zone magazine issue 19

zone

in colour

opinion

future dreams

the fms in belfast

project

a day in the life

report

product reviews

we

b &

mo

bile

july 2010 / digital issue 19

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3zone magazine digital edition 19 / july 2010 © zone new media 2010 / www.zonemag.net

zone

Sistema Scotand Big Noise, Sistema Scotland’s children’s orchestra

programme modelled on Venezuela’s El Sistema,

celebrated its second birthday on 6 June 2010.

Cathy Tozer reports on the programme and talks to

Nicola Killean, Director of Sistema Scotland

p9

Belfast DreamsDouglas Adamson and Cathy Tozer report on this year’s post-election

Federation of Music Services Annual Conference

p5

Fighting talkDeborah Annetts’ keynote address from musiclearninglive!2010

pulls no punches

p12

Sounding Board ‘If a government wants to change lives through music, they need to raise its profile as a

subject at Primary level’. Class teacher Janice Hadwin’s music education manifesto

p17

A Day in the Life of... Lawrence Reed, MA Composition Student at Bath Spa University

p19

Public-Private Partnership Nicholas Wilks reports on a Vivaldi performance project in Hampshire schools

p22

we

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bile

july 2010 / digital issue 19

zone

Review: Musical Trixstarp26

Review: Recorder Rebelsp25

Editor

Cathy Tozer

Contributors

Douglas Adamson

Deborah Annetts

Janice Hadwin

Nicola Killean

Nicholas Wilks

Reviewers

Brian Cotterill

Cathy Tozer

Publisher

Ian Clethero

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Next issue published September 2010

4 zone magazine digital edition 19 / july 2010 © zone new media 2010 www.zonemag.net

Belfast Dreams

The Federation of Music Services’ Annual Conference – entitled ‘On the

Threshold of a Dream’ – took place in Belfast in June. Douglas Adamson

reports on the sell-out event which surprised many with its upbeat tempo and

the positive attitude prevailing despite the uncertain financial climate.

Spirits were raised when, just a few days prior

to the conference, the Government

announced that there were going to be no

changes to the Standards Fund Grant (now known

as the Music Grant) until 2011. This has provided

some breathing space for the FMS Executive and

their advisers to consider new business models,

possible revised structures and resource-sharing

with other music education bodies.

On Wednesday evening, 16 June, arriving at the

FMS conference, delegates were greeted by twenty-

five school children playing African drums in Lagan

Square outside Belfast’s Hilton Hotel. Directed by

the inspirational Nicky Sutch, Head of Percussion at

the Belfast City Music School, the children wowed

the audience with both African and Samba

drumming. BBC Ulster’s nightly ‘Arts Extra’

programme did a live link and interviewed Nicky and

John Witchell, FMS Chief Executive.

On Thursday, delegates were treated to another

musical extravaganza with a cross-province schools

group called ‘Celtic Fusion’ who melded djembes,

Irish Bodhran and Irish-Scots Lambeg drums with

instruments including violin, tin whistle, pipes,

concertina and keyboard. The group was

accompanied by girl dancers performing traditional

jigs, reels and hornpipes.

The conference title perhaps raised some eyebrows

– as many were thinking that the dream might turn

into a nightmare – but John Witchell sought to

dispel these doom-mongers, explaining that the

FMS membership had ‘been here before’ and that

they must see the changes ahead as opportunities

to strengthen the FMS’s position as the leading


‘Do before you get done to.’

6 zone magazine digital edition 19 / july 2010 © zone new media 2010 / www.zonemag.net

levels and determine the ‘musical turn-ons of the

leading people in your local authority’. He also

stressed the need for ‘going flat out with

relationships, taking a positive attitude and sharing

knowledge’. Above all, he stated that: ‘You should

think for yourself and act for all.’ He also stressed

the interdependency that music education provides

and that this was the profound element that makes

music so special in the development and education

of children. Success for just some was not an option

and he called for the FMS to consider individual

membership of the organisation.

There were two discussion groups. Mark Phillips, the

Ofsted National Adviser for Music, did not mince his

words in the Thursday session, ‘Priorities for the

Future’, when he called for more honesty about ‘the

too many Primary schools where the provision of

music and singing was still not good enough… we

need to close the gap between high-performing and

low-performing schools’. He also thought that the

Wider Opportunities programme was not long

enough. Marc Jaffrey urged delegates to ‘tell their

stories about their Music Services’ successes and

to step up the dialogue with parents, schools and

local authorities… don’t be tribal on pay and

conditions… and learn to become cherished’. In the

same session, Deborah Annetts of ISM and

Christina Coker of Youth Music talked about working

together. ‘You are not a homogenous group’ said

Christina and Deborah reminded the audience that

‘91% of the public support music lessons in

schools’. Christina believed that real change would

only come from radical thinking and that the FMS’s

strategy was not yet clear. ‘Do before you get done

to’ was her prophetic statement.

On Friday, 18 Junethere was a panel presentation

of Music Service heads followed by discussion

groups where delegates were asked to list their

priorities for Music Services, picking one single

point to feed back to the audience. Interestingly,

provider of music education in our schools. ‘Our

expertise, quality of delivery and depth of resource

are unmatchable by any other organisation, the

FMS must play to its strengths. Music Services are

resilient and determined, flexible and responsive

and must take up the baton of leading and

managing change.’

Keynote speakers captured the mood of driving

change through taking personal control.

Inspirational speaker Roy Leighton was the

conference favourite with his message on planning

for the next three months not for many years ahead.

His personal anecdotes of his rise to fame and

fortune from a large, impoverished family were

testament to the power of self-belief and

determination to succeed. Sir Tim Brighouse, the

retired Chief Adviser for London Schools, gave, as

always, an intelligent, iconoclastic and witty address

advising Service heads to ‘set the weather’, urging

them to invest in professional development at all

7

there was little consensus amongst the ten

separate breakout sessions:

• Determine what we can deliver and NOT deliver

• Make KS3 music teaching a priority

• Enable more disadvantaged children to access

music

• More clarity on the Music Service offer

• Speak and sing out MS successes nationally

• Develop better relationships with teachers,

parents and governors

• Revisit pay and conditions (examine the Scottish

model)

• More staff development to enable better

relationship building

• Strengthen collaborations between Services in

the regions

• FMS to work more closely with government to

gain MS statutory powers as the commissioning

agent for music education

All the workshops were well attended and covered

subjects as diverse as Taiko drumming, new

business modelling, Music and SEN, Music Camps

in the Derbyshire Dales and more. Perhaps the most

popular was the new business modelling but this

also came in for some criticism as the work being

done by consultants Ernst and Young (who facilitated

the workshop) was still very much at the ‘work in

progress’ stage. However, valuable pointers were

given in challenging Music Services to examine their

fixed costs and look at ways these could be changed

in the light of budget cuts. Productivity and

determining Music Service income streams and

where profit lay also came under scrutiny.

On Thursday evening, delegates were invited to a

drinks reception held in Belfast’s magnificent City

Hall, an awesome Victorian building clad in marble

and carved oak. Donal Doherty, Head of Music at

Western Education and Library Board, conducted

the Derry Civic Choirs in a truly remarkable

performance of hymns and Irish love songs,

concluding with a moving rendition of ‘Danny Boy’.

John Witchell, on thanking Donal and the choirs,

said that they had taken to the audience ‘to

paradise and back’. This was no exaggeration!

zone magazine digital edition 19 / july 2010 © zone new media 2010 / www.zonemag.net

tunes – a jig, an air and a reel – and sending CD

copies to the other participants. Dancing teacher

Christa Darrall then worked with St. Cecilia’s

dancers to devise a dance sequence while Music

Service tutors Austin Gallagher (SELB) and Ronan

McKee (WELB) created the arrangements by the

simple process of jamming with the drummers.

