Fame For The Forums!, Classical Music Magazine Options

[Cyrilla]

Bagpuss has just brought to my attention a full-page article in the most recent issue of 'Classical Music' all about the ABRSM forums.

HUZZAH! Fame at last!!!

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/hurrah.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/jumpin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/hurrah.gif)

[Cyrilla]

Your wish is my command... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

'What exactly is a lower auxiliary note? Who's the most over-rated composer? How do you cook a conductor? Tim Homfray logs on to the forums hosted by the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music.

Somewhere in cyberspace there is a café where people meet to chat about life, everything and possibly the universe. In cyberspace no-one can hear you speak, so the conversations are written down. One conversation now runs to 92,609 contributions and 6,174 pages.

Music comes up quite a lot too, this being a virtual venue attached to the rather more corporeal Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. Its visitors are mostly music students and teachers, many of whom met in another part of the ether, logging on to one of the board's online forums. There are currently 13 of these, catering for instrumentalists, students of theory or jazz, their parents and teachers. They pose questions ('What exactly is a lower auxiliary note?') and problems ('I have a student who won't practise') -many of them, though by no means all, concerning the board's graded music exams.

The opportunity to share ideas, air concerns and find help and advice has so far attracted more than 10,000 regular users to the site since it started up five years ao. It is particularly popular with those who tend to feel isolated, such as adult learners who don't have the school and youth networks of younger players, and teachers who work from home. It is also surprisingly popular with organists.

In the beginning there were five forums, says Christine Morris, the board's corporate marketing manager. 'The growth in the number of people using it was staggering, all by word of mouth. Within six months we had added more.' Regular users got to know each other and started chatting, and the banter was soon getting in the way of the musical discussion. Hence the forums café. 'People can make friends there and catch up with one another,' says Morris.

They have gone further than that. 'One of the curious facts about the forums is that people are now meeting up with each other. They arrange to go to courses and seminars together and become friends in real life as well.' There have also been a number of concerts and a CD.

The board monitors the forums closely, but doesn't normally interfere. 'We are very conscious that we have a lot of young members, and we need to protect them from anything which is inappropriate. But one of the reasons for the forums' success is that we just let them happen, unless someone is really going off down the wrong track, like getting music theory wrong. Then we would step in and give them a steer. But if people do say something wrong normally someone else will pick them up and put them right.

'It is not for us to use it as an educational tool. The community is the most important thing. If we were to control it too much people would start using it as a way to contact the board to get answers to questions and that's not the point of it. We want it to be an online community where people get together and discuss and debate issues.'

The vast majority of users are from the UK, says Morris, 'but we have users from Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong. There are also others from English-speaking countries like Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the USA. We do not have so much of a presence in the USA, and it's interesting that they have found us through the forums rather than through the exams.'

This is not to say that there is no regular contact between the board and the online community. 'We do use the forums ourselves. They're a fund of information for us when we are thinking of changing the way we contact people, or developing a new product. We can post surveys on the forums, and the members are fantastic at getting back to us with exactly what they think.' Members can also post questions for the chief examiner, Clara Taylor, who responds every month.

Inevitably, there is a certain amount of grumbling about the exams and the board. 'We do get that,' says Morris. 'It's quite therapeutic for people, and we don't remove any criticisms that pop up. If there is something that we feel should be looked into then we'll drop them an e-mail and see if they want to discuss it further. And if someone has had a disappointing exam result they can get help and support from the forums. Sometimes they complain about other boards a well. We don't take anything out unless it becomes libellous.'

To keep an eye on the forums the board has a team of people, all volunteers from within its personnel, who check the forums seven days a week. 'They also check for anything contentious, and for any arguments that might be brewing. We are getting quite good at knowing when to step in and calm things down.'

The forums are maintained by The Escape Committee, the web design agency which also set up the board's main website. Its founder Mark Walmsley is himself a musician, a former percussionist with the CBSO and a teacher. There is some uncertainty over who first thought of them, and when. Morris thinks probably Walmsley in 2002; Walmsley suspects it was Morris' predecessor Michelle James in 2001. 'There was a redesign of their website looming,' says Walmsley. 'We pointed out to them that communication in the organisation was vertical, and that the internet gave them the opportunity to turn that into something horizontal. We felt it was important to allow people to talk to each other, and at that time there was no online place for discussing music and exams.'

The site is still evolving. 'Next year,' says Morris, 'we want to start producing podcasts. People will talk on specific topics, which can be listened to on an mp3 player. We will also be having webcasts, with chatrooms full of people putting their quesitons to the chief examiner and having them answered in real time.'

After which they can all have a cup of cybertea and a chat.'

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)