Primary Music Magazine Issue 3.2 Summer 2019

An online magazine to support and inspire primary music teachers!

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Issue 3.2

Summer Term 2019

Inside this issue We are the Music Makers

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An inspiring singing project from the Isle of Man.

Model Music Curriculum

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Read the Music Mark consultation findings.

In pursuit of knowledge

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What is musical knowledge, and how is it different from other types of knowledge?

Songs of Travel Why do music teachers choose to work abroad?

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Summer is here…. kind of, and schools up and down the UK are preparing for end of term performances, and planning for next academic year. We have a great article about an inspiring singing project on the Isle of Man to give you some ideas for your next performance!

This time of year is always one of reflection and taking stock, as well as looking forward. If you’re feeling like making some changes, our article about teaching music in International Schools might give you some inspiration!

If you’re happy where you are, and have budget to spend for next year, then our Primary Music Magazine Awards Winners feature might give you some ideas on which resources are worth your money!

We’ll be back in October with Issue 4.0, and we’d love to feature news, articles and ideas from YOU! Please get in touch with us to discuss your ideas. Until then, enjoy your holiday when it comes – you’ve earnt it!!

Dr Liz Stafford, Editor - Primary Music Magazine

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CONTENTS 4. We are the music makers 7. Model curriculum consultation 10. In pursuit of knowledge 14. Songs of Travel 22. The Art of Listening 23. Nurturing the first steps 24. Awards Winners 28. Finding a musical path 33. MES events preview 35. Bringing the World to your classroom 38. Top 5 instruments

Maisie, aged 9, says: “Playing my tenor horn is my favourite hobby, I have learned to read music and I get to play in concerts with my friends.�

Our front cover stars are from Anfield Road Primary School, Liverpool Would you like to see YOUR pupils on our front cover?

Tweet your photos to @PrimaryMusicMag for a chance to see your class on the cover of the Autumn issue!

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We are the music makers and we are the dreamers of dreams Katie Lawrence discusses an inspiring singing project from the Isle of Man.

My name is Katie Lawrence and I am Music Coordinator at Ballacottier Primary School on the beautiful Isle of Man. At the time of writing, it is still half term here – the world famous TT motorcycle races are taking place and therefore, apart from exams, schools are closed. However, there is no rest for the wicked, as we are busy putting the final touches to a mass singing concert that will be taking place at the Villa Marina in Douglas. It is our largest concert hall venue and the only place big enough to hold the 650 children that will be taking part in the concert (along with the audience!).

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I have had the idea for the concert in my head for some years now, but I decided to put plans into action towards the end of last summer. It was initially born out of a feeling that, outside of the Manx Music Festival (‘The Guild’) and the Manx Folk Awards, local schools here rarely get the chance to meet together in the same room and share their love of singing and performing with each other. We do have a schools’ singing event (Children in Song) that takes place every other year at the Villa, which normally takes the form of a commissioned work. Previous featured composers include Rebecca Lawrence and Lin Marsh, the latter of whom wrote a very successful series of songs called the Chronicles of Mann. There are also several excellent non-school-based performing arts groups and stage schools, which many of the pupils performing in the concert attend in their own spare time. However, from a schools’ point of view, there aren’t many opportunities for schools to join together in concert, hence this project was born.

I decided to do things slightly differently and settled upon using the idea of a theme for the concert. I loved reading as a child and as I have mentioned in my programme notes for the concert, it can easily make your imagination run wild. The eventual result was to focus upon films and musicals that were based on books and stories. The programme for the concert was formed using song suggestions from some of the schools involved in the project and will feature songs such as ‘Pure Imagination’, ‘Cruella de Vil’, ‘I Wanna Be Like You’ and the ever favourite ‘Consider Yourself’, to name but a few. We believe that we have arrived at a wellbalanced programme of both upbeat and slower songs – indeed, you can’t get much more of a contrast than Under the Sea and Go the Distance!

I haven’t done all the work for this by myself and there is no way I could have done it without the amazing support of some of my hard working and dedicated primary music colleagues. It’s been a really exciting project for us to organise and one which I would dearly love to repeat in two years’ time. I am hugely inspired by one of our former music advisors, the late 5

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Alan Pickard. I grew up playing in the Manx Youth Orchestra and was lucky enough to be involved in some of the big projects that he organised.

Experiences like this in my own musical youth have helped shape my own ideas for concert and projects. What once seemed like a crazy pipe dream has become a reality, but it only becomes that if you have the support from colleagues, friends and family.

