Inclusive music making is where it’s at, and one that is at the heart of  what we do here at Skoog HQ.  I hope to get a lot more of my thoughts down on the old virtual paper that is the blog in the next few weeks.  In the meantime here are some top tips for making your sessions as inclusive as possible. Inclusion doesn’t just refer to the issue of disability but for me means making sure everyone can take part. Here are a couple of things that apply to everyone.

1) It helps to keep the group or groups to a manageable size. In large classes or groups it is easy for someone to get left on the sidelines, so keep it ‘band’ sized if you can.

 

 

 

2) The content.  If you aren’t into it, you aren’t gonna want to do it. Make it age appropriate.  Teenagers do not dig nursery rhymes in my experience. And death metal is not everyone’s cup of tea.  This was one of the drivers behind the ‘top tunes’ section of the Skoog online resources.  Quick and easy access to some culturally relevant material.

 

 

3) What I call the ‘take the horn our of your mouth‘  technique. Listen to what your crew is up to. Leading does not mean playing over everyone else. If you are not listening you can’t expect your budding creatives to be listening. There can be few things that make you feel more excluded then when you feel you are not being listened to.  A lesson beautifully illustrated by Dewey Finn in School of Rock. It is not until he starts listening to the kids that music starts rocking!