Musical Pathways

The annual NAME conference takes place at the end of the week, with the opportunity to network and gain inspiration for the year ahead from the workshops, keynotes and discussions. Musical Pathways are many and various and we should keep open all the different ways to engage with music. Keeping an open mind to new possibilities in the field of technology and new musical ideas from exciting collaborations between musicians. Our education system needs to allow for creativity and innovation and we as music educators need to embrace the possibilities and be flexible in our outlook and teaching, reviewing our position, teaching methods and philosophies to keep apace of a rapidly changing world. 

The national music plan is still in development, and partnerships are developing in preparation. Keeping the needs of young people at the heart of what we do is essential. We will need to work together closely and collaboratively. - music organsations, schools, musicians and the local community. -  To offer wide opportunities with progression routes for all will require different partners to provide diverse opprotunities.  We can continue to provide a vibrant music education but there will undoubtedly be challenges ahead and we will need to work together to ensure that everyone has access to music and  to keep open all the diverse routes needed to engage us all.

Music  technology ought to be an integral part of our thinking about music education and not as a separate entity. ICT is another useful tool, from information, social networking, sharing ideas to competitions - the internet is a vast resource.

The Kalvier Festival Ruhr have a good education website, take a look at  www.petruschka-klavierfestival.de

I have just come across the Skoog  www.skoogmusic.com  this looks like a great new resource for multi sensory learning particularly for children with special needs and disabiliites.

The 'The next brit thing' www.nextbritthing.com  gives young people the opportunity to put their music forward. Schools are encouraged to promote this to students . Uploads begin on 19th September.