Make your opinion count by responding to the Curriculum and Assessment Review

The Government is running an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review with the aim to gather perspectives and evidence that can help refresh and update the national curriculum and statutory assessment system in England. The Musicians' Union is responding to it on behalf of its members, submitting arguments in favour of arts and music education, and you can do the same by answering to the review online before Friday, 22nd November.

The Review has a big scope, and it's looking for solid evidence and potential solutions to the main problems faced in the education of children and teenagers aged 5 to 19. If you feel that you don’t have an informed opinion to contribute to the discussion regarding one specific section of this massive enterprise, it's alright: you can answer only to what matters to you, and your opinion will be taken into account anyway.

The Musicians' Union has highlighted the sections more relevant to arts and music education, and has some advice...

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Time For My Music's evening showcase was a roaring success!

The Time For My Music evening showcase on Tuesday 29th October was fabulous. The women stepped up to the mark and delivered a performance that blew everybody's minds. They were glamorous and classy, engaging the audience (a full house of it!) to share hours of great music played with their hearts and souls. Truly, the event couldn't possibly have gone better. 

The significance of this achievement goes beyond the stage. The women didn't only perform at the evening showcase, but they actually organised it and produced it. They learned what's needed to put on a show, who to contact, and how to go about things. Using her experience producing the Not Just Jazz shows, Millicent guided them and provided them with the necessary skills so they can do it again by themselves in the future, being transparent with them in regard to location options and regulations, costs, etc.

The show is over, but the learning continues. There are things that still need to be taken care of,...

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Louise Dengate takes you to the world of Gospel Choirs

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Tickets for the ‘Time For My Music’ evening showcase are available!

We have a date and a place! On Tuesday 29th October 2024, the women of Time For My Music will perform live at the MAC Theatre of Birmingham. Get ready for an evening of jazz, soul, gospel and reggae by these accomplished emerging musicians, in a show that’s sure to warm your heart in the midst of these progressively colder autumn days.

Tickets are only £10.00 plus a small booking fee. If you are part of a group of five people or more, please send an e-mail to [email protected] in order to arrange a discount

Get your tickets here.

Don't forget to share this information with your friends and family. We're looking forward to seeing you all at the theatre!

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Ideas to fund the Time For My Music concert

Our online community for emerging musicians, Time For My Music, is preparing their first ever live concert in the city of Birmingham, UK. It’s been an exciting and inspiring process so far. The participants have brought a lot of energy, ideas and dreams to the table. For example, they’ve suggested music pieces that they’ve always wanted to have in their repertoire. Without revealing the whole set list, we can say that Stevie Wonder’s Superstition and Bob Marley’s One Love are among the selected songs. They’re sounding great already!

In regard to the date, we’re aiming for some time in November. Besides the music, though, there are many things we have to figure out first. One of them is how to pay for the expenses of the event. While we will sell tickets, we’d only be able to cover all the costs if we did so for a price that we consider too high. This means that we need to compliment ticket sales with other forms of...

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The Challenge of the Perfect Embouchure

The main instrument of any musician is their own body. From the brain to the limbs, to the internal organs, to the skin, different parts of the body interact with musical instruments, with other bodies and the world around them to create music. It's no wonder, then, that musicians and their health are a topic of interest in medicine.

An interesting example was presented by the British Dental Museum this year with the exhibition The Challenge of the Perfect Embouchure. Defined as "the way in which a player applies their mouth to the mouthpiece of a brass or wind instrument, especially as it affects the production of the sound," embouchure is critical for players of these kinds of instruments.

The exhibition was dedicated to Maurice Porter, a dentist and amateur clarinettist who became an authority on embouchure during the 50s and 60s. One of the first doctors to pay attention to how poor dental or facial health was specifically detrimental to wind and brass players, Porter wrote some...

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TRANSCRIPTION: "Success Beyond The Score" Podcast, S.3, EP. 6

Here is the transcription of episode 6 of season 3 of the podcast "Success Beyond The Score". Happy reading!


- Watch the video of the episode here: YouTube

- Listen to the audio of the episode here: Kajabi


PODCAST INTRO:

Hello, hello, hello! I hope you can hear me. I'm just checking my mic levels. Of course, if you can't, please put a message in the chat. Now, today is scorching. It's super hot here, which is kind of nice! We don't get a lot of really hot weather, and then we complain, and then it gets cold, and we want the hot weather back. But it's great. So, at some point, I may have to put a fan on, because I've just kind of kept all the windows closed to stop the noise on the microphone. Let me just make that a bit closer to me. Yep. And, hopefully that should work. Just let me know in the chat if everything is fine.

Okay, today we have got an interesting hot topic, and that is: is playing for free a contradiction for musicians?

Thinking of this title, I thought,...

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The Impact of "AI" on the Music Industry

The boom of generative AI brings difficult challenges to the music industry. In an effort to keep regulations on par with the development of this technology, the Musicians' Union is pushing for copyright law to be upheld in relation to it, and for new rights to be introduced that will protect musicians and music creators from any unauthorised use of their works and performances.

Generative AI needs massive amounts of data —in the case of music, the input is millions of songs and sound samples— to train with, before it can generate pieces from given prompts. This data so far has been collected without explicit consent by its original, human creators. Developers argue that their LLMs (large language models, generally referred to as "AI") learn from the source data in a way similar to humans, therefore they can't incur in copyright infringement. However, these systems are unable to create their own ideas. Instead, they search for patterns...

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Nominations open for the MU's Executive and Regional committees

Nominations for the Musicians' Union Executive and Regional committees 2024-2025 are open until midday of Wednesday 27th September, 2023.

The Executive committee is the governing body of the union and it's in charge of taking major decisions that affect the working conditions of musicians across the country. The Regional committees are in charge of day-to-day management and perception of local concerns. If you, or someone you know, have a passion for social work and political change, consider submitting your or their name for a nomination. You could make a big difference! 

Click here to read all the information on what the positions entail and what are the requisites to apply. If you have specific questions about the role you'd have in a committee, you can contact our director Millicent Stephenson at [email protected] and ask about her experience. She was part of the Executive Committee for a few years, and she's currently part of the Regional Committee for the...

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Come to have a Drink, Chill and Chat with Time For My Music

After years operating online due to the conditions of the pandemic, Time For My Music will have a meeting in person! We are very excited to finally see each other in the flesh and share some quality time. In addition, we want to use the occasion to hopefully introduce more emerging female musicians to the community. If you are a woman in music who can attend an event in Birmingham (UK) this Saturday 10th June between 2pm and 4pm, please know we'd be delighted to have you there!

How to know if this event is right for you? Well, if:

  • You are a female musician (for example: pianist, guitarist, drummer, percussionist, wind player, singer, rapper).
  • Your music is your hobby, or side hustle, but you are not making much money
  • You are stuck with how to take your music forward
  • You are looking for a space to discuss situations that affect women in music, without cynical or negative feedback.
  • Knowing about mics, and what the buttons on an amplifier/PA system...
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