A new specialised system, described as revolutionary, has been devised by a prominent Irish fiddler and academic to support teachers of traditional music.
Dr Liz Doherty has launched the framework in response to the fact that "there is no curriculum or syllabus for teaching or learning traditional Irish music, everybody is left to figure it out for themselves - what to teach and how to teach it."
Dr Doherty, who has taught in the field for 30 years, has now launched 'I Teach Trad', which, she says, is a set of tools and supports to help teachers do their job more easily and effectively.
It combines a specialised system with a customised set of resources for planning, organising and delivering traditional music teaching, offering a range of online courses, online and face-to-face workshops and mentoring.
The framework lays out a clear structure and system for teachers to plan, organise and deliver their teaching, which will make their jobs a whole lot easier, according to Dr Doherty.
She said it includes a toolkit of specialist resources, skills and "secret weapons" designed to make teaching better for the teachers and the students.
Based in Buncrana, Co Donegal, from where she runs the online fiddleclinic.ie and Scoil Trad, Dr Doherty has lectured in Irish traditional music at University College Cork and Ulster University and says the new system can be accessed not just by Irish traditional music teachers but by folk music teachers the world over.
The system, available on www.iteachtrad.com, has been described as "the right programme, created at the right time, by the right person", by Dr Ryan Molloy, Associate Professor, NUI Maynooth.
