1. Introduction & Placement Context
DREAM (Dream, 2020) is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation that supports disabled adults in and around the area of Leeds. Sessions run weekly on Mondays from 13:30 to 15:30pm, providing a range of activities such as arts and crafts, meals, and trips out, wellbeing sessions, and guest speakers.
2. Placement Overview & Practitioner Roles
Placement Overview
The placement will consist of five, 2-hour sessions starting from January 26th. To align with the nature of DREAM’s diverse activities, we decided to deliver the sessions on alternate weeks, as well as ensuring the sessions themselves are varied and engaging.
Also, by having a week off in between, this will allow Isaac and me to reflect, evaluate, and adapt the sessions based on how well the sessions are delivered and recieved.
Practitioner Roles
Myself
I am a music producer and pianist, able to contribute technical knowledge and recording equipment for sound creation and playback activities.
Isaac
Isaac is a singer songwriter and guitarist, able to support certain activities with musical accompaniment.
3. Aims & Objectives
DREAM’s primary objectives are to encourage social connection, rebuild self-worth, and improve mental health by providing inclusive social activities (Dream, 2020).
We aim to fit our placement naturally into DREAM’s activity structure by implementing their aims into our sessions.
Overall Aim
We aim to align with DREAM’s objectives by boosting confidence, creativity, and social inclusion using interactive music making.
Overall, the placement does not aim to deliver formal music education or develop advanced musical skills. Music as Therapy International (2020) highlights that interactive music making should not be treated as formal music education and whilst participants may naturally acquire basic musical skills, this is not the primary aim.
However, the disabilities of DREAM’s members are extremely varied. As a result, if some members seem more inclined to learning, we will try and incorporate this into later sessions to ensure all individuals benefit from our placement.
Measuring Aims
Project aims will be evaluated using a smiley face questionnaire at the end of each session.
4. Initial Visits and Understanding Learning Needs
I initially organised to meet Anita on November 3rd through email (appendix 1) and was later provided with her phone number (appendix 2) which then allowed me to make a group chat for more efficient communication between Anita, Isaac, and me (appendix 3).
Before visiting, I wrote down specific questions Isaac and I had about the group to help us begin planning what our sessions would involve (appendix 4).
In the table I have highlighted the purpose of each visit, what was happening, and how our observations and discussions would influence our planning.
5. Session Structure
Our session structure was decided following guidance from Pete (Ord, 2025):
- Warm up
- Main activity
- Cool down
By having a clear structure, the group members become more comfortable as a sense of routine helps them learn what to expect (Music as Therapy International, 2020).
6. Warmup activities
Purpose
Warmups serve many purposes, such as creating a shared focus within the group, setting the energy level, introducing names, and providing insights into the abilities of the group (Howell, 2014). Howell also mentions the importance of having low stake outcomes to reduce pressure and allowing members to relax.
Warmup
Isaac and I created a group chant that allows the members to introduce themselves as well as creating variations to develop an extended warmup for the first week and variations for the following weeks.
| Week 1 | ||
| Order | Chant | Variation |
| 1. Introduce chant with stomping and guitar chords. Isaac leads and I repeat. | “Hello Dream” Repeat “Good to be” “” “Here today” “” “And what’s your name” “” Isaac: “My name’s Isaac” Me : “Hello Isaac” Me: “My name’s Sam” Isaac: “Hello Sam” | |
| 2. Continue stomping (for whole warmup) and repeat chant with the whole group. | ||
| 3. Repeat this with variations. | Quietly as possible, happily as possible, angrily as possible. | |
| 4. Repeat with animal variation. Give members a moment to think of favourite animal. | “Hello Dream” “Good to be” “Here today” “And I like animals” Isaac: “I like fish” Sam: “Isaac like’s fish” | “And I like animals”. |
| 5. Repeat with clap variation “feel the beat”. | No chant but continued stomping. | Call and response following Isaac’s and my claps. Keep rhythms simple, play with dynamics, repeat rhythms. |
| 6. Repeat with second clap variation. | No chant. | Go round the circle with each person do a clap/ tap. |
| Week 2 onwards | ||
| 1. Repeat chant with different variations. Warmup will be shorter than the first week. | “Hello Dream” “Good to be” “Here today” | – I like colours – I like fruit – I like instruments – I like singers |
| 2. Test out other warmup activities. | – Pass the beat – Echo game (copycat) – Beat and rhythm (beat on left side, rhythms on right side). |
Considerations
Since we aim to achieve relaxation through the warmup, de Witte et al. (2020) discusses ensuring a consistent, slow tempo to do so. They also highlight the use of active improvisation to reduce stress. Both will be incorporated into the chant by maintaining a slow pulse when stomping, alongside improvised clap patterns later in the warmup.
It will also be important to ensure all members are able to take part. For example, some members are non-verbal so will not be able to respond to certain parts such as saying their name. To deal with this, we will ask them if their support worker can say their name for them. Certain members may also be unable to clap so we will ask if they can tap, nod, move their body, or feel the beat in any way possible for them.
7. Weekly Overview and Main Content
For our placement, we do not want to plan our sessions too rigidly since we need to find out what type of activities work well for the group. For this reason, I have created a rough plan for each week. However, this will likely change as the sessions go on as we learn what activities work better and worse with the group.
