Every so often projects come about that are not only great creative experiences but are life-affirming events. The Once in a Blue Moon band is a simple idea that invites adult amateur musicians, especially those who played when they were younger but no longer do, to take their dusty instruments down from the shelf to get playing and get creative again. Many people take up an instrument in later life when other responsibilities such as raising a family subside, but there are also many people who learned a musical instrument when they were young and would love to get back into it.
Once in a Blue Moon Band at City of Culture
A wonderful example of this in action happened in the City of Culture programme in Derry/Londonderry. Wall2Wall Music invited people from all walks of life and aged 20-85 to come together over two weeks to write new music and arrange tunes that they loved. Everyone brought their ideas, talents and positive energy to the project and played their way to a performance of 10 musical moments inspired by their own personal stories to a packed audience in the Playhouse Theatre, Derry. It was wonderful to see the audience cheering on their loved ones and moved to both laughter and tears by the emotional and funny material.
The Once in a Blue Moon band in Derry was made up of a host of local characters all of whom had great stories to tell. One participant was 85 year old Frank McLaughlin a violinist and singer who had professional experience when he was younger. Frank opened the show on the voice and took the lead on the violin throughout and was a great source of ideas throughout our time together. Talking to his family during the project it became clear that the project had come at just the right time, inspiring Frank to continue playing and enjoying life. Frank, now in his 90s is still active in the music scene and is a real inspiration to others.
We were also able to record and video the performance in Derry and produce a live DVD, which is something we like to include in projects whenever we can. In Derry, especially during the City of Culture year it gave everyone something to talk about for years to come and made tangible their own personal contribution to this momentous city wide celebration.
What we’ve learned from Once in a Blue Moon Band
At Wall2Wall Music we often get asked why we do what we do. Given the experience of the Once in a Blue Moon Band it’s not hard to see why. However, we also know that what we do brings lots of benefits for the people who get involved. Here are some that we’ve observed over the years:
• Making music brings people from diverse backgrounds together
• People have a musical voice, you just need to listen
• Music helps you make meaning
• Creating music has a balancing effect – it can re-energise you or help you destress
• Music making connects you to your feelings in ways that are life enhancing
As a company we have been fortunate to have music as a major part of our daily lives and we get just as much pleasure making music with people who play just for fun as performing with major artists on the professional stage. What we bring to projects with people and communities is the joy of making new music from scratch together. Sure we will bring some starting points but so will those who get involved – their experiences, their stories and their talent – and we start at the same place. More importantly we bring belief, belief that everyone who gets involved has something unique to say and has the ability to improvise, compose and perform.
What Once in a Blue Moon Band reminds us is that music is one of life’s great blessings and that playing music is a natural activity that you can return to time and time again.