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Music Manifesto Pathfinder - Strategic Research
Music Manifesto Pathfinder at the Roundhouse – Strategic Research Debrief
The student is the most important unit of organisation, not the classroom, nor the school system Caldwell, BJ (2005), cited in PHF Musical futures: Personalising Music Learning
Last year the Roundhouse commissioned Sparkler to carry out research to help shape the development and delivery of an improved music learning experience for young people and linked to this, to understand and respond to some of the challenges faced by music teachers. This work was undertaken to ensure that the focus and direction of the Pathfinder programme was informed and guided by an in depth consultation with young people. Research was based on interviews and workshops with young people, teachers and other stakeholders. It reinforced the need for musical learning to be student led and relevant to young peoples’ understanding of music.
The role of music in young peoples’ lives:
- The consumption of music for young people strengthens their sense of identity and belonging to social scenes
- Music that young people listen and respond to tends to be relevant to their lifestyles, attitudes and beliefs
- Young people want to engage with music in other ways too, but creating and performing music is seen to be a huge leap from being a consumer of music
- As a place school is instinctively rebelled against
- The type of music taught in schools lacks resonance with them – they cannot ‘connect’ to the music being taught
- Teaching methods sometimes inhibit creativity
- Peer pressure inhibits risk taking and creativity in a group teaching environment where students feel exposed to failure
- There is the belief that without ‘raw talent’ there is no point in being musically ambitious
- Young people do not always have enough patience and motivation to learn
- Teachers sometimes feel inadequately resourced - in terms of funds and time - to respond to the personalised needs of young people in their music learning experience
- Working through the National Curriculum can sometimes restrict their teaching methods
- They do not have much contact with fellow music teachers - there is no discernible support network, so there is little opportunity to learn from others and exchange ideas
- Lack of awareness about how the music industry works and routes into the business, including vocational learning opportunities, make it difficult for teachers to show young people how their music education might reward them in terms of future careers
- Inspirational through teaching formats, the types of people who teach, and the insight of people who have ‘made it’ in the music industry
- Creative in that music learning is not solely focused on technical recital but aims to unlock creativity and untapped skills
- Non traditional in terms of ‘tutor-student’ roles – tutors who see and treat young people as ‘co-creators’
- Accessible during out of school hours and offer with the option to ‘pay as you go’
- Collaborative, through smaller group learning that allows young people to exchange ideas in their ambitions to create
- Enjoyable because participants are not only interested in the subject matter, but they are treated as creative, intelligent and equal to the tutor
- Tailored through one-to-one tutor sessions as well as group learning, and also in the sense that genre and ability specific courses are offered
- Goal-oriented, whereby motivation levels are kept up because goals are set that are relevant to the ambitions and levels of competence in young people