by Author Carol Reid

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Help us shape the future of accessible music-making

Earlier this year, Youth Music entered into a partnership with Creative United (who run Take it Away), OHMI, Drake Music, and OpenUp Music to work together bring more adapted and specialist musical instruments into the mainstream.

One of the first things we’re working on is a piece of research to capture a detailed picture of the experiences of disabled people and music making. This is a significant piece of national research which will bring new insights and inform our next steps as a partnership. Research on this topic, at this scale, has not been undertaken before. It will help us shape the future of accessible music making.

There are three surveys for different audiences:

  • Music-educators – for anyone working in music education – teachers, project managers, music leaders, administrators ….
  • Music-makers – for those actively making music, or their parents and carers – or those who aren’t currently but might like to in the future
  • Music retailers – those who sell music instruments and equipment

The surveys will be open for the next month or so, and will be available here: https://www.takeitaway.org.uk/accesstomusicsurvey/ 

We’re aiming for a response rate of 500 music educators – so please share far and wide!

The wider aims of our partnership are to:

  • Improve our collective understanding of the potential demand for adapted and specialist musical instruments for use by aspiring and professional musicians of all kinds and in particular disabled children and adults across the UK
  • Enable existing prototype adaptations (from OHMI, OpenUp Music, DM Labs and other sources) to be taken further into small-scale batch production for wider distribution and use
  • Enable the development of bespoke new accessible musical instruments to meet the needs of an individual, and the documentation and sharing of designs in the open source model
  • Explore ways in which we can develop and train a workforce that has the knowledge and skills to introduce and demonstrate adaptive instruments located in ‘centres of music retail excellence’ around the UK
  • Provide financial assistance to families and individuals that need access to these types of instruments by providing a combination of grants and loans to ensure equality of access for all
  • Raise the profile of music making by disabled children and adults, increasing awareness of the opportunities and sources of support available to enable more people to access music.

If you are interested in hearing more, then please get in touch.