Making a Big Noise: Charity spreads the power of music across Scotland

Early on a crisp morning, the sound of strings can be heard emanating from the windows of a Govanhill community centre.

Excited children have arrived bright and early, eager to get their hands on a violin and, for many, it’s the first time they’ve ever held one.

“When you’re engaged in music you’re engaged with your whole body and soul,” senior musician Fiona Campbell told Scotland Tonight.

That is the message she tries to instil in every child who walks into her class.

Whether they have had the fortune to pick up a violin before or have never touched a musical instrument in their life, Fiona believes the value of music tuition is essential.

“You’re engaged physically, you’re learning to coordinate, you’re learning to read,” she said. “You cannot resist feeling the joy when you’re making music together.”

Since 2014, Fiona has been teaching in Glasgow with Big Noise, a social enterprise programme dedicated to ensuring children in targeted communities across Scotland have access to in-depth music classes.

Glasgow’s Govanhill is one of six areas around Scotland where a Big Noise programme currently exists.

Children from as young as nursery age can access high-quality music education, and even join specially curated symphony orchestras, with all instruments and activities free of charge.

Scotland Tonight spent time with the group as they prepared for the biggest performance in the charity’s 16-year history.

‘Once in a lifetime opportunities’

Aarush Bakshi, 17, has been attending Big Noise for a decade after “instinctively” choosing the violin at the age of just seven.

He is now one of the programme’s most dedicated and talented young musicians having performed with the BBC’s Symphony Orchestra and even the famous Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona.

Aarush Bakshi has been attending Big Noise since the age of seven STV News

He said: “It’s definitely made quite a big impact on my life. Like things I do day-to-day and things I can get involved with and experience a lot of, that is down to Big Noise. So without that I probably wouldn’t have done anything to be honest.”

Double bass player Cleonè McGuire, 17, agrees. She says Big Noise has become a lifeline for social interaction over the last few years.

“There was a time last year where I was really low, when I wasn’t going to school,” she said.

Cleonè McGuire has been learning the double bass with Big Noise STV News

“I wasn’t even seeing my family. I wasn’t leaving my room, but I still came to Big Noise.”

Cleonè’s mum Leanne told Scotland Tonight: “When Cleonè first started at Big Noise I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that we lived in poverty.

“We weren’t well off as a family, so there’s no way I would have been able to afford lessons – let alone double bass lessons. It has created so many opportunities, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for her.”

Big Noise offers immersive, professional music training that can see a child through every stage of education; something those involved believe is an immeasurable asset to their development.

The power of music has also been recognised by the Scottish Government, who committed three years ago to ensuring music tuition is fully funded across the country’s 32 local authorities.

However, a major shortage of music teachers and resources has led to restrictions on those who are able to have access.

As a result, recent studies show only five local authorities could offer places in instrumental music lessons for all pupils who were interested. For the other 27, waiting lists are in place as the number of interested pupils outstrips their ability to provide lessons.

“Big Noise is important because it gives an experience and an opportunity to children who might not have it,” says Fiona.

“Learning an instrument is really expensive and especially a sustained amount of lessons, which it takes to get good at it.

“You need a lot of input from professionals, from professional musicians, so Big Noise works in targeted areas and gives this opportunity to children that I don’t think would have had it otherwise.”

She added: “We will do what we do because we believe intrinsically in the values of what Big Noise brings.

“We will keep doing that no matter what, would I want there to be more for more children in Scotland? Absolutely. Because, the benefits of learning an instrument – the physiological and psychological impacts that it has – it’s like nothing else.”

The big performance

Since its establishment in Raploch, Stirling in 2008, Big Noise is bigger than ever, expanding into communities in Govanhill, Torry, Douglas, Fallin and Western Hails.

The project was threatened with closure last year but it was saved after the Scottish Government intervened to provide £1.5m in funding.

To celebrate the rising success, every Big Noise group across Scotland joined forces for the biggest performance in the charity’s 16-year history this summer.

David Munn, the director of music. STV News

More than 60 young people around Scotland took part in the orchestra, with a varied programme including an arrangement of the Scottish pipe band staple “Highland Cathedral”, and a rendition of Bill Haley and the Comets’ rock and roll classic, ‘Rock Around the Clock’.

The work was a culmination of weeks of rehearsal and symbolises the organisation’s plans for the future.

“It’s a really special moment for the organisation now being 16 years old to celebrate everything that’s going on in the country and have it here in one place,” said David Munn, the director of music.

“What I want them to take away is the buzz of sharing what it is they’ve been working on. But also for them to take away something of this experience that they can transfer into their life beyond music.”

For more information about Big Noise click here.

Watch the full report, Scotland Tonight: The Power of Music, on Thursday at 8:30pm on STV and the STV Player.