We Can All Make Music.

Are we on the right track?

Looking at ourselves

We continuously ask ourselves:

What forms of collaborative music-making are likely to have the widest and most intense positive impact on the levels of co-operative behaviour in our society?

How can these forms be most effectively integrated into everyday activity?

We’ve researched informed answers to these questions and have adopted them as CMV’s founding philosophies and practises, enabling us to plan an effective way forward.

To answer these questions, we need to know if the way we are supporting the community-based growth of group singing is the most effective it can be (given current resources), and what would allow it to become even more effective in future.

Our work is based on some fundamental criteria:

Embedded leadership teams (we build confidence, skills, delivery and connections)

Dispersed and diverse learning opportunities led by music-makers

Independent activities

An inter-cultural approach embracing diversity

A sessional approach to singing together (consequently, group formation and preparation for public performance don't figure highly in our priorities)

Continued networking and support for leadership teams.

Undoubtedly, there are other un-articulated assumed values informing our work, of which we are not conscious.

As a starting point in evaluating ourselves, we've developed a fair idea of the information we would need in order to have some useful material from which to assess ourselves. This information is embodied in the answers to (yet another) set of questions:

Is leadership training and on-going support an (or the most) effective way of encouraging the growth of widespread singing together?

Do leadership teams survive more effectively than individual leaders working alone?

What are the pros and cons when comparing led open sessions ('group singing') with ongoing groups ('community singing')?

How are those that have attended CMV training sessions applying their training (ie, are the values and methods inherent in CMV training manifest in their leadership)?

Are current leaders actively encouraging new leaders among the participants in their circles?

Do the values espoused by singing group leaders positively affect the values (and most importantly, the behaviours) of participants?

Do these behaviours diffuse into the daily lives of participants?

Could the leadership teams more effectively attract participants? If so, how?

What else can be done to expand and culturally diversify singing group participation?

What problems do leaders encounter in their work, and are these problems being effectively addressed via networking activities?

Is the cultural similarity of trained leaders reflected in the make-up of singing participants (ie, is the cultural diversity of singing group participants dependent on that of its leaders)?

What is the truth about our sustainability rhetoric (ie, what is the leadership drop-out rate and how long do singing circles remain in-tact)?

The final question, then, is this: 'How do we find answers to this set of questions that are real, and that don't bore everyone to death in the process of finding them?

This is the challenge we're faced with - any suggestions you can make are more than welcome! J

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CMV - making a sound world together.