Great Feedback from School using ABC Materials in P1-P7

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New updated v3.0 product range announced

The ABC product range from P1 to P7 has been revised with the following features that respond to teacher feedback:

• new Instrument recognition thread
• new pitch recognition development activities using "the mouse and the cat on the stairs"
• web based support
• downloadable planning and assessment sheets
• converting Upper Primary Module 1 & 2 into 3 packs for P5, P6, and P7.
• improved flow through between packs when used in whole school including less repetition of activities between packs

ABC Project in the London Jazz Festival

Tom and Phil Bancroft will be leading a project in 4 primary schools in Barnet, North London ending in a performance on November 16th called "Voice/Body/Space/Groove" and the Arts Depot North Finchley as part of the 2007 London Jazz Festival.

Tom Bancroft wins BBC Jazz Award and Kidsamonium wins a Herald Angel

ABC Co founder Tom Bancroft won a presitigious BBC Jazz Award for innovation on July 12th at the Mermaid Theatre in Londion on front of a star studded audience. The Kidsamonium band played a tune in costume and had the whole audience doing call and response on kazzoos - which went down a storm with everyone exceopt as few jazz 'old fogeys'.

Kidsamonium went on to do a storming run in the Edinburgh Fringe and received a rare and sought after Herald Angel Award for being one of the top sdhows in all the Edinburgh Festivals in 2007.

Summer Workshops a Great Success

During July & August ABC ran 5 4 day summer workshops for 7-12 and 12-18 year olds in:

• East Ayrshire
• Edinburgh
• Midlothian
• Glasgow
• Kirckaldy

Each workshop ended in a concert performace of music composed by the students during the week and they were all FANTASTIC!

ABC founder to debate music education with Julian LLoyd Webber in conference in London 1/07

news flash : julian lloyd webber was defeated in the vote by 3 to 1!!

Leading Scottish Jazz Musician and Educator, Tom Bancroft, is to travel to London next week to oppose Julian Lloyd Webber’s viewpoint in a debate on the future of music education. The debate is on the motion "This house believes that the foundations of music education should be built on classical music" and will take place on Tuesday 16th January at the “State of Play Conference” being held at the Roundhouse in Camden to discuss the “Music Manifesto”.

Bancroft is the co-founder, with his twin brother Phil, of the music education company ABC Creative Music. They have developed music resources which are being used by classroom teachers in more than 500 schools across Scotland to teach creative music to children from nursery to age 11. The company’s resources were recently included by the Scottish Executive in the ‘Celebrating Success’ program showcasing excellence in education.Tom Bancroft quote - “ I feel very excited about being asked to go down to London and debate this issue with Julian Lloyd Webber. This is something our company feels very passionate about. The old music education system was focused on classical music and turned a lot of people off classical music and other types of music too. There is an amazing world of music out there – why should children be mainly exposed to one style at school? It’s like saying they should mainly eat cabbage!! Children are not the same and one approach will not suit all or reflect the country we live in.

Music can get very scary for people because they think they are going to get it wrong and make a fool out of themselves. A lot of classically trained musicians tell me they feel their education was too narrow and they now find playing without a written down part very frightening. Music needn’t be scary – it should be fun, especially when you are young. We design activities to encourage children to make choices and learn about the building blocks of music by building things themselves. Teachers using our resources are finding this approach refreshing and fun and the children are more interested in music because of it. We want to motivate kids to go on and learn instruments and get passionate about whichever style of music they want to play.”

Global Citizenship Through Music Pack 11/06
A great new pack is being launched by ABC Creative Music. Download details here.

After Christmas we are going to help between 750 and 1000 eleven year old school kids to start using iTunes in the classroom in a cool set of ways as part of a pack teaching Global Citizenship Through Music.

• They will get an iTunes voucher to download world music (from preselected iMixes) from itunes store to make compilation CDs.
• They will also be using iTunes software to edit and master CDs of original music they have composed and recorded themselves.
• They will then plan and design packaging and marketing to sell the original music CD as a business study project.

The pack involves the study of copyright and an understanding of why they can copy and sell CDs of their own music but not of other peoples. The pilot is funded by the Scottish Government in partnership with the Edinburgh and Orkney City Councils.

Celebrating Success 10/06
The Scottish Executive is making a range of high quality educational resources available to schools in Scotland including ABC resources. Download a free fun music activity to make a rap about living in Scotland here.

Dumfries and Galloway UPM1 & 2 Primary Pilot 9/06
Dumfries and Galloway is a large education authority in the South West of Scotland. As part of the Scottish Executive's Youth Music Initiative for Youth Music, ou Upper Primary Moduel 1 and 2 packs are now being used in 90% of their primary schools. What is really unusual is that the course is being delivered by classroom teachers who in some cases have no musical training or experience. Initial training of teachers overcomes their anxieties and fears of teasching music and they get started using the structured program, class plans, back up audio CDs and visual aids.

The course teaches an understanding of form and rhythm and give lots of experience of performance of children's own compositions and early improvisation using words and sounds. Later on the children compose using shape notation and play compositions on class percussion, compose drum grooves, and write their own lyrics to perform to backing grooves. The second part of the course extends these skills onto voice, chime bars,and home made percussion choirs. The use of shape notation develops into an intermediate step to understanding conventional music notation.

Primary Pilot in Edinburgh
ABC Creative Music have beenconducting a pilot project in 5 Primary Schools in edinburgh as part of the Youth Music Initiative. ABC resources will be put into allage groups in the schools (Nursery class, and Primary 1 to 7 classes) with training and support for teachers. This is being extended in 2006-7 to 10 more schools.

IAJE Presentation

Tom and Phil Bancroft got fantastic feedback from presenting the Apple Banana Carrot Method to delegates at the International Association of Jazz Educators Conference in New York on the 22nd of January.

"I was very impressed not only with the energy and commitment of the clinicians, but with the appropriateness and high interest level of the method. This program deals with Musicianship in an authentic way, by using age-appropriate and high interest methods to create real music
and real musical understanding with very young children."
Fran DePalma-Iozzi, Music Teacher, New Jersey, USA (IAJE)

"The "Apple Banana Carrot Method" presented at the IAJE workshop in New York is a program my students would really love and I would really enjoy teaching. Improvisation is included in our required state standards, yet very little guidance on how to teach it is in our current method books. I strongly feel that the addition of this method to our current curriculum would fill the gap The materials are both kind and teacher friendly. It is obvious that the designers of this program have done their homework. I would give it an A+!"
Mary Kidd, Music Teacher, Port Orange, Florida, USA (IAJE)

“ I have studied the Orff, Dalcroze, and Kodaly Methods and I think you guys are doing something new and very valuable” a Director of Music Education, Music College, USA

“I think that introducing the ABC method in the general music classes will be a good preparation for use in the jazz ensemble (and of course beneficial in its own right for all students). I've been teaching jazz improvisation to students in grades 5-12 for almost 20 years. Your presentation was the most exciting thing I have seen at the IAJE conference and I look forward to finding out more. Thanks!"
Michael Fitzgerald
Instrumental Music Instructor
Bartle School New Jersey, USA

More news to follow soon!