Sigiya Ngengoma! Significance of participation in the Field Band Foundation of South Africa
Master thesis
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Date
2012-06-06Metadata
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- Masteroppgaver [284]
Abstract
The Field Band Foundation is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) and was established in 1997 to give young South Africans from economically and socially challenged backgrounds, opportunities to learn life skills and develop themselves trough music and dance. Through a positive leisure activity in music and a life skills program the Field Band Foundation aims to address the issues of social difficulty experienced by the participating communities. The Field Band Foundation has identified its role as: “To create opportunities for the development of life skills in the youth through the medium of music and dance”. This mission statement evoked my interest, as I found it to be closely related to music and health promotion. This is a field where I, as a music therapist, have a professional competence. The starting point of the current research project was an interest in investigating how the youth in the Field Band Foundation can gain life skills through the musical activity in a band. - Research focus: This exploratory study is about community music as part of health promotion in everyday life. Its aim is to investigate how participation in a band can be of significance for South African youth from socially and economically challenged backgrounds. The research question is: “What aspects seem to be of significance to the youth in the Field Band Foundation when participating in the band?” The Field Band Foundation assemblage presents several constraints, as the scope of this project does not allow me to enter every aspect with the same degree of detail. I have chosen to maintain a strong focus on the subjective stories of the musicians, as I believe the participant perspective should be emphasized. The amount of information I got during the fieldwork in 2009 was significant, and left me with no option but to limit myself to no more than two main fields of inquiry, namely social perspectives and musicking as self-care. It is my aim to discuss these two foci in a way that sets the stage for discussions that range into more general issues about music and health promotion. Generally, playing in a band involves human interaction. When discussing how participation in a band can be health promoting for the musicians, I choose to keep the focus on the human interaction, which happens in or as a result of the activity of music. Certain aspects limit the value of this study. As indicated earlier I have chosen to focus on the subjective stories of the musicians. Hence, this study cannot be used to draw generalized conclusions about health promoting through participation in a band. This thesis does not aim to evaluate the efficiency of the Field Band Foundation, neither does it focus on educational attitudes, such as curriculum or choice of repertoire.
Description
Norges musikkhøgskole. Masteroppgave. Musikkterapi