To me, there is nothing greater than the sounds and sights of children joining together simply for the love of music. I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to the concert – it promises to be a glorious wall of sound from our island’s talented primary school children. There are 25 choirs involved in total, schools from all over the island. What next for the future? Well there are plans for a smaller concert project in October, which will hopefully gather together celebrated traditional music, song and dance ensembles from various island primary schools. In the meantime, initial discussions have already taken place with regards to a possible one-day music education conference on the island. Exciting times lie ahead for music education in the Isle of Man!

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_________________________________________________________________ Katie Lawrence was born and raised on the Isle of Man. She is secondary qualified but moved to primary very early on in her career 14 years ago, when she took up her original post at Ballacottier. She teaches music to every class in the school, including reception. Amongst other extra-curricular ensembles, she runs a successful junior choir, who performed at Llangollen last year.

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Music Mark publishes Model Music Curriculum Member Consultation The UK Association of Music Education - Music Mark has produced its Music Mark Model Curriculum Consultation paper to inform the Department of Education’s (DfE) Expert Panel on the development of the non-statutory Model Music Curriculum.

The consultation included three face-to-face facilitated discussions, an online forum and a survey. In total 230 people participated in the consultation – over 60% of which were classroom teachers. Some additional 1-2-1 conversations and discussion as part of other meetings also took place and whilst there are no formal notes of these, the contributions reflected the general consensus of the more structured consultation.

The data collected has provided both qualitative and quantitative data which it is hoped will support the Expert Panel in its ongoing work in drafting the non-statutory guidance, and included the following recommendations: • Guidance should be appropriate for each Key Stage, with a mixedability teaching workforce in mind.

• Advice should be provided on how to select music, rather than what music to select • If a list of repertoire is to be provided it must be revised and refreshed regularly to allow for a flexible curriculum • Teachers should be made aware their Music Education Hub can provide expertise and resources • Curriculum music link into refreshed National Plan for Music Education Full details of the member consultation can be found here: https://www.musicmark.org.uk/marketplace/music-mark-model-curriculum-consultation/

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In pursuit of knowledge

Dr Liz Stafford considers the idea of musical knowledge I recently attended an event where the delegates were split into teams and each asked to plan a different area of the music curriculum. Somewhat confusingly these were not as one might reasonably expect Performing, Listening, and Composing, but Skills, Knowledge, Understanding and Experiences!

Setting aside the fact that you wouldn’t want to plan any of these in isolation from one another, it got me to thinking – how is knowledge different from understanding? In a skills-based subject, are skills knowledge? And how can we develop knowledge if not through experience?

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There are some very long held definitions of ‘musical knowledge’ where the term ‘knowledge’ encompasses all forms of musical learning. My favourite is the separation into knowledge how (skills), knowledge about (facts) and

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knowledge of (too nebulous to pin down – experiential / emotional response!).

However, when we use the term knowledge, and especially knowledgerich, in education, we usually mean a much narrower definition. We mean knowledge as ‘recall’ (and by extension, ‘understanding’ as the application of that recall). We’re talking about memorizing key facts, which may get you some way to passing a music history exam, but isn’t going to help you become the next Nicola Benedetti.

I have a real problem with the education system’s latest obsession with this type of ‘recall’ knowledge, in terms of its usefulness. This generation of children will most likely always carry Google around in their pocket. Why waste valuable brain space memorizing facts that can be searched in a matter of seconds? Why not concentrate on learning how to process and evaluate information, or developing practical and creative skills that will help our pupils when they hit an overcrowded jobs market just at the point that AI has taken over any job that can be automated?

To me it feels like snobbery. As if we’re trying to turn our children into ‘the right sort of people’ who know all the Kings and Queens of England, the dates of Shakespeare’s plays, and a healthy smattering of Latin vocabulary that they can roll out at a dinner party. But knowledge isn’t an indicator of intelligence, just of the ability to memorise. And we’ve already established that this kind of knowledge is redundant for the 5G generation, so really aren’t we just teaching children how to conform to an outdated system of class-based standards?

But back to music! Being able to recall facts in music is not all that helpful – being able to explain how a violin works doesn’t mean you’ll have any ability to actually play one! But if we can sneak our ideal of different types of knowledge into our ‘knowledge rich’ curriculum, that is a much more useful outcome. Through musical experiences we develop our knowledge of music, but in order to have those musical experiences in the first place 11

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we need to develop our knowledge how (skills), and to understand and extend these experiences we may need our knowledge about (facts), but not always!

