Weekend School class guide
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- Which instrument?
- Choosing your class
Choosing the right class for your young music maker.
There’s nothing quite like the moment when a young musician discovers their sound and Make Music Young People Weekend School is where those magical moments happen; every week.
But we know choosing the right musical activity for your young person can be tricky. Our music courses are packaged up so everything is covered – lessons, playing in a group and learning all the skills you need to become a great musician.
In this guide, we’ll talk you through all the different classes and pathways at our Weekend School.
Need to know
Got questions? Contact our team on youngmusicians@theglasshouseicm.org.
Which instrument should we choose?
Some musical instruments and activities are better suited for different ages and stages.
Singing
As early as you like!
It’s a fantastic way to start loving music.
Stringed instruments
Age 5 – 6
Wind and Brass
Age 7 – 8
These instruments tend to be heavy…
Year 3 and 4
Wind and brass instruments tend to be heavy for little arms and little lungs find it tricky to blow hard enough to make a sound! So we introduce these instruments a bit later than strings. They’ll develop important skills in a Recorder Ensemble and also get a place on Foundation Singing, as singing helps with that all important breath control for playing wind and brass instruments. New students can join at this stage, or existing Foundation Singing students can join Wind and Brass too.
Year 4 - 9
Players from our Foundation programmes can move up to our Step Up classes. They’ll get more opportunities to play with others in a group – a very important part of a young person’s music education. Our Step Up players will also get chance to play in the Step Up Sinfonia.
For this age group, you can also start exploring different genres of music playing with our folk and jazz youth ensembles or continue their singing with our youth choir.
Year 7 - 13
Our Centre for Advanced Training is aimed at young people who show exceptional potential in their chosen musical area. Classes run on Sundays in term time and can be an instrument (or multiple), singing, composition or song-writing. They’ll need to audition – but we’re looking for potential as much as achievement.
