Welcome to the APME Liverpool 2025 conference. Here, you’ll be able to register for the conference and update your Sched profile. We encourage you to browse the various presentations and to create a custom schedule. If you have any questions, please visit our conference website or contact us at conference@popularmusiceducation.org We look forward to coming together as a community July 22–24, 2025!
Arranging and interpreting pop songs collaboratively, with groups of 10, 15 or 25 members, is a challenging and rewarding experience. I want to show how we can tackle these group processes by offering structure and cultivating openness. After a warm-up with participatory elements, we sing and play a pop song together. I give some input to get started, and then leave space for developing ideas. We will make the song our own by changing roles and taking artistic decisions together. Own instruments are welcome!
Composing and Improvising in the Music Classroom: Ideas and techniques to support the early stages of group composition, encouraging creative music-making. Designed to develop key skills in performing, listening, composing, and improvising by breaking down a musical example into simple rhythmic and melodic riffs, transforming it, improvising on its various elements before using these as the basis for pupils own creative compositions.
The session examines gender and positionality in digitally-supported music education, highlighting how media reinforce stereotypes. It critiques the exclusion of marginalized groups through biased technology and representation. Solutions include positionality, active unlearning, and counter-storytelling, fostering inclusivity in music education by addressing power structures and promoting reflective, creative practices.
This session explores how popular music set works are analyzed in GCSE and A Level curricula, questioning the authenticity of current methods. It highlights gaps in traditional frameworks, suggesting inclusive pedagogical approaches to better represent the cultural and stylistic dimensions of popular music for deeper student engagement and learning.
