The Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) is feverishly preparing for the take-off of the long awaited MUSIGA Academy. As part of the preparation, the Union has held a Training of Trainers workshop, a Validation workshop and Pretesting exercises for the ten modules to be used by the Academy.
The Modules are in Music Studio Specialization, Traditional Instruments Specialization, Western Instruments Specialization, Centre Stage Grooming, Music Business Management, Copyright and Publishing and Music Theory and Musicianship. Others are Song writing, Composition and Arrangement, ICT for Music Career Development and Survey of Music in Ghana.
The Training of Trainers, Validation and Pretesting exercises took place in Winneba and they featured industry practitioners, representatives of the School of Performing Arts (S.P.A), University of Ghana, Legon as well as some students and lecturers of the University of Education, Winneba.
The various exercises involved a select team from the School of Performing Arts led by Dr Joshua Amuah, Head of the Music Department of the School, Timothy Andoh and Eric Fiagbedzi. Others included Kofi Asamoah a leading vocal coach and former faculty member of the Music Department of the University of Education and representatives of the Union.
As part of the Validation exercise, a number of academics and industry persons reviewed the manuals and made their contributions. These included Prof Linus Abraham, rector of the National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI) who are collaborating with MUSIGA on the Academy project, Prof John Collins of the Bookor African Music Foundation (BAPMAF) a former lecturer of the S.P.A, Charles Amoah, a renowned musician and Jonathan Cudjoe, a legal practitioner with extensive copyright experience and Mohammed Kolan, a music teacher.
On the heels of the Validation exercise was the Pretesting exercise led by Eric Fiagbedzi of the S.P.A which involved students of the University of Education, Winneba led by Big Fish a lecturer. The students critiqued the manuals and gave insightful feedback.
The Training of Trainers workshop involved leading industry figures like Zapp Mallet, Aka Blay, Willie Roi, Celestine Donkor, Kofi Asamoah and Dela Jackson. Others included Baba Ahmed, Cosmos Agya Kojo, Bessa Simons, Verus Nartey and Paa Kay who among those selected as instructors for the Academy.
The MUSIGA Academy is supported by the Skills Development Fund (S.D.F) of the Council for Technical and Vocational Education Training (COTVET) of the Ministry of Education.
In the first phase, the Academy will train one hundred industry practitioners. It will subsequently become part of NAFTI’s certificate programmes and eventually form part of the basis for NAFTI’s Music Production Department.
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Source: MUSIGA/Ghana