Scotland Sings is offering another great opportunity to get involved with in their new ‘Song Leaders Training for Beginners‘ course.

The course is aimed at beginners and new singing group / choir leaders, covering lots of aspects such as warm ups, group management, easy songs for harmony singing; marketing and business skills and much more. The course will focus less on written music and instead focus will be on teaching and learning.

All participants are to receive a free teaching pack full of useful information on running workshops, choirs and groups. To find out more and book your tickets, you can visit – www.projects.scottishcultureonline.com/scotlandsings

Hands Up for Trad have just started up their brand new project, Scotland Sings. This innovative new project has been designed to encourage people to come together and sing with events taking place all over the country as part of St.Andrew’s Day celebrations. The organisation are co-ordinating singing projects across Scotland with mass participation, inspiring new participants to get involved in the already existing choirs in their communities and also providing support for new choirs to start up.

The first Scotland Sings event takes place between Friday 30 November – Sunday 2 December 2012 and will be run nationally, hoping to involve as many communities, choirs and singers in Scotland as possible.

To find out more on how to get involved in this year’s project visit – www.scottishcultureonline.com/how-do-i-get-involved-in-scotland-sings-2012

If you are interested in taking part, you can contact Scotland Sings on – www.scottishcultureonline.com/contact

The very best in musical talents are preparing to compete in the semi-final of the Young Scottish Jazz Musician of the Year at the Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh on Sunday 17 June at 3pm.

The Ten Semi Finalists:

Liam Shortall – Trombone, Dumfries

Brodie Jarvie – Double Bass, Glasgow

Helena Kay – Alto Sax, Perth

Norman Wilmore – Alto Sax, Shetland

Mairi Chambeul – Clarsach, Kyle of Lochalsh

David Swan – Piano, Glasgow

Corrie Dick – Drums, Glasgow

Christopher Stylianides – Trumpet, South Lanarkshire

Ross Hodgkinson – Drums, Stonehaven

Peter Johnstone – Piano, Milngavie

This, the 6th year of the competition, is organised by the Scottish Jazz Federation and has been made possible through investment and sponsorship from Creative Scotland, Aberdeen International Youth Festival and Shell. The eventual winner will receive a cash prize plus support for study or a project of their choice donated by Shell, as well as much soght after appearances at Glasgow and London jazz festivals. The final will also be recorded live for BBC Radio Scotland’s Jazz House programme (92-95FM and on Digital).

Tickets for the semi-final are available now, priced £7 (concessions £5 – entry is free for under 16’s), from www.thequeenshall.net or from the Queen’s Hall box office on 0131 668 2019.

For further information, please contact the Scottish Jazz Federation at admin@scottishjazzfederation.com or call 01368 866895. Visit the Scottish Jazz Federation website at www.scottishjazzfederation.com to keep up to date on events throughout Scotland or join them on Facebook and Twitter.

Traditional Music Summer School

Tinto Summer School is held at Wiston Lodge at the foot of Tinto Hill in South Lanarkshire and offers music tuition, outdoor activities and much more.

National Festival Scotland

Free Tickets Music For Youth’s National Festival Scotland is a brand new music festival featuring young musicians from across Scotland taking place Friday 8 June 2012.

AYMF Opportunity

Growing Audiences North East Aberdeenshire Council and GANE project partners are looking for an independent consultant to evaluate the three year programme, Growing Audiences North East.

What is Music+?

Music+ is a mentoring scheme for young people interested in making music held in Glasgow City Centre.

ElJam – Outdoor Live Summer Music Events

The first of a series of 8 exciting, outdoor, live youth music events in East Lothian takes place on 2 June 2012.

Please feel free to email us with your news at hello@ymfs.org.uk

Tinto Summer School is held at Wiston Lodge at the foot of Tinto Hill in South Lanarkshire.

The school has been running since 2000 and this year due to the high demand (sold out on-line last year) they are running two summer schools (for high school students or those about to enter/leave high school) and a weekend (for 18-25s).

