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Inside: What do Ofsted really want? Is Music a Universal Language? How can you spot musical potential? What are the best ways to teach rhythm? How can you introduce jazz and classical to your pupils? Issue 8.0: Autumn 2023
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BY PR Image: Edenbridge Primary School
Autumn Term 2023
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FROM THE EDITOR
INTO THE GROOVE
A warm welcome to this issue from Dr Liz Stafford
The importance of rhythmic entrainment
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MUSIC IS NOT A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE The argument for retiring a misleading phrase.
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SPOTTING MUSICAL POTENTIAL Classroom tips from Awards for Young Musicians.
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INSIDE THE MUSIC New resources for A Midsummer Night’s Dream
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WHAT’S IN A NAME? One teacher’s approach to learning to read rhythms
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THE TRINITY CME How does this qualification work in a primary setting?
JAZZ IN THE PRIMARY SCHOOL
BOOK REVIEW
Exploring an Arts Council England funded project
Playlist: The Rebels & Revolutionaries of Sound
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22. TELL ME WHAT THEY WANT? Analysing Ofsted’s latest music recommendations
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FROM THE EDITOR Welcome to our Autumn 2023 issue which, as ever, is jam-packed with features written by teachers just like you! This issue has a particular focus on teaching rhythm, with features on the importance of rhythmic entrainment, and one teacher‘s journey towards developing a rhythmic notation system for beginner musicians. We also have a range of other great features on a whole range of topics this issue, so you‘re sure to find something to inspire you! This issue, like every other, is funded solely through advertising revenue and reader donations, helping us to keep the magazine free to access all around the world. If you would like to make a small donation to our running costs you can do so by clicking on the 'Buy me a coffee' button at the end of each article.
@DrLizStafford
15TH & 16TH NOVEMBER 2023 SNAPE MALTINGS, UK An event to inspire anyone who leads singing with children and young people, featuring a programme of workshops, discussions, presentations and peer-sharing events curated by Music Education Solutions® in partnership with BrittenPears Arts.
Click here to find out more
Music is NOT a universal language Dr Liz Stafford sets out the argument for retiring a misleading phrase This article could have been titled ‘Is music a universal language?’, except for one factor; I am absolutely certain that it isn’t! This statement has been bandied about for years, with even Ofsted trotting it out in their recent Music Subject Report, but it is really just a meaningless platitude. And in fact it’s not just a platitude, but a culturally insensitive one at that! To prove it, let’s break this phrase down into its component parts: music, universal and language, with the help of some musicians and teachers who chatted with me about this on social media.
Music We all think we know what we mean by music, right? But when using the phrase ‘music is a universal language’ we need to consider the following. What music? Whose music? All music? Whenever I see or hear this phrase being used, it is never attached to a world music tradition, it is always used to describe Western music, either pop or classical. As Katherine Firth (Threads @katherinefirth) pointed out to me: “Western Classical music is founded upon theoretical assumptions about happy/sad/turbulent/complete which do not map at all onto other
musics (including many European folk musics further afield). Worse, these assumptions have been used to dismiss other musics as ‘noise.’ I guess western music is ‘universal’ if that is the only kind that counts!!!” This summarises for me the fact that the idea of music as a universal language is heavily influenced by colonialism, even if those who use this phrase don’t really realise it. As Alan Duguid (X @Aduguid82) commented, “Ignoring the linguistic reference for a moment universality suggests a dominance of the WCT, othering not only so many cultural contexts but also perpetuating the symbolic violence and tension with an evolving world. The culturallysituated nature of how music is perceived and understood is not fixed or static; universality contains such strong neo-colonial undertones.” Basically, by saying that ‘our’ music is universal we are dismissing the importance of ‘their’ music, and in effect doing the very opposite of what the phrase is trying to suggest. Setting the music of other humans aside, what about the music that exists in nature? Is birdsong or whale song ‘music’, and if so does that mean it is ‘a universal language’. Do we really think we understand what is going on in a bird or mammal’s mind from the music that it makes? And how could we ever be sure? Your average fairytale princess seems to think they can, but I’m not entirely sure this translates across reliably to the real world…
Universal Name a musical style that everyone in the world likes and understands. You can’t. Therefore music is not universal. I was tempted just to stop there, but this point of view probably needs some more explanation! Carol Jane (X @hebe_jane) shares “If it were universal, children wouldn’t need to learn the language. I spend a lot of time teaching listening skills and by Y1 they’re not giggling or squirming when they hear an operatic aria or Indonesian music. Only children new to school (and adults within earshot) do that!” This highlights for me the main issue with the ‘universal’ moniker, there are too many different types of music in the world to say that all music is universal, and then when you add the additional layer of personal preference, you cannot possibly justify the use of the word. People often actively dislike certain types of music; for me it’s definitely heavy metal music, which actively gives me anxiety symptoms, never mind just not being pleasing to my ear. For others it could be classical, or acid jazz, or drill. The fact that people have different preferences and responses to different types of music therefore means that music cannot be said to be universal. However, it is definitely worth considering Richard Jeffries’ (X @RichMJeffries) point of view, “By definition, universal means ‘relating to or done by all people in the world or in a particular group’, and music is in
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every known culture. I think perhaps the phrase ‘universal language’ isn’t meant to be taken literally, but illustrates its universal qualities.” Richard may well be right that this phrase is being misused. The earliest use of this phrase I can track down is the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, whose statement ‘music is the universal language of mankind’ certainly could be interpreted in that way. Although if any form of music, however disparate, can be considered universal, then surely it follows that ‘the universal language of mankind’ is in fact, er, language (which like music comes in many different disparate forms). Language Language is communication system, and you could also argue that music is a communication system, but with one big difference. As long as you speak
