Creative United has today launched the first edition of its 'Guide to Buying Adaptive Musical Instruments', distributed in partnership with the Musicians’ Union and Normans Musical Instruments.
Creative United supports the arts, cultural and creative industries through innovative business growth programmes and membership schemes. They work with partners across the public and private sectors to design and deliver programmes that enable economic growth and social impact.
Compiled over the last 12 months, the guide includes details of more than 80 products, from batons and bows to one-handed clarinets and saxophones, that have been specially designed to make learning and playing musical instruments of all kinds as accessible as possible for disabled players of all ages. We are delighted that all of our instruments - pBone, pBone mini, pCornet, pTrumpet and pBuzz - have been included in the guide.
The guide has been created in response to research undertaken by the Take it away Consortium (a partnership between Creative United, Drake Music, Music for Youth, The OHMI Trust, Open Up Music and Youth Music) in 2018, which identified that a significant barrier to participation in music for disabled children was a lack of access to and knowledge about the existence of adaptive musical instruments and assistive equipment.
The research findings showed major gaps in access to, and knowledge of, where to find adaptive musical instruments. 59% of the music retailers said they were not aware of any specialist products or adapted instruments. Only 54% of music educators and less than 25% of parents with disabled children agreed with the statement “I know how and where to source an adapted musical instrument”.
Extract from the Guide to Buying Adaptive Musical Instruments
The publication of the guide aims to directly address these issues by raising awareness of the extraordinary range of adaptive instruments that are currently available, with the hope that this will inspire and encourage many more disabled people to be confident in their ability to learn and play music. The guide aims to provide a central resource that can be referred to as guidance and ideas for all – individuals, parents, teachers, schools and retailers.
pBone has worked with teachers and children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities for a number of years and so inclusion of our products in this new guide is something we warmly welcome as we continue our desire to make music accessible and fun!
Read More...
Read about Andrew and how his pTrumpet enabled him to join band as a one handed player here.
Read about Keith and how his hytech breathed new life into his brass playing career here.
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