INTERFACE:RESPONSE : A Training, Mentoring and Support programme in Digital Skills for Musicians
Lead Participant:
UCAN PLAY LTD.
Abstract
Musicians have been hit hard by Covid-19\. They are unable to rehearse together,perform, or undertake other face-to-face activities including teaching. Many of the clubs, pubs, restaurants, arts-centres, concert halls and theatres within which musicians work will be closed for the foreseeable future. It will not be possible to run tours and larger-scale musical events for a long time.
Most musicians have a portfolio career, with rehearsing, creating, performing and teaching activities forming key activities in their working lives. The Internet offers opportunities for them to relocate their work in each activity and monetise this appropriately. To do this effectively, many musicians will require training to develop their digital skills and ongoing support to assist them as and when problems arise. We have already seen pioneering individuals and ensembles creating innovative solutions to some of the key activities musicians undertake. Yet the technological solutions they adopt are often not explored or shared. They often rely on a significant set of additional technological knowledge or skills that the majority of musicians do not possess.
The key aim of INTERFACE:RESPONSE is to quickly create a set of training resources, mentoring opportunities and wider support for individual musicians and their ensembles to enable them to build their digital skills, relocate their core activities online and build new income streams.
The resource will include:
* A training programme for each key activity (rehearsing, performing, teaching, creating and curating). Each programme will include case studies, interactive training resources, technical and creative activities and other elements as appropriate.
* A mentoring programme for all musicians wanting to develop their practice in these core areas. We will recruit and train mentors drawn from across the UK. Mentors will be assigned a small group of musicians to support as they begin to develop their practices in these new areas.
* An online forum will be created for musicians to help support each other, using the principle themes of the training and mentoring programmes as key areas.
* A dedicated email and telephone line will be established to support musicians in their new activities.
The resource will be made freely available to musicians across the world. The mentoring programme will be available in the UK only.
UCan Play is working collaboratively with its parters in this project, including the Musicians' Union and NYMAZ. Through these partnerships, we will have direct access to 34,000 potential users.
The work of musicians across the UK is still being hugely impacted by COVID-19. The three month project extension will allow us to continue to support musicians across the UK with our free programme of mentor support. We will also seek to revise and extend the online resource materials in light of the mentoring that has already been offered to musicians during the second half of the current project.
Most musicians have a portfolio career, with rehearsing, creating, performing and teaching activities forming key activities in their working lives. The Internet offers opportunities for them to relocate their work in each activity and monetise this appropriately. To do this effectively, many musicians will require training to develop their digital skills and ongoing support to assist them as and when problems arise. We have already seen pioneering individuals and ensembles creating innovative solutions to some of the key activities musicians undertake. Yet the technological solutions they adopt are often not explored or shared. They often rely on a significant set of additional technological knowledge or skills that the majority of musicians do not possess.
The key aim of INTERFACE:RESPONSE is to quickly create a set of training resources, mentoring opportunities and wider support for individual musicians and their ensembles to enable them to build their digital skills, relocate their core activities online and build new income streams.
The resource will include:
* A training programme for each key activity (rehearsing, performing, teaching, creating and curating). Each programme will include case studies, interactive training resources, technical and creative activities and other elements as appropriate.
* A mentoring programme for all musicians wanting to develop their practice in these core areas. We will recruit and train mentors drawn from across the UK. Mentors will be assigned a small group of musicians to support as they begin to develop their practices in these new areas.
* An online forum will be created for musicians to help support each other, using the principle themes of the training and mentoring programmes as key areas.
* A dedicated email and telephone line will be established to support musicians in their new activities.
The resource will be made freely available to musicians across the world. The mentoring programme will be available in the UK only.
UCan Play is working collaboratively with its parters in this project, including the Musicians' Union and NYMAZ. Through these partnerships, we will have direct access to 34,000 potential users.
The work of musicians across the UK is still being hugely impacted by COVID-19. The three month project extension will allow us to continue to support musicians across the UK with our free programme of mentor support. We will also seek to revise and extend the online resource materials in light of the mentoring that has already been offered to musicians during the second half of the current project.
Lead Participant | Project Cost | Grant Offer |
|---|---|---|
| UCAN PLAY LTD. | £59,632 | £ 59,632 |
People |
ORCID iD |
| Jonathan Savage (Project Manager) |