has been considered as having substantial workshop experience, in a multicultural sense and
without question it has been very successful. All these achievements were brought about by some
very important sociological interrelations, which occurred during these musical events. Therefore,
in this part of my work I will look into and explain the most valuable sociological events, which will
be supported by using the appropriate academic sources.

During all the workshops organised by Beyond Skin, I observed an interesting situation, where
every workshop participant was able to play the African drum. At this stage I tried to think about the
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http://www.sonorities.org.uk
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eap-TrkobBc
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http://www.womadbelfast.org/comments-testimonials.php
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relationship between human being and music, that everyone of the workshop participants can
make music. From this point I will start to analyse these events at a more scientific level, looking
for the answer as to what sort of sociological mechanisms occur between music and the individual.
Fortunately I took part in ethnomusicology lectures during the first year of my studies, while we
were discussing the fascinating works of the famous anthropologist - John Blacking, who actually
spent a part of his life doing research at Queens University[ ]. In his work [

], Blacking explains
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music, as humanly organised sound because it certainly expresses some aspects of the individual
social life experience. Furthermore, the author claimed that through music we are able to acquire
knowledge about humans and their socio-musical condition (soundly organised humanity).
However, as the most important role of music in a humans life, Blacking indicated one as the
determinant, which allows us to cross cultural borders, which for many researchers represents their
own cultural circles.
This example described by Blacking was an accurate reflection of something, that took place
during a Beyond Skin workshop in one of the primary schools in Ballymoney[ ]. In this particular
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session you can watch a fabulous interactive musical performance with the participation of pupils
and musicians, where both came together as a social unit. Furthermore, I have noticed that the
children were very relaxed and happy at that time consequently the general atmosphere was very
safe and enjoyable. These circumstances prompted me to draw one important conclusion, that
music fulfilled its sociological function removing cultural divisions, which was actually the prime aim
of the workshop. Undoubtedly, young people understood that the colour of skin and different origin
of musicians do not matter, thus the desired effect had been achieved.
Throughout the time of my work placement I was involved in another exciting episode from a
school in Ballymena, where different government authorities were invited. During the programme of
the workshop, they have been asked for a brief music performance with the pupils. It turned out
that they also were able to drum, what is more, the African rhythms managed to cross the cultural
and social barriers.These observations made by me have also been confirmed by similar theories
contained in the publication by the American Professor of Philosophy from Texas University in
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http://era.anthropology.ac.uk/Era_Resources/Era/VendaGirls/Introduction/I_Blacking.html
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J.Blacking How Musical is Man?, Seattle 1973, pp.89
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YdSUJV988A
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Austin - Kathleen Marie Higgins [ ]. The writer reported an identical situation to this, which was
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described in the example above. The philosopher affirmed her belief in the main postulation that
people from all over the globe can unite through music, which was not theirs [ ]. Reading more
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about it, it turns out that foreign music can be perceived as a tool of non-verbal communication.
Does this mean, that music should be considered as a universal language? Higgins asks.
Personally I think, in these words the arts agency found its testimony, on which its success has
been established and it has gained the necessary rights for a leading workshop.
On another occasion the group Beyond Skin introduced an element of dancing as another
interesting form of musical activity, which was proposed to workshop participants. By this point,
participants were invited to form a circle to express their emotions by movement. Therefore, at this
level I wanted to understand properly how music affects human movement? In seeking the answer
to this question, I turned to Christopher Smalls book [ ]. This music sociologist embraces in his
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work the most valuable sociological correlations, where the key to understanding his concepts is
the word musicking, in its broadest meaning. According to him, music elicits various responses
from the body, where it turns from the body of a listener into an expressive body. Additionally I
found more about musicking as the meaning of any type of contact with music, e.g when a man is
under the influence of music, moves with a rhythm, or sings.

