Zoom in
Recently, I was reading in my journal about the first time I ever read a copy of Music Teacher magazine. It was while I was waiting for my interview for the Music Teachers Certificate (MTC) at the London University Institute of Education. It was noted then by my interviewer that I had ‘strong ideas about music teaching’. I have incorporated these ideas into my book Zoom88: How to be calmer and improve your music making. The title was inspired by my mother who was preparing for her Grade 3 piano exam at the age of 88 and using a magnifying glass to zoom in to view her pieces.
Zoom88 is primarily written for music teachers, students, parents of younger students and performers. It can be of benefit if you are interested in self-improvement or need to reduce anxiety in both practice and performance. The inspiration to write the book came many years ago. I had a good friend that I had first met in our school orchestra, who, like me, had become a music teacher and performer. With her training as a Suzuki teacher and mine as a hypnotherapist, we had some interesting discussions about our music teaching methods.
When she sadly passed away in 2000, I thought that I would have liked to have known more about what she did in lessons with her students. So I began making notes about my own teaching methods and techniques. The outcome was a collection of notebooks, which I called Music All the Way. Much of the material in them is included in Zoom88.
I play and teach a variety of musical instruments – mainly piano, cello and flute, and am also a vocal coach. The book begins with an autobiographical adventure, as I zoom in to the journey of my musical life up until the time I became a hypnotherapist and NLP practitioner and went on to discover a very powerful and effective tapping technique called Thought Field Therapy (TFT), which changed my life and consequently the lives of many others.
In the next section of the book I share my teaching methods and techniques, including those for getting over fear of making mistakes and other issues around performance anxiety. The Appendix includes procedures for TFT tapping and other resources for vocal health as well as charts to aid music practice. I have found over time that this practical section of Zoom88 has helped people in other areas of life as well, such as confi dence building, getting over fear of fl ying, public speaking, personal improvement, business development and sports performance.
Rosemary Wiseman
Zoom88 – How to be calmer and improve your music making is available through high street retailers and online through Amazon and Barnes and Noble. For further information see RosemaryWiseman.com
Vocal beats
We are delighted to invite readers of Music Teacher to read a newly published external evaluation report for Vocal Beats (as featured in the June edition of MT, Vol. 99, No. 6), kindly supported by Youth Music. The report can be found both on the Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust website (rbht.nhs.uk) and on the Youth Music Network (network.youthmusic.org.uk).
Authored by Marion Friend, Gráinne Hope and Charlotte Wells – specialists in music education and respiratory health – this in-depth report examines the social, artistic and clinical impacts of participatory singing and beatboxing for children and young adult inpatients at the trust. We hope that this will be an invaluable resource for other NHS trusts, arts organisations and artists looking to create work in the Music in Hospitals sector.
Vocal Beats is a hospital-ward-based music project for children and young people aged 0-25 years old at Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust. The project currently delivers over 900 hours of participatory music per year. It aims to increase levels of mental wellbeing by facilitating access to high-quality music-making opportunities for young people and their families, while also developing music skills and enhancing the patient experience. In 2019 it was nominated for both The Royal Society for Public Health Arts in Health Award and the Youth Music Social Action Award.
Conni Rosewarne Music Programme Manager
