Instrumental music teachers have traditionally used grade examinations as measures of pupils' progress. Grades have diversified considerably – and it is good to see the recent increased representation of global music – but even so, do they demonstrate the full value of our work? Many pupils enjoy the personal and social benefits of learning. However, such outcomes have been associated more with community music, which has itself focused more on short-term ‘interventions’ than long-term musical progression.
Funded by Youth Music (2015–18), my PhD research explored the challenges, enablers and benefits of diversifying instrumental teaching, with particular focus on improving musical, personal and social outcomes for young people with social, emotional and mental health difficulties (SEMH). This would require diversification of progression pathways.
Different types of progression
As a development officer and teacher for Hertfordshire Music Service (HMS), I knew that many instrumental teachers were already developing diverse pedagogies. However, this work was somewhat ‘off the radar’ of managers tasked with progressing more pupils into formal ensembles. Instrumental teachers also reported a common frustration that schools did not provide the special needs information they required to teach inclusively, seemingly due to their role's lack of professional status. Whenever I asked about this in CPD sessions, a ripple of energy ran through the room.
One strand of my research explored how improving communications within schools could develop instrumental teachers as music mentors for SEMH young people at risk of social and school exclusion. This strand began as a pilot project at Monk's Walk School in Welwyn Garden City, and was funded by Youth Music, the school's Pupil Premium fund and HMS's subsidy for Free School Meals (FSM) pupils.
The school head suggested that progressing more FSM pupils into the school orchestra would be a good indicator of musical inclusion. However, having noticed that pupils' retention rate in subsidised instrumental music lessons was poor, the school head of music suggested a more responsive approach was required.
Pupils chose from a range of instruments, but the head of music suggested teachers needed to do more than work ‘page by page’ through tutor books. We convened regular critical reflection sessions for teachers to discuss how to adapt practice to pupils' needs and interests. For some, this meant developing more opportunities for creativity; for all, it involved more dialogue with pupils. To improve dialogue also beyond lessons, we developed a school pastoral team/music department ‘knowledge exchange’, with instrumental music teachers, curriculum teachers and SENCos exchanging notes of pupil learning needs and progress.
The need for genuine musical learning
Simultaneously, the project improved outcomes for SEMH pupils and raised the profile of instrumental music teaching in the school, which continued to fund lessons with Pupil Premium after the Youth Music funding ended. However, while of course welcome, there was a risk that this positioned activities as a therapeutic-style intervention, rather than genuine musical learning. Some pupils who chose to learn orchestral instruments did progress into the school orchestra, as the school head had hoped. However, there was (then) no pathway into ensemble performances for those learning non-orchestral instruments; their teachers therefore relied on grade examinations to demonstrate musical progress.
Why might this matter? Clearly, while offering some opportunities for choice and creativity, grades did not support the more personalised, informal and creative approach that many pupils enjoyed. They would also miss the social benefits of ensemble participation and performance.
An informal music progression pathway
In another Hertfordshire comprehensive, teachers and young people had co-developed an annual community music concert which offers a progression pathway for informal learning. The Freman College Event originated in the Buntingford town youth club in the late 1970s. Drawing on punk music's participatory ethic, youth workers encouraged young people to form bands to perform their favourite songs. When taken into the school, it quickly proved popular and has developed into a school/community tradition. Running in the school hall over the weekend after GCSE and A Level examinations finish, The Event has acquired the status of an alternative rite of passage into adulthood. Teachers and older pupils mentor and accompany younger performers.
For some instrumental teachers, young people's performances in The Event demonstrate their lessons' value to parents better than grades. Many pupils take up lessons especially to participate; others join without individual lessons, for instance through a gospel choir. Pupils chose the repertoire, with classic rock songs indicating parental suggestions. Teachers' suggestions further broaden the young people's learning. Although the repertoire is largely rock, pop, folk and jazz, The Event also offers opportunities for pupils learning orchestral instruments to broaden their musicianship by improvising and playing by ear. However, it does not yet include pupils' own songs. Other research strands discovered that such performance opportunities particularly benefit SEMH pupils.
