Well, after lots of preparation, the day arrived and Yamaha, along with representatives from the whole of the UK music industry, had geared up for Education Day at the brand new London International Music Show in London's Docklands.

Students and their teachers were treated to a broad range of experiences from Yamaha, including displays and demonstrations of Yamaha's world-beating instruments and equipment from orchestral to rock instruments, from concert grand pianos to the much loved digital Clavinova pianos, from synths to the brand new 21st century instrument, the Tenori-On!

Yamaha ran some superb workshops for drum kit beginners, led by Yamaha Music School teacher trainer, Kew West. We collaborated with the European String Teachers' Association in their wonderful presentation of Yamaha electric strings, led by Sarah Drury. We also supported our colleagues, the Associated Board, lending them a top-of-the-range stage piano for their workshop on improvisation, led by Pete Churchill.

I met lots of educators and would like to thank all of you for taking the time to visit me on the Yamaha stand. Please take some time once a week to glance through this site and post your comments, requests, ideas and links to great teaching resources. I hope to see you again soon!

On June 13th the fledgeling London International Music Show - now arguably the major music trade show in the UK - holds its Education Day. Yamaha will be running drum taster sessions for beginners of all ages on a first-come-first-served basis. Teachers and children (aged 9+) will be taught some simple drum patterns and techniques featuring Yamaha's groundbreaking DTX electronic drum kits and practice pads. The session will end with playing along to a CD - and all that in less than 30 minutes!

For those considering whole-class drum kit tuition as part of wider opportunities, the group teaching model we use for drum kit is highly effective and enormous fun for the participants. Spectators are welcome too but we hope you'll come along and have a go.

Click here to register for LIMS' Education Day.

Yamaha will be exhibiting at the London International Music Show, from 12th - 15th June, and we're also providing activities on the special education day, Friday 13th June, including an electronic drum workshop and a session on electric strings, featuring Yamaha Silent Strings.

There'll be a wide range of Yamaha instruments and equipment that will be of interest to education users. It will be a great opportunity to see the new the more traditional Yamaha instruments - whose great build quality makes them a must for school use - alongside the Pocketrak 2G mp3 recorder, and the groundbreaking Tenori-on, too. I'll be on the Yamaha stand on Education Day to tell people about Yamaha Music Friends (this community) and encourage more teachers and musicians working in education to join us.

The entire British music industry will be represented and will also be providing workshop sessions on education day. I strongly recommend that you register for this event and hope to see you all there! Click here for further details.