Oct 23

Never Mind The Stigma, Here's Richer Sounds

Tonic Music will be providing a series of online album clubs, record reflection sessions and mental health workshops on the Never Mind The Stigma programme - supported by Richer Sounds.

Richer Sounds is supporting a series of online album clubs, record reflection sessions and preventative workshops on the Never Mind The Stigma programme, providing free mental health support tailored for music fans.

"It is great to be partnering with Richer Sounds to provide a programme of mental health support tailored for music fans.

There is a lack of mental health support for people who are passionate about music, particularly through services that involve listening to music, as opposed to playing. We a proud to be launching this innovative programme of mental health support.

A big thank you goes to Richer Sounds for supporting Tonic Music to provide these groups and workshops across the next 12 months, free to all music fans.”

Jeordie Shenton Tonic Music, Programmes Lead

Album Clubs

The Album Clubs will be online groups consisting of six weekly 90-minute sessions based upon the concept of a book club, but with a focus on albums and mental health. Each week a different album will be chosen, which participants will be asked to listen to and reflect upon before a session, for the purposes of discussing in relation to mental health. In the penultimate session, a guest speaker will join the session, who will be the artist(s) of the chosen album for that week, offering deeper insight into the music. To encourage participants across the six weeks, participants will be required to attend at least three of the first four sessions. These groups are open for up to 12 participants, who are encouraged to attend all of the sessions. Across 12 months, four Album Clubs will be facilitated around the following subcultures: indie, mod, punk and ska.

Record Reflection

The Record Reflection sessions will follow the Album Clubs, as an open group for up to 20 previous and new participants, who will be able to attend as many sessions as they would like across 12 weeks. Each participant will be asked to select a song to talk about within the upcoming session in relation to their mental health. Before the sessions, the list of chosen songs will be shared with all participants, to provide an opportunity for everyone to listen should they wish.

Both the album clubs and record reflection sessions hosted online via a Zoom group call and facilitated by a qualified mental health practitioner.

Mental Health Workshops

Gig Anxiety is a workshop teaching music fans techniques to help address anxieties related to attending gigs and concerts, particularly concerning social anxiety. For many music fans, social anxiety is a significant barrier to engaging in music, which in turn contributes further to poor mental health. This workshop will identify some of the common factors triggering social anxiety at gigs and concerts of varying sizes, along with guidance on how to reduce, and eventually, prevent these symptoms from occurring.

Festival Survival is a workshop teaching music fans how to maintain good mental health when attending music festivals. The workshop will cover a range of wellbeing topics in relation to music festivals, including nutrition (food and mood), sleep, substance use, exercise and sensory overload (hearing and vision). This workshop will identify some of the common factors contributing to poor mental health at music festivals, along with guidance on how to address such issues both before and while attending.

Music For Mental Health is a workshop teaching music fans grounding techniques and self-soothing exercises that use music, such as emotion-based playlists. Grounding techniques and self-soothing exercises help reduce stress and anxiety, both within and outside of music contexts. Most notably, this workshop will be beneficial to music fans who wish to use music therapeutically, but who do not possess the abilities to play music themselves.