MP: Going right back to the start, how did you get involved in music?
VF: I grew up on a farm in rural Australia, and at my local primary school one of the support staff ran a fife band, which was my introduction to music-making. We didn't have a music teacher at the school, but my parents were keen for my brother and I to learn an instrument, so we both started playing the saxophone. I had private lessons throughout primary school, and when I got to high school there were group lessons available, so I went along to those as well as having private lessons. I joined all the school bands I could, and it was in one of those first band rehearsals I looked at the conductor and thought: ‘yes, I think that's what I want to do’. So I kept making music through my school years, picking up oboe and bassoon along the way, and then when it came to choosing what to do at university there was really nothing else I wanted to do other than music teaching, so I ended up studying a Bachelor's in saxophone performance, secondary music and instrumental teaching at the Queensland University of Technology.
MP: How did your career develop from there?
VF: I taught secondary and instrumental music in Brisbane for two-and-a-half years, and then my girlfriend at the time and I decided to travel. Like many Aussies, we decided to come to the UK on a working holiday visa. I got a year-long maternity-cover job at a school in Edinburgh, but then they created a job for me and I got a work permit to stay in the UK long-term.
My real passion has always been wind bands, and I'd always wanted to go and study in America, what with the school band system they have over there. I'd always had the VanderCook College of Music in Chicago in mind, which is the only college in the US solely specialising in the training of music educators. An opportunity arose and I went to study there for six weeks every summer for three years, still living and working in Scotland the rest of the time. It was basically like going to band camp every summer; it was so inspiring. I came away with a master's degree, majoring in wind band conducting with a minor in choral conducting.
After travelling around a little, including a stint back in Australia, I got a job with the Scottish Borders Council as a primary music specialist, so I moved from secondary and instrumental teaching into primary, which was a massive but wonderful change. Then a job came up at the University of Edinburgh for a teaching fellow in music education, which I got and taught alongside my primary teaching for two years. So, it's been quite a journey! And I think one of the things I've loved most about that journey is I've taught the complete age range of students, from three-year-olds right up to someone in one of my bands who was 83.
MP: How did the social media posting come about?
VF: I signed up to Twitter like anyone else, in 2011, just out of interest and as a source of news. But as time went on, I started using it to engage more with the local music education community. There were proposed cuts to music lessons in schools at the time, and I started sharing people's pleas for support, often retweeting something and adding my own thoughts. I'd get a few likes here and there, but it was just a cathartic thing, really. Then one day I posted a tweet, and it went a bit crazy! And it's just grown and grown ever since. It's been incredibly humbling, and the fact I've reached so many people speaks to the fact that so many have had similar experiences. Essentially, the aim is to inspire and remind – we're always going to have challenges in music education. I don't think these are ever going to go away, so it's important to refocus, refresh, remember why you got into this, and keep fighting the good fight!
Vaughan's first 'viral' tweet, which has attracted over 500,000 reactions and 250,000 shares across social media platforms to date
MP: If you could change one thing in music education, would what it be and why?
VF: I'd make music education more prevalent in primary education. I was given a stark reminder of the challenge of this when I was teaching at the University of Edinburgh, with students on the primary teaching degree receiving just nine hours of music training over the four years. We need to empower primary class teachers to feel confident about teaching music while having specialists work alongside them. I really believe music education needs to be a habit, not a special event.
