We Make Music | New Online Reference Tool Launched by MEPG

The We Make Music (WMM) Companion Tool is a new initiative that looks to strengthen music learning across the country. The online reference and search engine tool provides expert guidance to people of all ages and stages who want to make music.

Whatever kind of music floats someone’s boat, the WMM Companion is an easy-to-navigate website that will guide you to access a broad range of tuition, guidance, local music groups, educational pathways, and online resources. The tool brings together a phenomenal resource and will help more people access music-making programmes in their local area. 

Launched in September, the tool is now being updated with the support of organisations, charities and partners across Scotland with a range of exciting opportunities for musicians of all ages, including the programmes delivered by the National Youth Orchestras of Scotland. With so much information in one place, the tool is the first live national map of music making in Scotland and there is huge potential for the tool to become a hub to support people starting their journey into music, or progressing through their own instrumental development pathway. 

The need for The WMM Companion was highlighted by the runaway success of the initial fourteen We Make Music Libraries in Fife, North Ayrshire, Edinburgh, West Lothian, and the Scottish Borders. Libraries like these, stocking a wide variety of instruments from guitars, keyboards, and ukuleles, to violins, trombones, and orchestral instruments, as well as music software and midi keyboards, are spreading quickly throughout the rest of the country. NYOS are delighted to have recently donated a selection of instruments to Tinderbox Collective who have made these available in the Edinburgh and Lothian region as part of the instrument library so that people can borrow these instruments for free.   

NYOS' vision is of a Scotland where all communities access world-class ensemble youth music-making and share in its social, personal, and cultural benefits. The We Make Music Scotland Companion Tool is a creative response to the challenges of bringing together a wide and diverse network of music organisations to help us achieve our collective mission and widen access. 

We Make Music Scotland is the banner adopted by the Music Education Partnership Group (MEPG) to identify the raft of initiatives it has launched with the aim of highlighting the transformative potential of music, where it is valued, nurtured, and experienced by all. MEPG is an independent charity advocating for accessible and high-quality music education in all its forms.

Cat Major, who has created the user-friendly interface said:

“The joy of learning and making music should be accessible to everyone. Every music learner has different goals and needs, and we hope the companion helps people find the opportunities that are right for them. It’s been fantastic to be part of a project that highlights and celebrates the incredible work happening across the country."

> Visit the We Make Music Scotland Companion Tool
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