Thus, the jig was underpinned by powerful Afro-

Celtic beats, the air provided a slower, quieter

central section and an unaccompanied drum

groove led into the final lively reel. The whole

thing came together in a three-hour rehearsal a

couple of days before the conference.

I talked to the participants before and after the

performance and their pride in being part of

‘Celtic Fusion’ was evident from their smiles and

excited chatter. 16-year-old Matthew Donnelly

who has been playing with SELB for five years

said, ‘It was interesting learning the drum beats

and listening to the traditional Irish music’. He

thought the performance was ‘the most

enjoyable part’ while Martha Guiney and Mairead

Savage (both 16) called it ‘outstanding’. Mairead

also ‘enjoyed the two different cultures of music’

and thought the project was ‘a unique

experience’.

Donal Doherty clearly shared the students’ pride

in their performance, calling it ‘the perfect way to

show the combination of cultures and the fusion

of all that with dancers and African drums’.

As the youngsters and their teachers hurried off

to catch their coaches while conference

delegates made ready to listen to the first

keynote speaker of the day, Head of Music at St

Cecilia’s, Fiona Logue, captured the mood of the

moment in her parting words: ‘It was wonderful

for the girls from St. Cecilia’s to have the

experience of working with pupils from other

schools and traditions. You just can’t bottle that!’

Cathy Tozer

This year’s FMS conference was a feast for the

ears. From the drummers who welcomed arriving

delegates to the choir who serenaded them at

Belfast’s City Hall, from the school band who

played for the after-dinner ceilidh to the harpists

who made next morning’s early start that little bit

sweeter, the standard was so high and the

delivery so impassioned that many were left with

memories that will last a lifetime. But the jewel

in the crown was undoubtedly ‘Celtic Fusion’, a

cross-cultural project and performance that

received a heartfelt ovation.

‘Celtic Fusion’ was the brainchild of conference

organiser and host, Donal Doherty, who

described it as ‘a musical representation of the

pluralist society that Northern Ireland has

become’. It took weeks of hard work to put

together the 20-minute performance involving

students from:

• Banbridge Academy, Banbridge, County

Down

• Our Lady’s Grammar School, Newry, County

Down

• Saint Cecilia’s College, Derry

• Southern Education and Library Board

• Western Education and Library Board

Teachers, tutors and pupils all pulled together to

devise, rehearse and perform this fusion of

traditional Irish music, dance and African

drumming. The traditional tunes were provided

by Cherry Mcdonald of Banbridge Academy

(bagpipes) and ‘Our Lady’s Traditional Music

Group’ (Irish flute, whistle, concertina, banjo,

keyboard and fiddles). Three students from Saint

Cecilia’s performed traditional Irish dances while

others joined SELB and WELB workshop

participants to play djembes, bodhrans, Lambeg

drums and percussion.

How was it put together? I spoke to Our Lady’s

Head of Music, Rosie Smyth, who told me it was

surprisingly easy, a question of choosing three


Photographs: Marc Marnie

9zone magazine digital edition 01 / mar 2010 © zone new media 2010

Scottish Executive as being in need of

regeneration and £120m earmarked for the area.

Problems are complex – a mixture of poverty,

unemployment, poor health and housing,

domestic violence and alcohol and drug abuse –

but

the

community of 5,000 or so inhabitants has

responded enthusiastically to Big Noise’s arrival

and, aside from the children’s involvement, there

is now an adult orchestra that meets once a

week.

So what have the last two years been like? It’s

difficult to tell from Big Noise’s website which

doesn’t appear to have been updated recently.

There’s lots about the first year in a document

entitled The Big Picture – Summer 2008-Summer

2009 which tells the story of the project from the

first day the children were given instruments to

their First Birthday concert, also at Stirling Albert

Halls. Along the way, children launched Big Noise

with a concert in a huge tent on the Raploch

Community Campus (a newly built complex of

schools and facilities which acts as a hub for

residents), recorded their own mobile ringtone

with help from the BBC Scottish Symphony

Orchestra and were invited to ‘Take A Musician

For a programme that was only conceived of

in 2006 and launched in 2008, Sistema

Scotland’s Big Noise has come a long way

in a short time. In an article in

heraldscotland.com, Keith Bruce called it ‘a

strapping two-year-old’ and certainly anyone

attending the birthday concert at Stirling Albert

Halls or watching video footage of the

orchestra on Big Noise’s Facebook page

couldn’t fail to be impressed by the sheer

scale of what Sistema Scotland has

taken on and achieved.

For those who don’t know, El Sistema was

established in 1975 by economist and

pianist José Antonio Abreu as a means of

engaging Venezuela’s many

impoverished children and young people

in a community music-making project

with a difference. The children were

immersed in an orchestra from Day One,

learning about music and instrument-playing

with their peers and growing, along the way, into

players of great skill and sensitivity. The project

had, and continues to have, an incredibly positive

effect on thousands of young people, focusing

their energy on something creative and beautiful

– orchestral music-making – and giving them a

musical education and a place to be away from

the streets. The Simón Bolívar Symphony

Orchestra, which is at the apex of the nation’s

system of 220 youth orchestras, has built up a

reputation as one of the most exciting ensembles

in the world and has been touring internationally

to great acclaim for many years.

In the UK, Sistema projects are up and running in

London, Liverpool, Norwich and, of course,

Scotland where Sistema Scotland launched Big

Noise – the UK’s first Sistema orchestra – two

years ago. Big Noise is located on the Raploch

Estate in Stirling, ‘one of the most deprived

places in Britain’ according to Guardian reporter,

Charlotte Higgins whose January 2009 article,

‘Now for a samba’, charts Big Noise’s first few

months. In 2004, Raploch was targetted by the


Home For Tea’. Big Noise’s team of musicians set

up a Summer School and After-School Club as

well as working in local Primary schools, Raploch,

Our Lady’s and Castleview, with children from

Nursery to Primary 3 (9 months to 8 years).

The Big Picture – Summer 2009-

Summer 2010 is currently in production

but won’t be published until September

2010 so as to include Big Noise’s first

cohort of woodwind, brass and

percussion teachers. These were

recruited at the end of the second

year and – after a two-week visit to

Venezuela – are currently designing

and implementing the next strand

of the Sistema model which is the

expansion from strings programme

to full symphony orchestra. In the

meantime, according to Director of

Sistema Scotland, Nicola Killean:

‘The second year has gone fantastically well

and the children are developing beautifully. Last

year when we had our transition from the Primary

1s who were going to join the After-School

Orchestra, we got over 70% children who started

and retained for the whole year which is brilliant.’

The programme is designed to grow each year

with the children. Thus, the oldest children at the

end of Big Noise’s first year (Primary 3s) carried

on into the second year as Primary 4s. At the start

of the third year, they are now Primary 5s.

According to Nicola Killean:

‘Next year, the age limit is going to increase a bit

more because we’re offering these new

instruments. So from next year onwards, it’s going

to be from birth to 11-12 years and then it’s going

to continue to grow as the children grow.’

She hopes that in five to eight years time they’ll

have children coming back teaching the other

children and explains that already older children

are acting as buddies for younger ones:

Big Noise in Scotland...

Sistema Scotland two years on

Big Noise, Sistema Scotland’s children’s orchestra programme modelled on

Venezuela’s El Sistema, celebrated its second birthday in June. Cathy Tozer report on

the programme and talks to Sistema Scotland Director, Nicola Killean

‘this is about social development, we’re

a social organisation and the orchestra,

for us, is the tool in creating that.’

of time. They work three days a week during the

academic year and full-time during holiday

periods when, according to Nicola Killean, the

children most need continuity. They are also given

ongoing training as part of their contract (in

everything from Kodály and Suzuki to readership

development and positive behaviour training) as

well as a period of observation and training in

Venezuela. This is important to Nicola because:

‘I do think that there is something about El

Sistema that you need to be there to understand.

