How Musical Futures began
The Paul Hamlyn Foundation initiated and funded Musical Futures in the UK in 2003 as an action research programme to find new and imaginative ways of engaging young people in meaningful and sustainable music activities. An invitation was issued to organisations across the UK to develop pathfinder projects to explore this issue and 3 of these were funded and implemented in Hertfordshire, Leeds and Nottingham.
Musical Futures has a strong grounding in academic research. Professor Lucy Green’s (University of London Institute of Education) extensive research into How Popular Musicians Learn was the foundation for the Hertfordshire pathfinder model. Herts Music Service worked directly with Professor Green to scope and develop the pilot project which ran in 4 schools for the first year. The success of this initial work later became the foundation of the Musical Futures Informal Learning model with Professor Green leading on the action research in schools in the UK.
The Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London’s work into transforming music leadership led to the development of the Classroom Workshopping model (non-formal teaching, bringing the practices of community musicians into the more formal music classroom).
Since then, teachers and educators have used Musical Futures in schools and universities across the world.
Musical Futures has a strong grounding in academic research. Professor Lucy Green’s (University of London Institute of Education) extensive research into How Popular Musicians Learn was the foundation for the Hertfordshire pathfinder model. Herts Music Service worked directly with Professor Green to scope and develop the pilot project which ran in 4 schools for the first year. The success of this initial work later became the foundation of the Musical Futures Informal Learning model with Professor Green leading on the action research in schools in the UK.
The Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London’s work into transforming music leadership led to the development of the Classroom Workshopping model (non-formal teaching, bringing the practices of community musicians into the more formal music classroom).
Since then, teachers and educators have used Musical Futures in schools and universities across the world.
The development of Musical Futures International
All materials from the pathfinder years were open source and made freely available, and it was teachers and practitioners who shaped the approaches by becoming early adopters, voluntarily trying and adapting the teaching and learning strategies in their classrooms and other learning settings. Musical Futures rapidly scaled from 60 schools in the UK to become a global music education initiative with Musical Futures now being used in nearly 100 different countries and recently being named as one of the top global innovations in education by HundrED.
The transferability and relevance of Musical Futures has been shown by the success of Musical Futures Australia which has largely been responsible for most of the recent international development of Musical Futures.
In 2010, a group of Australian teachers visited the UK to explore Musical Futures and informal learning in various schools in the UK. Subsequently, with the generous support of The Paul Hamlyn Foundation, the original funding body for Musical Futures, a new Musical Futures organisation was formed in Australia.
Since then, Musical Futures has been adopted in the state of Victoria to help increase access to music education in over 1,600 schools with Musical Futures Australia working with the Victorian Government and the Department of Education and Training to roll out Musical Futures across Victoria with 97% of participants agreeing that Musical Futures approaches remove barriers to learning. You can read and download an independent evaluation of this program here.
The formal adoption of Musical Futures approach by an education system is unique and goes to show how leadership can take an active role in innovating education. In fact, Musical Futures was included in the local government's election promise. More information about our work in Australia can be found here.
As well as securing govt funding to roll out Musical Futures across the state of Victoria and offering workshops to teachers across Australia, Musical Futures Australia and Musical Futures UK co-developed the popular Just Play program in 2015. Since then, Musical Futures Australia has independently developed approaches, resources and training programs for songwriting and a new instrument by instrument approach to building instrumental skills called Everyone Can Play.
In 2016, Musical Futures Australia expanded to become Musical Futures International. Supported by The NAMM Foundation, we started to roll out our comprehensive workshop and consultancy program to international schools, government education institutions, private and studio instrumental practices, music schools, higher education institutions and academia in Australia, New Zealand, China, Asia, The Middle East and most recently into Europe.
Whilst our fantastic resource development team continue to produce resources and materials including MF Styles, MF Studio, Everyone Can Sing and Groove your Classroom, we retain our emphasis on offering professional development for music educators interested in exploring our core pedagogical approaches of informal learning and non formal teaching.
These have been developed through extensive research, are internationally recognised for innovation and positive outcomes and have the support of thousands of teachers across the world and millions of teaching hours behind them.
Most importantly, Musical Futures International supports teachers to transition from teacher led approaches to embrace student centred, personalised learning in music - with the aim of helping all learners to find and develop their own musical identity and voice through appropriately supported pathways.
Most recently we have developed new workshop content that encourage creative approaches to instrumental learning which we have been rolling out with instrumental teachers in China supported by CMIA.
Now working independently from Musical Futures UK, Musical Futures International offers teacher professional development workshops, consultancy, resources and nurtures and supports communities of practice for music educators across the world.
We work predominantly outside the UK, where Musical Futures UK continues to offer workshops and off-the-shelf audio/visual resources for purchase, tailored specifically to the UK music education system, examinations and structures.
The transferability and relevance of Musical Futures has been shown by the success of Musical Futures Australia which has largely been responsible for most of the recent international development of Musical Futures.
In 2010, a group of Australian teachers visited the UK to explore Musical Futures and informal learning in various schools in the UK. Subsequently, with the generous support of The Paul Hamlyn Foundation, the original funding body for Musical Futures, a new Musical Futures organisation was formed in Australia.
Since then, Musical Futures has been adopted in the state of Victoria to help increase access to music education in over 1,600 schools with Musical Futures Australia working with the Victorian Government and the Department of Education and Training to roll out Musical Futures across Victoria with 97% of participants agreeing that Musical Futures approaches remove barriers to learning. You can read and download an independent evaluation of this program here.
The formal adoption of Musical Futures approach by an education system is unique and goes to show how leadership can take an active role in innovating education. In fact, Musical Futures was included in the local government's election promise. More information about our work in Australia can be found here.
As well as securing govt funding to roll out Musical Futures across the state of Victoria and offering workshops to teachers across Australia, Musical Futures Australia and Musical Futures UK co-developed the popular Just Play program in 2015. Since then, Musical Futures Australia has independently developed approaches, resources and training programs for songwriting and a new instrument by instrument approach to building instrumental skills called Everyone Can Play.
In 2016, Musical Futures Australia expanded to become Musical Futures International. Supported by The NAMM Foundation, we started to roll out our comprehensive workshop and consultancy program to international schools, government education institutions, private and studio instrumental practices, music schools, higher education institutions and academia in Australia, New Zealand, China, Asia, The Middle East and most recently into Europe.
Whilst our fantastic resource development team continue to produce resources and materials including MF Styles, MF Studio, Everyone Can Sing and Groove your Classroom, we retain our emphasis on offering professional development for music educators interested in exploring our core pedagogical approaches of informal learning and non formal teaching.
These have been developed through extensive research, are internationally recognised for innovation and positive outcomes and have the support of thousands of teachers across the world and millions of teaching hours behind them.
Most importantly, Musical Futures International supports teachers to transition from teacher led approaches to embrace student centred, personalised learning in music - with the aim of helping all learners to find and develop their own musical identity and voice through appropriately supported pathways.
Most recently we have developed new workshop content that encourage creative approaches to instrumental learning which we have been rolling out with instrumental teachers in China supported by CMIA.
Now working independently from Musical Futures UK, Musical Futures International offers teacher professional development workshops, consultancy, resources and nurtures and supports communities of practice for music educators across the world.
We work predominantly outside the UK, where Musical Futures UK continues to offer workshops and off-the-shelf audio/visual resources for purchase, tailored specifically to the UK music education system, examinations and structures.