What are you trying to prove?

Laura Foster discusses the difficulty of defining progress in a primary music curriculum

Progression in primary music can be described as ‘progression in musical skills, knowledge and understanding.’ How does this definition impact and influence primary music curriculum design?

Progression in music could be interpreted as reading, performing and singing music which becomes increasingly more challenging as pupils move through KS1-KS2, particularly when you consider Ofsted’s Pillars of Musical Progression (technical, constructive and expressive).

But what about learning similar pieces of music, on a variety of different instruments, throughout KS1-KS2? Could this show good progression? For example, playing pieces using B, A, G on xylophones in Year 2; pieces using B, A, G, on ocarinas in Year 4; and pieces initially using the notes B, A, G on keyboards in Year 5? I previously thought not, but now I wonder - if taught in a musical way which includes the development of general musicianship skills, then perhaps good musical progression can be made after all?

We know that ‘mastery’ in music requires repetition and practise in order to deeply embed the learning. In KS1, it is harder to play B, A, G on an ocarina than a xylophone; and increasingly difficult to play B, A, G on the keyboard using the correct finger pattern; and more difficult again on a clarinet or a French Horn. Rhythmically, pupils in Year 2 will be playing B, A, G using crotchets and quavers, and Year 5 may be playing the same notes using syncopated and dotted rhythms (and may move on to five-note pieces within a few weeks).

However, musical progression is much more than this. After all, you could play through 100 pages of a ‘Piano from the Beginning’ book and still lack skills of performing with confidence, playing using a variety of dynamics, or ensemble musicianship. A lot depends on how musically the lesson is being taught – are pupils being taught how to make a good quality sound, using the correct instrumental technique? Even in Year 2, pupils can be shown how to hold xylophone beaters correctly and how to play gently ‘as if tapping an eggshell’. These details make a huge difference to the musical quality of whole-class instrumental learning.

Ofsted’s Music Subject Report (Sept 2023) makes the following statements:

What can pupils realistically learn, rather than just encounter, in the curriculum time available?…

The schools that were successful focused on deliberately teaching pupils to get better at music rather than assuming they would get better by simply ‘doing’ music…

Leaders in these schools understood that it takes a lot of time to develop fine motor skills on any instrument Consequently, they decided to narrow the range of instrument choices within the curriculum. By contrast, where the practice was weaker, pupils often had shallow encounters with too many instruments or insufficient time to rehearse and practise. Consequently, pupils’ musical responses were often mechanistic and showed limited expressive quality.

Ofsted makes a clear case for focusing on a ‘less is more ’ approach to drive meaningful progression. However this does not necessarily mean limiting your instrument choices. It could be a far more interesting and enriching curriculum to allow pupils to experience a range of instruments, as opposed to mastering a single instrument. It would be potentially limiting to narrow the curriculum to, for example, just recorder from Year 1 – Year 6. The outcome may be that pupils could fluently play more difficult pieces by Year 6, but at what creative cost (not to mention loss of interest for those whom recorder was not their chosen instrument). As some pupils may find rhythmic instruments such as xylophone more accessible than the fine motor skills needed for the recorder, we also risk possibly excluding them from fulfilling their musical potential by choosing their ‘main’ instrument for them at KS1/2.

As a comparison, PE teachers do not teach one sport in KS1 - KS3 in order to maximise progress, and neither do Science teachers only teach Biology. We teach Biology, Chemistry and Physics so that all pupils receive a broad scientific education, before specialising only at A level. I struggle therefore to see the justification for teaching just one instrument. Musicians do of course benefit from choosing a ‘main’ instrument at some stage – but curriculum music lessons should remain diverse and creative, including a wide range of genres and instruments to learn, at least until the end of KS3.

I believe that flexibility is needed when looking at musical ‘progress.’ As long as a robust progression framework has been thought through, I think that teaching a range of instruments can be justified and used to make good progress. A more creative curriculum where a narrower range of instruments are taught can also be justified and used to make good progress, again with a progression document that has sufficient thought and detail.

In summary, I think this is a complex issue. On the one hand, I would value and pursue a highly creative music curriculum which has ‘musical development’ at its heart. On the other hand, I can see the practicalities and logic of teaching pupils in a way which prepares them for the next Key Stage, including making GCSE accessible to ALL by teaching fundamental musical skills from KS1.

Perhaps creativity, variety and choice are of equal value to mastering a single instrument, as without these, we could quickly lose the interest and commitment of pupils who could have great future musical potential. After all, creativity, variety and autonomy are surely at the core of what we look for in our very best composers, performers and music professionals, and are arguably the very essence of what it takes to be a ‘great musician’. Perhaps, designing a musical curriculum unique to your school, taking into account pupils’ prior background and knowledge, and taking into consideration which route will enable the greatest success for YOUR pupils within YOUR school, enables ‘best musical progress’ to be made, after all.