To believe in it and to see the potential.’

Nicola herself has been to Venezuela four times

and is passionate about the El Sistema model:

‘There’s a feeling of constant momentum and

they are always busy, they are always working

harder than anyone you’ll ever have met. When

we were there, The Simón Bolívar Orchestra came

back from touring Europe on the Saturday. On the

Wednesday, they had Simon Rattle there

conducting a national children’s symphony

orchestra of about 380 children from all over

Venezuela. At the same time, they had Gustavo

Dudamel rehearsing an opera with the Simon

Bolivar A Orchestra and the Simon Bolivar Youth

Orchestra were going straight back into

rehearsals to put on another opera.

‘On top of that, they have 220 of these children’s

orchestra centres – nuclei – operating six days a

week all over the country, each with 3,000

children through the door every day. It just blows

your mind - in a good way! The momentum, the

Venezuelan spirit is that anything is possible. It’s

very much a can-do philosophy.’

Bringing that can do philosophy to the UK hasn’t

all been plain sailing. Sistema Scotland has its

detractors including those who feel that the


‘They’re all sitting next to a child and it’s like

having individual attention because as soon as

the teachers say, ‘Find your D string’ all of the

older children turn around and show the younger

children where it is and how to play it.’

Big Noise now works with 250 children per week

and has four different orchestras: a beginners’

orchestra for the children who are starting the

holiday programme; a chamber orchestra for

those who are showing particular promise and

two other orchestras where children of different

levels come together and play. During term-time,

teachers work in schools with Nursery children,

Primary 1 children and children with additional

support needs. Children in Primaries 2 to 5

attend the after-school programme on Tuesdays,

Wednesdays and Thursdays while individual and

duo lessons take place on a rota basis. During the

holidays, there are orchestra sessions every

weekday morning.

Apart from anythi ng else, this means that the

musicians who work for Sistema Scotland must

make a huge commitment to the project in terms

The Sistema Scotland Big Noise Orchestra

project features in musiclearninglive!2011,

The National Festival of Music Education,

3 & 4 March at the Royal Scottish Academy

of Music and Drama, Glasgow

www.musiclearningive2011.com

Nicola Killean

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Big Noise Orchestra

www.makeabignoise.org.uk

Sistema Scotland

www.sistemascotland.org.uk

El Sistema Venezuela

www.fesnojiv.gob.ve/en.html

Nicola Killean, Sistema Scotland Director

project is undermining the validity (and therefore

funding opportunities) of already established

music education providers.

Nicola Killean is keen to emphasise that Big

Noise is first and foremost a social programme:

‘For us, this is about social development, we’re a

social organisation and the orchestra, for us, is

the tool in creating that. We’re not here to try and

take anything away from other arts or music

organisations.

‘I fundamentally believe that if we can make this

long-term and we can prove once and for all what

everyone believes – that the arts is a tool for

social change – then ultimately it will benefit the

whole sector.’

The social benefits of the programme are difficult

to deny and Sistema Scotland hopes to get the

next Big Noise centre up and running by Summer

2011 with a third planned for 2013. In the

meantime, with the new intake of woodwind,

brass and percussion teachers, Big Noise

Raploch is starting the summer holidays – and its

third year – with all the tools needed to create a

full symphony orchestra for the first time. Not bad

for a two-year-old!


Fighting talk

Deborah Annetts, Chief Executive of the Incorporated Society of Musicians, pulled no punches in

her keynote address to delegates at musiclearninglive!2011

The politicians have told us that the last ten years

have been very good for music education, with

a range of initiatives being delivered to redress

the impact of cuts made in the 1980s and 90s when

approximately fifty music services went under.

Remember, it was only in 1999 that the then Under

Secretary of State for Education Jacqui Smith

introduced the Standards Fund for Music, and so

much has happened since then. However, the

politicians now tell us it is time for cuts and change.

Here are just a few recent quotes:

• George Osborne has said ‘We will need to make

early in-year reductions in existing plans …

Programmes that represent poor value for

money … will all have to be cut during the

financial year’

• Nick Clegg has said: ‘We will be quite bold, or

even savage, on current spending’

• Gordon Brown has said ‘Labour will cut costs,

cut inefficiencies, cut unnecessary programmes

and cut lower priority budgets’

Just this week John Denham, the Community

Secretary, has claimed that ‘huge savings of

more than £20 billion can be made in the cost

of local services by looking at spending on all the

local public services in an area’

We are entering a period of great uncertainty, and

we need to ask ourselves what can we do to ensure

good quality music education is still available to

children. What are the things which really matter

and how can we work together as a sector to make

sure these survive, no matter which party is in

government, come 7 May 2010?

Music has been at the centre of celebration and

ceremony in every civilisation for thousands of years.

Music’s power to communicate all human emotions

has been a source of inspiration and consolation

throughout the world’s history. It has rich and diverse

patterns of rhythm and pitch and harmony – it is a

universal language that encourages and extends the

aspirations and ideals of all.

As John Ruskin said: ‘Great nations write their

autobiographies in three manuscripts, the book of

their deeds, the book of their words and the book

of their art. Not one of these books can be

understood unless we read the two others, but of

the three the only trustworthy one is the last’.

The ISM is firmly committed to music education and

that commitment is based on the premise that

access to an excellent music education is a right for

all people, regardless of sex, race, creed, religion or

age. The UK has a musical heritage which it can

rightfully be proud of, and a great deal of this can

be attributed to the dedication, commitment and

professionalism of a very large number of teachers

and practitioners working in a wide array of settings.

So how does this aspiration compare with what is

being offered by the main political parties in the run

up to the general election? In the draft education

manifesto from the Conservatives, they talk about

a rigorous curriculum and exam system. The

proposal is to reform the national curriculum so that

it is more challenging and based on evidence about

what knowledge can be mastered by children at

different ages. In particular, the Conservatives wish

to ensure that the Primary curriculum is organised

around subjects such as maths, science and history

– there is no mention of the arts. There is also much

talk of ensuring that Ofsted adopts a more rigorous

and targeted inspection regime.


We also have the speech from Ed Vaizey, the

Shadow Culture Minister, which he gave at the

Yehudi Menuhin School on the 27th of January and

the very recently published Conservative Arts

Manifesto which proposes rationalising arts funding

in schools. In particular, the manifesto notes that

while there has been an emphasis on music in

schools, a blizzard of numerous initiatives has meant

that while the money is there, many people fall

through the cracks. They intend to consolidate the

funding streams for the arts in schools, and ensure

that the funding available is used to promote three

aims, namely: that every child in school will have the

opportunity to learn a musical instrument; that every

child has the chance to learn to sing; and that every

child is able to receive a solid cultural education.

The government’s proposals for education focus on

literacy and numeracy skills. The Children, Schools

and Families Bill, the latest education bill, is

currently in the report stage in the House of

Commons and still has all its stages to go in the

House of Lords.

There are two relevant components of the Bill for us:

the introduction of pupil and parent guarantees and

the introduction of the Primary Curriculum as

proposed by the Rose Review. To be implemented,

most of the regulations will need a ‘statutory

instrument’ to bring them into force. This is unlikely

to happen before the General Election. So this Bill

may not actually take effect. The Pupil and Parent

Guarantees set out entitlements that have to be

met but they do not necessarily come with any extra

funding and are not legally enforceable.

