Getting to see and hear a master musician up close is an exciting and inspirational experience no matter what age you are. With the exception of places like The Ark in Dublin or festivals like Tradoodle in Monaghan, there are very few opportunities for children to attend concerts or gigs where...

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The Irish Primary School Music Curriculum in its introduction section talks about music education as part of a balanced curriculum which aims to develop the whole spectrum of a child's intelligence. It talks about bringing the child to an awareness and appreciation of his/her unique cultural...

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I asked my dad recently about how he learnt music in primary school when he was growing up in Belfast in the 60’s. He told me about the BBC radio show "Singing Together" which broadcast every Monday morning at 11am. Classrooms across the country would tune in and sing along to songs covering...

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Learning music is hard. A lot of people I speak to talk about their experience of starting an instrument when they were a child and, when they didn't find it engaging, they gave up. Often, with hindsight, there's a sense of regret from giving it up. So what is it about it? Why is it hard?...

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Parents can often be concerned about the cost of instruments when they are encouraging a budding young musician at home. What I'd like to share with you is that when it comes to the first few years of making music, you don't have to spend much to begin musical explorations with your children. In...

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The picturesque village of Drumshanbo in County Leitrim is host to one of the most popular Irish music schools of the summer. The Joe Mooney Summer School follows Willy Clancy in Clare and Tubbercurry in Sligo and comes just before Scoil Achla on Achill Island. It would be quite the summer to...

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We're delighted to announce the launch of our brand new Dabbledoo Music podcast where we will be talking all things music education. For our very first pilot podcast we are talking to The Eskies who are an Irish gypsy folk band. The band released their first album 'After the Sherry Went Round' in...

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The year is 2006. I have just started my final year of secondary school, Italy have won the World Cup after Zinedine Zidane had been sent off in the final and Pluto has just been downgraded from a planet to a dwarf planet – these are testing times indeed. The internet was starting to get in to...

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Practice Practice Practice The most common piece of advice for anyone looking to learn a musical instrument is “just practice”. It’s not really the most helpful advice and it’s not quite as simple as that. Here is a full DabbledooMusic guide that will help you or your child to get better at...

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Why learn an Instrument? Learning a musical instrument doesn’t necessarily mean that you want to become a professional musician and play a week of sold out shows in Carnegie Hall (though that would be great, send us some tickets if you get there!). Playing an instrument is a great way to start...

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