100 Innovative Ideas for Youth & Community Music Ensembles

WHO NEEDS THIS AND WHY

All youth and community music educators, players, conductors, administrators and committee members! 

Whether you're are running beginner string ensemble for a youth music organisation or a community adult choir, there are ideas and strategies for you. There are some ideas for teaching, but this book is really designed to get you thinking about your organisation as a wholistic experience.

There is much we can do to build collaboration and connection for our players and our community. This work can really strengthen the emotional connection of players to music making.

But this work often gets forgotten, put in the 'to do' or the 'too hard' basket. This book is written to get you unstuck and taking action to solve problems or seize opportunities. To show you how simple it can be to innvovate and that implementing new ideas does not have to require significant time or money.
From simple tweaks to radical rethinking, there's something in here for everyone.

SHUFFLING THE PENCILS AND STAPLER...

In “The Art of the Possibility”, Benjamin Zander describes a concept he calls “leading from any chair”. He found that an orchestra could achieve peak performance levels when its members are able to suggest better ways to play a piece. This goes against the grain of the traditional hierarchical and structured organisations.

• Maybe this goes against the culture of your organisation
• Maybe this goes against the leadership style of your organisation
• Maybe you can't change the really BIG problems

But you CAN shuffle the pencils and the stapler. The receptionist of a company cannot necessarily re-write the vision, mission and values of the organisation - but they CAN shuffle the pencils and stapler on their desk to make better working environment for themselves and those coming into the office.

So what CAN you shuffle? What's within reach that you can make better using these ideas and strategies?

Stop waiting for the cultural changes that you crave, and make change from wherever you are.

PRAISE

"A lovely combination of ready-to-go and longer term strategies. Both books will give you an instant creative boost and feeling of positivity for the future!"
-Sarina BMus MTeach

ABOUT THIS BOOK

The SUMMIT: Reimagining Musical Training was held in July, 2020 and bought together the classical music sector to reimagine the WHO, WHY and HOW of music training.

Representatives from youth and community music, higher education and the professional sector spent two days learning how to apply Design Thinking principles to rethink and reconfigure their programs.

This document contains some of those ideas, and a bunch more radical ones that I have hatched. Some are duplicated because they solve more than one problem.

The ideas are listed in sections, but are deliberately random to challenge you to think divergently not laterally. It's up to you to figure out how to apply and amplify them for your organisation.

Having spent the last few years leading change in Music Higher Education, I could see a demand for new thinking in the Youth and Community Music Sector. So I wrote this book to share ideas, challenge you to think radically and give you the tools to spring to action.

The book is designed to GET YOU STARTED.

Also check out my other ebook 111 Innovative Ideas for High School Music Programs and Ingrid Martins's ebook Score Reading for Ensembles. Ingrid and I are former high school band nerds, music educators, entrepreneurs, partners in life, parents to two teen musicians and we work professionally with youth music and community music ensembles. Just one of our joint projects is the Victorian Youth Symphony Orchestra where Ingrid is the Artistic Director and Conductor and I am the President.

You can find my work at Notable Values and Ingrid at her website or at Conducting Artistry. We both have newsletters you can subscribe to, podcasts to listen to and blogs to read. Ingrid also has a range of free courses on conducting and leading ensembles, plus some paid ones too.

With thanks for all you do for your music community!

Cheers,
Susan Eldridge BMus, MMus
Founder, Notable Values
 
ps Ingrid has an unsual mix of qualifications. If you want to hear her story about pursuing a career in medicine before switching to full time music, you can hear her talk about it on my first podcast Beyond The Stage.

pps If you want to hear how I left music as a young graduate, built a multi-million dollar tech consultancy in Europe then pivoted back as an expert in the future of music education and music making, you can hear my story on the Entreprenuerial Musician podcast.

STAY IN TOUCH Let me know how you and your organisation are applying these ideas and tools.

CONTENTS

• 32 Ideas For Money
• 28 Ideas For Learning
• 14 Ideas For Partnership
• 13 Ideas For Marketing
• 12 Ideas For Engagement
• Next Steps: Find The Solution
• Next Steps: Idea To Action
• Next Steps: Better Meetings
• Next Steps Reflection
• Resources

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Just like you, I'm a music educator. I'm also the parent of musically minded teens, an expert in music entrepreneurship, a business owner, President of the Victorian Youth Symphony Orchestra and a passionate advocate for community music making. Sometimes I play the French Horn professionally.

Cheers,
Susan.