The guarantees give a music pledge, that every

Primary pupil should have the opportunity to learn

to play a musical instrument; and that every pupil

should have access to high-quality cultural activities

in and out of school.

The Liberal Democrats have pledged more money

for schools so that they can cut class sizes and offer

more one-to-one tuition. They have suggested an

extra £2.5 billion on schools. They feel the National

Curriculum is too rigid and want to replace it with a

more flexible minimum curriculum entitlement

offering greater choice and room for innovation.

Education is a hotly contested area with all three

main parties making education one of their key

priorities in the forthcoming election; and it is no

wonder that politicians fight over this particular

patch of ground given that twelve million of the

electorate have children, and all those children will

be going through the education system.

So education is all about votes. And, in the hurly-

burly of so much debate, it is all too easy for music

education to become lost. But it must not be lost. It

is too important to be lost.

To quote Plato: ‘Education in music is most

sovereign, because more than anything else rhythm

and harmony find their way to the inmost soul and

take strongest hold upon it, bringing with them and

imparting grace, if one is rightly trained.’

Music education has had significant support since

1999 when the government introduced the

Standards Fund for Music which is ring-fenced

funding, allocated to music education for Local

Authorities to distribute each year. Report number

2 of the Music Manifesto called for a commitment

to the Music Standards Fund until 2011 to enable

And it is not just music professionals who recognise

the importance of music education. The public

recognise its value as well. We recently

commissioned a poll through You Gov to establish

how much support the public give to music

education. The results of the poll were very

interesting. 91% of adults believe that every child

should have the opportunity to learn a musical

instrument in school.

And more than three quarters of the public back the

current level of funding for the Standards Fund. And

did you know, that when you break this down the

Standards Fund costs just 3p per person per week?

As a sector, we need to argue strongly for the

Standards Fund for Music to be maintained at least

at its current level, if not increased, to 2015. Not

only do we have a music education system which is

recognised as world class but we also have a

general public which is hugely supportive of music

education. We should recognise this fact and be

very proud. Perhaps music educators have been

hiding their lights under a bushel for too long.

Perhaps now is the moment for us to speak up

loudly and proclaim just how good music education

really is in this country and how much support it has.

Music education has become a political issue with

Ed Vaizey giving a keynote address on this subject


‘The Standards Fund is absolutely

critical to music education in this

country’

music services to participate fully in strengthening

and improving music education provision. It is

currently £82.5 million per annum. Responsibility

for using the £82.5 million Fund rests with each

Local Authority to enhance opportunities for pupils

to access high quality music education, giving

priority to instrumental and vocal opportunities at

Key Stage 2. The Music Standards Fund directly

levers in a further £136.5 million of investment in

music education, with approximately £25 million

from Local Authorities and a further £112 million

being contributed by schools, parents, sponsorship

and charitable support.

Without the leverage of the ring-fenced Music

Standards Fund, it is likely that a significant part of

the music education funding of £219 million,

together with infrastructure, would be lost. And

although infrastructure sounds like a boring word,

it is critical for it is only the infrastructure of Music

Services which can enable young people to come

together and work together in county-level

orchestras, ensembles and the like. The Standards

Fund is absolutely critical to music education in this

country. Let us not forget that before it was

introduced around fifty Music Services had been

lost because of inadequate funding. And now some

of those Music Services have reconstituted

themselves as a result of the Standards Fund.

to the Yehudi Menuhin School on the 27th of

January 2010.

In that speech, Ed Vaizey sets out his preliminary

ideas about music and cultural education. It is

commendable that he has decided that this is an

area he wants to engage with.

He identifies the ‘real problem’ as being a blizzard

of initiatives and states that he wants to bring

coherence, stability and long-term strategy to the

sector. Many of us would agree that there have

perhaps been too many initiatives, some of which

have not yet been assessed.

However, out of the blizzard, there have been some

real advances such as Wider Opportunities which

is supported by the Music Standards Fund and has

now been evaluated by Professor Anne Bamford.

The research demonstrated a number of positive

outcomes of the Wider Opportunities programme,

following a survey of Music Services, head teachers,

pupils and parents.

The evaluation of the Wider Opportunities

programme found that 96% of Primary schools

surveyed agreed or strongly agreed that it had

provided instrumental education to those children

who would otherwise not have received it. There

was overwhelming evidence that it had been an

enjoyable experience and that children’s confidence

has increased as a result of the programme. As one

pupil said ‘Sometimes we come in from playtime so

we can start early.’ This correlates with the research

which we carried out of our members. They told us

that Wider Opportunities had increased

musicianship and take-up. They told us that the

initiatives were viewed as helping deprived children

(boys in particular) become more involved in music

than they might have done. ISM members also felt

that initiatives like Wider Opportunities and Sing Up

had raised the profile of music in schools and in

society generally. And let us not forget that Wider

Opportunities has been made possible because of

the Standards Fund.

Sing Up has also been a successful and accessible

programme, focusing on Key Stage 2. Singing of

course is good for physical, psychological and social

well being, enhances a sense of group identity and

is great fun. Music is part of the Primary curriculum

and therefore it is the responsibility of Head Teachers

and Governors to ensure it is delivered. While Sing

Up has made a great impact, this must not deflect us

from holding Head Teachers to account for the

delivery of the music element of the curriculum. We

need to get to the stage where Primary schools can

deliver music by themselves with the support of other

groups rather than the other way around.

Ed Vaizey is right to ask the question, ‘Can my child

learn a musical instrument and, if my child is

talented, can I guarantee that they will be able to

sustain their talent?’ I would answer this question

by suggesting that if we are going to be sure that the

child can have access to all these things then Music

Services need to be a statutory requirement for each

Local Authority. It should not be left to their discretion

as to whether or not there is a Music Service in

operation. It should not be left to the Head Teacher

to decide whether music has an important role to

play in the school.

Ed Vaizey, in his speech, focuses on music

education being part of the cultural offering.

However, it is much more than this. Music is a

curriculum subject which helps to drive up

standards in schools. The Conservatives in their

education manifesto focus on Mathematics, English

and Science so is there a risk that music could be

edged out from the curriculum?

This would be most unfortunate given that not only

is music an intrinsic good, but in many studies,

music has been proven to assist in academic

achievement. For example, in the UK, in a sample

of non-selective specialist schools, specialist music

schools achieved the best results in A Level Physics

in 2007. A recent study, using data from over

45,000 children in the USA found that associations

between music and achievement persisted even

when prior attainment was taken into account. If

music is not included in the Primary curriculum,

there will be a negative impact on the other subjects

which children are learning.

Music education should be part of the education

entitlement for all pupils. It is also creative – as, of

course, are other subjects. But at its core, music

education has its own pedagogy underpinned by

knowledge, skills and understanding. It is an

academic subject in its own right. What we do not

want to see is music education being moved from

the DCSF to the DCMS. Such a move would make

music far more vulnerable to cuts and

marginalisation and indeed, cease to be a

curriculum subject.

I am strongly of the view that to make the most of

your creativity you need to have the skills and

knowledge to underpin that creativity. I was really

struck by this on reading the recent tributes to the

fashion designer Alexander McQueen. He learnt his

skills at the Savile Row tailors Anderson & Sheppard

and then later studied at Central St Martins. He

needed those very precise tailoring skills; he

needed to know the rules before he could start

breaking them. The same is true of music.

There are more facts and figures which are relevant

to music education. Music contributes significantly

to the UK economy; and the creative economy as a

whole makes up 10 percent of the UK’s GDP.

Currently, there are 1.97 million people working in

the creative sector. By 2013, it is estimated a

further 100,000 jobs will have been created. It is

also a fact that performing arts graduates are more

likely to be employed than most other graduates. No

wonder then that it was the Creative Economy which

was the only part of the economy which grew during

the recession. We should be nurturing this sector

and ensuring that we have the skills and the talents

with which to continue to support and grow it.