Crucially, these types of knowledge cannot be isolated from one another.

They are completely interdependent and must be planned for holistically.

When mapping the curriculum we also need to consider that we want to develop these different types of knowledge across the different strands of performing, composing/improvising, and listening, and that these strands too are interdependent. For example, in the early stages of learning, we can only really compose music that we ourselves are capable of playing, because the medium through which the composition is created is performing, not writing. It is also arguable at primary level that it is hard to perform anything if we haven’t listened to it first!

So when we’re asked to show how our music curriculum is ‘knowledgerich,’ lets show the wonderful variety of different forms of musical knowledge that we have at our disposal. Let’s make all the other teachers jealous about the wonderful richness of musical knowledge!

Dr Liz Stafford is Editor of Primary Music Magazine, Director of Music Education Solutions®,

12 and Senior Lecturer in Music Business and Professional Studies at LCoM. @DrLizStafford

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Songs of Travel

Anna Gower finds out what attracts music teachers to work overseas On 14 May 2018, the Council Of British International Schools presented the initial findings and interim report of a large-scale research project looking at Teacher Supply in British International Schools. The research provided data about why teachers go overseas, how long they stay, why they return, and the quality of their experience. In its introduction the report highlighted “a severe challenge to recruit and retain enough teachers at home and overseas”.

Then in June 2018, Schools Week reported that “international schools would have to snap up over half of all the UK trainee teachers over the next ten years to meet their targets.”

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But what attracts teachers to leave the UK and live and work overseas? My work as part of the delivery team for Musical Futures International means that I get to meet and socialise with teachers working in many different parts of the world. From China to Munich, Bangkok to Dubai, each have their own story to tell about what brought them out from the UK and where their international teaching careers have taken them both professionally and personally.

Here, three teachers from the UK and one from Australia offer advice to anyone considering embarking on an adventure to teach in an international school!

Clare Sutlieff-Lambert is Head of Music at Nexus International School, Singapore.

Once I graduated, I really wanted to travel and see more of the world. Not having completed a gap year like many of my peers at university, working and travel seemed the perfect combination. It wasn’t until I started turning to the back pages of the TES in the staffroom that I realised how big the international teaching market is!

Sarah Curror is Music Specialist at ELC International Schools, Bangkok.

As a teenager I saw a poster of a tropical island – a typical view of a beach with clear blue water and a palm tree, and I knew that I wanted to live somewhere warm and tropical! I studied music at university and was then planning to do a PGCE but by chance I was offered the chance to move to Bermuda and teach Suzuki method piano and cello at the Bermuda School of Music. A tropical island for my first job - it was too good an opportunity to turn down!!

Hannah Casey is a Primary and Secondary Music Teacher at The British School in Tokyo.

After training as a secondary music teacher in Ireland I made the move to London in 2013 and spent three years teaching in a couple of very different

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secondary schools. After this time, I actually took a post as music coordinator in a primary school in Birmingham, which had had a complicated history with music. The new Head teacher wanted to revive music and I was tasked with this. After a couple of months, I happened to see a posting for a primary music teacher at The British School in Tokyo. I had always wanted to visit Japan and thought it would be a great opportunity to see more of the world and live in a country I had long been interested in. I moved to Japan in August 2017 intending to only stay for two years but I have now extended that to three and maybe more beyond!

Nicki Taylor is Head of Elementary School Music, St Joseph’s Institution International School, Malaysia I left Australia at the very beginning of 2006 (the beginning of the Australian academic year) after working intensely as the founding Director of Music at a new school on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland for the past three years. It was a wonderful school, but I was feeling burnt out and ready for an adventure. My boyfriend at the time (now my husband!) was keen to go back overseas as he was recently returned from doing an internship in Turfgrass management at various exotic locations (think Barbados!).

What is the appeal of working internationally?

Clare: International schools put a strong focus on the arts and they are usually well supported and resourced, and the students want to learn! I have been so lucky to work in schools where budgets are plentiful and that they want to ensure the learning opportunities are broad. Having space and breakout areas such as studios, recital rooms, and outdoor areas is amazing!

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Sarah: Financially life in South East Asia is cheaper than life in the UK so I can enjoy my holidays and my free time far more. I am also helping my son to become a 'global citizen' - growing up in another country, with 52 nationalities in his school and 13 nationalities in his class he truly understands how to respect the differences between different people,

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cultures and countries, but also understands that we are all part of the same world and are all the same.