the language, you will understand the exact meaning (allowing for nuance, inflection, and pitch where these are relevant to the particular language of course) of that language when spoken to you. Music, however, has no fixed definitions, it can only ever be ‘interpreted’ not ‘understood.’ As Dr Rob Upton (X @robupton) surmises; “Even in performance, we each interpret the gestures differently meaning that ‘the same’ notes can create vastly differing interpretations. Music has no fixed nodes of meaning.” That there is no objective meaning in music is something which I have written about before, and therefore if it is a language, it’s a pretty useless one! The mysteriously titled AC (X @castomusic) summed this up very well I thought; “It’s not a universal language. It has no power as a cognitive language unless we use it to concoct unique
soundbytes and codify them. And once we’ve done that it’s still not universal. It’s just an exclusive language for those that know the code.” As Professor Martin Fautley (X @DrFautley) shares, “I’ve always said that music isn’t a language as it lacks lexical indication. You can’t say ‘can I have a cheese sandwich’ in music!” You can’t communicate anything with any certainty in music without adding words, which is summed up in Dr Ally Daubney’s (X @AllyDaubney) pithy response to my request for comments on this subject, “Do you want my response in notation or will an audio recording do?” I laughed so much I nearly choked on my cheese sandwich! Why is there this obsession with music being a ‘language’ in the first place? Chris Philpott (X @ChrisPhilpott5) may have the answer: “Is music a universal language? No – but the ideology of
literacy = notation perpetuates this.” Of course this makes perfect sense when you think about it, we talk about being musically literate, reading, and writing music, so of course it would therefore follow that music should be classified as a language. But to what end? What would this be helpful for? Perhaps the last word on this subject should go to Lynn Holman-Fox (X holman_fox): “If it is [a universal language], what does it say? Why the necessity to attach such a label? Its ontogenetic complexity defies such a reductive description.” (And yes, I needed to look up ‘ontogenetic.’ Turns out music isn’t the only language that has problems with universality!) Why do we even need to label music as anything other than ‘music’, particularly with a label that is so flawed? I hope you agree that it is definitely time that we quietly retired this phrase!
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Spotting Musical Potential in the Primary Classroom by Naomi Wellings
Imagine walking into a noisy classroom, children all engaged in exploring an instrument they’ve chosen from a selection on the floor in front of them. The noise suggests chaos but what else is going on? Now think how often you’ve allowed this to happen. How often are we normally able, as educators, to let children explore and experiment without feeling the pressure to keep the noise levels down, or to get on with what comes next in the curriculum? What if, rather than planning every minute of every lesson, there was an occasional opportunity to allow children space and time to be creative and curious, or to allow them to follow an avenue you hadn’t expected. And what happens when you step back and observe?
Awards for Young Musicians (AYM) supports talented young people from low-income families, helping them to overcome financial and social barriers they face to progression. We know that due to family circumstances, culture or background, some children don’t show obvious potential due to lack of prior musical experience and opportunity. To help redress this inequity, we’ve developed our Identifying Musical Talent and Potential programme (ITP) in partnership with Lead Facilitator Hugh Nankivell. This is closely aligned to The National Plan for Music Education’s (NPME) vision to enable “all children and young people to learn to sing, play an instrument and create music together, and have the opportunity to progress their musical interests and talents, including professionally.”
The ITP inclusive classroom approach starts with four key elements: Getting creative Group activities commonly used in schools require children to copy the leader or recreate sounds given to them. These highlight the children who make mistakes rather than those who get it correct. By choosing material that we hope children will all get ‘right’ the unfortunate side-effect is that what we are also doing is highlighting the minority who were getting it wrong. When we switch to material that is mainly improvised and creative - and therefore could not be ‘wrong’ - it leads to a different reading of the musical potential in the class. Allowing a diversity of sound Offering children a diversity of sound promotes inclusivity. Particularly in whole-class instrumental lessons, diversity of instruments can be harder to achieve, and often leaves some young people feeling as if they aren’t musical or can’t join in. The ITP approach focuses on giving children choice and agency in being able to select from a range of options as opposed to being presented with only one – for example hand-held percussion rather than a violin or using body percussion rather than voice. Going with the flow – being curious When there’s an opportunity, begin your music session with a curiosity about what will happen, and not a fixed plan of action.
Some structure is clearly important when planning a session, but if you lead a music class with a rigid structure and timetable then you will likely miss some interesting outcomes. Lead some creative group activities that are responsive to an initial stimulus rather than having everything pre-planned. This results in young people being more creative, having more fun and engaging in music in a way that isn’t always possible. Actively observing Finding an opportunity to step back and really observe your class is a key part of the ITP approach. By being a witness rather than a leader, it’s possible to observe children exhibiting musical potential that you might not normally notice. There are always opportunities to step back from an activity – you can ask the children to take turns leading whilst you observe, or if possible, film your session to watch back. These four elements are combined with our Facets of Musical Potential framework, which can give teachers and music educators a different lens through which to spot the potential which might otherwise go unnoticed. These have been tested in a range of settings including primary, secondary and special schools as well as in the community. They can be applied by someone without any prior musical knowledge but need some context having the right information for each student is important. Whilst it’s not
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The 8 Facets of Musical Potential Enjoyment Body language - not just smiling - and engagement in the activity. Active listening To instructions, to the music being created. Absorption in the music Physically involved, or obviously focused on the music. Commitment to the process Body language, eye contact, offering their own ideas. Inclination to explore What happens when a child has a new instrument to play? How do they respond? Inclination to lead Not just the ones who volunteer – this includes those who help their neighbour keep in time, or who lead more subtly. Memory Remembering actions from week to week, or accurate musical recall. Being expressive This needs context, but can include physical movement, responses to questions and the way they play an instrument.
