The Music Workshop Company Blog

Each month the Music Workshop Company publishes two blogs. One blog, written by the MWC team addresses a key issue in Music Education or gives information about a particular genre or period of music. The other blog is written by a guest writer, highlighting good practice or key events in Music Education. We hope you enjoy reading the blogs.

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To contribute as a guest writer please email Maria@music-workshop.co.uk

Percussion family

Posted on 19th August 2026 at 14:18

The final part in our series about the Western Orchestra explores the percussion section. Despite being hidden at the back of the orchestra, the timpani (timps), drums, cymbals and other percussion instruments can always be clearly heard.

The word “percussion” means hitting, and so percussion instruments create sound by being struck, shaken or scraped. Percussion instruments are divided broadly into two groups: “pitched”, which can play specific notes or pitches, and “unpitched”.

Image: Flamurai at English Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

The Emergents programme for early career musicians

Posted on 28th July 2026 at 15:04

Bee Jarvis stands in front of a microphone, mid-performance

This month we hear from Deborah Borg Brincat, Programme Manager at Disabled-led music charity Drake Music. She tells us more about their Emergents programme, which is currently accepting expressions of interest for artists to be part of their 2027 cohort.

This professional development programme offers Disabled musicians creative and development bursaries, training, mentoring and networking opportunities, and the chance to showcase their work to industry professionals. Read on to discover how the programme has helped boost the careers and confidence of previous participants, and to learn more about how to apply.

Photo caption: Bee Jarvis performing at Drake Music Artist Showcase 2025 (Photo credit: Pocket Studio UK)

Brass family

Posted on 19th July 2026 at 18:56

Continuing our series about instruments in the Western Orchestra, this month we explore the brass section, typically made up of horns, trumpets, trombones and tuba.

These various instruments are linked by the way they produce sound, and although the section is called the “brass” section, instruments can also be made from other materials.

The brass section and the woodwind section are sometimes grouped together into the “wind” section.

Image: FlamM, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Woodwind family

Posted on 17th June 2026 at 11:38

Photo by Thea Paraskevaides, used under Creative Commons licence

Continuing our series of blog posts about the Western Classical Orchestra, this month we explore the woodwind family.

A typical woodwind section in an orchestra is made up of flutes, oboes, clarinets and bassoons, but different pieces of music require a different combination of woodwind instruments. Sometimes, the extended instrumental families are needed, from piccolo to contra bassoon or even the saxophone.

Woodwind instruments are aerophones – instruments that create sounds by making air vibrate.

String Family

Posted on 16th May 2026 at 14:07

Last month, we started our exploration of the Western Classical Orchestra with a history of the ensemble.

This month we explore the string family. In terms of players, the string family are the largest instrumental family in the orchestra and is made up of the violin, viola, cello (or violincello) and double bass.

The Orchestra

Posted on 17th April 2026 at 16:05

The orchestra has been at the heart of much of Western music for over 350 years. Many of the pieces in the recommended listening list in the Model Music Curriculum for England are written for orchestra. We explore how the orchestra developed throughout the centuries, for the first of our series of posts examining the make-up of Western orchestras.

Check back in May for the next post in the series, when we’ll delve deeper into the string family.