In this Portfolio I will outline my proposal for a community project based here in Leeds. Having researched the necessity and plausibility of the project by providing a detailed business plan. 

The aim of my project is to give children from deprived backgrounds in Leeds access and opportunity to play a rhythmic instrument of any description, be it percussion, marching band or full drum kit. At least one session will be dedicated to each. Rhythm is a foundational skill for any musician; by developing this at a younger age it could give the kids an advantage in any future music opportunities that may present themselves as they progress through the end of primary and the beginning of secondary school. Whilst general deprivation in Leeds has been on a slow decline according to the indices of deprivation (2025) an increase in economic polarisation means whilst data shows general economic growth in the city. The benefits of this are not equally spread. With the cost-of-living crisis, real term pay-cuts (raises not keeping up with inflation) and a slowly stagnating job market many families would be simply unable to provide both the equipment required to play the drums, with even beginner electric kits usually starting around £200, and private tuition in the instrument costing on average between £20-40 per hour (A recurring cost that could be sustained weekly for several years). This alone makes it simply not viable for many families to pursue this for their children. This growth of wealth inequality has a direct impact on the opportunities a child will have throughout their life, of course not just in a musical sense. The advantage of being from a wealthy background gives the child an advantage in almost every measurable metric. However, the price of music lessons is a particularly obvious barrier to children from less affluent areas with the addition of still even now a slightly elitist viewpoint still held by many in regards being able to play an instrument. Children from wealthier families are statistically far more likely to play an instrument with 90% of children from affluent areas have played a musical instrument by age 14. Over 10% higher than children from less affluent backgrounds. By providing the space, equipment and time hopefully this project will help begin to bridge the economic gap in opportunity in an engaging and memorable manor. With each member getting their own set of sticks so they can leave the project with the only essential piece of equipment required to drum 

The target community will be children between the ages 9-13 as any intrinsic sense of rhythm will have been developed. They will have begun to develop and improve their hand eye coordination. Enough at least to process and replicate simple rhythmic ideas with potential for progression of creating their own unique rhythms. These sessions would be advertised within the community centre space in which the sessions are held as well as primary and secondary schools in various. More statistically disadvantaged areas in Leeds such as Hovinghamprimary, Ingram Road primary and Mount St Mary’s Highschool. These areas have been specifically picked as they each have a higher percentage of students in the bottom 20% of deprivation in Leeds. All children would be welcome with encouragement for boys, girls and anyone identifying in any other capacity equally implored to take part. There are however some issues with comprehensive accessibility with some hand-eye coordination being essential skills to get the most out of the sessions. We would struggle to provide the appropriate support for children with moderate to severe learning difficulties or any severe physical disabilities. This project is aiming to reach children in mainstream school. I would be aiming to help overcome an economic barrier for this instance with potential progression to working with children in SEN schools should the project prove a sustainable and repeatable concept. Extra training and resource would be required to accommodate this which would naturally affect the business plan and overall economic viability of the project as it is just starting this sort of progression would take time.  To maximise the experience for the individual participants a maximum group size of approximately 15 kids would be ideal for the sessions to remain structured, and each participant gets adequate time with a leader one to one. The sessions will be delivered by myself and two other group leaders, we will all share equal responsibilities in both group delivery and individual help. As a team we will have carefully planned every element of the sessions with deliberate mind paid to the purpose of each task and its place in the long-termdevelopment of the rhythm, using methods of learning through movement inspired by works from Orff and Vytovsky. As well as this we will share admin responsibilities such as insurance paperwork, funding applications and declaration of purchases for the project, equipment costs etc. This project will consist of 10 one-hour sessions held in the same location once per week. The first session will be a gentle introduction to rhythm. This session will be focused on finding and keeping a pulse and being actively aware of some basic rhythms with no equipment. This would be through games involving call and response of simple rhythms, walking to a beat and playing the clapping your name simultaneously. This session provides a fantastic opportunity to assess the general ability of the group to see what areas are strong already and what could be useful for shaping of future sessions. The second session would be a focus on introducing the concept of dynamics as well as reinforcing last week’s work on keeping a beat. Playing loud, soft, fast and slow in through a variety of games. More call and response style games can be a good way to see how they react to tempo and dynamic changes. A game using animals (e.g. cheetah is fast, sloth slow, mouse quiet etc) is another good example game for improving their active listening and reacting to what they hear with changes in their rhythm, tempo and dynamics. Week three would begin to introduce very basic rhythm reading ideas. No more complex than Crotchets, Quavers, Minims, Semibreves and rests. A very valuable skill delivered in an approachable and engaging way through use of flashcard games of increasing difficulty. For this session we have progressed from body percussion and claps to a mix of tambourines, cowbells and bucket drumming depending on the participants preference. This is to give a sense of progression and a chance to begin using sticks. In the fourth session it will begin with a brief recap of some of the rhythm reading from the previous week. The focus of this session is to work on coordination, with a range of rhythms chosen to begin left and right-hand independence, gradually increasing in difficulty with final introduction of tapping a foot at a very simple rhythm as a challenge towards the end when introducing challenges like this, some of the harder ones can be targeted at specific students if for example one of the older participants was finding it a bit easy, a more complicated rhythm could be introduced for them at the same tempo allowing them to be pushed that little bit further whilst remaining cohesive with the group.  For the fifth week as we are now halfway through the project, we will introduce some percussion instruments from around the world. Djembes, claves and bongos and more will be shared and swapped around the room as the children now lead the copy the rhythm games, gently introducing them to improvising in a simple low-pressure environment. By I or another leader having been giving constant rhythmic examples through previous call and response games, we are employing Vygotsky’s idea of scaffolding now tapering our input as the group begin to hopefully improvise of each other’s ideas. After this we will introduce the group to some simple samba patterns and other common rhythms from different parts of the world. Week six will begin again with some basic reading and call and response games now used as a warmup for the remaining sessions of the programme bar the final week. The focus on this week is looking at how a drum groove is built. This would begin with splitting the kids into small groups with each group providing a different layer of a groove. This would give the group an idea of what rhythms work well together and how they could build a groove of their own. Their final task of the week being to work as a team to build a groove of their own (with gentle assistance from myself and the other group leaders). By week seven we are now introducing a drum kit to the session. With aims of achievable funding a single drum kit would be most realistic for this project. Activities in this week would be firstly an introduction and demonstration of the traditional layout of a drum kit and the usual roll of each piece of a basic drum kit. Each member of the group will get a turn on the kit and a chance to attempt a kick and snare pattern with a steady hi hat pulse. Whilst not on the kit practicing the same and other simple beats simultaneously via body drumming bucket drumming. For week 8 we will begin with a brief call and response followed by the groove ideas that have been being built on for the last couple weeks. The new focus of this week is creativity and improvisation, games of drum battles, trading “solos” and combining storytelling with rhythm having the group react to a story using rhythmic ideas. The main goal of this session is to encourage expression and build the confidence to try ideas in a group. The penultimate session will be almost a combined session with the final week. After the usual warmups, this week is entirely focused on a group marching band style composition. As group leaders we will look to facilitate and inspire rhythmic ideas for a basic rhythm only songwriting session. We will look to have decided upon and thoroughly rehearsed a 2–3-minute rhythmic composition. This is in preparation for the final week of the project. In this week we will be performing the composition. With the first half/three quarters of the session structured as real band practice session as well as some light reflection on what was learnt, enjoyed or could improve the sessions. With then an invite to all parents and carers to attend the performance in the final 15 minutes of the session, giving the opportunity to perform a piece of music created by the kids using the skills they have learnt over the course of the 10 weeks will hopefully give the group a sense of pride in their hard work. With every student leaving with a pair of drumsticks to keep. 