always key to know a lot about a child, having some relevant information will give you an individual scale to measure their progress by. What might seem like minor changes for some students could represent a significant shift for others – this is particularly important in SEND settings or with non-verbal children where they may show elements of the facets in other ways. Once you’ve identified children with potential, what happens next? The answer to this will of course be unique to each situation but the training element of the ITP programme includes an opportunity to discuss what might be possible in your setting. This might include speaking to parents or carers, approaching your Music Hub or financing opportunities through Pupil Premium.
How to access the ITP programme This training is relevant to educators in all settings – schools, MATs, Music Hubs and other organisations working with young people and training music leaders and teachers. We share the inclusive approach and 8 Facets via our training programme which, thanks to support from Arts Council England, is free in England to schools, MATs, Hubs and other organisations working with children or training teachers and music leaders. We offer in-person or online sessions to these groups. For more information or to book your session, please see https://www.a-y-m.org.uk/how-wehelp/identifying-talent/
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Jazz in the Primary School Kay Charlton
Earlier this year I was successful in obtaining funding from Arts Council England (no mean feat these days!) to do a jazz project in South East London primary schools. The key to the project was partnerships, both old and new. The project was conceived with a colleague who has extensive experience of working in primary schools and a deep knowledge of the local area - and a love of jazz! We teamed up with our local Music Hub and they linked us to three primary schools and provided Music Hub tutors as their contribution to the project. The key ingredient was working with two top jazz musicians - Orphy Robinson on vibraphone and Byron Wallen on trumpet. My expertise underpinned the project - I created the musical resources and pedagogical approach;
I’m a trumpet player too but not a jazz specialist, without this group of partners the project would never have got off the ground. The project was based around introducing new music and instrumental skills to year 4 children - jazz is a genre with a rich history that features improvisation and prominent black musicians, both past and present. We put a jazz band together that included the Hub tutors, and kick-started the project with a schools performance in a local theatre - ‘Let’s go on the jazz train’, led by Orphy Robinson. This is a fabulous musical journey where we meet musicians such as Louis Armstrong, the Duke (Ellington), Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis and Melba Liston with our band performing
the music - introducing children to jazz and some of its great musicians through live performance. Following this, the tutors visited the schools for six weekly workshops, mostly using classroom instruments glockenspiels, djembes and percussion. Each school learnt to play Ellington’s ‘C Jam Blues’ - a 12 bar blues that uses just two-notes - and a jazz standard of their own. My part in the project was to provide the teaching resources and training for the tutors: A Jazz Handbook - an introduction to jazz, its origins, key styles and major musicians A guide to the chosen repertoire with YouTube links A guide to active listening How to play the music on classroom instruments Authentic jazz style How to improvise How to perform as a group Child voice - self assessment, does this sound good, can we make it sound better? An assessment guide for teachers How to improvise was key to the project. Many music teachers - both specialists and non-specialists - don’t feel confident with improvisation. My clear guide uses a step-by-step process based on copy-backs and call and response with clear, progressive parameters.
Crucial to this process is utilising backing tracks; I made specific tracks for each jazz standard with many choruses (that is, times round the chord sequence) to give plenty of time and space for creative work. The project culminated in a large-scale performance at Woolwich Works, a new, local venue which is building links with the community. The three schools performed together along with the live musicians, and instead of watching a performance of the Jazz Train story, they were active participants, performing and improvising jazz music alongside the tutors and jazz professionals. Legacy Schools were chosen where there was no instrumental tuition taking place, with a view to the schools maintaining this new relationship with the music hub and continuing with instrumental tuition or ensemble work. Ofsted’s latest subject report for music (September 2023) calls for incremental development of musical knowledge and skills over time, in a nutshell, that is what this project aims to do - the Jazz Handbook providing the resources and pedagogy for work to continue in the schools with nonspecialist teachers and throughout the Hub’s instrumental tuition via the tutors. You can watch a short film about this project here and find out more by emailing kaycharlton_music@yahoo.com
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Tell me what they want, what they really, really want? Dr Liz Stafford analyses Ofsted’s latest recommendations for music in schools Lukewarm on the heels of the Music Subject Research Review (2021), Ofsted have now published their long promised companion piece the Music Subject Report. This latest report draws on findings from 50 schools visited by Ofsted inspectors between December 2022 and June 2023, 25 of which were primary schools. I found it really encouraging to see that the report actually paints a reasonably
positive picture of music at primary level. So often we get blamed for things that are totally out of our control, like GCSE take-up numbers! It is great to have some positive praise for once, and in particular the acknowledgement that there are things, such as singing, that we might do better than secondary schools! It was equally good to have a reminder that the quality of music provision is intrinsically tied to its quantity - in that the schools which had
stronger music were devoting adequate time to this on a weekly basis and a particular discouragement of ‘music days’ in place of regular timetabling commitment. Another strong theme permeating this report, like the Music Subject Research Review before it, is the idea of ‘less is more’. This report noted that the most successful schools were those which did not try to cram too much into their curriculums, but instead focused on repetition and incremental learning of core skills. The inspectors noted too that that the most effective schools gave children practice time and feedback to improve their work before moving on to the next lesson or activity. In a crammed timetable, often taught by nonspecialists, it is easy to see how this aspect could be lost in a race to cover content. It is always a delicate balancing act in arts subjects in primary schools between wanting to give children as many opportunities and experiences as possible, and sticking at something for long enough to develop real skill and understanding, especially when the teacher may feel they lack that skill and understanding themselves! Hopefully this renewed messaging from Ofsted will encourage schools to really consider the balance between content and skillsdevelopment further. It's no surprise whatsoever to see Ofsted noting that music provision is
better in schools with more involved senior leadership who value music, but it was good to see them highlight the fact that while even the ‘good’ SLTs are realistic about their team’s music subject knowledge, it was rare for these to be a clear plan for developing staff knowledge. Perhaps now Ofsted have said this out loud, teachers might find it easier to request and access CPD for music, although given that the report also found that schools were struggling with budgetary pressures there may still be significant barriers in the way of this. The starkest finding was most definitely ‘there remains a divide between the opportunities for children and young people whose families can afford to pay for music tuition and for those who come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.’ This is a continual and continuing problem with no easy fix, as music is always going to be an ‘expensive’ subject in terms of the specialist equipment and tuition required. I don’t think this problem can be solved in isolation, and that it might take a radical overhaul of the entire education and social welfare systems to address. What does the report recommend? Ofsted recommends that schools design their curriculums backwards from ‘precise end points in performance, composition and listening work’ to ensure pupils can progress step-by-step towards these goals, and
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that curriculums build ‘incrementally, pupils’ knowledge of the technical and constructive aspects of music.’ They also recommend that schools set aside enough time to actually deliver this curriculum successfully. These recommendations are eminently sensible, and echo thinking on music curriculum planning from experts such as Professor Martin Fautley (whose article on this subject for a previous issue of PMM you can access here). With perhaps a slightly optimistic outlook, Ofsted recommends the use of ongoing feedback and teacher demonstration to improve the technical and expressive quality of pupils’ musical responses. While I don’t disagree with this goal, for those schools with non-specialist music provision this can be a tall order without some support and training, and Ofsted must recognise this because another of their recommendations is to ‘continuously develop teachers’ subject knowledge’ specifically around what musical success ‘sounds like’ in relation to their own curriculum. Coincidentally, Music Education Solutions launched a CPD course this year called ‘Developing Core Skills in Primary Music’ precisely to address this issue, before Ofsted had highlighted it in their report! Perhaps I’ll start playing the lottery just in case… Another recommendation is to seek expert support when designing the curriculum, and provide specific support for subject leaders to ensure that the curriculum ‘deliberately and
incrementally teaches all pupils to become more musical.’ Maybe someone at Ofsted has a psychic connection with me (a frightening thought!) as this is again something I’ve been doing a lot of over the past few years through our consultancy service and ‘Curriculum Design in Music’ courses. I’m a big believer in schools having the confidence to take ownership of their curriculum, whether they design it themselves from scratch or not, so it’s good to see Ofsted recognising this as important. The final recommendation for schools is perhaps the most practically problematic one, with Ofsted stating they should ‘make sure that’ they offer extra-curricular music activities, and vocal and instrumental lessons. This is, of course, an expectation from the National Plan for Music Education as well, and I don’t have an issue with the sentiment, however at a time when school budgets are squeezed to their limits, and the future of England’s Music Hubs is up in the air beyond 2025, this goal is going to be a hard one for many schools to achieve in any meaningful, sustainable way. So what do Ofsted really, really want? Well clearly they want music in schools to be better, and based on this report they seem to have broadly the right ideas to start that process of improvement. Systemic issues and budgetary constraints aside, there is much in this report that schools can act on to develop their own music provision should they choose to do so.
Image: Bishopsgate School
Into the Groove Mich Mazzocco discusses the importance of Rhythmic Entrainment
As music teachers, we ask our students to ‘feel’ the beat of the music, as a way to illuminate the structure of what we hear. Similarly, rhythmic entrainment is something that is ‘felt’ more than consciously observed. The concept of entrainment is fundamental to how we interact with music, but is rarely discussed in education. I believe that it can help us understand how one of the most basic skills we teach is so important for children, both in the domain of music and more broadly. Entrainment is a phenomenon found throughout the natural world. It is the tendency of 2 independent systems to come into alignment, and to adjust to each other to maintain that alignment. It was famously observed by the 17thcentury scientist Huygens, who noted that when 2 pendulums are hung from the same support and set in motion at random, they gradually begin to swing at the same rate. This tendency to synchronise is found in our own bodies as well. For example, we have pacemaker cells in the heart which must fire together at a regular rate to keep our hearts beating steadily. And the circadian rhythms which cause us to be awake when the sun is up and sleepy when it gets dark, represent another kind of entrainment, operating in sequence with the rhythms of the Sun and the Earth. Entrainment also supports social bonding on an unconscious level, which
has been demonstrated in many experiments. Two people who sit by each other on separate rocking chairs may not rock at the same speed, but if they can see each other, they have a tendency to rock in synchrony, even when not instructed to do so. Children sitting next to each other on swings and asked to swing in sync with each other demonstrate greater generosity and communication with each other, compared to those swinging asynchronously, or not swinging at all. On a conscious level, however, humans can also entrain with an external beat, such as clapping, tapping or marching to a musical pulse. How does this rhythmic entrainment work? It depends on perception and prediction. Our brains must both recognise that a repetitive pattern is happening, and also predict when the next occurrence of the pattern will take place. Multiple areas of the brain come into play in this combination, including the frontal cortex, basal ganglia, motor cortex and cerebellum. Entrainment & Musical Learning In Western music education, and within the UK educational system, rhythmic entrainment is widely acknowledged as a fundamental skill from the early years onwards. Although specific references to music making are thin on the ground in the statutory frameworks, the newest Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) includes in its Early Learning Goals that children should ‘try to move in time with music’.
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Additionally, supplementary guidance such as Development Matters includes much more information on the ways in which children should be listening, moving and playing with the beat of the music. Similarly, the National Curriculum for Key Stage 1 and 2 music makes no specific reference to the pulse or beat. However, the guidance Model Music Curriculum includes numerous references to the ways children should be hearing or acting out their awareness of steady beat, and specifically suggests that this be a collective activity, suggesting that children ‘walk, move or clap a steady beat with others’. It is important that this social awareness of rhythm is gradually being more recognised within education. Entrainment & Language Learning There are demonstrably strong links between steady beat awareness and literacy skills. Interestingly, the ability to synchronise with a pulse, and to adapt when that pulse changes, is generally limited to humans and a few other animals such as parrots (such as Snowball the cockatoo), which may imply that an ability to ‘move to the beat’ may be linked to complex vocal learning. As mentioned earlier, rhythmic entrainment depends on coordination between perceiving sounds and predicting when they repeat. It has been found that a fundamental part of speech and language development is being able to hear when individual Image: Bishopsgate School
sounds within words start and stop. Overy (2000) found that problems with rhythmic awareness and steady beat correlated with phonological problems and dyslexia. There is such a strong connection that difficulty with matching a steady beat can sometimes be one of the tools used to diagnose dyslexia. Interestingly, only rhythm is affected; children with dyslexia generally experience no issues with pitch awareness. Musical activities are often suggested as a therapeutic way to support children with dyslexia. Unfortunately there is little clear evidence to prove conclusively that musical training can improve reading or language skills. However, it has been shown that the problems experienced by many children with dyslexia do not involve the motor response to sound, just the perception of sounds. This suggests that it may be possible to use movement-based rhythm activities to help improve children’s perception of steady beat and this may help improve their language skills Entrainment and Relationships Music is a powerful social tool. In many cultures, music is associated with important rituals and rites of passage. This process starts from babyhood, when parents rock their babies as they sing to them, creating a shared emotional state and powerful family bonds. We often celebrate events such as graduations, weddings, and
funerals with music. The interpersonal entrainment aspect of music is important here: music serves to bond a group together, creating a flexible shared identity that all can participate in. Within the classroom, when we are creating music together, we are also creating relationships: between pupils, between pupils and teachers, and as a whole group. Rhythmic entrainment can be key to this process. Children responding to a steady beat together, perhaps even patting the beat on each others’ knees, develop a sense of belonging to a group which is a powerful stimulus to learning, as well as fostering a sense of well-being. This is especially pertinent today, as many teachers are working hard to help pupils recover from the longer-term impacts of the Covid lockdowns and the impact this had on social skills and ability to interact with others. Entrainment and SEND A focus on rhythmic entrainment can have a particular role in supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Obviously, all the information described above is still relevant. But in addition, entrainment can help children with self-regulation and executive function. Making music is an embodied process - it connects our physical bodies with our thinking selves, and can therefore be a powerful tool for calm in a similar way to yoga or mindfulness exercises.
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Because rhythmic entrainment is connected to the movement centres of our brains, incorporating movement with rhythmic activities is important in order to harness the benefits of steady beat, particularly in Early Years practice as children experience rapid brain development between the ages of three and six For neurodiverse children, beat can also be a way to build a structured bridge between the child and another person. Musical communication doesn’t require eye contact, close proximity, or language, but can facilitate all of these. Rhythmic entrainment provides a formal and pattern-based way to build relationships between people (Thane, 2016). Music therapists make use of steady beat strategies in specialised contexts, but classroom music teachers are well placed to use, and to teach, entrainment-focused activities to help children develop their executive function and to learn to self-soothe when they become anxious or upset.
My research showed strong links between the children’s familiarity with the music and their engagement with it; when introducing new activities, repetition and ritual was very important in their connection with music. As the children became more familiar with new pieces of music, their emotional responses became more developed, and this emotional response to music was an important part of their interaction with it. I also found that the children’s connections with each other were just as important as their individual response to rhythm and pulse, and that this social entrainment was a valuable outcome of their musical activities. I have gone on to include more collaborative rhythm work in my teaching, and I am convinced of the importance of the concept of entrainment in music education. I hope you will also be interested to explore this concept further and to promote its many benefits for children, both in the realm of music and more broadly.
Conclusion I completed a MEd in Music Education at the Royal College of Music in 2022. My final dissertation project explored young children’s perspectives on the process of rhythmic entrainment in classroom music lessons. Having come into contact with the concept of entrainment during my course, I realised how important it is in early childhood music education.