Avoiding musical inclusion as ‘Social Rescue’
Another research strand explored developing music-based mentoring in Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) which support school-excluded pupils. The local authority head of special education suggested that exclusion often results from SEMH difficulties, which themselves arise from early experiences of loss. Many excluded pupils are bright and creative but simply lack a ‘good fit’ with schools' increased focus on improving examination results in STEM subjects. One PRU head commented that learning an instrument could rebalance this, but teaching would have to be more creative than her own experience of learning classical guitar.
How activities were framed also proved key. A PRU deputy head commented that ‘these young people have so many well-meaning interventions, they don't want another; they just want to learn the music they like’. Another PRU head commented that pupils had previously dropped out of a rap workshop after perceiving a sense of intended social rescue: ‘It was all going really well until they got a whiff that it was meant to be “good for them”, then they didn't want to know…’
The project team had designed a questionnaire to evidence personal and social impact to secure lesson funding from PRUs after the Youth Music grant ended. However, PRUs suggested that framing activities simply as instrumental music lessons offered greater benefits for young people feeling stigmatised by school exclusion: ‘Dave shows Billy a riff, gets them to play it and says: “Right, you're a musician now!”’ The most effective evidence was witnessing the young people's enjoyment of learning.
However, PRUs also valued how learning to write songs helped young people to personalise their learning and noted especially how their lyrics demonstrated reflection and emotional learning. Performance opportunities again added value. After witnessing young people performing their songs to staff, family and friends, one Head commented: ‘You've just given us something extra we can do for these young people, it's amazing!’
A creative musical pathway
Although community musicians often use songwriting in remedial interventions, another research strand explored how developing a progression pathway could embed songwriting within mainstream instrumental teaching. Local professional songwriters and instrumental music teachers ran song workshop days in music centres. These brought together young people from mainstream schools and PRUs, thus breaking down the ‘ghettoisation’ that can characterise targeted musical inclusion projects. Young people's song lyrics articulated personal and social concerns, including loss and isolation, solidarity and resistance. Sessions concluded with performances to family and friends, which proved challenging but ultimately rewarding. Most significantly, performances and recordings again offered the status of genuine musical learning rather than a therapeutic-style intervention.
Instrumental teachers also sent in their pupils' songs to be produced for performance. Some young people progressed into showcases at music centres, local venues and festivals. Several progressed further into performances at the HMS biennial Gala at the Royal Albert Hall and the Youth Proms. Over time, some progressed into creative industries and into studying music at HE level. Several returned to work on the project as workshop leaders, demonstrating the consolidation of an alternative/complementary progression pathway to grades and formal ensembles.
An integrated music education ecosystem
These diverse progression pathways proved key to diversifying instrumental music teaching. All improved outcomes for SEMH pupils, including by helping to prevent their school exclusion. However, pupils who performed songs they had chosen or written enjoyed more personalised experiences of inclusion. This also contributed to musical outcomes. Even after the sector's recent increased focus on musical inclusion, some conversations still break down into unhelpful either/or dualisms, including suggestions that diversification detracts from, rather than builds, musical quality. However, teachers commented that young people performed with more freedom, ownership and musicality when they had chosen or co-written repertoire. This complemented and enhanced their enjoyment of more formal learning.
Although much of the development work described here was funded by Youth Music, the new progression pathways have begun to diversify pedagogies within teaching funded by parents, schools and HMS. Most significantly, this also increased uptake for curriculum music.
Such integrated musical ecosystems anticipated the closer integration of hub and curriculum music advocated by NPME2. Hopefully, the government's curriculum review and increased funding for instrumental music teaching can together make such holistic and creative learning sustainable, accessible and affordable to all young people, so demonstrating the full value of music in schools.
