The Head of Music at Manor CE Academy has launched an innovative, international music competition to celebrate a change in GCSE Music which is making the subject an accessible, creative choice for students.
Dave Lowe, who is Head of Music and Director of Learning: Performing Arts at Manor CE Academy is passionate about collaborating with music educators who want to make a difference to the lives of thousands of young people who love music. He has launched this new competition to encourage people of all ages to get involved in music creation.
The competition is open to anyone across the world who has access to an iPad and challenges participants to explore inventiveness and creativity to compose original music.
Entrants must compose an original piece of music of between 30-36 seconds, using the GarageBand app on iPad. The music can be in any genre and written for any solo instrument or combination of instruments, it should sound ‘finished’ at the end and have purpose as TV theme music.
There are a number of categories which people can enter including an ‘Open’ category, open to anybody of any age from anywhere in the world and individual secondary school year group categories for students in Years 7 to 10.
The competition is promoted on Dave’s blog: Dave Lowe Music Education where he writes to enthuse music educators across the world.
Dave said “The landscape of music education is changing in the UK. Government changes have caused a significant national decline in the amount of music education taught in schools. In this period however, the uptake and engagement at my own school has grown. Through my blog and competitions such as this, I’d love to see other heads of music and school leaders encouraged in their own practice and embrace music in their school lives.
“The purpose of this competition is to encourage people of all ages to get involved in music creation. Portable technology now enables us to create our music anywhere and at any time. Many aspects of life inspire creativity. When each moment arrives, we can now create without delay. I can’t wait to see the entries to this competition, we are surrounded by amazing music creators who now have technology at their fingertips – it’s going to be exciting!”
The competition will be judged by a team of music industry professionals. Each category winner will have their music shared online and will receive a £20 Apple App Store voucher, a copy of “How to Write Great Music: Understanding the Process from Blank Page to Final Product”, gear from KnowMusicShirts and additionally, the top entries from York-based students aged 11-18 will be considered for inclusion at the new York Music Hub Gala event in June 2019.
Entry to the competition is free and entries must be received by Saturday 20 April 2019. Full criteria and rules can be found here
Dave’s new competition follows a previous international competition three years ago which challenged composers to write the ultimate 8-bar melody. Proving incredibly popular, the competition was judged by the online community and attracted 40,000 votes.
Photos: Year 9 Manor CE Academy GCSE students taking the Music Production Via Technology pathway; child composing music on an iPad (credit: Annie Spratt)
7 February 2019
