Category: Education

  • I love to… score

    The show is very close now. Two more weeks of rehearsals – lots of run-throughs at the piano and polishing up with lots of detail – then a week of band call, technical rehearsal, dress then two shows. Amazing that one week will be the culmination of a project devised way back in May and…

  • Pedagogy and Content: A balancing act

    Classical versus popular. Do we really need to try and place different musical styles in some kind of opposition? I think the polarisation of ‘classical’ and ‘popular’ music is the most useless thing we can do, and completely unnecessary for the teaching of music. It is fantastic to see breadth explored in GCSE and A-level…

  • Assessing composition

    After reading a forum post on what a music teacher considered the variability with regards to the marking of composition coursework, I wondered what made the assessment of this component a challenge. We often consider ‘art’ as something difficult to assess – it’s subjective, how can we make judgements and apply one marking criteria to…

  • Musical Pathways

    The Henley report on music education in the United Kingdom emphasised the value and importance of music making as a practical skill and how much this can enrich and aid the development of young people’s lives. This comprehensive survey lacked a detailed account of class music lessons and accentuated the role of extra-curricular music making.…

  • Minimal content need not mean minimal effect

    Discovering one’s compositional identity or voice seems to be a process of continual discovery. I’m not certain I have one voice – perhaps I have an approach that could manifest itself in a variety of sound worlds that would fit the desired context. My last orchestral work ‘Cypher’ (2010) has a very different sound to…

  • Composing Across the Spectrum

    -Below is the text of the article that appears in the current issue of EPTA’s Piano Professional- Nothing can be more satisfying in the early stages of a new composition with a pupil than exploring scores. For me, all composition should start with research; listening to similarly scored pieces, exploring a particular composer in depth…

  • Writing the trio

    Rehearsals are very much underway and the songs seem to be working. It is a real pleasure to hear them come to life and so far only one key change – which I was reluctant to do but it was necessary to maintain the integrity of the vocal line even though this was at the…

  • Juniper Dreams

    Posters are up and rehearsals have started. I’m feeling remarkable fortunate to be having my first musical theatre work performed by the pupils I teach. For the first time in my compositional work I have the opportunity to work with the performers over an extended period and I am finding I am also composing as…

  • It need not be fleeting

    The Henley report emphasised the value and importance of music making as a practical skill and how much this can enrich and aid the development of young people’s lives. What was lacking from the comprehensive survey was a detailed acknowledgement of the class music lessons themselves. How important is Western Art Music in the teaching…

  • ConTENT with CONtent?

    Result day looms. I’m sure I’m not alone as a teacher in preparing to receive the news of my pupils’ performance. Contemplating results day in turn leads to thoughts of the new term ahead and the various performances and the schemes of work I’ll be teaching. I genuinely enjoy looking back on the previous year…