Music teachers striking the same chord of ‘excellence’

Little Notes, run by husband and wife team, Mark and Louise Bradbury, deliver music classes for babies and toddlers and Kay Tucker’s Stringbabies, which offers a unique approach to reading music and learning Violin and Cello, make up two of the five organisations shortlisted in the category of ‘Excellence in early years and primary music provision’.

Stringbabies was shortlisted in the inaugural awards earlier in 2013 and founder Kay Tucker commented on the positive impact on her business.

“Making the finals of the Music Teacher awards raised the profile of Stringbabies to National level.

“I sense that my work has been taken much more seriously over the past 12 months. As a result so many more children have shown interest in learning music with Stringbabies.”

Little Notes was launched at The Capitol, Horsham in 2005 and has grown to be led by a team of top-notch musicians across the UK, delivering fun classes, bursting with live music, to hundreds of families every week in venues including Chichester, London and Cardiff.

The Little Notes Network is set to grow even more, as Spring 2014 sees the launch of a training programme designed to equip other professional musicians to run Little Notes workshops in their own communities, from September 2014.

Stringbabies is delivered in private practices and music services throughout the UK and abroad, offering children from as young as 3 years the opportunity to learn to play violin. Viola and cello and learn to read music at the same time using Kay Tucker’s innovative musical note reading system.

Stringbabies has been making waves in the music education world as it has shown that it is possible to teach children to be able to read music before they start school and the system is being developed for Double bass, recorder, flute and classroom music, with trials already taking place in different venues throughout the country.

Mark and Lou Bradbury are thrilled to be finalists in the 2014 Music Teacher Awards for Excellence in Early Years/Primary Provision.

“Families are always telling us how much they enjoy experiencing real, live music on a weekly basis and have so much spontaneous fun in our classes.

“Becoming finalists has happened at just the right time for us, as we seek to share our skills and experience with other musicians across the UK.

“Sharing the honour with Kay Tucker of Stringbabies is just the icing on the cake! We are great friends and love to play our instruments together, as part of the worship at St John’s church, Broadbridge Heath. We have a very similar desire to share excellent music with others, including the very young.”