One of the things which comes up again and again

when I speak with music educators is the feeling

that there is a lack of professional development. The

breadth of music education from antenatal music

classes for babies to community choirs, individual

instrumental lessons for people of all ages to the

formal requirements of the school curriculum,

recording studios and rock schools to universities

and conservatoires, demonstrates the challenges

of creating a high-quality workforce who can deliver

a high-quality music education.

Of course, there are opportunities for professional

development but the reality is that isolation as a music

teacher is a real problem. Even music teachers

teaching within schools on a permanent basis can

find themselves feeling isolated from the rest of the

music world. Music teachers must feel they are

properly supported so they can continue to work as a

musician with their students and not just as a teacher.

Since music education relies on a workforce which

extends far beyond classroom teachers, it is

imperative that everyone involved in delivering music

education has both a thorough grounding in

understanding how to promote learning but also

access to high quality CPD on a frequent basis. Music

education in schools and higher education needs to

be underpinned by strong models of reflective

practice that empower quality teaching and learning

and reflection should be adopted within all stages of

teacher training and professional development.

According to figures collected by the DCSF, there

were 6,500 full time equivalent music teachers

working in secondary schools in England in 2007 of

which only 87% had a relevant post A level

qualification. Whilst this is higher than art and

design, it scratches the surface of the skills deficit

in music teaching. This is further compounded

when the demands of large-scale projects such as

Wider Opportunities and Sing Up are taken into

account. A major challenge for music education is

how to attract more highly skilled musicians from all

genres of music to undergo some form of rigorous

professional teacher training.

This is very apparent when one looks at conservatoire

students. Currently, only a small minority of graduates

from conservatoires gain QTS and research indicates

that their interest in becoming school music teachers

ranks extremely low compared to other career

choices in music. Surely it is time for music education

elements to be incorporated into conservatoire

courses to help change the attitude of these students

about music teaching.

Alongside all these various strands of music

education, we must not forget the importance of

music technology. There are some people who

believe that the growth of music technology is the

most fundamental change in the history of western

music since the invention of notation in the 9th

century. The music education sector must embrace

these challenges and ensure that they have the

skills to deliver a music technology curriculum

suitable for the future.

There is a shortage of published research in this

field, and yet, in terms of the Creative Economy and

the needs of the country, technology is going to be

a major player. We badly need to understand the

role that technology could play and to ensure that

we have the skills to deliver it.

This leads me to my final point: lifelong learning.

Why should music educators just be engaged in

teaching the young? We are all living longer. The

average age at which men in this country can expect

to live is 77.5 years and 81.7 years for women. The

days of permanent employment with just one or two

employers during a career are long past. The risk of

unemployment is a constant threat. Many people

decide to pursue a freelance career rather than

steady 9 to 5 employment. As the population seeks

a more flexible lifestyle, focusing more and more on

a work-life balance which is healthy and nurturing,

so the importance of lifelong learning increases.

Every human being is born with a certain level of

musical potential and music education must reflect

this. Access to music education must be available

from the cradle to the grave.

The ability to engage with music is just as important

to older people as it is to younger people. Engaging

in music can prevent illness, reduce the symptoms

of depression, improve overall well-being and give

people a new sense of purpose. As just one

example of this, Kuljeet Rana, a participant in a Sing

for Your Life programme run in Dartford said ‘The

music sessions relax me; they relieve my stress and

I feel that I am in a different world’.

Our recent poll commissioned from You Gov reinforces

this. The poll found that there is demand for learning

music with 62% of adults wanting to learn or already

learning a musical instrument or singing in a choir.

Given this demand, there is a clear need to cater for

adult music education. We need those working in

music to link up and ensure that all people, regardless

of age have the opportunity to engage with music.

The same is true for young children and parents.

There is clear evidence that new parents who adopt

singing at home improve their children’s social,

emotional and musical development and I am

delighted that both the Labour and Conservative

parties have committed to expanding the provision

of Sure Start centres.

There is so much wonderful work going on in music

education. Our music education is envied across the

world, and we should all be justifiably proud. Yes,

there may be the odd issue over coherence and

linkage. However, the music teachers I meet are

totally committed to providing a top-quality music

education to their students whatever their age,

whatever their background.

So coming back to my opening question, in a time

of political and economic uncertainty with the threat

of cuts, what should the music education sector do?

• First, we must proclaim that music education in

this country is of an international standard and

needs fighting for

• Second, we need to campaign for the Music

Standards Fund, namely ring-fenced central

government funding. The public back the

funding and we need to take action as a sector

to secure it to at least 2015

• Third, we must ensure that music remains part


‘Every human being is born with a

certain level of musical potential and

music education should reflect this’

of the National Curriculum. Music education is

not just a cultural offering. It is a subject in its

own right, the same as chemistry or maths. It is

not just about finding your creativity, and having

musical experiences. It is about progression in

learning and therefore it must maintain its

rightful place within the DCSF portfolio.

• Fourth, we need to hold Head Teachers to

account for delivery of music in the curriculum

and take steps to ensure Head Teachers fully

understand the benefits of a music education.

• Fifth, we need to create the workforce of the

future who will continue to make an

extraordinary contribution to the Creative

Economy and, to do this, we need coherent

professional development.

• Finally, we should celebrate the diversity in our

field. I, personally, have never been able to

understand some of the distinctions which are

made between different types of music. Music

is music. As musicians, our role is to ensure that

it is of the very highest quality and that the music

education which runs alongside it is also of the

very highest quality.

In this way, we can ensure that generations to come

can take part in, engage with and understand music

and appreciate it for its intrinsic value. And if there

is any doubt about this, remember we want life to

be more than solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.

To quote Plato again, ‘Music gives a soul to the

universe, wings to the mind and life to everything’

and ‘If a man neglects education, he walks lame to

the end of his life’.

www.ism.org

Sounding board

Key Stage 1 class teacher Janice Hadwin argues the case for Primary music education

to develop their musicianship skills and for them to

regard themselves as musical.

Compared to what is available today, I had a very

dry and sparse music education and I am not a

trained musician. Rather, I have discovered my

musicality in adulthood and although I will never

perform competently as a ‘musician’ – say, for

example, in an orchestra – I do regard myself as

musical and able to take part in musical activities

such as singing in a choir, playing in a group etc.

I was lucky enough to find my singing voice with Sing

for Pleasure which gave me an excellent

introduction to developing my voice and also

teaching young children. I have completed lots of

training for teaching music to Primary-aged children

including courses with Sing for Pleasure,

Manchester Music Service and The Voices

Foundation. Discovering my own musicality

developed and changed me significantly in many

ways; it improved my inner confidence and esteem,

helping me understand and develop my ability to


Iwas present at the final musiclearninglive!2010

Q&A forum on 26 February. Several topics came

up about which I feel very strongly and, although

I only spoke briefly, I have carried on thinking

through my thoughts and am happy for these to

have a wider audience!

I am a part-time Key Stage 1 teacher (in an Infant-

only school) and work for Sefton Music Service one

day a week as a classroom music teacher. I feel

absolutely passionate about the right of every child

Primary children and their muisic teacher participating in musiclearninglive!2010

express myself emotionally and giving me more

understanding about who I am as a person.

I feel there is a huge gap in our society’s perception

of what being ‘musical’ is. The first thing a lot of

Primary teachers (and parents) say to me is ‘I’m not

musical’ as though being musical is something for

the ‘talented’ or ‘experts’ or ‘specialists’ which is

just not true. I wonder how many people regard

dancing to music as being ‘musical’! I do think we

are on the right track when Paul Collard (in his

musiclearning!2010 keynote speech) talks about

involving parents. If parents are singing/

playing/dancing, children will follow suit.

