Gigajam News 

Merlin John writes on Futurelab about the use of technology in teaching music.

http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/.../Web_Article930 

The search for an effective solution led Ian to the online music service Gigajam, which became the digital ‘glue’ to hold together the learning and teaching and to make the resources – PCs and instruments and rooms – go further. “I looked at Gigajam for all sorts of reasons but particularly the personalisation,” says Ian. “In reality this is the first time children in our music lessons have genuinely had the opportunity to work at their own pace, at their own level.

Being part of a broad music offering for students, and playing a part in providing more music making opportunities is everything Gigajam was ever created for. Thank you to Ian and his team at Tiverton.

Tiverton High School is one of the 400 schools in the UK using Gigajam regularly.

Gigajam's early content (first five lessons) is freely available to the 4 million UK school students in 6 of the 11 UK Regional Broadband Consortia (RBC).

1. London Grid for Learning
2. West Midlands NET
3. South West Grid for Learning
4. Northern Grid for Learning
5. Scottish Schools Digital Network - Glow
6. East of England Broadband Network

as well as across the following Local Authorities;

1. City of Salford
2. City of Sunderland
3. Buckinghamshire CC
4. Cheshire CC
5. Leicester City
6. Argyll & Bute

Please contact your RBC if you would like to try a few lessons out. Please also contact your RBC or LA if they don't have it yet, they will consider purchasing content and services if they know their schools want it.  

--
Brian Greene

In the last couple of years I have been saddened by the response of many music educators and tutors to proposals to use ICT to widen participation rates in the learning of musical instruments. The response has been essentially to reject the use of ICT because it will, "put us out of a job." This complaint is reminiscent of the past and just as inaccurate now as it was then. Let me explore the issues.

Our musical instrument partner, One Man Band of Banbury (OMB), has secured a supply of EZ-AG guitars for UK schools.

OMB's David Cooper said "We are really pleased to continue to support Gigajam by supplying the hugely popular Yamaha EZ-AG guitars for Gigajam's school users. We have made arrangements to supplement our existing stock with a further 100 guitars arriving in March '08. More guitars can be sourced to meet demand and any school interested in the EZ-AG for their music department just needs to get  in touch with the Gigajam team."

Gigajam's Brian Greene said "We are into our third year now with David and his team at One Man Band. It is great news for our customers for us to have such a great partner - we started with the supply of 150 Yamaha instruments to the 30 participating schools in the Buckinghamshire VLE project and OMB have now become our preferred supplier. We created an online musical instrument store together for our Independent Newspaper 'Learn to play the keyboard' promotion in April '07,  and have continued to supply instruments online through Gigajam's Online Store (www.gigajam.com) and TV Station (www.gigajam.tv).

Instruments are available for purchase by retail customers at www.gigajam.com and by schools at http://schools.gigajam.com. We like to support our customers in their development of learning spaces in music classrooms, so please feel free to call 0800 055 6797, or email schools@gigajam.com  to discuss your requirements.

We often recommend the Yamaha EZ-AG as a way for a beginning guitarist to get the most from their Gigajam lessons and software. Here's a quick rundown on the pros and cons.