Over the many years that I have been teaching piano and flute it has become apparent to me that children have been getting increasingly less exposure to the variety of musical styles and instruments that they would have encountered in the past. I thought a music competition such as this, with commenting judges, video bios, and riveting performances by children of their own age, could be an effective way of encouraging and inspiring children to take up a musical instrument and listen to music a little out of their “comfort zone”.
With regard to the competition entrants themselves I wanted to give these young instrumentalists the opportunity to perform in their own comfortable environments without the usual pressures associated with formal competitions. In my opinion this has the potential to produce some very natural and engaging performances. The fact that entrants can record themselves in whatever setting they like and with no particular dress requirements can greatly reduce any performance stress and help the player feel as relaxed as possible.
Creating the NOTE-ABLE competition and producing the shows and has been a huge challenge on all levels. Almost every skill required to do this – video editing, graphic design, photo editing, administration, social media promotion and much more besides – had to be learnt from scratch. I am still learning and trying to improve the look and the feel of NOTE-ABLE with each passing year.
My main aim throughout has been to make this a fun competition with a serious intent. Our Dream Team of judges, who bring a wealth of expertise, experience, kindness and good humour to the shows, has contributed hugely to achieving this aim and for this I am very grateful.
Joel Bolton QSO (for services to music)