When planning the main content of the sessions, DREAM discussed how the members are used to a variety of activities (appendix 5). Music as Therapy International (2020) also discusses this suggesting to use a variety of activities that reflect the aims and abilities of the participants, as well as continuing ideas that worked well alongside new ones. As shown in the rough plan, the activities are varied including musical activities and arts and crafts, whilst also allowing flexibility for change if certain activities work better than others.
To help me prepare, I created two in depth session plans to provide me structure and a better understanding of what will be involved in the first two sessions.
Final week plan
As discussed by Ord (2025), the placement can either round off the project with a tangible aim or focus on the social and emotional benefits of the group. To continue to align with ours and DREAM’s aims, we decided to use the final week as a celebratory, round off week involving music quizzes and games, listening to members’ favourite songs, group shaker jams, and repeating activities or warmups the group particularly enjoyed.
8. Cool Down Activity and Smiley Face Questionnaire
Cool Down
When visiting DREAM, I noticed the group sessions were very relaxed and for the end of the session, members had time to sit without too much activity. To keep to the nature of DREAM’s sessions, we will use the cool down to have informal discussions with members, as well as allowing them to reflect on the session with a smiley face questionnaire.
Smiley Face Questionnaire (Appendix 8)
One way of testing if our project aligns with DREAM’s aims is by measuring the members’ responses with a survey. I found that smiley face questionnaires would align with our project and DREAM’s members since they are (ViewPoint Feedback, 2025):
- Easily understood by everyone
- Efficient to use
- Useful when tracking goals and aims
Although the questionnaire is intended to gather feedback, it is equally important that it is designed to be calm and relaxing since it is part of the cool down. To help me ensure the questionnaire suits both needs, the University of Oxford (2015) helped me design the questionnaire taking frequency, simplicity, tone, and conciseness into account.
9. Design Thinking and Activity Development
Design thinking is a user centred approach to problem solving. It prioritises understanding participants’ needs to create practical solutions, which are tested and refined through ongoing evaluation. This is beneficial when planning activities as it ensures they are designed in response to the real needs of participants rather than assumptions (Gibbons, 2016).
Here is an example of how we used and will use design thinking with our warmup activity:
- Empathise – DREAM members go to feel included and improve wellbeing.
- Define – Create warmups that set the energy level and allow members to relax.
- Ideate – Create a range of warmup ideas.
- Prototype – ‘Hello Dream’ Chant.
- Test – Try the activity in the first week and think of ways to improve it.
- Implement – Repeat in following week with required adaptations.
10. Tutor Feedback
After doing our presentation, Pete provided us with feedback suggesting that we should be careful that the sessions are not overly relaxed, and the placement does not develop as much as it could.
To respond to this, Isaac and I will need to take note of the range of abilities in DREAM’s group after the first two sessions, giving more tailored opportunities in later sessions to reach everyone’s individual needs. Although for most it is not about education, for those that are able or interested, this may become more relevant in later sessions.
11. Conclusion
Overall, Isaac and I aim to provide a placement which builds upon DREAM’s existing aims and style of activities by providing a variety of musical sessions to give the members an enriching, musical experience. Although I have developed both rough and detailed session plans, I will need to be able to change these if needed to acknowledge the needs of individuals. By the end of the placement, I aim to have developed my skills and confidence in delivering musical activities, strengthened my ability to plan and adapt sessions, and gained a deeper understanding of the needs of disabled people. As a result, I hope to have provided the DREAM members with an enriching musical experience they will remember.
Presentation
Bibiliography
Children’s Museum Houston (2020) Sensory Sound Bottles – Early Childhood Corner. YouTube. Available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMN6q1ClhgQ [Accessed 5 Jan. 2026].
de Witte, M., Lindelauf, E., Moonen, X., Stams, G.-J. and van Hooren, S. (2020) Music Therapy Interventions for Stress Reduction in Adults With Mild Intellectual Disabilities: Perspectives From Clinical Practice. Frontiers in Psychology, [online] 11. Available online: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33362637/.
DREAM (2020) Disability Group Leeds LS19 |. Dreamleeds.org.uk. Available online: https://dreamleeds.org.uk/ [Accessed 26 Nov. 2025].
Gibbons, S. (2016) Design Thinking 101. Nielsen Norman Group. Available online: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/design-thinking/.
Howell, G. (2014) Building an effective warm-up sequence. music work. Available online: https://musicwork.wordpress.com/2014/05/02/building-an-effective-warm-up-sequence [Accessed 5 Jan. 2026].
Integrity Inc (2025) How Sensory Activities for Adults Help. Integrity, Inc. Available online: https://www.integrityinc.org/sensory-activities-for-adults-how-do-they-help/?utm_source=chatgpt.com [Accessed 5 Jan. 2026].
Music as Therapy International (2020) Interactive Music-Making for Adults with Learning Disabilities. musicastherapy.org.
Ord, P. (2025) Lesson 7 Project Plan Assignment Guidance, Professional Studies 3: Community Music Project (SHR6E035P) [Lecture]. Leeds Conservatoire, unpublished.
University of Oxford (2015) How to create a survey. Ox.ac.uk. Available online: https://staff.admin.ox.ac.uk/ux/surveys.
ViewPoint Feedback (2025) Smiley Face Survey Scale – Why Flexible Feedback Tools Matter – ViewPoint Feedback Solutions. ViewPoint Feedback Solutions. Available online: https://www.viewpointfeedback.com/blog/smiley-face-survey-scale-why-flexible-feedback-tools-matter/ [Accessed 22 Dec. 2025].