Image: Bishopsgate School
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Inside the Music: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Dr Liz Stafford explores the latest education resource from the Academy of St Martin in the Fields Having used the previous Inside the Music resources with my KS1 classes and written about my experience for a previous issue, I was really excited to explore the new KS2 materials based around Felix Mendelssohn’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ This 8-part flexible resource is based around a beautiful film adaptation of the music called ‘A London Dream’, which cleverly weaves contemporary visuals with Mendelssohn’s music and Shakespeare’s text, as well as giving us plenty of opportunity to see the orchestral players in action. This gorgeous audio-visual treat would I think be as appealing to KS3 and beyond as it is to KS2, and is well worth sharing with your pupils. There are in addition 8 engaginglypresented pupil-facing videos which you can use in the classroom, and an accompanying explanatory PDF for the teacher. You can use these resources as a ready-made lesson package for a unit of work on this piece of music which covers listening, performing, and composing work. This is another great resource from ASMF, and you can sign up for free access to it here,
Image: Alan Herron
What’s in a name? Alan Herron investigates music terminology and its effect on learning outcomes in the primary curriculum
As a newly qualified music teacher, part of my first job was running a school strings programme, delivering whole-class violin and cello lessons in Years 1, 2 and 3. Initially this facet of the job didn’t faze me because as a principal study cellist, I had just completed 2 years of study at the RNCM specialising in teaching strings. However, increasingly over the course of my first couple of years in the job I
found myself asking: ‘Why aren’t they getting it?’ Something was holding my pupils back, but I couldn’t work out what it was. This was before Wider Opps and so there was very little available in the way of teaching materials and advice and the fact that I happened to be teaching in an international school in Rome, left me feeling isolated and bewildered.
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It seemed that no matter how much I simplified the material, my pupils still struggled to grasp the fundamental concepts. Years later I worked out that even a basic instrumental piece requires roughly 17 calculations per note. On the right is an example of the kind of extensive inner dialogue a beginner violinist might have even before they’ve made a sound. And as teachers, we expect this entire conversation to take place in a split second! Is it any wonder beginners struggle?! And so, I asked myself, ‘how can I make this more accessible?’ I was fortunate in that my teacher training included Dalcroze Eurthymics, but I found that when translating ‘walk’ and ‘jogging’ to the violin, it seemed less relevant when the children weren’t moving around the room. I had also studied the Kodaly method but found that my pupils were getting confused between a ‘ta’ or ‘ta-a’ or a ‘ta-a-a’ and struggled to tell them apart. One day whilst browsing online (I had little other point of reference at this stage) I came across the image of a caterpillar, next to a group of semiquavers. As an adult I understood straight away that the four semiquavers corresponded to the four syllables in the word ‘ca-ter-pil-lar’, but I wondered if the children would get it too? I thought the image was cute, so I decided to give it a try.
1. Is this note on a line or in a space? 2. Ok, it’s in a space, but which space is it? 3. Ok, 1-2, it’s in the second space, but which letter is it? 4. .So, I need to remember the rhyme which tells me the spaces. Ah yes, it’s ‘F-A-C-E’. 5. So, I need the 2nd letter of FACE? Which letter is that? 6. Ok, F, A, it’s an A, so how do I play an A on the violin? 7. I need the rhyme that helps me remember the strings on the violin. 8. Ah yes, Good, Dogs, Always, Eat. 9. So, which string is A? Good, Dogs, Always, 1-2-3, that’s the third string, so I’m looking for the third string. 10. How long do I need to hold this note? 11. What colour is the note? It’s white. So that means it’s long, but how many beats? 12. Does it have a dot? 13. Yes, it has a dot, so how many beats is that? 14. I’m not sure, I think it’s either 2 or 3, let’s go with 3. 15. So, is it an upbow or a down-bow? 16. I don’t know, it doesn’t say. 17. Let’s just go for a down-bow, on the third string and hold it for 3 beats.
In the next violin lesson, I challenged the class to play a ‘caterpillar’ on the violin? Would they get it? Sure enough, one of the children played four, short notes on the violin and we agreed that this ‘sounded’ like a caterpillar. I showed the class the picture of the caterpillar and then a mouse, a ladybird, and a spider and within minutes the children were playing short rhythm sequences based on the images of the animals. ‘Ok, but can you do it with the music notes?’ I asked and sure enough, the children were able to match the animal picture cards with the corresponding notation. It was as if I didn’t even have to teach them - they already knew!
The next challenge was to introduce pitch. Thinking back to my training, I remembered that the colourstrings method differentiates by colour and so I started using rainbow colours to differentiate the violin strings and pitches.
Suddenly, the black and white dots on the page seemed to make more sense and soon the children were playing crisp and accurate rhythms on each of the four strings, and it was at this point that I knew I’d made some sort of breakthrough.
If it worked on the violin, could it work on the recorder, could it work on chimebars, boomwhackers, the piano even? The answer of course, was ‘yes, yes, and yes’ and I started to use animals and colours in all my lessons, from nursery through to Year 6. It didn’t take long to build up a bank of over a hundred lessons and at one point a colleague said, ‘you really ought to consider putting these into a book and sharing them with other teachers – the children love it, they are clearly learning, and it could really help and inspire other teachers and pupils.’ And so, I did and the ‘AnimaRhythm’ scheme was born. I’m often asked, (usually by slightly sceptical musicians) - when I introduce the ‘proper’ music terminology. Well, I would challenge anyone to define what is ‘proper’ music terminology?
