transformance music
We are a group of teachers, musicians and technologists who specialise in
composition, improvisation and performance using iPads. Ben Sellers and Travis
Snyder began running music workshops with iPads in a Hackney community centre in
2011, developing an approach that combined outstanding musical outcomes with
implicit development of musicianship and theory. They transferred this approach
to both formal mainstream and SEND/ALN contexts, codifying their methods into
what became the 2014 textbook ‘Teaching Music with Garageband for iPad’, and a
popular teacher training scheme. In 2016, Travis returned to California to
become the head of Assistive Technology for the San Francisco District School
Board. 2017 saw the publication of several new resources, including a second
edition of the Garageband textbook and an increased focus on training
partnerships with Music Education Hubs. Since 2018 we have gained an
increasingly strong reputation as SEND/ALN specialists, working with MEHs up and
down the country to improve provision through co-delivery and bespoke training
and resources, including a complete ‘SEN/D Curriculum’ with Leicester-Shire
Music Service, and a set of projects for the Charanga education platform. We
were nominated twice in the 2019 ‘Music Teacher Awards for Excellence’. Though
our reputation has grown, we remain a small and focussed team, working hard to
develop in young people the skill, desire and drive to use music to enhance
their lives.