Hannah: Working internationally generally allows for more freedom in your curriculum development as there is more budget to grow the aspects of the curriculum that are needed at your school. Teachers are given more ownership over what they want to do here without the constant loom of Ofsted. Even observations are much more relaxed and the experience is so much more positive.

Nicki: From a teaching perspective, class sizes are much smaller than I was used to, the children are generally very well behaved and their families are really invested in their success at school. A lot of our children are expats too, so their families become our families as we all face the same struggles of being foreigners!

What are the challenges of working internationally?

Clare: Being away from family, always working to short-term contracts, and the transient atmosphere we live in with constant changeover of friends and colleagues.

Sarah: Being far away from family and friends when events happen unexpectedly or during term time. You miss weddings and birthday parties unless they are in the holidays. Culture shock, Bangkok is ugly, dirty and HOT! Teaching is actually the easiest bit of the move, a school is a school the world over. But just getting to grips with life in a new country can be tricky to start with.

Hannah: Professionally, the expectation at an international school is extremely high. I found it tough to adapt and live up to the high expectations for performances and extra-curricular activities. I have always worked very hard but I knew that coming to work out here would be very different to what I was used to. Because I knew my workload would increase I felt slightly more prepared but it was still a huge leap.

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Nicki: We have had to be flexible in day to day life - things don’t often move as fast as we might like them to. Organising contractors to repair things at home, paying bills that arrive that we can’t read (as they’re in a local language!), getting visas sorted, going to government departments to organise driving licenses, teaching licenses, post, etc. Often this takes a whole day! Banking is often a huge challenge! Grocery shopping takes most of the day as everything isn’t in one place! All of these things have become our ‘normal’, but are very challenging for new arrivals.

What would your advice be to anyone thinking about looking to work overseas?

Clare: Research schools carefully. There are a lot of dodgy ones! Check and compare packages as there can be a huge difference in what is offered.

Sarah: Do it! Do your research once you've been offered a position - ask to be put in touch with staff at the school in a similar situation (ie. married/single/family etc) so you can find out from them the realities of life. There are so many schools, and so many countries to choose from there's a place for everyone!

Hannah: Do it! Find the right role and package for you in a country you could see yourself living happily in and go for it. Do your research. Don’t jump at the first offer you get. Make sure it’s right for you.

Nicki: It’s the most re-invigorating experience, but be careful, you might never go home........ _________________________________________________________________ Anna Gower was a secondary music teacher and head of music for 18 years. She now works as a freelance consultant for Trinity College London, Musical Futures International and with various MEH and organisations in the UK and overseas. She is currently part of the Musical 18

Futures International team, offering CPD for music teachers hosted by international schools across the world. @mufuinternat @tallgirlwgc

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The Art of Listening

Helen MacGregor, author of Primary Music Magazine Award-winning series Listening to Music, tells us how she developed the resource and shares a few ideas you can use in your classroom…

In everyday environments we are bombarded by sound and focussed listening can be a challenge. But it can be a powerful tool to help children enjoy music and to think like musicians!

A colleague recently said: ‘Listening is so much more than just sitting still and silent and cocking your head to one side! It has opened my eyes.’ I think she also meant ears! This is what the Listening to Music series aims to do, by developing children’s listening skills as well as exploring music ‘from the inside’ through linked activities: games, movement, singing, percussion, improvisation and composition.

The nature of each activity is drawn directly from specific musical features of the individual piece. Try these activities and more from the series for free at collins.co.uk/music: Move the whole body in response to gradually increasing volume in Alpha by Vangelis (from Listening to Music Elements 5+).

Perform, and then improvise 7-beat rhythm patterns in Dave Brubeck’s Unsquare dance (from Listening to Music Elements 7+).

Notate and read a graphic score of Copland’s Fanfare for 22 the Common Man (from Listening to Music History).

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Nurturing the first steps in music For students, beginning to learn an instrument can stir-up a real mix of emotions. Excitement, nervousness and sometimes frustration can all be a part of the experience. Being able to support their learning with engaging and fun teaching materials can go a long way to ensuring they persevere.

Here are some recommended titles that students starting out on their musical journey will enjoy exploring.

Piano Stories is a beautifully illustrated series featuring technical exercises, educational games, teacher-student duets, and a range of activities for developing early musicianship. The books apply the concept of holistic music learning to Trinity's core exam repertoire.

