Partner links

Take it away
Take it away is an Arts Council initiative designed to help more people get involved in learning and playing music. The scheme allows individuals aged over 18 to apply for an interest free loan of up to £2,000 for the purchase of any kind of musical instrument.

Practice-a-thon Music and Take it away have teamed up to bring participants an exciting new interactive way to practise, play and perform while raising money to help children with cancer. top of page

Arts Council England
Arts Council England works to get great art to everyone by championing, developing and investing in artistic experiences that enrich people’s lives.

As the national development agency for the arts, it supports a range of artistic activities from theatre to music, literature to dance, photography to digital art, carnival to crafts.

Arts Council England have funded this year's Practice-a-thon campaign through the partnership with it's Take it away scheme.

Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music
The Associated Board Royal School of Music (ABRSM) is the world’s leading provider of music exams and assessments. Each year over 630,000 candidates take ABRSM exams in over 90 countries worldwide. A total commitment to music education lies at the heart of its work.

The ABRSM fully supports Practice-a-thon and wishes all participants lots of fun with their practising.

"Practice-a-thon is a fantastic way of nurturing musical talent." Says Christine Morris, ABRSM.

"As well as providing motivation and encouragement to practise for concerts or music exams, it offers people of all ages the perfect opportunity to discover new types of music and instruments."

Rockschool
Rockschool was set up in 1991 to bring the best in pop and rock into mainstream education. This is done by providing exams, publications, advice and support to teachers and educational bodies.

Rockschool offers both what candidates want and what teachers need within a fully recognized and accredited framework. It offers rock and pop music exams from Debut up to Grade eight in guitar, bass, drums, popular piano and vocals.

As well as exams, Rockschool offers; teaching qualifications in conjunction with their partners, the Musicians' Union and vocational courses including Access to Music, Music Practitioner and Music Educator. top of page

NUMU
NUMU is a safe social networking community, especially designed for young musicians! Upload a video or MP3 of your Practice-a-thon performance to showcase your music, compete in charts, develop your talents and more. Hundreds of schools are already using NUMU.

Show Me How To Play
Show Me How To Play.com offers an online interactive music experience to help musicians of all levels to learn to play the music they love with their favourite bands.

It has been comissioned by Take it away to produce five exclusive tutorials for Practice-a-thon Music participants.

Dawsons Music
Established in 1899, Dawsons Music is one of the longest serving musical instrument retailers in the UK. Offering everything from traditional orchestral instruments to the very latest in music technology.

Managing Director, David Briggs said: "We are proud to be partnered with Practice-a-thon. Not only is it an extremely worthy cause but it also helps to encourage young people to develop their talents and put them to good use at the same time."

Its dedicated Education department is not only a welcome source of help and advice to music teachers throughout the British Isles and abroad, but also provides essential product training to hundreds of teachers every year.

Sibelius
The world's best-selling music notation software. Sibelius is the easy way to write, refine, hear, scan and print beautiful scores. Sibelius are offering us their software for FREE as an incentive for schools.

Bridge Violins
Bridge Violins have been making bow played instruments for nearly 15 years now, and over that time they feel lucky to have had the opportunity to meet with, and endorse many young musicians with their instruments, players who are now touring the world with artists such as McFly, Sinead o’Connor, Mark Knopfler and Gnarles Barkley. And that takes some practice!

Bridge Violins very kindly donated 10 acoustic violins to give away to promote the Share a Stage at Glastonbury festival competition in 2008.  

"We at Bridge are proud to be sponsors of Practice-a-thon, and this exciting competition, in aid of CLIC Sargent," said Ceris Jones, Company director.