Music is a skills-based, developmental subject that

needs to be taught in a systematic way with regular

practice, consolidation and progressive introduction

of new concepts, vocabulary and symbols that fit

with levels of development of the children (in a very

similar way to literacy and numeracy which is

probably why music goes hand in hand with the

three Rs).

If, for example, reading were only taught once a

week at best, there would be an uproar because a

significant proportion of children would not learn to

read fluently. I would also take a bet that the

majority of those children would be from

disadvantaged backgrounds. Does this ring any

bells from Paul Collard’s speech?

If we really want to revolutionise our music

education and give our children a music education

that leaves them with competent musicianship

skills and awareness so that they regard themselves

as ‘musical’, we need to look at the way music is

taught in Primary schools by day-to-day

practitioners. I have seen fantastic results in the

levels of musical ability and awareness in my Infant

children after a Voices Foundation Programme that

worked closely with class teachers over a year to

deliver a comprehensive skills-based music

curriculum. (We could not afford the second year so

were not able to continue a full programme after the

first year.)


There is evidence to show that those children who

learn a musical instrument perform better generally

in school and especially in numeracy and literacy.

These children are also learning music in a regular

and systematic way and the Wider Opportunities

Programmes that are most successful are those

where the class teacher is committed to practising

and consolidating through the week in between

lessons. I am concerned that the recent Rose

report seems to throw music into an arts umbrella

that leaves interpretation of the music curriculum

as very woolly.

Most Primary teachers can teach numeracy and

literacy standing on their heads and yet INSET time

is spent over and over again looking at these areas

and trying to make sense of the endless new

initiatives and assessment and target processes

and APP and tracking (in numeracy and literacy) and

small group support to raise children’s levels of

performance in numeracy and literacy to improve or

maintain league tables of SAT’s results etc., etc.

In my experience, very little time is spent by

government training teachers in subjects which they

are less confident teaching. Imagine the effects on

literacy and numeracy if musical skills such as

auditory memory skills, auditory discrimination skills,

reading visual symbols and so on were developed

(and funded) in the same way as the numeracy/

literacy hour and new Primary curriculum (already

the old Primary curriculum!). Teachers know how to

teach numeracy and literacy – give it a rest!

The solution to good music teaching in schools is

not to send in Ofsted inspectors to ensure music is

being taught. A lot of teachers don’t teach music

effectively because they haven’t the confidence or

haven’t had appropriate training. They need time

and help, not inspecting.

How many music services offer INSET to whole

school staff regarding their music teaching in

Primary schools? Imagine what could be taught in

Wider Opportunities Programmes if significant

musicianship skills and awareness and

‘If we really want to revolutionise

our music education....we need to

look at the way music is taught in

Primary schools by day-to-day

practitioners’

understanding were already in place. This is

achievable if taught systematically from Nursery

with the intention that children will become

musicians in their own way, just as we teach them

ferociously with the intention that they will become

readers and writers and mathematicians in their

own way.

I believe this is the way to a revolution in our music

teaching and this is the way to making millions more

children music makers and more rounded

individuals. Educators who are not music specialists

need to be made aware of the nature of the subject

and how it needs to be taught effectively. I wonder

how many Primary teachers were at

musiclearninglive!2010 as opposed to Music

Leaders/teachers. If a government wants to change

lives through music, they need to raise its profile as

a subject at Primary level.

musiclearninglive!2011 takes place on

3 & 4 March at the Royal Scottish Academy

of Music and Drama, Glasgow.

Thanks to support from Creative Scotland,

places are available for Primary teachers

at specially subsidised rates.

For programme details and bookings

please visit

www.musiclearningive2011.com

4.30am I’m downstairs rummaging around with

some percussion while being careful not to wake

the family. I’m getting some weird and interesting

sounds out of scratching the edges and hitting the

sides. I can’t sleep so I fix up the portable CD players

and megaphone with batteries and test them out.

Will anyone turn up? Will the weather let us perform

outside?

5.30am I return to bed much more relaxed.

9.00am I stroll to Oriel Hall in Larkhall, Bath, where

my Community Music piece ‘5 ways’ is being

performed at 12 o’clock to launch the 2010

Larkhall Festival. The doors are locked so I huddle

up in the cold and think about why I’m doing this.

My MA in Composition at Bath Spa University has

led me down a path of developing improvisation

frameworks for community events. I want ‘5 ways’

to realise and reflect the five key objectives of the

Festival – engaging local schools and the

community; celebrating Larkhall; unlocking

creativity and developing skills; creating something

interesting, entertaining and important; and having

fun – using five distinct layers of sound:

1 Sounds of the village recorded by pupils from St

Saviour’s Junior School reflected back from

portable CD players and speakers mounted on

Bath’s famous pink milk float (I call this piece

‘the noise manufactory’)

2 Pupils from St Saviour’s Infants’ School

performing a series of rhythmic chants inspired

by Larkhall and accompanied by percussion,

including the use of objects found in the village

3 Local musicians and members of Bristol’s Cube

Orchestra interpreting an improvisational

framework designed for the event

4 St Saviour’s Junior School playing atmospheric

percussion - often in a sequence or cross-rhythm

5 The bells of St Saviour’s Church ringing

something different – including an awesome

'firing' of the bells


A Day in the Life of...

Lawrence Reed, MA composition student at Bath Spa

University

Saturday, May 1 2010 was the culmination of ‘5 ways’, Lawrence Reed’s Community Music

composition project for the village of Larkhall, Bath


10.00am It’s clear the weather is going to be

unpredictable so I opt to hold the majority of activity

inside the hall with some of the children processing

in and out. I arrange chairs in a semi-circle for the

performers and meet with festival organisers.

Photographers and video-makers arrive and start

setting up. Apart from making a record of the event,

we are creating a video installation as part of next

year’s festival.

11.00am My two daughters turn up with friends

and instruments. Members of the Cube Orchestra

arrive along with local musicians. I have to say that

getting musicians to commit to an unpaid

community event has been the hardest part of the

project but at last I can relax – our scratch orchestra

is taking shape!

11.20am We chat through the form of ‘5 ways’ –

essentially designed to move with the church bells

and link together the children’s percussive sounds

and chanting. The frameworks involve simple

guidelines around which players may improvise. I’ve

been working with these as part of my MA, perhaps

most notably the Acrophobia project in Trafalgar

Square where over fifty musicians turned up to

interpret a grid of notes while I conducted from the

Fourth Plinth. In that case, there was no contact

with the musicians beforehand – just the exchange

of the framework – so even having ten minutes to

run through some interpretations is a luxury.

11.30am Juniors from St Saviour’s arrive. We’ve

been working on the use of original percussive

sounds together and in sequences. An interesting

part of this work has been linking it in with the

sounds we recorded around the village two weeks

ago. That was a riot – fifteen children with three

microphones recording all sorts of sounds and

making a few of their own along the way! We

explored the very nature of sound and the concept

of what is ‘noise’ or ‘note’ and what falls in

between: ‘node’. We all became acutely aware of

the lack of silence anywhere and the richness of

sound around us.

11.45am I find a couple of mates who are prepared

to wander round with portable CDs playing (or

‘reflecting’) the sounds back into the environment

they came from. One last check outside and I see

the milk float has arrived and is blasting out the

noises the kids have recorded: the rustling of a crisp

wrapper, the hum of the local bus, an amazing

spontaneous velcro ensemble!

