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Aug 02 2018 West Midlands Music Shops & Music Hubs
Bass Direct, Warwick. Photo by Natalie Ben Rabah
Services in West Midlands
For August 2018, Take it away are featuring activities and shops in the West Midlands area. Each month we will be featuring a different region, with the aim of bringing these services into contact with each other.
We offer Take it away in the following shops in the West Midlands (each links to a page about their services):
Music Shops
- Bass Direct
- Broughton Pianos
- Classical Guitar Centre
- Fairdeal Music
- Hobgoblin Music
- Moseley Violins
- Music Bros.
- Vale Pianos
- The Sax Shack
Music Hubs
Music Hubs are a Government-led initiative, previously referred to as schools or music services. They are partnerships between state schools, companies, charities and practitioners. Hubs receive funding from the Department of Education via Arts Council England. It is the responsibility of every Hub to distribute funding amongst organisations to ensure that these targets are met:
- Ensure that every child aged 5 to 18 has the opportunity to learn a musical instrument (other than voice) through whole-class ensemble teaching programs or weekly tuition on the same instrument
- Ensure that clear progression routes are available and affordable to all young people
- Develop a singing strategy to ensure that every pupil sings regularly and that choirs and other vocal ensembles are available in the area
Each hub provides different services and receives different levels of funding dependent on needs and services. For example, some services provide one to one tuition, some offer classroom sessions or some offer Orchestra or performance opportunities.
West Midlands Music Hubs include:
- Birmingham Music Hub
- Coventry Music Hub
- Dudley Music Hub
- Herefordshire Music Hub
- North West Midlands Music Hub (Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent, Telford, Wrekin)
- Sandwell Music & Arts Service
- Severn Arts (formerly Worcestershire Youth Music)
- Shropshire Music Hub
- Solihull Music Service
- Walsall Forest Arts Music Hub
- Warwickshire Music Hub
- Wolverhampton Music Hub
Twitter
If you want to follow news and opportunities from these Music Hubs, we’ve put together the following Twitter list.Orchestras
Active orchestras, bands and ensembles across the West Midlands:
- AD Concert Band
- Alveley Village Band
- Ashby Concert Band
- Asklepios Orchestra
- Bedworth Symphony Orchestra
- Bewdley Concert Band
- Bridgetown Concert Show Band
- Birchfield String Orchestra
- Birmingham Basement Band
- Birmingham Chamber Orchestra
- Birmingham Concert Band
- Birmingham Contemporary Music Group
- Birmingham Gay Symphony Orchestra
- Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra
- Birmingham Royal Ballet Sinfonia
- Bishops Castle Orchestra
- BJ Concert Band
- Black Country Big Band
- Blackwell Concert Band
- Bournville Clarinet Choir
- Bromsgrove Amateur Strings
- Central England Concert Band
- Central England Ensemble
- Chandos Symphony Orchestra
- City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
- City of Coventry Youth Orchestra
- City of Lichfield Concert Band
- CoMA West Midlands
- Electica Coventry
- Elgar School of Music Concert Band
- Ellesmere Sinfonia
- Enigma Brass Ensemble
- Great Wyrley Community Band
- Greenway Strings
- Hagley Community Orchestra
- Harborne Orchestra
- Harmonie Concert Band
- Heart of England Cooperative Concert Orchestra
- Heart of England Recorder Orchestra
- Kimchi Pops Orchestra
- Leamington Chamber Orchestra
- Lichfield Sinfonia
- Ludlow Concert Band
- Ludlow Orchestra
- Maldwyn Strings
- Midland Chamber Players
- New Titley Phil
- Newcastle Strings
- Newent Orchestra
- Orchestra of St John Bromsgrove
- Orchestra of the Swan
- Oswestry Sinfonia
- People’s Orchestra
- RAF Cosford Voluntary Band
- Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Performing Ensembles
- Royal Sutton Coldfield Orchestra
- Salon Orchestra Worcester
- Saxology
- Scirocco Wind Ensemble
- Severn Arts
- Shrewsbury Light Orchestra
- Shrewsbury Symphony Orchestra
- Sinfonia of Birmingham
- Solihull Symphony Orchestra
- South Birmingham Sinfonia
- Stafford Concert Band
- Stafford Sinfonia
- Stourbridge Choir and Orchestra
- Stratford Concert Band
- Stratford Festival Orchestra
- Stratford Upon Avon Symphony Orchestra
- Sutton Swing Band
- Tamworth Wind Band
- Telford Orchestra
- Telford Community Orchestra
- Tenbury Teme Valley Band
- Tenbury Town Band
- TfO Community Band and String Orchestra (Malvern, South Birmingham)
- The Band of the West Midlands Fire Service
- The Chase Light Orchestra
- The Halesowen Orchestra
- The New Streetly Youth Orchestra
- The Real String Orchestra
- The Redditch Orchestra
- The Shirley Band
- The Stafford Orchestra
- The Wyre Forest Symphony Orchestra
- University Hospital Orchestra
- University of Warwick Symphony Orchestra
- Walsall Brass Band
- Walsall Senior Citizens Orchestra
- Walsall Symphony Orchestra
- Warwickshire Baroque
- Warwick Community Band
- Warwick Orchestral Winds
- Warwickshire Symphony Orchestra
- West Mercia Police Band
- Wolverhampton Symphony Orchestra
- Worcestershire Symphony Orchestra
- Worcester Philharmonic Orchestra
- Zephyr Band Rugby
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Aug 02 2018 The art of adapting instruments
What is an adapted instrument? And, how could it help access to making music?
