Call it the spark, call it engagement: that moment when you realise music isn’t a secret society - you can do it too. Playing, singing, suddenly you’re up on the wave, you’ve ditched the training wheels and you’re not looking in from the outside any more. Helping run a Soundwave workshop two years ago, my main memory is of young people, keen, shy, even cocky, experiencing their own moments of realisation. A smile spreads, they lean forward and listen closer, or their guard simply drops, as the spark hits.

Next week there’s a bigger programme of Soundwave 2007 workshops at the Priory Music Block. Experienced and inspiring tutors, Starfish’s Steve Franklin and Iain Paxon among them, will run three or four sessions each morning and afternoon. The sessions, for 11-18 year-olds, are all free, and you’re welcome whatever your abilities. In 2005, I was so impressed by the way these capable tutors made the most of the time for each individual, whatever skills they already possessed. The thirty-two sessions cover a huge span, and include percussion, beatboxing, rap, guitar, street dance, dj-ing, even radio, sound engineering and gig and band promotion. If you have an interest in music, there’s something in the programme for you, and you might even get to hear your efforts when workshop highlights are featured on the following weekend’s Soundwave FM broadcasts.

Also under the Soundwave umbrella are quite a few live events - four young local bands play the festival opening event on Saturday at the Romney Hut in Newhaven Fort.