25/05/2009 by admin.

A couple of months ago I decided to try to grow the number of readers of YES magazine, the music education magazine that I edit as part of my work with Yamaha. I have always enjoyed the challenge of turning negatives into positives (or at least giving it a shot) so the reduced budgets that most of the commercial sector has been enduring since the recession kicked in last Autumn provided a suitable trigger for that process to begin.

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18/07/2008 by admin.

Well I’ve managed somehow to find some time to work some more on my jazz playing and am really starting to notice the difference.

I’ve spent some time practising useful scales - particularly diminished and melodic minor modes - and am becoming a bit less wooden in my use of them when improvising. I’ve done some ’round the circle’ playing of motifs and licks in all keys but need to do more of that. I’ve focussed mostly on a couple of tunes as a playground for trying things out. These include ‘My Foolish Heart’ and McCoy Tyner’s ‘Walk Spirit Talk Spirit’.

I still need to work on faster playing; I still stumble over fingering during faster impro passages but have no trouble if I learn a passage. I guess I just need to get used to either thinking ahead a bit more or to working with a range of different fingering.

Off to the Jazzwise Summer School in just over a week. My erstwhile fear has gone, after a few months of practice, and I’m really looking forward to it.

The whole point of going is to write up my experience in Yamaha’s YES magazine, which I edit, and hopefully inspire teachers to invest some time in their own jazz playing. If they do this they will find, as I’ve done, that their teaching will move up a gear (and not just in jazz) and they will get untold measures of personal satisfaction!

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23/02/2008 by admin.

Professionals working in music education can now join the Yamaha Education Community online at www.yamahaeducation.co.uk and following the joining instructions.

This free service allows community members to take part in a broad range of activities and share ideas and information about all things music education.

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01/01/2008 by admin.

I’ve launched the first of two Yamaha Music Education websites: www.yamahamusiceducation.co.uk

This site is where you’ll find information about the projects and activities in music education that Yamaha is involved with in the UK. It also presents information about YES magazine and items of relevant news.

Providing information is all very well, but what makes a difference is people. So I’m preparing a second website, to be hosted by the company, Webjam, where groups of people can share ideas, best practice, video clips and various other media, related to the teaching of music and music technology. I hope to launch this later in January (2008) and will announce it in due course.

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