The Music Workshop Company Blog

Each month the Music Workshop Company publishes two blogs. One blog, written by the MWC team addresses a key issue in Music Education or gives information about a particular genre or period of music. The other blog is written by a guest writer, highlighting good practice or key events in Music Education. We hope you enjoy reading the blogs.

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To contribute as a guest writer please email Maria@music-workshop.co.uk

Posts tagged “MUSIC WORKSHOP COMPANY”

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Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival

Posted on 31st May 2024 at 11:21

Each year, the Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival takes place in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. The event features book seller and publisher stands as well as a range of activities and talks for children, families and parents spanning all types of culture, from music to animation. This year, the Music Workshop Company’s Artistic Director, Maria Thomas, was there delivering music workshops. In this post, she reflects on her experience of the festival.

Image: Maria prepares to deliver a workshop at the festival's School of Talents.

Jazz in our community

Posted on 31st January 2024 at 15:26

When the Watford Jazz Junction was founded in 2020, its festival put inclusion and mental wellbeing at its heart. (It’s one reason we at the Music Workshop Company didn’t hesitate when we were asked to be involved, and we’re delighted to be back this year delivering a special workshop for young people aged 4-12).

Each year, Watford Jazz Junction works to ensure its events represent the various communities it serves, offering people of all backgrounds a way to connect and express themselves. With the organisers busy preparing a diverse programme for 2024, Chris Newstead, the festival’s Director and Founder, took time out to tell us more about the ethos behind the event.

(Image: participants at the Music Workshop Company's 2023 workshop at Watford Jazz Junction.)

Songlines for Parkinson's: how can music help people with Parkinson's?

Posted on 29th September 2023 at 12:34

This month, music psychologist Dr Dawn Rose tells us about Songlines for Parkinson’s, an innovative project she and her research team have been working on with The Music Workshop Company’s Artistic Director, Maria Thomas.

Dawn explains how the course offers a new way of using music to help people with Parkinson’s to manage some of their symptoms.

What we’ve learned from 20 years of delivering music workshops

Posted on 16th September 2022 at 17:33

This month The Music Workshop Company celebrates 20 years in Music Education. Having started as a vague idea for a service that helped schools and musicians work together, MWC has worked with schools, community groups and businesses from Anglesey to East Anglia, Shetland to Southampton, working with hundreds of thousands of participants.

MWC’s Artistic Director and Founder, Maria Thomas, reflects on lessons learnt over the last 20 years and gives her top tips for creating a successful workshop.

Image by Ann H, Pexels

A Short History of the Piano

Posted on 12th August 2020 at 12:07

The first piano was made some time during the late 1600s or early 1700s by the Italian musical instrument maker Bartolomeo Cristofori.

These early instruments were called clavicembalo col piano e forte, which translates as harpsichord with soft and loud.

This description is how the piano got its full name; the pianoforte.

Jazz: the “Standard Repertoire”

Posted on 15th June 2020 at 16:06

Jazz standards are musical compositions that form a fundamental part of the repertoire and language of jazz.

They are often performed and recorded, and are therefore widely known to listeners.

They are also used within education to introduce key musical concepts such as certain chord progressions and modes.