The Introduction to Music course is now available! See the web page for details. Meanwhile, here’s how it came about.
Act 1: We find ourselves in a (slightly creaky) portacabin in a special school in North Bristol…
In Spring 2005, I found myself watching something brilliant. This ‘brilliant’ was Drake Music associate musicians Doug Bott and Colin Williams conducting a music workshop with three disabled students in a special school in Claremont Special School, Bristol. As I sat in silence watching the music slowly and skillfully emerge from the group, I wrote notes dutifully for my Masters essay on ‘an Arts organisation’ (that is, Drake Music). But several more visits to the sessions meant that this new world of music making quickly had a grip on me. My brief essay blossomed into a much longer evaluation of Doug’s bold project to get the students to perform Pachelbel’s Cannon using a range of assistive music technology. We felt sure that we could place their musical skills and achievements within the existing National Curriculum levels for music. I wrote the evaluation and that September began actually working for Drake Music with Pachelbel’s Cannon – and it’s implications for disabled musicians and formal music education – still ringing in my ears.
Act 2: It is 2007 and the action moves to St Roses Special School, Stroud…
When I started working with Doug at St Roses, I yet again came into contact with ‘brilliant’, this time in the form of Charlotte White. An A* pupil, her aim was crystal clear in terms of her musical pathway: she wanted to perform pieces by composers like Bach and Grieg and to have her work assessed and accredited. She achieved the former with great skill and flair, but the latter proved problematic. Many of examination boards we contacted were realistically not set up to accredit performances by disabled students like Charlotte. Doug and I talked about the possibility of doing GCSE Music but we simply didn’t have the time available. Instead we accredited her work via Arts Award but the can of worms – and a big, wriggly one at that – was truly opened in our minds. Given the many SEN/ disabled students for whom music was such an important part of their lives, we could find precious few who had passed a music exam, been formally assessed or followed a formal musical pathway. Equally scarce – and not unconnected – were any accessible, re-usable resources for teaching and learning music. So, we decided to make some ourselves using Clicker 5 software and these evolved into what is now the Introduction to Music course. I chose four areas of study (units) to create resources for, covering composing, performing and different ways of writing down music (For more details on the four units go to theIntroduction to Music web page). I got busy with my laptop, a Crickbox and a switch. OCNSWR (Open College Network South West Region) provided amazing support in getting Introduction to Musicaccredited. St Rose’s student Bradley Warwick piloted the course, a first class choice given his natural musical ability and sense of humour when ‘stuff’ occasionally went wrong with the resources as they were being developed. Passing all 4 units at Level 1, he presented his work to a (frankly gob smacked and hushed) group of Bristol University PGCE Music students using his VOCA (Voice Output Communication Aid). (You can watch a film of Bradley’s Bristol Uni presentation and read more about the course pilot here.)
Act 3: In which a class of six disabled students are learning about John Cage’s ‘4’33’…
The success of the pilot led to a whole class of students at St Roses taking the ITM course. As I write this I am also considering my lesson plan for tomorrow’s session which will be about Composing Music using Chance Methods (the title of the unit). The students have been looking at examples of 20th Century ‘Chance’ pieces (genius/ bonkers-ness depending on your view) The students have written about their opinions on what they’ve seen and heard in the resources – all navigated independently using Clicker 5 – and I’m looking forward to hearing this tomorrow. Then, we’ll head off around the building to collect weird and wonderful ‘found’ sounds to use in their own ‘Chance’ pieces. This scene will hopefully be typical of many special schools and mainstream settings in the next few years. The course isn’t a ‘fix-all’ for SEN/ disabled students and never could be – that’s the whole point: accessible courses and resources rely on a solid starting point, followed by the teachers, TAs and parents adjusting the material to meet the specific needs and interests of their own students. I’ve tried to make this course the strongest starting point possible, with MP3s, pictures, films, clear language – a framework for the (often non-specialist) teacher to teach from and build upon. I’m massively excited to see where this course sails, now that it’s publicly available and it’s intrepid journey has finally begun. Most of all, I look forward to seeing the kinds of music and experiences that spring forth from schools running the course. Let’s get busy…
For more details about the course, please see the Introduction to Music web page. If you’re interested in running the course I’d really like to hear from you so please email me: jonathanwestrup@drakemusic.org