We talk to two Take it away retailers who are developing adapted instruments.
Developing and adapting musical instruments, and inventing instruments, opens up access to millions more people to participate in making music. There are many reasons for adapting musical instruments, from physical disabilities to allowing simpler access for younger players.
In the UK, the OHMI Trust pioneers the development and adaptation of musical instruments for those who are physically disabled. Innovations in making new or adapted musical instruments, for use with one hand or arm, are celebrated at OHMI’s annual conference and annual awards.
This year, Take it away have formed a consortium with OHMI, Drake Music, OpenUp Music and Youth Music with the aim of making musical instruments more widely available to aspiring musicians across the UK. On 7 & 8 September 2018, we are delighted to be supporting OHMI’s annual conference in Birmingham.
Ahead of the conference, we contacted our Take it away retailers to ask about their experience of offering adapted instruments.
Engineering and 3D printing
Derek Himsley runs StringWind Repairs in Ashford, Kent. He repairs all sorts of instruments; as a former engineer, he loves the challenge of understanding how complex instruments work, taking them apart and putting them back together. He became interested in the challenge of making adapted instruments to suit specific needs following a talk by OHMI that he attended.
Derek feels strongly that everyone should be able to access musical instruments and doesn’t believe that disability should be a barrier to this.
The OHMI talk came at the right time as Derek was about to come into contact with 1,000’s of second-hand instruments ripe for adoptions.
In 2014, a Channel 4 documentary, Don’t Stop the Music, included a nationwide appeal for unwanted musical instruments. 7,000 instruments were collected with the aim of redistributing them to benefit over 10,000 primary school students a year. Derek’s skills as an expert instrument repairer were in demand!
He contacted them to offer his services and ended up helping to sort, grade and categorise the instruments, identifying what could be repaired and sent to the schools.
Knowing about OHMI’s work, Derek suggested that they donate some instruments to OHMI. Twenty instruments ended up being adapted and distributed to one-handed students through OHMI.
Derek’s interest in this area of engineering led to him to collaborate with a Nuffield Scholar to make another one-handed violin during a work placement. Using a 3D printer, they printed an adaptation to the neck of the violin, which simulated the function of fingers. These were then operated by foot pedals, even simulating the same vibrato you get when playing with hands.
Derek is inspired by this work and enjoys the challenge; “I have semi-developed ideas for instruments for musicians with no limbs, one day I’d like to develop those myself” he says.
Simplifying instruments for entry level
Howarth of London has a range of adapted and more accessible instruments. These include a wooden, keyless flute, an oboe with reduced keywork and smaller bassoons.
One instrument that they are particularly proud of is the Howarth of London adapted clarinet. The Junior MX clarinet is a lighter and simpler clarinet model, for younger students. By removing keys not needed in the first stages of learning, they made the Junior MX almost 200g lighter than a standard student clarinet.
They use the same body as their standard clarinet to ensure the quality of the instrument and help the clarinetist produce a good sound, but reduced the keywork to make assembly easier and removed link mechanisms between joints to increase the durability.
In addition, they developed a special mouthpiece to make attaching a reed quick and easy. The SimpleFit mouthpiece is a one-piece unit that combines a high-quality mouthpiece with a custom-designed ligature.
The instrument has been popular with teachers. Northamptonshire Music and Performing Arts Trust use the clarinets and sent a lovely message to Howarth of London recently to say that the clarinets are “the instrument of choice for most teachers delivering clarinet projects to children in years 3 and 4.”
More information
We’d love to hear from musicians and music retailers about their specific needs for adapted instruments, or completely bespoke instruments. Please get in touch with us at info@takeitaway.org.uk