MusicXpress was an 18 month music technology project for young people aged 13-21 providing opportunities to experience everything to do with writing, playing and recording their own music.

Many of the young people taking part in MusicXpress had limited opportunities to make music previously.  Young people made their own music using computer programmes, recording equipment and DJ decks, and formed bands and wrote their own lyrics. Two intensive courses in October 2007 culminated in a live music technology showcase by 20 young people at Salisbury Arts Centre to celebrate the success of the project.

The project aimed to develop a sustainable music technology programme through open-access workshops for young people; by extending existing curriculum provision at St Laurence School and Salisbury College, with a variety of access points all providing high-quality opportunities to get involved. It was particularly targeted at those considered vulnerable or at-risk and not currently accessing provision. Music technology was identified as particularly relevant to youth culture and readily adaptable for young people with limited experience or skills in making music, enabling them to achieve high quality results in a short period of time.

MusicXpress was made possible by grants totalling £73,500, from Youth Music, The Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the Vodafone UK Foundation.

157 participatory sessions across 26 different locations, engaging over 325 young people and providing approximately 3587 ‘delivery’ hours of activity and creating 178 new pieces of work.

An additional £20,000 to extend the project was provided by the Home Office 'Safer, Stronger, Communities' Fund, through Wiltshire County Council's Community Safety Partnership.  The extension project, provided a further 196 course hours to around 120 new young people at ten different venues, during the spring 2007.

“It’s a great place to meet other people who play different music styles, and you learn yourself – you get confidence out of it, that’s THE most important thing. If you’d asked me last year if I’d do a concert I probably wouldn’t have been able to!

It’s one of the greatest things you can ever do to improve you as a person. Because without these life-changing experiences, you wouldn’t be able to do the things you ‘think’ you ‘can’t do’.”

The young people on the MusicXpress project have already successfully applied for funding from Wiltshire Young People’s Opportunity Fund in order to sustain these activities and the resulting project ‘MusicMatters’ will be taking place between November 2008 and August 2009. WYAP is now working with project partners to look at sustaining activities beyond the life of MusicMatters and build in more long term sustainability.

www.wyap.org.uk