11.50am St Saviour’s infants gather with their

teacher, Sophie. The infants have been a real joy to

work with and one of the keys to this is that Sophie

has enthusiastically embraced the project and

carried the children along with us. The infants are

divided into five groups, all with a different chant of

their own devising. The words are designed to evoke

Larkhall while the rhythms are linked to the other

themes. In workshops, we’ve explored complex

counting games and cross rhythms and the

children’s aptitude has been a source of

amazement to myself and their teachers. They’ve

brought ‘made’ and ‘found’ percussion – brightly

painted cardboard shakers and drums, dustbin lids

and sticks to beat them with. Suddenly everything

looks very festive and there’s a buzz of excitement

as parents and festival-goers take their places on

chairs or crane their necks at the back.

12 noon My nerves and reservations slip away as I

pick up my megaphone, startle everyone into

silence and we’re off…

12.20pm Everyone makes their way outside,

chanting, playing, plucking, banging. The bells are

reaching the crescendo of their firing, the CD players

and milk float are blasting out the recorded sounds,

the kids launch brightly coloured helium balloons

into the sky and with a final roar it’s all over.

In terms of my own learning and the MA in

Composition, the results have been diverse. In

teaching the infants various mathematical rhythmic

models and creating chants, I’ve been amazed at

their natural ability.

I really think there is room to develop this further

with crossovers into vowel sounds and more. During

the collection of sounds from the village with the

juniors, I’ve been struck by what children notice and

how they categorise the sound around them. Also,

how they embrace the ‘noise, node, note’ model

and are quickly able to apply it. Involving the church

bells with their octave of notes in G was a terrific

experiment as well.

The project demonstrates how layers of sound from

a variety of sources can be assimilated and

overlapped while reflecting the same local themes.

I do believe it validates the idea of simple

improvisational frameworks and I shall continue to

work on this.

So… what about the performance?

The really important thing here is that there is no

right or wrong execution of an experimental

framework like ‘5 ways’. You can listen to a

recording and make judgements about the ‘music’

but the performance is all about the ‘here and now’

and the project is all about the process rather than

the product.

On reflection, I believe we went a long way to

achieving our key objectives: engaging local schools

and the community, celebrating Larkhall, unlocking

creativity and developing skills, creating something

interesting, entertaining and important and, above

all, having fun.

Further information

You can check out details of this project,

including recordings and the ‘5 ways’

improvisational frameworks, at

http://www.lawrencereed.com/events02.php

Details of the Acrophobia project can be found

at http://www.lawrencereed.com/events01.php


One of the most important principles of

musical outreach is using any resources

you have and using them to match a need

in the community. It sounds an incredibly obvious

thing to say but there is often resistance to it,

particularly when the resource is unique.

Winchester College is the only school in the UK to

have retained its original foundation of trebles and

they have a unique name – Quiristers. The statutes

drawn up by the school’s Founder, William of

Wykeham, over 600 years ago laid down the

provision of 16 Quiristers to sing services in the

College Chapel and, although their activities now

include external concerts, tours and recordings,

this still remains the heart of what they do. This

means that they are part of a choir in which they

sing treble (assuming their voices last) until they

are 13 or in Year 8.

In Winchester’s state schools, children make the

transition to Secondary school two years earlier

and, for boys in particular, this often signals the

end of any interest they may have had in singing.

It takes a rare courage to sing treble in Secondary

school. Singing can too often be associated with

what you do in Primary school, a sign of immaturity

or ‘geekiness’.

The Quiristers offer an opportunity to bridge this

gap, not least because they do continue singing

treble for another two years and take great pride

in it. Their repertoire includes secular as well as

sacred music and, for all their uniqueness, they are

refreshingly normal children with normal interests.

The question is how to bridge this gap in practice.

It is important to be realistic. There is no way that 16

boys can effect a revolution in singing in Hampshire

just because they are brilliant singers whose age

bridges the gap between Primary and Secondary

school. Any project would need to start at Primary

school level and track these children through into

Secondary school – not an easy task. The children

will not all go on to the same Secondary school, for

a start, although many of them will.

The way this project was developed was through

contacting Hampshire Music Service, my employer

when I was Director of the Hampshire County

Youth Orchestra (my post before I went to

Winchester College). We brainstormed ideas for

what we could do – what Winchester could offer

and what was needed in local schools. The

conclusions we reached were encouraging.

Winchester College could offer varied and plentiful

rehearsal and performance venues, boys singing

throughout Secondary age range (Quiristers being

of particular value in demonstrating bridging the

gap between Primary and Secondary schools) and

experience in choral repertoire.

Hampshire Music Service was happy to provide

organisational and administrative back-up (a real

godsend), connections with other musical work in

the county and established (and excellent) working

relationships with Hampshire-maintained schools,

a central role as Sing Up Area Leaders and

experience to older boys at Winchester College

wishing to learn and teach skills in musical

leadership.

We quickly settled on the idea of working with a

Secondary school, Wyvern College. Wyvern lies

south of Winchester in Fair Oak on the outskirts of

Eastleigh, which itself lies just north of

Southampton. The Director of Music Bryan

Postlethwaite and I agreed that the main aim

should be to focus on the transition between

Primary and Secondary schools, involving Wyvern

School Choir, Wyvern Community Choir (which

includes parents and staff), together with Wyvern’s

six feeder Junior and Infant schools. The scale was

ambitious but it had an enormous advantage in

working with partnerships and a structure which

already existed.

The concert would last about an hour. The

second half would consist of a performance of

Vivaldi’s Gloria with the combined choirs of

Wyvern Community Choir, Wyvern College Choir

and around 100 Key Stage 2 Juniors from Stoke

Park, Fair Oak, Durley and Upham. The first half

would comprise a number of short items,

including two or three items for Infant singers,

with the Quiristers incorporated into the joint

choir.

Public-Private Partnership:

Vivaldi at Winchester College

Nicholas Wilks, Master of Music at Winchester College, describes a performance project bringing

together schools in Hampshire

10 things you should knowabout Music Services…

The Federation of Music Services is proud to represent nearly every Music Service in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (158). In partnership with many others we make Britain musical.For more details and case histories on how music transforms children and schools, contact: John Witchell, Chief Executive FMS, 7 Courthouse Street, Otley, Leeds LS21 3AN. Tel: 01943 463311 Fax: 01943 461188 Email: [email protected]

www.thefms.org Leaders in music education

Music is working – over 2 million children are taught successfully by Music Services to play and sing every week

10 Music Services are a vital part of what makes Britain musical9

Music Services give thousands of children the opportunity to perform live on stage through concerts and events each year

7Music Services identify and nurture exceptional talent 8 Music Services run over

4,000 bands, youth, school and county orchestras and ensembles

64

Music Services’ teaching of Special Educational Needs and Socially Excluded children is recognised as world class

Music Services work with children throughout their educational life: fostering a culture of rigour and aspiration, helping them progress on each step of their musical journey

5 Music Services create partnerships to maximise musical opportunities for all young people

3Music Services have over 12,000 trained, qualified teachers working with children to attain the highest standards in and through music education

1 2Music Services are the backbone of music education – without them few children would have instrumental and vocal lessons

There were a number of reasons for choosing

Vivaldi’s Gloria, not least the fact that the work was

written with young voices in mind. There were also

the advantages that the Baroque idiom is both

demanding and engaging – the young singers

relished the challenges of learning an unfamiliar

style, singing in Latin and making sense of words

which celebrate a feeling of goodwill, regardless of

religious belief. Above all, the Gloria is hugely

enjoyable to sing. It is the type of music which has

a life of its own, needing only the smallest prompt

to spring into life and guide its performers to an

exciting realisation of the spirit behind the notes.