Take Your Bow is a collection of 20 concert pieces for beginner string players written by Celia Cobb and Naomi Yandell. Their imaginative writing strengthens rhythmic and stylistic concepts, whilst employing a variety of adventurous playing techniques that students will find to be a fun and achievable challenge.

Rockodile 1 & 2 teaches electric guitar to beginners with a step-by-step approach that firmly establishes the basics of good technique. The huge range of songs included can be played either as solos or by two or more students, as melody, accompaniment and chord symbols are all provided. Free downloadable backing tracks really encourage students to play along too.

Find these titles and more in the Trinity College London Shop at: www.trinitycollege.com/shop

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PRIMARY MUSIC MAGAZINE AWARDS WINNERS 2019!

Best Composing/Improvising Resource WINNER: Pictures, Poems & Percussion 2 This Big Book and CD is a collection of poems for children that incorporates pictures and percussion to create a unique learning resource.

What the judges said: “We chose this resource because of its uniqueness, its beautiful design, and its links between literacy and composition. Beautifully illustrated, this ‘big book’ has real appeal for younger ages, and is easy to use for even the nonspecialist teacher. A real treat from Out of the Ark!” Find out more about this resource here: https://www.outoftheark.co.uk/pictures-poems-percussion-2.html _______________________________________________________________________________________

Best Vocal Resource WINNER: Sing Up

Sing Up makes transformative change happen in schools to enhance children’s development and learning through the power of singing.

What the judges said: “We chose this resource because of its sheer breadth and depth! Sing Up has absolutely everything you could think of in terms of a singing resource, providing a complete package for both specialist and non-specialist teachers.”

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Find out more about this resource here: https://www.singup.org/

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Best Curriculum Scheme WINNER: Charanga Charanga is helping teachers in over 8500 schools to provide modern, exciting music lessons that children really enjoy.

What the judges said: “There is a reason that Charanga is always the first resource that comes to mind when you think of a curriculum scheme! We love the fact that it is based on sound pedagogical principles like the spiral curriculum, and that it caters for both non-specialist and specialist music teachers, providing a ‘complete’ solution including everything you need to plan, deliver and assess music.”

Find out more about this resource here: https://charanga.com/site/ _______________________________________________________________________________________

Best Instrumental Resource

WINNER: Online World Music Workshops Inspire Works World-Music online learning platform brings their expert facilitators to your classroom as many times as you need, whenever you want, and wherever you are in the world.

What the judges said: “This resource absolutely blew us away! This is such a well-thought-out online learning package, which combines Inspire Works’ expertise in world music with the class teacher’s expertise in assessment, providing a complete package for instrumental learning. We were also impressed with the price, which is incredibly good value for such a high-quality resource.”

Find out more about this resource here: https://www.inspire-works.co.uk/online-learning

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Best Listening Resource WINNER: Music Express Extra This series, created by Helen MacGregor, actively engages children in listening perceptively to music.

What the judges said: “We loved this listening resource as it wasn’t just a bank of audio files, but a really interactive resource with lots of ideas for how to listen! It features a great range of different musical styles and traditions, and provides easy-tounderstand guidance for the non-specialist teacher”.

Find out more about this resource here: https://collins.co.uk/products/9780713682953 _______________________________________________________________________________________

Best Workshop Provider WINNER: Toscana Strings Toscana Strings launched ‘Stories set to Music’ in March 2018 with the aim of delivering live music in primary schools in a fun, interactive and informative way.

What the judges said: “This workshop provider had thought really hard about how to engage primary aged children, choosing age-appropriate themes to base their workshops around. We also liked the fact that they are a string quintet, which is an unusual ensemble to see performing in a primary school!”

Find out more about Toscana Strings here: https://www.toscanastrings.co.uk/school-concerts 26

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Finding a Musical Path

Kip Pratt discusses his song-based approach to whole class violin teaching

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The violin is a complex instrument. We have to do one thing with one hand, while doing a completely different thing with the other. We have no frets to help with pitching, holding the instrument comfortably is a challenge and holding the bow with any semblance of flexibility is the work of many months. On top of all this, we may be required to read and interpret visual symbols! Perhaps it is no surprise therefore that the most common reaction to a whole class violin lesson from support staff is I’m off to the other side of the playing field! Enticing these colleagues back by achieving a beautiful sound is hard enough in a one to one situation, but when we are teaching 30 Year Four children, the likelihood of aural and postural anarchy racks up exponentially. How, therefore, can we ensure that, rather than frustrating and disfiguring a generation of potential string

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players, we inspire them to take up this wonderful instrument? How can we facilitate a musical experience for everybody?

