Guidance

What your music group chooses to wear on stage is part of how you present yourself to the world - but care must be taken not to have it become a barrier that might lead to exclusion.

A group's performance wear - their 'uniform' - is the first thing an audience will see, which is why many groups choose to specify what their members wear while performing. This can be a good thing; uniform can bring a sense of belonging to people and help them feel part of a team. If you’re trying to present a unified sound, it can also be effective if you look uniform too.

Recruiting for a new musical leader is an important moment for a music group. This resource will take you through the process from defining the role to making an offer. Groups use different terms for their group's musical leader role, but in this resource we will use Music Director (MD).  

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In 2023, Paul Whittaker spoke to our members at two events about how groups could support instrumentalists and singers with hearing loss to take part in music-making. This resource covers the good practice suggested by Paul and members that attended those events, for any music-making group working to include deaf people and people with hearing loss in their regular activity.  

Our fifth meeting in our Climate Network series (original event 11 April 2024) discussed the ways in which music groups could come and share their learnings on climate-related music projects.

The speakers for this event were:

In this recording of our webinar (original event 8 March 2024), we talked about the options available to members for sourcing sheet music.

In this recording of our webinar (original event 16 February 2024), we talked about our progress on our #MakeSpaceforMusic campaign, since its launch in Autumn 2023.

It can be very difficult to get new people to discover your music group. But with our handy resource for beginners, you too can start using Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to improve your website’s search rankings.

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In this recording of our webinar (original event 20 October 2023), we learned about how local authorities work, and what music groups can do to influence their decision-making.

There are many terms related to LGBTQ+ issues and it might seem overwhelming at first. But fret not - this glossary should help you better understand your LGBTQ+ members as you work on getting your music group to be more diverse and welcoming.

Working with transgender singers in your music group might be a new experience, but breaking it down into smaller steps would better enable you to support your transgender members on their music making journey.

In practical terms, much of the guidance from our LGBTQ+ inclusion guide is applicable when working with transgender singers. This guide, written by Dr Kathleen Cronie and Dr Michael Bonshor, will provide some extra information about the following questions: