Good Vibrations

The gamelan in prisons project

Good Vibrations logo

The Good Vibrations Project was set up in 2003 to pilot gamelan workshops in UK prisons.

The focus of the project was on assessing gamelan's effectiveness in helping prisoners develop key skills such as team-working, communication and concentration.

There were five participating prisons, which encompassed a range of regimes and categories of prisoner (a maximum security prison, two closed prisons, a semi-closed prison and a young offenders' institution).

In all, 124 prisoners took part in short 'taster' sessions, following which 64 of them chose to continue with in-depth workshops lasting several days. Groups ranged in size from 10-20 participants.

They learned traditional Javanese pieces (a simple lancaran e.g. Ricik Ricik plus, in some cases, Ketawang Subakastawa), developed their own group compositions and took part in group improvisations.

At the end of the workshops, prisoners performed the pieces they had learnt in front of audiences of fellow-inmates and staff.

CDs were produced of each prison's efforts for the men to have as a tangible reminder of their achievements, as well as a compilation CD of the project's 'greatest hits'.

 

The workshops were led by experienced gamelan teachers, generally working in pairs.

The workshops were successful in attracting prisoners with low levels of educational achievement, who had never done anything musical before and who had not previously taken part in prison education.

Prison education staff judged the workshops to be extremely effective at developing participants' team-working, communication and listening skills.

They also judged them to be more effective in building participants' self-confidence and self-esteem than other types of arts project.

The workshops were also found to have a calming and stress-relieving effect on participants. Some typical comments from participants were:

'Gamelan has opened a new door, it could change how I think'

'I learnt to trust others, appreciate what others can do; that sometimes I need help and can't do everything on my own - it will help me in other group situations.'

The workshop leaders found it the most challenging, emotionally-draining, yet rewarding work of their lives.

The evaluation report is available as a PDF file from the Good Vibrations project co-ordinator, Cathy Eastburn.

Contact

Email cathy@good-vibrations.org.uk