Ideas for the future - access in music.

At about 17 I've wanted to become a music therapist.  I specifically chose my undergraduate music course based on this aspiration as it had links with Nordoff Robbins and was one of the few reputable universaties offering a module at undergraduate level.  I compromised on other aspects of university life specifically for this course.

Whilst at university I realised that funding for these courses was difficult to obtain and that applicants were seldom accepted before their mid twenties anyway.  After some thought I figured that some life experience wouldn't go a miss and thought I'd study for a PGCE and teach for a bit before applying for music therapy courses.  I worked in a primary school to gain experience and applied for PGCE (teacher training).

It was whilst working in the primary school that I got particularly unwell.  One day I woke up and just couldn't get to work.  I didn't know how long it would take to recover from whatever this was so I continued my applications and got a place at the institute of education.  I'd started liaising with their disability team and by this point was considering whether a wheelchair would mean I was able to do the course and placements.In the end I had to give the place up and that's where these aspirations have halted.

When you first get 'ill' with a mystery illness there's always that hope that you will miraculously get better.  Getting ill was also sudden after all.  Over time my understanding has changed and I know think more in terms of 'impairment' and 'disability' than in terms of illness.  Things still might improve or they might get worse.  They might do a bit of both.  I still don't know what the future holds.

Having had all my aspirations paused so abruptly was really painful.  Not knowing whether this dream of being a music therapist will ever be possible hurts too.  That's why it's been really refreshing and exciting to find something that I'm interested in again, in a similar field.

I've been looking in to various different options for making it more possible for me to perform as a musician again, and particularly for me to do some solo stuff.  In my search for switches, mounts etc I found two things that really interested me.
Firstly, there are now much more instruments out there which are accessible to people with all sorts of impairments.  The 'magic flute' in particularly cought my eye.  I love the fact that this field is moving away from tokenistic inclusion and aiming more for musicianship in its own right.  The fact we've moved away from horrible 'midi' sounds means that things have moved forward a long way in terms of gaining mainstream credibility.
Secondly, there are loads of apps for communication and music!

I got a bit excited by this.  I've wanted to do an academic masters course for quite some time but never been entirely sure what I want to study.  But this is something I think I can really sink my teeth in to!

I felt pretty damn lucky then to find out that there are events in London this weekend about this very topic including a symposium for which I found significantly reduced price tickets!

So, I'll be attending this:
http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/launch.aspx?referral=other&refresh=y04W3T1aK0g6&PBID=454f4674-2eb2-4bf2-a4be-f15ad6ae100a&skip=

Wish me luck and I'll be back with updates and ideas!  I still don't know what part of this field I'd like to work in but hopefully this will give me some ideas!