Back from EAS Leauven

We are just back from the EAS (European Association for Music in Schools) conference in Belgium where I was leading a workshop .

THREE NOTE SYMPHONY.

At a time when teachers are being asked to do more than ever in the shortest time,

this practical session aimed to provide new ideas and material, as well as teacher confidence.

It was aimed at classroom teachers and instrumental teachers who wanted to inspire beginner musicians and encourage their enjoyment of playing together right from the start.

I wanted to show how  students in the classroom or in instrumental tuition groups could be motivated and have fun right from their first notes and play together in an ensemble of any combination. 

Much of the workshop was based on my writing for beginners, and I was able to introduce my  instrumental piece"Jigsaw Jam" . Parts and accompaniments for this could be downloaded free by delegates for use in their own schools.

The session was well received, and we had a lot of fun. It was so interesting meeting music educators from all over Europe. The conference was in English, and there were only nine of us from the UK, so most people were constantly thinking in their second (or third....) language (great respect!!).

There were some excellent sessions during the conference and it had been organised with intelligence and hard work. There was an excellent balance of seminars and workshops for the wide range of music educators that were there. I enjoyed the experience, and have come back fired with new ideas.

Parts of a jigsaw!

It has been a very exciting few months as far as "Jigsaw Jam" is concerned with some huge performances including the "Schools Prom"  and the "MFY Primary Proms"at the Albert Hall London. There have also been Primary proms at Coulston Hall Bristol, and at Symphony Hall Birmingham. It has been such an incredible experience, and I feel so blessed to have been given the opportunity to write this piece. I do hope it will be useful for teachers, and that they will download it FREE along with accompaniments and backing tracks .http://www.mfy.org.uk/evolve/thesoundvault/jigsawjam

This was my evaluation of the whole experience.

It was a great honour to be asked to write "Jigsaw Jam" for Music For Youth. I was  excited that the piece could be accessed freely by anyone, and could be very useful to teachers in providing "grass routes" ensemble repertoire  (of which there is little) at a time when they really needed it.

Currently, as part of the governments "first access" initiative, teachers all over the country are being asked to teach whole classes of instrumentalists so that every child gets an opportunity to play.This instrumental teaching is sometimes for a year, and sometimes only for a term. This means that often only a few notes are learned.

My brief, was to write an ensemble piece for any child who had learned in a beginner group like this, so that they could play together in an  ensemble of any combination, using the first notes they had learned. This was to show the achievements of their first months of learning, and to celebrate Them.

The piece provided me with a huge challenge, first in finding out what instruments were likely to be taught in these groups, then what  the first few notes learned on each instrument were, and  what technical difficulties were associate with each one. Having done that ( considering also that they were all in different keys), I had to write a piece that made them sound good and motivated the individual players to continue learning the instrument if they were able. 

The experience and information gathered in the writing of this piece (with nine sections), has been invaluable. I have continued to use it in composing other motivating materials for beginner combinations like these.

 Teachers have very little time to arrange repertoire for themselves, so Music For Youth provided exactly the right thing for them at the right time. I hope as many teachers as possible find out they  are able to download the parts, accompaniments and backing tracks  free from the Music For Youth website.

Creating this piece was an incredible experience, which developed my writing for this sort of group. It gave me a greater understanding of the difficulties for teachers in finding motivating and useful materials for this current method of delivering instrumental tuition.

I am grateful for this experience and the positive outcomes.