I have been wrestling with this question for the last eight years, and my answer relies on the use of song as the primary medium of music making.

The more I focus on the challenges of technique, the fewer tunes we sing and play; the fewer tunes we sing and play, the less interested the children become.

Moreover, spending time purely on technique does not necessarily lead to any improvement in playing when that time is spent outside of music making itself. To solve these issues, I have developed a method by which active technique is embedded in music making and listening – a means to an end rather than an end in itself, allowing us to aspire to ‘fluency, first and last’ (Swanwick, 1999).

Faced with the dilemma of teaching this difficult instrument to a whole class, I began by asking myself two fundamental questions; 1. Where does music start for children?

2. What do the children want to do in their music lessons?

From these two questions came two answers: singing is the essential starting place, and actively making music is what children want. These answers may sound obvious, but all too often I find myself forgetting such basic principles. We can all sing, but we cannot all play the violin; therefore, let us begin with the common denominator. Playing the violin, that most melodious of instruments, begins with singing. The playing arises from the singing, thereby giving the whole process a sense of growth, with melody at its core. This relies on the teacher being musical; being willing to sing and play with the children. It also relies on having a clear vision of the pace and structure of lessons so that they are not bogged down with talk and dry technical demonstration.

My termly series of whole class violin consists of ten fifty minute lessons.

Of these, eight are practice sessions, the ninth is a dress rehearsal and the tenth is a concert. In those eight lessons, I aim to master four songs, accompanied by myself on the keyboard. The children sing each song and learn a pattern on their instrument to accompany the singing.

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For example, we learn the first verse, chorus and middle-eight of With A Little Help From My Friends by The Beatles. I sing to my own accompaniment and they copy the vocal line. We work for some time on the quality of the singing before we even pick up an instrument. We then learn patterns (initially using the four open string notes of G, D, A and E) to accompany those three sections. The patterns may be very easy (bowing on a single string) or more complex (taking us over two, three or four strings). I demonstrate the absolute basics of the instrument (recognising left from right, posture, drawing the bow across the string, getting from one string to another) and then the children have time both in private practice (five minutes in their own time to try things out) or all together practice (trying it as a team). Private and team time is an important balance to strike. On the one hand, playing music in a band is a team activity, which requires empathy and patience. On the other, large groups of young children have limited reserves of both and need private time in order to discover and experiment. During together time the pattern of musical activity is thus; sing the song (holding our violins by our sides in first position); sing the note pattern that we are about to play; violins onto shoulders (second position); play the pattern (while I sing and play keyboard over the top). This work is entirely aural; it is a mantra of Shinichi Suzuki that attention to score reading in early instrumental learning weakens the difficult kinaesthetic awareness needed to master arm and finger control. Louis Armstrong put it more succinctly; when asked whether he read music his answer was ‘Yes, but not enough to hurt my playing’. (Woody 2012 p. 83). Young children need to learn musical fluency before musical literacy in the same way that they learn to speak before they learn to read. Indeed, throughout the ten lessons, there is no score reading at all. There is always time later, in one to one lessons, to develop reading skills.

The pace of these activities is fast and I do not allow children time to dwell on feelings of I can’t do it. They all get there in the end, with varying degrees of success. In order to help with the quality of sound that we produce as a team there are two other activities of a technical nature. This 30 first I call the Beautiful D Competition. The aim is to hear thirty deep, long

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and sonorous Ds, and then to invite individuals to pit their Ds against each other. This allows the children to focus on tone production. The second has become known as the Spider Game. The children crawl up the bow stick with their fingers tips, accompanied by recorded music, and when the music stops they must demonstrate their bow hold to me...a form of musical hand-statues. With both games, I am unashamedly wedded to handing out house points for success! Obviously, every instrument requires a different set of games to facilitate technique, but the important common factor is that they happen within, a musical framework...listening or doing is happening as the technique is practised, and the necessity for time-consuming explanation is minimal.

Through these simple ideas, we are able to present a concert of singing and playing within ten weeks. The mantra that guides me throughout is that the techniques of music are not the music itself. I do teach technique (for example, we discuss the similarities between Andy Murray developing his forehand and us developing our bow stroke), but musicality comes first.

