LET'S MAKE SWEET MUSIC TOGETHER
Using the universal language of music to bring people together
Music is a universal part of the human experience that is found in every society across the globe. Like food, music has the power to connect people across different circumstances, cultures, and languages, even in instances where distrust and animosity exist between groups. Research has shown that the act of playing music together “can be a powerful medium for social interaction,” coordinating the movements and rhythm of individuals in harmony with one another. When performing together, musicians are “not just ‘spending time’, together, they are sharing time…coordinated at the level of milliseconds.”
In 2019, inspired by music’s power to connect people to each other, Philadelphia Parks & Recreation and the Fairmount Park Conservancy asked our team at Interface Studio, along with Tiny WPA, Mad Beatz Philly, and The Free Library of Philadelphia’s Music Department, to create a program that could leverage music in cultivating social capital between people of different backgrounds. The result was “Let’s Make Sweet Music Together”, an initiative designed to give people free access to instruments and collaborative music programming in an open air, mobile music cart that debuted at The Oval+ last summer.
The installation consisted of a mobile music cart, designed and built in collaboration with Tiny WPA. This studio acted as a “third place” — inviting people to stop, play, and jam together. Seven young “Building Heroes” (aged 15–26) from Tiny WPA — an organization dedicated to “growing an army of talented community design professionals” — helped lead the creation of the installation. The Building Heroes contributed a large portion of the design and fabrication while also helping prototype solutions for some of the most vexing challenges, such as waterproofing.
Once built, we stocked the installation with a diverse collection of real instruments to ensure that players of all ages and abilities felt welcome to enter and play. Working with librarians in the Philadelphia Free Library Music Department’s MIC Program (as well as music educators running youth programs throughout the city) we built a wide-ranging and relatively affordable collection of over 50 instruments. The collection included string, keyboard, and percussion instruments targeting novice to experienced players of all ages, with everything from kid-friendly percussion tools from West Music to full-size electric guitars from Fender.
Working with music educators John Gore, Zaire Best, and Jesse Mell of Mad Beatz Philly, we hosted a bucket drumming session, hip-hop rhyming workshop, and a Philly-centric Eye of the Tiger power chord workshop. It was critical for us to curate programming that would engage visitors in meaningful interactions and experiences. This programming series, facilitated by young, experienced musicians with a passion for their craft, enabled us to provide high-quality, interactive programming while showcasing a model for cities to tap the creative talents of young musicians to activate public spaces.
Together with Tiny WPA, we worked with The Oval+ ambassadors to develop a protocol for managing the site. The installation was locked and secured at night but was open during operational hours and staffed with one team member whose primary role was to invite people to pick up an instrument and play. This was the result of a deliberate decision over the merits of security vs. access, and in the end, we successfully made the case that public enjoyment and open access to instruments should trump concerns about instruments being damaged or stolen. It ended up being a good decision, as not a single instrument was harmed in the making of this project.
Playing and listening to music can be a powerful medium for social interaction, and we learned that by curating an open access platform for making music together, at its essence, we were providing a platform that encourages all participants to practice the most elemental steps of interaction — to pause, reflect, and listen to one another.
We live in a world where stopping what you’re doing, putting down your phone, and taking a moment to relax, listen, and respond to another human being is something of a radical act. If we want a more empathetic and open society, we need more public spaces and programs that connect people through a universal language that can cut across our differences.
Excerpted from: Let's Make Sweet Music Together - Music in the commons brings diverse communities together