Practical skills are very important and helpful abilities to gain access to work, therefore some of
them made some significant changes in my life. On the other hand, some of these I found very
hard to achieve, so they need to be improved. In this part of my work I will share important
information about the skills that I have acquired and mastered over a 2 year period.
At the beginning of my work placement I did not actually know how workshops operated. The only
information I was given was that I would be performing as apart of a multicultural workshop band.
The workshop took the place in Derry~Londonderry [ ] ,where I was going to perform as a
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guitarist. I have to admit that the musical part of this session went pretty well, however the hardest
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K. M. Higgins The Music between Us. Is Music a Universal language? Chicago & London 2012.
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K. M. Higgins The Music between Us. Is Music a Universal language? Chicago & London 2012,
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C. Small Musicking. The meanings of performance and listening Middletown, Connecticut 1998.
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http://myworkplacement.weebly.com/1/archives/08-2012/1.html
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section was communicating with the audience, which was gathered. When I was asked to talk
about myself and my life experience in Northern Ireland, I found it very hard, especially that I did
not have any experience at that time. At the same time I was really nervous as English is not my
native language. From that point the whole scenario caused me to freeze with fear to such an
extent so much that any further communication became virtually impossible. What I said that time
was only my name, my origin and nothing more. Since that moment I noticed that I definitely
needed to improve my speech to the audience to continue my work with Beyond Skin. Fortunately,
after some time the barrier in communicating had begun less visible, as I followed the speeches by
the different musicians performing on stage, who talked about themselves, before me. Moreover I
have explored more about how to talk about myself by help of recording some sessions using my
mobile phone. Furthermore I was determined to gain this crucial information so much that I started
to read very well written articles [ ]. This type of situations was not the only area where I had
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problems communicating. It turned out, that the quality of speech to participants at different ages is
also essential, as I stated in the scenario of my presentation [ ]. Matching the right atmosphere
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during a workshop is the prime task to be realised by a group. For this purpose the main leader,
who manages the session has the task of introducing participants in the right atmosphere, where
they would feel very secure and have the freedom to express themselves. Most of these scenarios
have a very humorous and calm nature, which is the first phase in familiarising participants with
musicians and their instruments. Personally I have to say that, after 2 years of workshop
experience with Beyond Skin, I still do not possess the proper leadership qualities. Taking all these
aspects into consideration, this may be the result of my personality trades, which mean that as a
person I am quiet, calm and shy. To improve these skills I have tried to learn different techniques in
my free time, which should help me to be more confident in such situations.
Almost every musical meeting was introduced with the same song, which had been
become a rather tiresome occurrence. Therefore I talked to one of the agency managers and
explained this problem to him. In addition to this I suggested all the musicians could organise
regular music rehearsals once a week, which would be a session where new ideas are tried and
tested. Although the very tight workshop schedule did not allow for to this idea to be realised. As
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http://cet.usc.edu/resources/teaching_learning/docs/teaching_nuggets_docs/
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2.3_Communicating_with_Students.pdf
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http://myworkplacement.weebly.com/presentation.html (please see the text below slide 11)
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you can see good concepts can not always be achieved for some higher aims. This is a typical
situation, where the main goal is sought after until it works properly and everybody is happy. From
my point of view, this is quite a risky plan for the future, which might prove to be identified as very
weak and without any further perspectives.
A session musician is a person, who attends a vast number of performances, playing in
different configurations, consequently a long list of workshop songs is required. As one of these
people I have learnt a lot from different musicians about e.g. contrasting rhythms that were played
over a period of a time. As soon as I joined Beyond Skin I became fascinated by listening to African
drum rhythms. From my Ethnomusicology lectures I memorised some facts describing how
important the drum in African culture is. During these very absorbing seminars we also discussed
the atypical complexity of the African pulses, which I had a chance to listen to during my
placement. The most characteristic rhythm combinations were always presented by my friend at
the workshop from West Africa [ ]. His smart and very accurate pattern suggestions caused many
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serious and positive changes in my technique of playing guitar. On top of that, thanks to this
knowledge my musical performances had started to become structurally richer and also brought
more attractive solutions during music sessions. From that point I was also encouraged to listen to
more diverse types of music, which led me to a greater understanding of some of the more
important relationships between some musical elements.
Every nation has its habits. The meaning of this sentence has stuck with me during my
whole work placement participation. It was such a great thing to work with people from different
parts of the world. I have acquired so many good things because of this, for example I have
explored my knowledge about foreign phrases, I have become familiarised with new instruments
and their construction, or on every occasion I listened to individuals original stories with greater
attentiveness. I am sure that working as part of a multicultural team is a very unique event for
everybody. An invaluable experience, which I have acquired unquestionably helps me to see
problems from other perspectives.
WOMAD (World Of Music Arts and Dance) [ ] is the one of the most famous festivals from the
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United Kingdom, which was established in 1980 by Peter Gabriel. When the information about
organising this event in Belfast was announced by the general manager I felt really proud and very
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https://soundcloud.com/user788805271/radio-workshop-in-monaghan
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http://womad.org
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contented that I would be taking part in it. My collaboration for this purpose, fortunately, was
connected with another good friend of mine from South America, who actually, as it turned out
later, was able to generate a substantial number of original workshop ideas, which was very
valuable. Additionally he possessed similar experience already, so I could feel confident about
achieving good results, although we both had to work pretty hard. The ukulele workshop scenario,
which was designed by both of us had many difficulties, which required broad problem solving.
One of these issues, which was identified was appropriate programme access, which should meet
pupils expectations and abilities. After deeper analysis, this mutual collaboration brought the first
fruitful results i.e. the invention of a new music notation system [ ]. This idea turned out to be very
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successful in practice so that pupils could easily get closer to achieving our aims. The final step of
this workshop series was the last performance on a big stage at T13 building. During this, the
workshop participants played their tune for a certain time, as part of an interactive history, which
revealed the high level of their musical abilities and understanding of music. The audience, which
had assembled was pretty impressed from listening to the show, which consequently had a positive
impact on our further workshop participation with other schools. This productive collaboration
taught me an analytical way of thinking with the use of original concepts. Thanks to this I
understood how both creativity and originality work and are necessary to develop interesting ideas,
whose access needs to be designed in the most approachable way.

