FEATURE
Adult music learning
Chief Executive Barbara Eifler discusses music education for over-18s If before COVID-19 we might have struggled to explain the value of adults connecting and making music in a group, the lockdown has now proved conclusively how important the human, emotional and musical dimensions of leisure-time music groups are. Even adults previously not in a group are joining online choirs and dusting off their trumpets, so this seems the ideal moment to talk about Making Music’s Adult Music Learning Manifesto, which we launched to great acclaim just before everything shut down. It was born out of a recurring frustration with the exclusive concentration on music education for under-18s that we encountered in the music industry. Our instinct told us – and our survey and focus groups recently confirmed this – that adult music learners are different to under-18s: they are not all of one kind; their barriers, challenges, expectations and starting triggers vary; and current music teaching does not fully engage with or cater for these differences. The tsunami of research studies showing the benefits of adults actively participating in music throughout their lives has even convinced the likes of the NHS and the government’s health secretary. But are the conditions in place for adults to
8
HIGHNOTES Summer 2020
become - or continue - as active music participants? Now we are able to make the case more cohesively, there is lots more that policymakers in local or national governments can do to enable access for all. So, what does the manifesto ask for?
Manifesto for adult music learning A) Every adult in the UK is able to actively participate in music: access and inclusion B) Adult music learning is supported with infrastructure, information, recognition C) Under-18s education encourages lifelong music-making We refer to adult hobby musicians as ‘adult music learners’ – but why? Do we all define ourselves as ‘learners’? Probably not but whether having formal lessons, watching online guitar tutorials or following the instructions of our choir leader, we are all learning; some of us more consciously, others more informally or imperceptibly. Among the many differences between under-18
