Tim Johnston

I had a great time this weekend playing and presenting a first public preview of my next EP at the #InnovationInMusic2025 conference, and really enjoyed listening to so many interesting and thought provoking ideas being shared.

Having a great time performing new music at Innovation in Music 2025 @bathspauni.bsky.social! #newmusic #spatialaudio #folk #musictech

Last minute rehearsing for the first public taste this weekend of a new project I've had brewing for the last few months. Now just to make sure everything works on the day...

Summer/Autumn Evie Loose · Single · 2025 · 1 songs

Really enjoying this great new single from one of my talented former music production students, Evie Loose. open.spotify.com/album/3a2p6r...

Digging through the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library online archives for the first time in a while today, I am seriously impressed by all the new digital tools, transcriptions, and notation options. Serious work put in by the good people at @efdss.bsky.social.

Tackling the Source of the Severn trail through the beautiful Hafren Forest in mid Wales - the perfect way to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Beautiful weather and surroundings for an afternoon's walk at Llwyn-onn in Bannau Brycheiniog national park, and some much needed proverbial and literal sunshine.

It's looking a little folk horror outside my house tonight.🦇

#Shropshire

Please do come along and support this very good cause and hear some great music from the university's orchestra, choir, and band alumni! Maybe even including a new piece by me, composed specially for the occasion... 🎶

In summary, this is once again a sly jibe at music, grasping at yet another straw(man) to beat the subject down with. Small group teaching is far less expensive than has been implied and, where it does cost, it is worth every penny. (10/10)

Bemoaning the cost of this teaching style ignores the financial and human price of passing the buck on responsibility for students’ wellbeing to external teams, when very often a simple, personal approach is all it takes to prevent a difficult time turning into crisis. (9/10)

Beyond PG tutors, small group teaching has a deep effect on student wellbeing and academic community. The Cardiff Uni Music department had (at least whilst I was there) an exceptionally high reputation for student satisfaction and pastoral care. (8/10)

Employing postgraduate tutors also provides essential HE teaching experience for PGRs, who are most likely training to be professional academics. Today’s job market requires advanced HE teaching experience and qualifications; to deny this devalues any PGR degree offered by the university. (7/10)

A full-time, PGR home student can work up to 180 hours per academic year. Multiply this by a rough estimate of their hourly rate, and somewhere around 90-100 postgraduate tutors could be employed for the cost of 1 Vice Chancellor. (6/10)

When I taught as a tutor during my PhD, I ran small group tutorials, delivered lectures to cohorts across all UG and PGT levels, and designed multiple new syllabuses from the ground up, all on a zero-hours contract that paid little more than minimum wage per hour. (5/10)

Much of this small group teaching is led by PGR students and junior staff. Not only are many of these early-career tutors some of the most enthusiastic and capable teachers that the university has, but they also represent extraordinary value for money (4/10)

As a subject, music involves a huge amount of self-guided study and has comparatively low formal contact hours. Whilst small group teaching is more common than in (e.g.) a science degree, this will be at least partially offset by far fewer hours in a lecture theatre. (3/10)

Whilst I can’t speak to specific numbers financially, in my experience as a UG and PhD student, then a former staff member, Cardiff Uni Music’s emphasis on small-group teaching is far more complex than this is made to seem in the above quote. (2/10)

I confess that, upon first trying MuseScore well over ten years ago now, I was extremely dismissive of it. However, upon taking another look recently for teaching purposes I've been extremely impressed. Simple setup, decent features, easy workflow. How times have changed!

Another excellent defence of music education in Wales, this time from the British Forum for Ethnomusicology, whose annual joint postgraduate conference with the @royalmusical.bsky.social I was fortunate enough to present work at (as a Cardiff student) in 2022. bfe.org.uk/news/stateme...

It does occur to me that my introduction to BlueSky has been a little unceremonious...

Hello everyone. 🙋🏻 I promise I don't just post about arts cuts, I'm normally much more cheerful online. Expect a steady stream of music content, dogs, and shameless epicureanism in the future!

Statement from the Royal Musical Association on the School of Music at Cardiff University www.rma.ac.uk/2025/02/03/s...

Letter to the VC – Dr Tom Johnston From Dr Tim Johnston, former academic staff at Cardiff University in composition Dear Vice Chancellor, I am writing to you to express my dismay and great distress at the news of Cardiff’s exception…

The CU Fight Back website is live and acts as a repository for info, events, petitions, letters, stories, and perspectives from Cardiff University staff and students, and beyond. We will resist the proposed cuts. Our first letter is from
Dr Tim Johnston cufightback.wordpress.com/2025/02/01/l...

John Viriamu Jones (1856-1901), first principal of Cardiff University College (what would become modern day @cardiffuni.bsky.social), writing on the merits of music education. The language a little old fashioned, but the sentiment timeless. Take note, Vice Chancellor.

My letter to the Vice Chancellor of @cardiffuni.bsky.social, following the shameful announcement of the impending closure of its Music Department. If you haven't done so already, please sign the petition to save this cornerstone of Welsh arts (link below).
www.change.org/p/save-cardi...