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Music Expo 2014

March 13th, 2014 | 1 min read

By Chris Fower

pBone was in residence at Music Expo 2014 at the Barbican recently as guests on the Normans stand.It was great to meet our friends and past colleagues in the UK music education world and hear about pBones success. Equally exciting were meetings with hub leaders and teachers about to implement or trial pBone in their work.

Alongside the busy stand pBone featured in the “Outstanding whole class instrumental teaching at Key Stage 2” session, delivered by Kit Garner.

The session covered:

  • Establishing effective collaboration of Wider Opportunities tutors with School Staff, Pupils, Parents, Secondary Heads of Music and Community Musicians;
  • Incorporating small group work into Wider Opportunities teaching; effective pupil assessment and curriculum design;
  • Using ICT to support Wider Opportunities teaching
  • Creating a more personalised, pupil led approach to Wider Opportunities teaching.
  • Including composition and listening into whole class instrumental teaching.

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As you can see in the photos and videos, a full house enjoyed the experience of a hands on session with Kit and pBone.

"Overall the show was a great success and we look forward to next year."
Chris Fower

Chris Fower

As an undergraduate Chris studied Jazz at Leeds College of Music and then became a member of the Advanced Studies, post-graduate performers course at the Royal Academy of Music and Principal Bass Trombone with the European Community Youth Orchestra under Claudio Abbado. He then spent 25 years as a busy freelance performer based in both London and the North of England working with a wide variety of ensembles and artists, including being a member of Grimethorpe Colliery Band, The British Philharmonic Orchestra, Dame Shirley Bassey’s Orchestra and the Creative Jazz Orchestra.

Alongside this Chris has worked extensively in all areas of music education, latterly as a leading deliverer and trainer in informal, large group practice. This included roles as Leader in Wider Opportunities at Hertfordshire Music Service, Leader of Instrumental Development for Derbyshire City and County Music Partnership and as a face to face trainer on the Trinity Guildhall/Open University “Whole Class Instrumental Learning” national training program.

He became a key member of the team that created pBone, the plastic trombone in 2011/12 and has been involved with pBone Music in various roles since then. Chris is currently the Director of Creativity and Innovation for the company, a role that includes overseeing product development and improvement, quality and education.

Topics:

Education