Active Music Joystick
If you swing by this stall, you'll get to meet the wonderful Reinhard Fuchs, director of this company which produces joysticks which can be connected to computers and then used to make music through different pieces of software.
The simple and familiar input system means that the joysticks offer a great way to make music more accessible to disabled people.
In particular, the tactility of the joysticks has seen them prove popular with music educators working with young autistic people.
BBC Education
Making its way over from the other side of Salford Quays, the BBC Education department is bringing information about its new and exciting music education projects.
In addition to this, you will also be able to talk to the team about its existing Ten Pieces project, which has proved to be incredibly popular. This year's ‘Trailblazers’ repertoire features the original theme for Doctor Who, Vivaldi's ‘Winter’, and a special commission from the Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer.
Furlong
Formed in 1989, Furlong makes a range of products designed to make the education experience more straightforward for teachers and students.
In addition to providing solutions to general school administration such as timetabling and registration, Furlong also makes web-based applications for managing school-related fees, as well as online music management tools, such as Maestro. The Maestro software helps teachers to create weekly lesson schedules and a lending library, and supports them with the more complex aspects of music management, such as organising external examinations. It promises a time and cost-effective method, so the music department is run as smoothly as possible.
Queen's University Belfast
The Music Department at Queen's is regarded as one of the best in the U.K, offering five distinctive music degree pathways, including: BMus, Performance, Audio Production, Sound Design, Audio Engineering. Providing a rich learning experience for students, complete with state-of-the-art facilities.
Spirit Studio (SSR)
A local studio which helped to produce some of the city's greatest bands, including The Smiths and The Stone Roses. Following these success stories the studio recognised that in order to record great music, there was also a real need to train a new generation of professional sound engineers, there being a real dearth of opportunity in this area. This thought process eventually led to the studio becoming the UK's first audio engineering and music production school.
It now offers a range of degrees and short courses that are ideal for promoting to your students or even for widening your own knowledge base in fields like DJing and production.
Skoog
Back in March, we featured the Skoog on our cover and wrote an in-depth piece on this incredible instrument. If you're unfamiliar, the Skoog 2.0 and Skwitch, that the company makes, they are new instruments which allow an incredible range of music-making that can also be used to teach coding.
The soft malleable instruments can be adjusted to different levels of sensitivity, meaning that music-making is possible for people whose mobility is severely limited. These are ingenious pieces of technology that really must be witnessed to be fully understood. Do yourself a favour and make sure you get a chance to try one hands-on!
String & Keyboard Musik Program
Karen Karana Tse moved to Vancouver at an early age where she studied and majored in music therapy, and did so for an unusual reason. When she was nine and 12, she underwent brain surgery to remove blood clots. Doctors were concerned that, since she was so young and the surgeries involved removing parts of her brain, her cognitive development would be badly impaired. So they encouraged her to learn music in order to stimulate her brain development. By learning the piano, Tse improved her perseverance and physical coordination during this recovery period. Tse's childhood experience inspired her to start her music career. She has been a music teacher in Hong Kong for more than a decade providing basic courses in piano, violin and harp for young children aged two to eight. After several years of teaching children music, she set up her proprietary String & Keyboard Musik Program, including a series of coloured mini-instruments for use within the classroom.
Make sure that you visit musicanddramaeducationexpo.co.uk/manchester to book your FREE ticket to guarantee that you don't miss out on the opportunity to meet exhibitors like these, as well as a full day of CPD training.
