The Alliance for a Musically Inclusive England (AMIE) is a growing movement for change in music education, aiming to ensure that music-making is open and accessible to every young person.
We know that music-making makes a massive difference to young people’s personal and social development. At Drake Music we also know that traditional musical instruments and methods of making music can be inaccessible to young Disabled people.
We work to develop new instruments, ideas, teachers and practice to support accessible music making for all and we deliver our strategic Think22 music education programme as part of AMIE, to support the sector to be more inclusive.
Making music can help young people to realise their potential and to deal with some of the big issues facing them today – including mental health, isolation, youth violence and social inequality.
But despite this, and the fact that young people say music is central to their lives, too many are missing out on music-making because of who they are, where they live, what they are going through, or the lack of diversity of opportunities.
By embedding inclusive ways of working throughout music education, we can all make that no young person misses out.
Here’s a video from our work with Essex Music Hub on the Inclusion Collective, where trainee Oliver tells us a bit about his experience on this project:
What does being musically inclusive look like?
We believe that music is a human right and we fight and advocate for equality in music for young Disabled people.
The AMIE network sees that musically inclusive practice involves making sure young people’s music is HEARD:
- Holistic – placing emphasis on personal, social and musical outcomes
- Equitable – people facing the biggest barriers receive the most support
- Authentic – developed with and informed by the people we do it for
- Representative – the people we work with as participants and colleagues reflect our diverse society
- Diverse – all musical genres, styles, practices are valued equally
Drake Music are one of the 13 founder members of AMIE, which is led and supported by Youth Music, thanks to funding from the National Lottery via Arts Council England.
The 13 Founder Members are: Awards for Young Musicians, Brighter Sound, Bristol Music Trust, Daisi, Drake Music, MAC, MusicNet East, MusInc, More Music, NYMAZ, Sage Gateshead, Sound Connections, SoundCity/Southern Music Hub Alliance and Youth Music.
There are also more than 60 partner organisations across the UK who are working with the AMIE network to make their practice inclusive.
Young people need you to take action. If you want to help create a musically inclusive England, sign up to the Youth Music Network, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn, and contact your local Alliance founder partner to ask to be kept informed.
Follow the #AMIE hashtag on twitter to see what is happening with the network and to keep up to date with the resources and support available to make music more inclusive.
We share tips from our music leaders, discussion and new music on the News & Views section of our site. We also have other free inclusion resources for the Music Education sector here.
For more free resources go to the AMIE Inclusion Resources Hub on the Youth Music website.