About the Big Gig
The Big Gig is designed to be a transformative professional learning experience for music educators, grounded in the belief that the most powerful development happens through active participation, collaboration, and shared musical experiences.
At its core, the event is built around hands-on music-making. Rather than positioning teachers as passive recipients of ideas, the Big Gig places them in the role of learners. Through creating, performing, experimenting, and collaborating, educators experience first-hand the excitement, challenge, and vulnerability that sit at the heart of meaningful musical learning. This approach is intentional, ensuring that all learning is rooted in authentic practice and can be directly translated back into the classroom.
The Big Gig is also designed to develop a strong and lasting sense of community. Bringing together educators from across diverse international contexts, it creates a space where openness, generosity, and shared purpose thrive. The aim is to build meaningful connections, encourage the exchange of ideas, and support the development of a global network of educators who continue to learn from and inspire one another beyond the event itself.
A key priority is to model inclusive, informal approaches to music education. Participants are encouraged to step beyond their comfort zones, try new instruments, explore unfamiliar musical styles, and engage in collaborative music-making regardless of prior experience. By doing so, the event reflects a vision of music education that is accessible, relevant, and centred on the learner.
Integral to the experience is a deep engagement with local culture. Through immersive opportunities such as gamelan workshops in Bali and Malaysia or Thai Music workshops at previous events in Bangkok, participants connect with the musical traditions of where the events are held in meaningful and respectful ways. This not only enriches the learning experience but also reinforces the importance of cultural context in music education.
The structure of the Big Gig intentionally balances intensity and reflection. Full days of creative, practical engagement are designed to challenge and inspire, while also prompting educators to reflect on their own practice and consider how these experiences can shape their teaching. The goal is for participants to leave not only energised, but equipped with practical, adaptable approaches that can have an immediate and lasting impact in their classrooms.
Ultimately, the Big is intended to be more than a conference. It is a space where joy, creativity, and connection are at the forefront. It seeks to reignite a passion for music education, empower teachers as creative practitioners, and demonstrate the profound impact that collaborative, inclusive music-making can have on both educators and their students.
The Big Gig Bali 2026
Friday 27th March — Gamelan Workshops at Mekar Bhuana Gamelan Centre
The event began before the formal conference programme with an immersive afternoon at Mekar Bhuana, one of Bali's most respected centres for the study and preservation of Balinese gamelan. This off-site experience set the tone for the entire event, placing participants immediately in the role of musical learners engaging with an unfamiliar tradition.
Working alongside experienced Balinese musicians, educators explored the instruments, tuning systems, and ensemble interplay that define gamelan performance. The experience was both humbling and energising, offering a powerful first-hand reminder of what it feels like to begin something new, and of the courage and openness that music learning demands. For many participants, it was a highlight of the entire event, and a vivid illustration of the inclusive, culturally grounded approach that lies at the heart of Musical Futures.
Saturday 28th March — Day 1 at Dyatmika School
The first full day of workshops took place at Dyatmika School and opened with arrival, registration, and a student gamelan performance, a fitting continuation of the cultural thread established the previous evening, and a reminder of what is possible when young people are given access to rich musical traditions.
The day's keynote was delivered by Dr James Humberstone, whose address framed the themes and provocations that would run through the two days of workshops that followed. James explored his personal journey with Musical Futures with the keynote title "a special place in my heart".
The morning session offered three differentiated pathways tailored to participants' experience with Musical Futures. Those newer to the approach explored the core pedagogical foundations of informal learning through the Explore, Recreate, Create (ERC) framework. A second strand focused on classroom workshopping, supporting teachers in finding new and creative ways to use Musical Futures resources within their own contexts. A third, more advanced strand took a deeper dive into the ERC framework across instruments, creativity, electronic music and AI, asking a central question: what musical skills do our students really need for informal learning?
After morning tea, sessions continued with a music technology strand for Level 1 participants exploring how hardware and software can be used in fresh and practical ways in the music classroom, drawing on Musical Futures' ongoing inquiry into how popular musicians learn. Levels 2 and 3 combined for a session dedicated to the Recreate concept, sharing resources, approaches, and success stories from schools that have already begun embedding this idea into their programmes.
