Every month we shine a light on a different Youth Music Initiative activity to celebrate the wonderful work funded through this important Scottish Government-supported initiative. In this month's Spotlight, find out what happened when Ed Sheeran made a surprise visit to Edinburgh-based Tinderbox Collective earlier this year.
Ed Sheeran with members of the North Edinburgh Community Choir, image couresty of Tinderbox Collective.
From grass-roots youth work to award-winning music productions, Tinderbox Collective is a vibrant and eclectic community of young musicians and artists in Scotland. We work with thousands of young people each year through our music projects, game-design workshops and creative productions.
It’s hard to explain the impact of our visit from global pop superstar and singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran on 10th January this year. It was an absolutely astonishing experience for children and young people who participate in our YMI Funded projects in Muirhouse and Pilton and across Edinburgh. It was also an incredible and uplifting experience for all of the team members, teachers and others involved in the day. The visit formed part of the launch of the Ed Sheeran Foundation, a new music education initiative setting out to support and develop young talent and make music accessible to all.
For the first stop of his visit Ed stunned participants from Tinderbox music and games clubs at Muirhouse Library, where he joined a group of young people trying out different instruments from the library and games made by young people at Tinderbox games clubs. It was really impressive how careful he was to pay close attention to the all the young people involved and made sure to connect with everyone there and what they were doing. It was a really special experience for everyone involved and Ed’s genuine commitment to the work of his foundation was immediately clear.
Maxwell from Craigroyston High School said: “We were absolutely shocked. I’ve always admired Ed Sheeran and the way he sings and his music. I want to do music and now I feel even more motivated.”
Musician and Trainee at Tinderbox Collective, Ano said: “Unbelievable. I really like Ed and I listen to his music. Just to see him right now is amazing. Crazy. Inspiring.”
Ed Sheeran with members of Tinderbox's music and games clubs, image courtesy of Tinderbox.
Muirhouse Library was the first of Scotland’s We Make Music Instrument Libraries – an initiative to get musical instruments into public libraries so people can borrow them for free, just like taking out a book. We established the initiative in partnership with Scotland’s Music Education Partnership Group and it has since spread to over 30 libraries in 12 local authorities across Scotland. The whole project started with a YMI-funded pilot project we ran with Muirhouse library in 2018 that aimed to offer instruments to participants from our music club to be able to continue to use instruments over the Summer break. The ambition is now to spread this as widely as possible across the country. Other libraries or library services interested in joining this programme and offering instruments as part of their service should get in touch. YMI has continued to support the initiative as it has grown and over 1200 instruments were loaned out in the last year.
After the library we moved across to West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre where Ed helped to lead the first ever rehearsal of North Edinburgh Community Choir which is made up of pupils from Forthview Primary School, Craigroyston Primary School, Pirniehall Primary School, St David’s RC Primary School and Craigroyston High School. The choir is part of a YMI funded community singing project we are running in Muirhouse and Pilton.
Ed Sheeran and members of the North Edinburgh Community Choir, image courtesy of Tinderbox Collective.
The school choirs will all come together and join with other local community groups to form the full North Edinburgh Community Choir for a performance at this year’s North Edinburgh Community Festival as a show of community strength and support. To have Ed leading the first group rehearsal of the school choirs was mind blowing. He also did a really insightful Q&A with the young people from the choirs that really helped us to understand his message about the importance of music education and participation for young people and their development.
Rhian from Craigroyston High School said: “Singing with him is something we’ll always remember.”
“He came in and we all started screaming and there were happy tears” added Lily from Pirniehall Primary School
Finally, Ed joined a rehearsal with musicians from across Tinderbox’s core programmes – including our Orchestra, Muirhouse Music Club and Sparks (a young, song-writers orchestra), to work on a special arrangement of his smash hit Bad Habits. Sparks is a YMI-funded project where young people compose new music and lyrics around science-based topics in partnership with Edinburgh’s science centre and planetarium, Dynamic Earth.
The visit to Edinburgh marked the official launch of the Ed Sheeran Foundation, an initiative designed to support youth music education across the UK through grant-making, raising awareness, and fostering collaborations.
Speaking about the foundation, Ed said: “Music education has shaped who I am. I’ve always enjoyed playing music, and it’s led to some of the best moments of my life.”
As one of the first organisations across the UK to benefit, the foundation will support Tinderbox’s “Live in Libraries” tour to help kickstart Instrument Libraries around the UK, as well as their other programmes including the multi-genre Tinderbox Orchestra, music technology lab and youth music programme.
Ed Sheeran’s visit underscores the importance of music education and the positive impact of making it accessible to all. In Scotland, a successful campaign to make instrumental tuition in schools free across the country was adopted by all parties in the last Scottish elections, and research from What’s Going on Now - a report on youth music in Scotland - has shown that over 100,000 more young people would take up opportunities to learn music if the service was expanded.
Jack Nissan, Director of Tinderbox Collective, said: “Ed’s visit was so inspiring for all the young musicians in Tinderbox and it’s fantastic to have him advocate for music education and help build links with the wider music industry. We need to work together across schools, the community and the industry to fill music education with as much energy, diversity and creativity as possible, and to make sure that it is accessible, relevant and inspiring for everyone.”