The business plan plan:  

Name of equipment.                 Estimated cost.                               Overall total  

Room hire	If Catch free if not £350
Staff pay at living wage	£13.45/hr X3 staff=£403.5
Staff enhanced DBS	£49.50 X3 staff=£148.5
Drumsticks for each child	£4.50 each £67.50 total
Assortment of percussion	Approx £415
Equipment storage	High estimate £450
Advertisement	50 posters approx £30
Public liability insurance	Quote for £169/year	Subtotal upper estimate£2,033.50

Details on the Business plan: 

Firstly, as the project will be run as a non-profit organisation should the project be viable in the long term. This would make it eligible for an application to be held in CATCH youth club. If this application were to be successful, the cost of room hire would be saved already shaving the upper estimate (approximately £1600) down by an average of £350 instantly. While a nonprofit funding would ideally be required for staff wages. As it is a total 10 hour of work the total staff expenditure at a real living wage of £13.45/hr. The percussion purchased would be a split of 5 Djembes, Claves, Tambourines and Cowbells as well as a basic full drum kit. This would be more than enough equipment for the 10 weeks and once purchased can be used in repeating projects for multiple years unlike the drumsticks which would be a recurring cost of the project Enhanced DBS and public liability insurance have both been calculated to an annual rate this is assuming the community project is to be a recurring group of sessions taking multiple cohorts per year.. A potential future cost would be storage of the equipment. If not taken and stored equally between the three group leaders, then a rental storage space could put a potential £25-150 per month onto the cost of also assuming that the project was to become a regular programme promoted amongst the local primary and secondary schools.  To be able to finance this project funding would need to be contacted, and an application would need to be submitted. In the spirit of the project a charity like Music for All would be ideal. They often provide grants of up to £2500 which would be perfect to get this project off the ground. Were it to progress or should any unexpected additional charges crop up, it could also be worth looking at funding bodies such as the Arts Council England. They can offer larger grants this would be extremely useful if the project where to expand to multiple venues and move out of just Leeds, the extra money would cover the cost of the extra staff equipment and activity spaces. Failing either of these options somewhere like the National lottery music fund would be viable. With several specific grants that if accepted, would be more than able to cover the costs required for this project.   

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