Why choose Gloucestershire Music?

You may be wondering whether to choose lessons through your school and Gloucestershire Music, or to look into private lessons which take place outside of school. We know you have a choice - and that there are many fantastic tutors in the County. What we think is different about our service is:

Quality

You can rest assured that the tutors who teach in schools and run our music centres and groups offer high standards of teaching. They are highly skilled musicians, receive ongoing professional development opportunities and monitoring and all are of course CRB cleared. You'll benefit from:

• Well organised programmes of study: You'll be given an 'instrumental teaching diary' which sets out the timetable, what you've learned each week, and the targets you've been set.  
• Continuous assessment and recognition of success: through our own Bronze, Silver and Gold awards and external examinations eg Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, Trinity Guildhall, Rock School.
• Cost-effective tuition: You'll usually take lessons in small groups initially and later in pairs or one-to-one. 

Access

You can access our services in a range of ways - through schools (we provide a range of specialist tutors to more than 85% of schools), our five music centres, or more than 20 county music groups (including adult groups).

In addition, our Wider Opportunities programme will, between 2008 - 11, provide every student at Key Stage 2 (age 7-11) with the opportunity to play a musical instrument.

If you want to try an instrument before you buy, we have a stock of over 6,000 instruments and a unique hiring scheme which offers instruments at competitive rates.

We can also provide lessons in hard-to-find instruments such as oboe, bassoon, tuba and double bass (and you can hire them from us too). 

Opportunity

Making music in a group, rehearsing and performing, and seeing music performed live are important factors in your musical – and personal – development. We offer workshops and concerts in schools, as well as out-of-school activities through our county music groups and our music centres, summer courses, and Young Musician competition. Many of our groups have represented Gloucestershire outside the county through tours, festivals and competitions and have been awarded national prizes.