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If you mean crotchets, quavers, and minims, then you should consider that the word crotchet comes from the French word meaning ‘little hook’ and minim is from the Latin meaning ‘smallest’! So, if you think ‘proper’ music terminology is the English terminology, well, it’s not really ‘English’ at all and as my pupils were finding out, it certainly wasn’t helping them to play the violin! At first glance, the American system appears more logical – whole note, half note, sixteenth note – but try using these terms with four- and five-yearolds who haven’t studied fractions! Usually, my answer to the terminology question is quite simple - ‘whenever they’re ready’. Often after a year or two on the programme, a child will come into class and announce ‘Mr Herron, did you know that a mouse is actually called a crotchet?’ To which I usually reply (with a smile) - ‘what a strange name!’ and usually, we’ll have a conversation about terminology and the fact that mouse and crotchet are different ways of talking about the same thing. Usually my pupils concur that ‘mouse’ makes far more sense than ‘crotchet’! Over the years I’ve observed that ‘cross-pollination’ of terminology seems to happen quite organically, and that this coexistence doesn’t hinder their musical growth, but actually enhances it.
But what are the implications as the children reach adolescence? At the time I was teaching in a school that taught right through to GCSE and IB and one day a colleague in the senior school asked me, ‘what’s all this about mouse, spider and caterpillar?’ ‘That’s how I teach rhythm in the junior school’ I replied. ‘Well, they still remember it. I’ve just been doing GCSE rhythmic dictation and the children were all tapping mouse, spider, and caterpillar on their desks.’ I was thrilled - to me this was proof that the system works and that AnimaRhythms sink in. Of course, after this conversation I went straight back to my classroom to write an AnimaRhythm lesson on rhythmic dictation! Another question I’m often asked is how I select the repertoire for the programme. Well, the list is everexpanding, and I aim to include music from diverse traditions, styles, and genres. Several years back whilst listening to Schubert’s 5th symphony I couldn’t help but hear:
Monkey, spider, mouse, shush, Monkey, spider, mouse, shush, Monkey, spider, mouse, caterpillar, Monkey, spider, mouse, shush.
I realised that AnimaRhythms were starting to become part of my music DNA and I was hearing them wherever I went! So, what is it that makes animal rhythms such an instinctive and accessible approach? I feel the beauty of AnimaRhythm lies in the fact that it is a multi-sensory approach which appeals to a broader range of learners. The connection between the notes and syllables means it ties in with children’s language acquisition, making it an auditory, verbal, visual and kinaesthetic approach. I’ve often discovered to my joy, that what the children are learning in their literacy lessons often seems to compliment with what we study in music. The programme has grown to the point where we now have 14 animal characters representing the 14 of the most common rhythmic building blocks in music. As a progressive scheme, children love the sense of anticipation that comes with learning a new animal. They’ll often ask me: ‘When do we get to learn the elephant?’ or ‘When do we get to learn the hippo?’ After completing the first draft of the curriculum book the next question was - ‘how do I share this with other music teachers?’ During the pandemic I started transforming the programme into an online platform to make it more
accessible. So, on today’s website you will find the original teaching manual which is packed full of lesson plans and all the resources you’ll need to deliver a fun and interactive music curriculum, all in one handy place. You’ll also find bite-size video tutorials for each lesson to help get you started. The website also includes ready-made backing tracks, downloadable pupil resources, posters, flashcards and more. The programme can be used with children as young as 3 and with three volumes, there is plenty to keep your pupils inspired and occupied from nursery right through to Year 6. So, thinking back to my original question – ‘What’s in a Name?’ Initially you might think ‘not that much’? Who cares if in the UK we call them ‘crotchets’ and in the US, they’re called ‘quarter notes’ and in Italy they’re called ‘semiminime’? Surely it doesn’t matter since they all mean the same thing? Well, actually it does matter, and my experience has shown that terminology can create a barrier where some children ‘get it’ and others are left struggling. Terminology represents a hurdle that can grant or deny children full freedom of musical expression and if in the future it is indeed our aim, (as it should be) to make music accessible to all and and to ignite the ‘spark’ of creativity, engagement and understanding that will transcend the music curriculum then I say: ‘bring on the caterpillars!’
Exploring Trinity’s Certificate for Music Educators by Natalie Christopher Over the last 10 years, we have seen a really varied range of music practitioners achieve Trinity’s Level 4 Certificate for Music Educators (CME) qualification, each learner bringing their own personal motivations for taking the course. For many, particularly those who have come into teaching through a performance route, taking the course is about developing their pedagogical knowledge or achieving formal verification for the education work they do. But, for primary educators, who have typically already achieved a PGCE or alternative teaching qualification, the incentive for taking the CME tends to stem from something slightly different; it is often about developing their own understanding and, more significantly, confidence in the subject area.
Some centres pride themselves on providing lots of face-to-face training sessions, enabling more networking and collaboration opportunities, where others offer the flexibility of being able to take their programme completely online. All of our centres are run by highly qualified music practitioners – it’s just up to the learner to find the programme that best suits them, both in terms of expertise and logistics. It’s important to highlight that schools and multi-academy trusts are welcome to apply to become validated Trinity CME course providers too! CME centres don’t have to be open to the public – we also accept applications for private centres that perhaps want to offer a formal qualification to a specific network of educators with a programme of learning bespoke to their particular setting/s. Please do feel free to get in contact with us if you would like to chat about this further.
So how can a course that seeks to train educators from a broad spectrum of backgrounds and musical abilities succeed in them achieving the same qualification? There are a number of features of the programme that enable this… Each and every one of our validated CME course providers is different. Some support a wide range of learners from different backgrounds, others specialise in particular areas of music education such as delivery in Early Years or SEND settings.