As well as learning from some of the best traditional music tutors available, participants also take part in outdoor activities, a fancy dress ceilidh, a BBQ and there’s loads of creativity, socialising, sessions and general fun. The school has found in particular that kids who are maybe “misfits” and have a tricky time at school often become the stars of the show. Because of the availability of the two weeks instead of one there are still plenty of places left so if you have any outlets you could tickle to help us publicise it that would be very helpful.

Go to www.tintosummerschool.com for more information and to book places.

This week we brought you youth music news and events from all over Scotland, here are some of the highlights -

New Commission – Sound Festival 2012

£3000 commission for opera-themed work as part of the Sound Festival in North-East Scotland.

The Gathering 2012

Scots songwriters offered the chance of joining the UK Songwriting Festival, The Gathering 2012. To be held for the first time in Galloway this August.

Urban Fairytale Theatre Company: Auditions

Auditions for actors, writers, film-makers, musicians and those interested in production arts in Scotland.

The Scottish Album of the Year Award: Longlist

The longlist for The Scottish Album of the Year Award 2012 has now been announced.

Tutor Training Programme: Reeltime Music

The Tutor Training programme in Motherwell is looking for potential trainees to express interest and apply for the free training programme.

Please feel free to email us with your news – hello@ymfs.org.uk

Reeltime Music’s dates for the Tutor Training Programme is now live.

The Tutor Training programme is a unique opportunity to take the first steps in community music. We are looking for potential trainees to express interest and apply for the free training programme.

The training has been running since 2008 and has been developed by skilled musicians with over 15 years’ experience in youth community music. The programme is designed for passionate musicians, who believe in young people and their talents, and who are willing to learn new skills through helping others.

The informal, interactive sessions and rewarding projects will allow trainess to develop skills highly sought after in the creative and other industries.

The programme will cover a wide range of practices and techniques relating to youth music and will involve:

A commitment to attending 3 x 3 hour informal and interactive training sessions

Completing a tutor placement at a community music workshop (6 hours over approx. 2 x 3 hour workshops)

The dates for the training sessions are:

Monday 30 April 2012 – 6pm-9pm Monday 7th May 2012 – 6pm-9pm

Monday 14 May 2012 – 6pm-9pm

If you have any questions, you can contact Carol on (01698) 862860 or email carol@reeltimemusic.net and she will do her best to come back to you with answers as soon as possible. Application form can be downloaded here: word doc or pdf.

Scotland’s songwriting promotion and development body Burnsong announced the opening of The Gathering 2012 — the annual invitation to submit new Scottish songs, which will be assessed by an expert panel before the winning songwriters are invited to join the UK Songwriting Festival to hone their skills in a week of intensive support and tuition.

Bath Spa University, the home of Europe’s only Masters degree in songwriting, will bring their distinguished tutors including Joe Bennett, Boo Hewerdine, Jez Ashurst, Andy White and Ivor Novello-nominated Snow Patrol collaborator Iain Archer, to Scotland for the first time for a five-day intensive songwriting boot camp which will take place at Shennanton House in rural Galloway between August 12th and August 17th 2012. All participants will then, over two gigs in Bladnoch Distillery, showcase what has been achieved with their fresh new songs premiered to an invited audience.

The Gathering 2012 competition opens on Monday March 19th and submissions will be accepted until 12 Noon on Saturday May 12th. The selection and judging process will take place between May 14th and 18th with winners notified and announced thereafter.

This year, Burnsong seeks brand new songs of quality, with a distinctly Scottish flavour, inspired by the content, subject matter, interests and concerns expressed in the work of Robert Burns. These may be performed by the songwriter or by a group but the places at the UK Songwriting Festival are for individual songwriters.

For competition rules and instructions on how to submit, download the submissions PDF here: http://www.burnsong.org/2012gathering/gathering_2012_subs.pdf

This opportunity is available in: All Scotland

For further information, please contact kevin@burnsong.org or visit http://www.burnsong.org/

The deadline is Saturday 12 May 2012 at 12:00.