Sibelius scores with schools in Northern Ireland

Sibelius Software inspire thousands of school children to take up
music composition thanks to ground breaking national IT initiative

Sibelius Software are delighted to announce that the award winning notation program has been installed in ALL of Northern Ireland’s post-primary schools as part of an initiative involving the five education and library boards that are responsible for the provision of an integrated ICT service.  The program is available for use by all music staff and students and is making a huge impact in increasing the numbers of students getting involved with composition and music in general.

One of the people responsible for the success of the initiative is instrumental teacher and music technology advisor Gary Myles who works for the South Eastern Education and Library Board (SEELB).  Gary has so far travelled to 18 schools in the SEELB area helping teachers integrate Sibelius into the teaching of composition and arranging, and also to facilitate the use of the software as an aid to specific school projects.

Gary comments: “The meetings with the students are particularly fruitful and the program has had enormous impact. Once the students are introduced to Sibelius they learn very quickly how to use it and soon start to experiment. It's at this stage when they generally realise how useful Sibelius will be to them – they can hear their music as they compose it, something which all but the most talented young composers will have struggled to do, and it’s great that their own playing ability is no barrier to creativity.”

Gary has also spent much time meeting with teachers following the national installation, providing a crash course in using Sibelius. Teachers appreciate just how easy it is to create (and adapt) a complicated arrangement from simple beginnings. One of the benefits has been the ability to keep school ensembles supplied with music; having a piece of software where new parts can be created quickly allows teachers more time to rehearse and less time arranging and writing out music.

Gary comments: “My job is about enabling teachers and students to discover quick and easy ways to create, edit and expand their work.  Some students have only basic computer skills but are able to develop quickly into proficient Sibelius users and composers after only a few visits, thanks to the intuitive nature of the program.  It's very rewarding to see Sibelius inspiring creativity, not just in proficient young musicians but also new composers who discover the ease with which they can create music and achieve an immediate result both visually and aurally.  Their reward is being able to hear their music without the need to find performers and to see their music printed professionally with very little effort."

Teachers have found that rather than composing traditionally with manuscript paper and perhaps an instrument, students are much happier to sit and work on their own compositions for hours at a time using Sibelius.  They can hear what they are writing, change things easily and for those students who find notating rhythms difficult a keyboard or other MIDI instrument can be used to play along to and record with the aid of a click track.  Sibelius caters for all post-primary musicians, whether they are beginners or accomplished A-level composers, some of whom now type their music into Sibelius as fast as regular typing!

Additional enthusiasm and motivation was generated in November thanks to celebrity Sibelius users Jamie Cullum and Geoff Gascoyne who visited one of the schools. The two musicians provided a great inspiration not only for the students at the school they visited but to the students and teachers in other schools who, on hearing about the visit, appreciate the longer term value of their work with Sibelius when they see high-profile musicians talking about its benefits.

In the last year, more students than ever in Northern Ireland are composing with more collective enthusiasm than would have previously been the case thanks to Sibelius.