Corporate member blog: Improve in your own time

Dr Robin Harrison FRSA, founder of The Maestro Online, talks about how they can help you improve your music in your own time.

Modern busy lives

Well, that’s one of the key problems that The Maestro Online set to solve. Let’s face it, adults have busy lives trying to fit in work, children, grandchildren, shopping, fixing the house and more, alongside their other interests.

Self-study gone further

Self-study courses are an obvious option, but what if your members could study with global leading experts? Well, there’s the challenge of cost, where they live, travel time and so much more. Not to worry - The Maestro Online offers Zoom support so that there's a 'real' human behind the platform. 

How do you train the musician in everyone?

So, what exactly would they learn that might help your whole group?  Something that’s great for sight-singing, for improvising, for reading notes, for connecting what you hear with what you see in notation.  One of the biggest helps for general musicianship is the 'Kodály technique'. 

Kodály was a Hungarian composer who really wanted to change the quality of education in schools and his pedagogy inspired generations worldwide. It is a very sequential, logical technique that trains the ear, or, more than that, the 'inner ear' (the clarity with which you hear and understand music in your mind just as Beethoven must have done when he was deaf). 'Relative solfège' is a significant (but not the only) part of this method and that means using the Do-Re-Mi system so you more readily recognise notes in a key such as the home note, the tonic. Traditionally, it’s associated with songs for young children, but we changed that and use many famous classical and rock/pop snippets to make it much more fun. If you want people to improve at home, then fun material definitely needs to be at the core!

How can your members learn with the world’s best?

What about vocal technique or something for pianists, organists, guitarists, drummers, choral conductors or composers? Well, that’s where we’re at right now. We’ve engaged masterclasses from world-leading musicians and educators in all styles. We’ve just released a blues drumming course in three levels and are set to record piano boogie woogie with a member of The Stranglers in the summer, an organ masterclass in Marcel Dupré’s house (he was a famous organ composer and his house contains the largest private organ in Europe – it’s like a mini-cathedral!), another in Rotterdam, a jazz piano one in London and so much more. Today, we're even meeting a blues harmonica player (do let us know if that interests you!).

Charity outreach

You may also be interested that we completed a tour delivering masterclasses in Uganda in January. Reaching people who can’t access music education affordably is part of our mission. Of course, we recorded some Ugandan music masterclasses while over there. They’re in the editing tray as we speak and wow did we meet some phenomenal talent!

Modern piano exam board

Did you used to play piano but perhaps gave up because of the excessive focus on grades or pieces that you didn’t want to play? Yes, we’ve got the answer to that as well! We set up a brand new exam board a year ago with pop-gospel-jazz-rock piano grades where you don’t even have to stick to notation if you don’t want to. You can create cover versions, change bits, improvise, or stick to the notation – it’s all up to you. You can even record each song separately so that you don’t get anxious about a whole concert in one go, you get results in five days, and we’re the most affordable exam board out there.

Can you help us?

What’s the future for us? Well, we’re going one step further and creating an online university, or even 'conservatoire' if you will. We’re currently in consultation, seeking as much information as possible. We’d love your help. Would you be happy to complete this questionnaire if you, or someone you know, might be interested in a music diploma or degree? We’d be very grateful as this will help us form our curriculum to ensure that it meets the needs of 'real' people out there. 

The answer!

So, what’s the answer for modern busy adults? An affordable platform giving access to the finest musicians in the world, cheaper than weekly lessons and you can access it whenever is most convenient to you. Perfect!

Find out more about The Maestro Online services in our resource

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