JDF’s Caribbean Military School of Music tackles crime and violence
Published:Wednesday | August 24, 2022 | 12:08 AMMichael Reckord/Gleaner Writer
Man has long believed in the power of music to bring peace to troubled minds and situations. Famously, playwrights William Shakespeare and William Congreve captured the concept when writing, in their respective plays, about music being “the food of love” and having “charms to soothe the savage breast”.
It’s an idea to which the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) subscribes, JDF Director of Music Lt Rafael Salazar told The Gleaner during an interview at Up Park Camp with Salazar and two other top administrator-musicians of the JDF’s 18-month-old Caribbean Military School of Music (CMSoM). The other officers were Captain O’Neal Mundle, the school’s director, and Warrant Officer Class 1 Albert Shaun Hird, acting deputy chief instructor and bandmaster.
Mundle said that the thinking behind the JDF’s community intervention in trouble spots was that, aside from using force, the JDF believed it could take “a softer approach” to transforming the minds of at-risk youth. Specifically, music programmes could help to alleviate crime and violence.
A three-week-long summer camp conducted last month through the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) has shown evidence that the theory is valid, Mundle said. The camp involved 20 students, 13 males and seven females, mainly from ZOSO-controlled communities in August Town, Rousseau Road, Greenwich Town and Arnett Gardens.
The intense, immersive course was conducted on the camp grounds with the JDF performing administrative and curricula oversight duties and tutors coming from the Edna Manley College School of Music. Most of the participants were new to music, though a few had some experience from church or school.
With contributions from the other two service members, Mundle spoke of the initial excitement as well as tension among the groups. “It took time to break the tendency for indiscipline down,” the director said, “but we tried not to make the programme too regimented. Fortunately, we had a good supply of instruments – guitars (classical and bass), conga drums, keyboard, trap set… and, of course, we had a lot of singing.”
There was a “mission accomplished” tone to Hird’s voice as he declared that though the participants’ being from different communities posed a challenge, “by the end of the course, they were friends”. He was pleasantly surprised, he added, with the support that the students’ families gave them when they attended the end-of-course performance.
Mundle said he was happy that some participants indicated that they wanted to return for more training. “We’re in discussions about this with JSIF,” he revealed.
He likened the project to the El Sistema music education programme being conducted in Venezuela since 1975 to help young people to achieve their full potential and acquire positive values. Now the most famous music education programme in the world and one copied by numerous countries, it targets some one million young people.
The Gleaner was told of other courses run by the CMSoM since it began training in March 2021. The first, a basic, nine-month-long music course for the soldiers, ended with all 14 who completed it going into two JDF bands, the Jamaica Military Band and the Jamaica Regiment Band, Salazar said. The graduates were certified by HEART/NSTA.
Another similar course, again with 14 participants, began recently. The training is in music appreciation, oral and sight singing, a principal instrument, music theory and ensemble work. Mundle said that it will allow graduates to eventually matriculate into the school’s degree programme, which, though not yet launched, “is in the pipeline”.
The CMSoM head explained that the first degree will be in music performance with a military flavour – with pageantry and marches, for example – and so will be different from other first degree music programmes offered in Jamaica. The programme will be available not only to those in the army, but also to the police locally – in fact, the current cohort includes three police officers – and also others outside of the island.
The CMSoM is one of nine training institutions within the JDF’s Caribbean Military Academy, which offers several programmes internationally.
As research is “a key pillar in academic institutions”, Mundle said, the CMSoM would also be engaging in extensive music research. Questions to be answered, he said, include: “To what extent does music really change behaviour? What are the experiences of the participants? How effective are the musical interventions in the various communities?” And he stated, “If we want to influence national policy direction, we need evidence.”