Andy Murray repeats his strokes endlessly in practice because he wants to express himself on the tennis court. Likewise, we repeat our spider game, in the context of our desire to make beautiful Ds. If musical behaviour is the interplay between sound, action and symbol (McPherson, G and Gabrielsson, E, 2002), then we, as teachers of young children, have to get our priorities right. As children grapple with the demands of the violin, they demonstrate to me that they want to produce sound through action.

The symbolisation of their work holds little interest for them at this early stage. By stripping back the notational and technical demands of complex orchestral instruments and focussing on melody and simple patterns through the medium of song, we can keep lessons musical, thereby exciting children’s natural sense of musicality. _________________________________________________________________ Kip Pratt is a lecturer in music education at The University Of Plymouth, and a teacher of music in South Devon schools.

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SAVE THE DATE: WORLD MUSIC WORKSHOP DAY Friday 15th November 2019 10am-3.30pm in Birmingham

Join Music Education Solutions® for a day of inspiration exploring musical styles and traditions from all across the world! Featuring Inspire-Works, Bollywood Brass, Beat Goes On, and with more world music experts to be announced! More details coming soon.... Follow the hashtag #WoWDay on Twitter Book your place before 31st August and save £20 with our Early Bird Discount (Normal Price £85) https://musiceducationsolutions.co.uk/products-page-3/coursesavailable/world-music-workshop-day/ _________________________________________________________________

SAVE THE DATE: CURRICULUM MUSIC CONFERENCE Thursday 12th March 9.30am-4pm in Walsall

Join Music Education Solutions® for the fourth annual Curriculum Music Conference. A day of inspiration for teaching music in primary and secondary schools! Featuring practical sessions, presentations, research seminars, discussions and more! More details coming soon.... Follow the hashtag #CMC2020 on Twitter.

Book your place before 31st December and save £20 with our Early Bird Discount (Normal Price £85) https://musiceducationsolutions.co.uk/products-page-3/coursesavailable/curriculum-music-conference-2020/

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Primary Music Magazine

Issue 3.2 Summer 2019

ABRSM’s new Bowed Strings syllabus (2020–2023) launched on 6 June 2019 and will come into effect on 1 January 2020. This launch includes our new Initial Grade to help beginners measure their progress and celebrate their achievements.

Our new Initial Grade is available for all Bowed String instruments. This pre-Grade 1 exam follows the same structure and mark scheme as ABRSM’s other graded music exams, offering an alternative to our Prep Test. We know it often takes a few years for string players to be ready to take their Grade 1, and we believe Initial Grade will enhance both the teacher and learner experience.

To ensure there are pieces for all Bowed Strings at the Initial Grade that can be taught and played together, we commissioned the composer behind the popular Vamoosh series, Thomas Gregory, to create something especially for us. Thomas created the expressive Silent Friends which we hope all string players will enjoy. As well as featuring Silent Friends in all four of our Initial Grade books, we have also introduced a duet option for Initial Grade up to Grade 3. We know that not all string teachers are pianists and by creating a duet option we believe that learners can develop ensemble skills and enjoy playing along with other musicians. In the exam, this also means 34 candidates can play along with their teacher, parent, friend, or anyone who also plays their instrument!

Primary Music Magazine

Issue 3.2 Summer 2019

Bringing the World to your classroom

Mike Simpson discusses Inspire-works online learning platform which brings world music experts to the heart of your music curriculum.

It was 17-years ago that my wife, Jacqui who was then a head of drama in a school in Surrey, came home from teaching at school one day and suggested that we move abroad to learn more about how music, dance and drama were taught in other cultures. We spent a fabulous year living on the wonderful tropical island of Bali, and set up Inspire-works upon our return in the summer of 2003. It soon became apparent that we needed to expand so started to employ other world-music workshops facilitators who were experts in other world-music genres. Today, we’ve got 15 facilitators who deliver workshops to over 70,000 children per year.

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Primary Music Magazine

Issue 3.2 Summer 2019

Over the past 15 years we’ve seen many changes in music education in both what is taught and the skill set of class teachers, so we’ve come to realise our role has therefore had to change too! 15 years ago it was quite rare to find a school with a full set of djembes or a samba kit - today, djembes and samba instruments are everywhere! We’ve also seen the confidence of primary school class teachers grow in leading whole-class drumming projects over the years so our facilitators are now often taking the role of leading masterclasses and the weekly drumming sessions are being led by the school staff.

