Benefits for you and your students
Whole class musical instrument tuition
Imagine giving every single student in your class and school the opportunity to
play a musical instrument…well now you can with Gigajam. Teachers can lead the
class and support learning, while students work with their instruments and
computers individually or in small groups. The guitar, bass, keyboard and drum
lessons are fully integrated, which means that the class can learn together and
then play as a band… even from lesson one.
Personalised and collaborative learning
Students can learn to play the instruments at their own pace and develop skills
both as an individual and as part of a band, resulting in students having the
tools to explore their creativity. The rich multimedia contained in the lessons
supports a wide variety of learning styles.
Structured pathways
Gigajam’s structured pathways ensure progression and enable the learners to
continue to study in situations where the class teacher is unavailable, or when
practising, whether individually or in a band.
Supports National Curriculum outcomes
Gigajam provides genuine skills essential to the aims of the National
Curriculum. Key musical outcomes can be demonstrated through the use of
Gigajam’s curriculum and extended activities.
Embeds ICT in Music
Students are able to develop their ICT skills using a practical application
through Gigajam, as well as developing the skills required for music technology.
Gigajam can also be made available for anytime, anywhere learning through a
school’s Virtual Learning Environment.
Interactive multimedia lessons
Each instruction is coupled with a video of a professional musician giving “how
to” demonstrations of techniques and performance standards. Every exercise has
playalong music to support learners’ practice. Multimedia can be selected to
suit individual learning styles. Once students are comfortable with the
exercise, they can use Gigajam’s analysis software to evaluate their progress.
eAssessment – instant performance feedback
Gigajam’s Analyser software provides formative assessment for learning that
enables the students to identify their strengths and weaknesses and improve
their performances. Teachers can see and track the progress of students’ work.
Saving students’ performances provides evidence of progress and achievement.
Music technology vs teaching with technology
In using ICT to support learning and teaching throughout the curriculum,
confusion can arise with the terminology associated with music technology. We
believe that using Gigajam’s Essential Skills Course to teach a student how to
play a musical instrument is teaching with technology. Music technology,
however, is the term used to describe industry standard sequencing, recording
and notation applications.
Such music technology applications are essentially tools for the creation of
music. Therefore music technology applications can be used to reinforce music
tuition, but do not actually teach students how to play a musical instrument.
Gigajam’s Essential Skills Course complements music technology applications by
providing the skills students need to creatively use music technology. Music
technology helps musicians create music. Gigajam helps create musicians.