The afternoon opened with a Resources Deep Dive, bringing all participants together to explore the Musical Futures international platform, discover over 100 new resources and AI-assistive tools, and develop strategies for making the most of these in the classroom. The day closed with a combined session on Rock Squad and AI for Songwriting, focusing on how composing, songwriting, and creative tasks can be meaningfully built into programmes, particularly at upper primary and lower secondary levels.
Sunday 29th March — Day 2 at Dyatmika School
The second day maintained the energy and momentum of the first, offering a rich programme of practical workshops across three differentiated levels, with a number of sessions repeated in the afternoon to allow participants to attend sessions they had missed.
The morning opened with three concurrent strands. Level 1 participants worked through a high-engagement progression moving from Chair Drumming through Everyone Can Play, Just Play, and Play Now. Meanwhile, Level 2 participants began exploring generative AI as a launchpad for creativity, discovering the Musical Futures International approach to AI through a range of resources and practical activities. Level 3 participants explored Remix and Recreate, examining approaches to introducing electronic music production techniques from two distinct angles.
After morning tea, the programme moved into a choose your own adventure format. Delegates could choose between exploring how informal learning can be applied across a broad range of musical styles and traditions, with a focus on developing a deep understanding of cultural context using Bad Bunny's WELTiTA as the focus track. All delegates could choose the AI strand with a practical songwriting workshop using Suno to generate, reverse-engineer, and adapt songs, directly challenging common misconceptions about AI's role in creativity. The third option was a hands-on workshop exploring progression pathways beyond Everyone Can Play, using Playalongs to rehearse, perform, and plan next-step ensemble experiences into a Battle Of The Bands.
Following lunch, all participants came together for the Unconference, one of the event's most anticipated sessions. With no slideshows required and minimal preparation, educators were invited to share an activity, idea, game, or story from their own classrooms. The result was an energetic, participant-led exchange that consistently produces some of the most memorable moments of the Big Gig.
The afternoon offered a further rotation of sessions, including Educative Evidence-Based Practice (EEBP), exploring how this concept fits within contemporary music programmes; a repeat of the From ECP to Battle of the Bands workshop; and Boomwhackers to Chrome Music Lab, an interactive session using Boomwhackers, Playalongs, and Song Maker to explore, recreate, and create.
Reflections from Delegates
The true measure of any professional learning event lies in what participants carry with them when they leave. The reflections shared by delegates in the days following the Big Gig Bali 2026 paint a picture of an event that delivered on every level.
For many, the experience prompted a fundamental rethinking of their approach to teaching. One educator from a classical background described the event as a complete game-changer, expressing a new excitement about stepping back and allowing students to discover and explore on their own rather than leading from the front. Another reflected on a question the event had surfaced for them: whether their teaching was empowering students to become musicians, or simply training them to follow. These are not small shifts in thinking, and the fact that a professional learning event is prompting them speaks to the quality and depth of what was on offer.
The gamelan day received particular praise. For several participants, playing gamelan in Bali was described as a dream realised, and the experience was widely recognised as far more than an enjoyable cultural activity. It served as a direct embodiment of the Musical Futures philosophy, placing teachers in the position of genuine beginners, learning collaboratively, without pressure and without over-instruction.
Participants also spoke warmly about the workshops themselves. Sessions on generative AI, Recreate resources, Chrome Music Lab, informal learning with culturally diverse music, and educative evidence-based practice were singled out as both thought-provoking and immediately useful. Equally valued was the opportunity to connect with and learn from colleagues across the international school community. New friendships were formed, long-standing professional relationships were renewed, and educators left with a sense of belonging to a global community that extends well beyond any single event.
What comes through most clearly in the delegate reflections is a shared sense of renewed purpose. Participants described leaving with fresh ideas, practical strategies, and a reinvigorated passion for music education. Several were already thinking ahead to how they would apply what they had experienced when they returned to their classrooms. That enthusiasm, and that readiness to act, is the most meaningful outcome the Big Gig can hope to produce.