About 2 years ago we realised that although many class teachers are confident enough to lead a drumming project, what was lacking were good quality teaching resources that would not only teach the children about the music, but about the culture from which the music comes from, something that has always been at the core of Inspire-works’ aims and philosophy.

We were fortunate to be part of A New Direction’s Arts Award Action Research Project in 2017 which enabled us to pilot our Online Learning Platform across many primary schools in London which we hoped would provide good quality resources for schools at an affordable price and meet the current need in schools. The vision of our Online Learning Platform was to be able to bring our facilitators into the classroom via video who would teach high quality music appropriate for the age group, for the children to be able to use whatever drums or percussion instruments available and for the lessons to be constructed in such a way that they could be led by a non-music specialist class teacher if required but also have extension possibilities if the project was led by a musically able class teacher. We decided to structure each online course around lots of short video clips which the classes would drum along to, use creative online quizzes to back up the learning and use Arts Award Discover as the framework for the learning so that if the school has an Arts Award Adviser on staff, all the pupils would be able to achieve their Arts Award Discover qualification with minimal extra workload for the class teacher.

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Primary Music Magazine

Issue 3.2 Summer 2019

Over the past 18 months, we’ve used almost every school holiday to film more online courses and anticipate will continue to add to the Online Learning Platform over the next few years as the demand grows! We’ve now got online courses for African drumming, Brazilian samba drumming, Indian dhol and cajon. We’re also currently editing our Percussion with Early Years Courses and Drumming for Health & Well-being Courses ready for the new academic year in September.

Since we started Inspire-works 15 years ago, we’ve worked almost exclusively in the south-east of England as that is where our facilitators are all based. A little like Heineken, our Online Learning Platform has helped us reach parts that our other workshops couldn’t reach! We’ve now got many schools in music hubs as far north as North Tyneside & Sunderland Music Hub, and as far south-west as Devon Music Hub using our Online Learning Platform as the core part of the weekly First Access Programmes.

We’ve also had schools in Australia, Russia and the middle-east using the courses!

We’ve found many schools are using non-music specialist teachers to lead the lessons to much great success. We’ve also been getting lots of encouraging feedback from music specialists who are enjoying being able to carry out much more thorough assessments on the children than previously as the teacher is not required to play themselves whilst the children are being led by the Inspire-works facilitators on the screen.

We were very proud early this year have our Online Learning Platform selected as a finalist in the Music Teacher Awards Outstanding Digital/Technological Resource and to be the winners of the Best Instrumental Resource category of the Primary Music Magazine Awards.

Further information on Inspire-works’ online learning platform, including packages and prices is available at www.inspire-works.co.uk/onlinelearning 37

Primary Music Magazine

Issue 3.2 Summer 2019

Top 5 Instruments to teach as a non-specialist Although ‘Wider Opps’ was originally rolled out as a Local Authority Music Service project, and now ‘WCET’ is part of the Music Education Hubs’ offer to schools in England, there’s no reason why you can’t run your own internal project, even if you’re not an instrumental specialist. Here are our top 5 suggestions for instruments to try out with your classes.

Glockenspiel A faithful staple of every primary school, the glockenspiel is so easy to play that anyone can do it! The note names are written on the bars so all you need to do is bash the right one at the right time – simple!

Recorder Another old faithful, the recorder has the distinct advantage that most teachers probably learned to play it when they were at primary school, so it’ll soon all come rushing back to them! They do get a bit icky though, so 38 best have a bucket of Milton to hand!

Primary Music Magazine

Issue 3.2 Summer 2019

Ukulele Not just a posturing tool for hipsters, the ukulele is an accessible instrument that only requires knowledge of one or two chords to be able to strum along to a whole heap of music. Like any stringed instrument, it will require tuning though, which can be time-consuming. Generally the cheaper the instrument, the more tuning it requires, so don’t be too mean with your budget!

Ocarina This brightly coloured, unusual looking instrument is actually one of the oldest in the world, although originally made of clay not plastic. The 4 hole oc is simpler and smaller than a recorder, so ideal for the tiniest of hands as a first introduction to playing an instrument.

pBuzz The pBuzz is a fairly new kid on the block, a plastic ‘brass’ instrument with a slide similar to a trombone, which plays five notes. The notes are marked on the slide with letter names, colours, and numbers, so once you’ve mastered a ‘buzz’ (think a raspberry with less spit) then you shouldn’t have too much trouble figuring out the rest!

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PrimaryMusic Magazine

Issue 3.2: Summer 2019

Issue 4.0 out October 2019