The Vivaldi also meant that we could include young

Hampshire string players, a ’cello continuo player

and a trumpeter from Winchester College, with

Hampshire Music Service teachers leading the

sections. There was a great bonus for singers and

players alike – Hampshire Music Service has

recently acquired a number of Baroque bows

which all the string players used and played

without vibrato – a marvellously stylish effect.

The logistics of the Vivaldi choral rehearsals were

challenging. Because Stoke Park and Durley are at

some geographical distance from Wyvern, I had to

alternate my visits to each area and, with a two-

week rotation between Fair Oak and Stoke Park, I

only saw the same children for 6 out of the 12

rehearsals. There was a real question as to whether

this would be enough time to learn all the material.

We found a pragmatic answer to this which was to

focus on a small number of choruses, including the

outer movements so that the children had the

satisfaction of starting and finishing the Vivaldi. I

also made a recording of the joint items for the first

half so that this could be used for rehearsals which

I was not taking in person.

I was also concerned that the children would forget the

music after a two-week gap between rehearsals. Their

ability to retain new and difficult music was

extraordinary. Although the learning itself took a long

time and wrong notes were alarmingly quick to establish

themselves, it was thorough and picking up where we

left off two weeks before did not prove to be a problem.

Towards the end of the rehearsal period, I included in

my visits a number of Quiristers who were doing this kind

of work for the first time and, throughout the Easter term,

I had the indispensible assistance of a boy at

Winchester College, an organist who wants to develop

his understanding of outreach work and whose

contribution to the success of the project (particularly in

some gospel repertoire) was invaluable.

More difficult was sorting out the repertoire for the first

half of the concert. I was anxious that the Primary and

Infant school children should enjoy themselves

through musical games and warm-up exercises and

that we should not be focusing too early on the

repertoire for the concert. We decided to incorporate

these musical games and warm-up exercises into the

performance by getting the children not merely to

demonstrate what they had been doing but to teach

their parents how to do it in the concert itself. We used

an Australian call and response welcome song to bring

the singers onto the stage, then taught the audience

how to match actions with consonants – alternately

standing and sitting whenever they sang the

consonant ‘b’, clapping on the vowel ‘o’ and so on.

The concert itself was a memorable occasion.

I was extremely relieved that using the Australian

welcome song to usher the singers on stage was

effective and that the choreography for the African

songs actually worked (I am the world’s worst

dancer so the children had to take a spectacular

leap of faith to believe that my direction would pay

off). For Hampshire Music Service, ‘It had such a

blend of elements and people and was truly

inclusive as well as being somewhat 'out of the box'

– with a great result in both 'halves' of the event.’

As for the Vivaldi itself, the experience is best

summed up by a member of the choir who wrote

to me afterwards in these terms:

What a fabulous evening! I’ve never considered

myself a singer and asked Bryan [Director of Music

at Wyvern College] who the choir was for. ‘Anyone

– to boost the endorphins.’ I consider my

endorphins well and truly boosted! Thanks for being

gentle with us. The majority of us have never read

music and we never dreamt we’d perform in Latin!

I do not think there can be much more eloquent

testimony to the importance of this kind of work

than that.

www.winchestercollege.org

wyvern.hants.sch.uk


OK, first up, a confession: I taught recorders for six

years but only to Year 2s. It was frustrating,

entertaining and hard work. I had all the usual

problems: finding a decent place to teach (the drum

teacher had the Music Room that afternoon so we’d

end up in the Dining Hall or the Parents’ Room or the

Library or… you get the picture); engaging 6-7 year

olds with a book that was written in the 70s; dealing

with the dichotomy between what the children would

have liked to do and what their fingers were physically

capable of doing and so on.

The hardest bit was – as always – getting the group

to concentrate and that’s why a scheme like

Recorder Rebels would have been if not a godsend

then a definite Big Help.

I say not a godsend because the scheme is aimed at

Years 3-6 so my Year 2s would have quickly run out

of things they could play. There are 13 pieces to learn

and they move from ‘Mister B’, which is a Reggae-

style introduction to Note B, through ‘Blow The Blues

Away’ (G, A, B, C and D) to ‘Life’s A Beach’ (D, E, F, F

sharp, G, A, B, C, D – see below).

When I first looked at the scheme, I wondered how

the authors expected pupils to pick up the fingerings

so quickly until I remembered that it’s not aimed at

Year 2s with tiny fingers and that when I briefly taught

Year 3s I was amazed at how much easier they found

the whole process.

And, of course, it’s taught over the course of a year.

The scheme is broken into six units – one per half

term – covering five areas of musical learning:

• Warm-ups: songs, games and rhythmic starter

activities

• Rhythm work: flashcards, notation reading and

Dalcroze activities (see example below)

• Song repertoire: suggested songs in a variety of

styles

• Instrumental: pitch flashcards, fingering and

technique (see example below)

• Instrumental repertoire: performance pieces

and suggested listening

In this sense, it can be used in a Wider Opportunities

context and although the authors recommend that

‘ideally a specialist instrumental teacher should

teach the scheme’, it is set out in such a way that any

musically minded Primary teacher could do so

equally well.

I think it’s great. Contemporary, challenging and fun,

I can imagine it makes teaching and learning the

recorder ‘cool’ (possibly for the first time in history). I

know my Year 2s would have loved to be Recorder

Rebels. Heck, I quite fancy being one myself.

CathyTozer

Editor

product review

recorder rebels

product: recorder rebels

what: ks2 whole class recorder scheme

teacher book & flashcards; pupil book

by: nathan theodoulou, samantha spence

and tara franks

price: £29.99+VAT (teacher bk + flashcards)

£6.99+VAT (pupil book)

£200+VAT (classroom pack - teacher

book, flashcards & 30 pupil books)

from: cambridge education ltd

www.recorder-rebels.com

020 7527 5829



I’d never been asked to review a board game before.

New music, books, CDs and concerts, yes, but a

board game was a first. I love board games but

nevertheless decided to consult the experts – six

Year 5 boys from my form at school.

Musical Trixstar is a game for 2–6 players or teams,

the aim of which is to move around the board

starting at the time signature and finishing at the

double barline. Along the way, musical questions

and challenges are encountered, arranged in

categories from Adagio (easy) through Moderato

(medium) to Vivace (hard).

The game is very straightforward to play and

certainly great fun. We all found the Adagio

questions rather too easy but some of the Vivace

questions were pleasingly taxing for my 10-year old

games testers! We found that a game usually lasted

about 45 minutes (perfect for wet lunchtimes) and

the boys learnt a lot along the way.

I was impressed with the sturdiness of the game’s

construction, from the well-moulded musical instru-ment

playing pieces to the quaver counters and the board itself

with its spinning central wheel – well designed.

After a few games, I found that the boys at school

had adapted a few of the rules and their ideas

certainly make sense. They decided that they

product review

musical trixstar

product: musical trixstar

what: educational board game

by: musical trixstar

price: £44.98 including p & p

from: www.musicaltrixstar.com

[email protected]

+44 (0)1629 700289

Do you have a product or publication for review?Would you like to become a reviewer?

Please email [email protected]

or visit www.zonemag.net/reviews

shouldn’t be allowed to use Mentor or Pass cards

when playing Accelerando (speed) rounds as this

made the game too easy. They also decided that All

Play rounds were too problematic and instead made

these into two-player ‘duels’.

Once we had established these House Rules, we

played the game regularly for a couple of weeks. We

didn’t tire of it (as many of the questions were

refreshingly different) and even ended up with a

league table in the classroom.

This is a great game: it’s fun, educational and, at

times, quite taxing. I believe that it could be a real

hit in any school with Primary age children or to have

at home. I particularly enjoyed one question which

required me to make the sound of a horse…

Brian Cotterill

Director of Music, Lanesborough School

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zone magazine issue 19

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