Creative Sessions 2026 round up
We delivered a series of six practice-based creative sessions from February to March 2026. The sessions were for young people who are based in Glasgow, and who are interested in exploring sound, music and creativity. Specifically the sessions were also for those who face barriers to creative opportunities.
The sessions included:
Voxox: Vocal experimentation with Cara Tolmie
Explored different ways of making sound, from simple vocal instructions to playing with the more strange and under used qualities of the voice. Participants took part in vocal experiments, improvisation, and personal exploration – discovering new sounds and playful ways to explore the voice.
Making a scene: how DIY gigs happen (and other stuff too) with Han and Joel
Han and Joel will introduced the practical steps involved in putting on shows: how to book a venue, find acts, ask the right questions, promote your event, and what to look out for when working with artists. They also shared their experience in releasing music and zines through GLARC and Events Research Programme, as well as their involvement in setting up the Communal Leisure listings platform, developing a DIY ticketing system, and starting to investigate forming a workers’ co-op.
Listening Lounge with ladé and Mawadduh
Participants will gathered in a relaxed, lounge-like setting to listen and create together. Using shared recordings, sampling, and real-time decision-making, the workshop explored how listening can guide composition, feeling, and form. Rather than focusing on outcomes, the emphasis was on presence, collective attention, and translating experience into sound.
Breaking Musical Habits with Nakul Krishnamurthy, Ankna Arockiam and Tom Mudd
Participants explored their own musical habits and practices in dialogue with each other and looked at making music in ways that breaks or plays with these habits in new ways.
Funding Advice with the Counterflows Team
The team discussed and shared their experience of applying for funding, including exploring different funding opportunities for musicians who are interested in performance, recording and community projects. The session covered what to ask for, how to write a good proposal and how to put together a budget.
Touching Music / Knowing Music with Ali Robertson
Explored how music can be experienced beyond the ears—through touch, vibration, movement, and the body. By combining Ali’s experience as a Neurodiverse, partially deaf and untrained musician with new approaches to tactile sound, participants created music together that was accessible, engaging, and meaningful across diverse abilities.
Huge thanks to the facilitators, all those who took part, and Scottish Government’s Youth Music Initiative (YMI) who funded the programme.
Images courtesy of Matthew Arthur Williams.