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One of our core pre-requisites for joining a CME course is that the learner needs to have a musical competence appropriate for the setting in which they teach. So, naturally, if you have a violin teacher who wants to prepare students for high level exams, they will need to be able to play to at least that standard themselves in order for them to be able to demonstrate the necessary techniques. However, the skills an Early Years music practitioner would need to illustrate in the context of their lessons are likely to be different. This approach ensures that the criteria for enrolling onto a CME programme is relative to the teacher’s setting, making it accessible regardless of formal musical attainment. As part of the initial recruitment and/or enrolment process, learners are required to complete a selfassessment which is cross-referenced with the CME’s learning outcomes. This enables the centre to see exactly where a learner is at; what skills and experience they already have and where they need to develop further. Prior learning can also feed into this so, for example, if a learner has just completed safeguarding training with their employer, evidence of this can be included in their CME portfolio and contribute towards their qualification. From this, a Personal Action Plan is devised in collaboration with the learner’s designated mentor. This is a living document which both serves to
record when learning outcomes have been met and evolve with the learner as they progress through the course. Whilst the core aim of this document is to ensure learners are advancing through the programme as they should, their own experiences and reflections throughout can feed into their plan, and learners are encouraged to explore and participate in other forms of CPD which might support them in developing their practice. The courses themselves are designed to run in parallel with a learner’s education work: they take what they learn during their input sessions and research, trial it in their own setting, and reflect upon its effectiveness. This practical application of the pedagogical and theoretical principles enables them to see in real time what works for them and how their practice is developing, helping to build confidence and inspire new ideas. If you are exploring the CME as potential CPD for your colleagues, remember that this can include your support staff too! One of the first portfolios we reviewed, all those years ago, was compiled by a dinner lady who had started running a recorder group in her school and wanted to take the CME in order to develop her pedagogical understanding and learn how to plan lessons effectively. What I love about this example is that it typifies exactly what sits at the heart of the CME: its aim to unlock the potential music educator in everyone!
For more information about the CME, visit this link or contact cme@trinitycollege.com
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Jhodi Kennard reviews a book by James Rhodes
Playlist: The Rebels & Revolutionaries of Sound The subtitle of this book, ‘The Rebels and Revolutionaries of Sound’ rather sets the tone. James Rhodes is trying to get the reader to look at the composers he writes about in a different way; to see them as the society of the day would have seen them. These days we may think of composers like Bach and Mozart as old fashioned, but at the time they were celebrities, A-listers, pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable and established in music composition. He writes in the book’s introduction that he hopes that reading this book will inspire readers to give the music he mentions a listen and see what they think of it Rhodes has chosen seven composers as a springboard to getting people to have a look at Classical music (and I used a capital C here to mean any music that wouldn’t be considered as rock, pop, jazz music etc). For each of these composers Rhodes tells us a little bit about their life story, a bit about the influence their music has had on future generations and then he chooses two pieces by each composer, and writes more about those pieces. Each biography and each composition has a beautifully illustrated double page spread.
For the lives of the composers, Rhodes gives basic biographical information, like dates of birth and death, tells you a little bit about their family situation, and he also tells you a bit about what they were like as a person. He doesn’t shy away from mentioning the fact that they had a dreadful temper (looking at you, Chopin), or that they had a disgusting sense of humour (there’s Mozart for you). This is not a reverent, stiff, distant biography, but rather paints a very human picture of who each composer was as a person. I don’t know about the children in your classes, but certainly reading this book with my 9 year old, he was giggling away as we read about Mozart’s obsession with all things, shall we say, bowel related and he was definitely
more amenable to listening to some of his music knowing a bit about Mozart as a person! Rhodes’ style of writing is easy, chatty, friendly, a little irreverent and highly readable. He makes what can seem like a very dry and boring subject matter fun and approachable. For each piece of music Rhodes highlights he tells the reader about the piece, maybe when it was composed, what was going on in the composer’s life at the time. For some pieces he tells the reader what stories or pictures he imagines as he listens to the music. He asks the reader to think about how a composer’s physicality may have affected the music they wrote (looking at Rachmaninoff and his enormous hands here). Here I should tell you that there is, of course, a playlist that accompanies this book. You can find the playlist in full towards the start of the book where he gives you a link to follow to find the playlist on Spotify. He suggests particular performers or ensembles to listen to, and when writing about each of the pieces later in the book he does often explain why he has chosen this particular performer to listen to - one of them is James Rhodes himself. The book does give a brief timeline of music history, which is quite useful to orient the reader in the music history they are reading about, a little information about the make-up of an orchestra, and also a glossary of musical terms used in the book at the
end. It includes a poster, which would look good on any music classroom wall. The artist for this poster, and all illustrations throughout the book is Martin O’Neill. The composers featured in here are all of a type - they are all male and they are all white European. Rhodes does acknowledge this in the Introduction of the book, and while he does give suggestions as to some female composers and some composers of colour that readers could check out after reading this book, he talks a little bit in here about the unfair advantages that white men had as composers, and performers, and how all the fame and celebrity went to them. He hopes that in the future a book like this one would be more diverse. I would hope so too. This is a really nice book that could inspire your upper KS2 pupils to look at music they may see as old and boring differently, and see it as something they actually want to explore more. You could use the listening suggestions from it as a springboard for musical activities in your classroom, or simply use it as a non-fiction text for your confident readers in Year 5 and 6 (being mindful of its references to for example, relationships and drinking habits that some parents may be uncomfortable with their children reading - certainly at a younger age.) Playlist: The Rebels & Revolutionaries of Sound by James Rhodes is published by Hachette.
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