Despite the fact that further cooperation with Beyond Skin is still possible, I have decided to have a
look at some other institutions in the Northern Ireland, which would more likely match my higher
and professional expectations. This decision was made due to use of my academic knowledge
about technology, which I had gained and could eventually apply in workshops. Moreover, when I
joined my degree programme I was pretty determined to expand my knowledge in programming of
musical applications in particular using Max/MSP software. Initially I did not realise how this
software worked properly, however the later effects, which it was on having my assignments
brought more satisfaction, which in fact affected my productivity and creativity. Two years of
academic programming experience gave me a clear enough insight into some powerful ideas,
which began to interest me in a more serious way. At the beginning of this year a position for a
successful developer of music workshops represented the start of my career path, where hopefully
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https://soundcloud.com/user788805271/a-womad-2-session
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I will take part in research helping to make it easier for disabled people to express their emotions
by using music and technology. For this purpose I am looking for basic ideas, which could be
implemented, e.g. using a MIDI breath controller [ ]. In addition to this I am overviewing more
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advanced ideas with a friend of mine [ ], who has more experience in the programming of similar
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applications.

The work placement with Beyond Skin was unquestionably one of the greatest and most
unforgettable periods in my life, where I met hundreds of inspiring people, for who the colour of
skin, religion belief or country of origin does not really matter. These people and I have hopefully
passed the same values to the new young generations in Northern Ireland by using music, which
as Higgins affirms, is the universal language, which helps to remove any divisions between
different societies.
Thanks to these people I also have learnt a lot about their lives and started to understand more the
value of mankind and its completely dissimilar problems, needs, customs, traditions, music, history
and more.
It is the important fact to mention, that the all events from this period of my life were recorded and
documented on my website [ ], where the visitors can also leave their opinions and reflections
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about my work.
From a professional point of view, this placement gave me the opportunity to work in different
positions in the music business so I could see how each job is carried out in practice, moreover
thanks to this I became aware of the advantages and disadvantages of each one, which was very
important.
Finally, the work with this institution has certainly helped me to create my portfolio, which I strongly
believe, helped me to get in to the next place.

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http://www.midibc.com/index.html
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http://paweljanicki.jp
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http://myworkplacement.weebly.com/log-book
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Bibliography

1. J.Blacking How Musical is Man?, Seattle 1973, pp.89;

2. K. M. Higgins The Music between Us. Is Music a Universal language? Chicago & London 2012;
3. C. Small Musicking. The meanings of performance and listening Middletown, Connecticut
1998;

Internet sources

1. http://www.sonorities.org.uk
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eap-TrkobBc
3. http://www.womadbelfast.org/comments-testimonials.php
4. http://era.anthropology.ac.uk/Era_Resources/Era/VendaGirls/Introduction/I_Blacking.html
5. http://cet.usc.edu/resources/teaching_learning/docs/teaching_nuggets_docs/
2.3_Communicating_with_Students.pdf
6. http://myworkplacement.weebly.com/1/archives/08-2012/1.html
7. https://soundcloud.com/user788805271/radio-workshop-in-monaghan
8. http://womad.org
9. https://soundcloud.com/user788805271/a-womad-2-session
10. http://www.midibc.com/index.html
11. http://paweljanicki.jp
12. http://myworkplacement.weebly.com/log-book
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