Professional development

The ISM provides you with opportunities to build up your skills in the digital arena with our advice pages and webinars. We also have a collection of professional development videos and resources available to members and the wider music sector through our sister charity, the ISM Trust.

Discover how to rehearse and record online in real time

One of the very few positives from the pandemic has been the ability of musicians to adapt to making music online. As the post-COVID landscape begins to emerge, it is very likely that many musicians will continue to take advantage of digital communications technology as part of their portfolio careers. For gigging musicians, bands, groups and collaborative artists, being able to rehearse together online has proven extremely challenging, with the inherent latency in systems like Zoom and Skype making this a frustrating and seemingly impossible process. This is where Online Real-time Music (ORM) can help you. ORM uses freely available software, alongside equipment that you may already have at your disposal, to create direct links between you and your fellow musicians so that you can rehearse together over distances up to around 300 miles with as much latency as you would find if you were a few metres apart in the same room. With online video and audio conferencing platforms such as Zoom and Skype, the systems put an emphasis on the quality of the stream, meaning that the amount of data they are collecting and sending is very high, and it is the size of these data packets, coupled with the speed of your internet, that causes higher latency and lag. ORM strips away the data to the bare essentials, so that these packets are as streamlined as possible and can be transferred at a much faster rate. Double bassist and physicist John J Williams introduced the principles behind ORM in a free webinar on Friday 11 June, which you can watch here: ism.org/orm-webinar If you are more confident in using tech, ISM members can also access John’s exclusive six-lesson video tutorial, which takes you through setting up your own ORM digital rehearsal room step by step: ism.org/orm

See page 12 for a summary of Julia Haferkorn’s research into livestreaming musical performances

Primary Music Toolkit

This practical toolkit, commissioned by the ISM Trust and written by Dr Alison Daubney PhD, aims to help primary school teachers better understand what music teaching is and how it can be utilised even more to bring the primary curriculum to life. Primary teachers can use it to spread the magic of music through their inspiring curriculum and to permeate the cultural fabric of their schools. The Primary Music Toolkit was the winner of the 2019 Music Teacher Awards for Excellence in Primary/Early Years music. ismtrust.org/primary-toolkit