We are just back from our latest trip to Asia. Thanks so much to everyone who came along and to our host teachers Peter, Vindy, Elise, Luke, Nicki and Sam. It was lovely to catch up with old friends and meet new ones ​and we can't wait to return in January!

We spent a great few days working with Masters and Undergraduate students and meeting and reconnecting with the faculty at the Education University, Hong Kong. We particularly enjoyed filling the lecture hall with music as we made use of ukuleles, ipads, phones and laptops to play and create music as a way to understand Musical Futures approaches and their relevance to both classroom and instrumental teaching and learning. 

Our 2 day Introduction and Recharge workshops were great fun and we enjoyed introducing some new content including a brand new Beyond the Play Along session, new MF Styles and Everyone Can Play resources and a chance to explore MF: Studio, our approach for Music Technology developed in partnership with Soundtrap. Thanks so much to our hosts Peter, Vindy, Elise and staff and students at the school for excellent hospitality and for lending us their teaching spaces and instruments for the weekend!

Our final workshops for 2018 took place at St Joseph's Institution International School, KL and it was lovely to welcome back old friends who had attended previous workshops in KL, Bangkok and Singapore and to meet new teachers from Cambodia, Malaysia and Australia! We loved hearing how teachers have been using Musical Futures International approaches since their first workshops in international and government schools and the impact it has had on their students.

We will be back in Asia in Shanghai and Bangkok in January 2019 and will be announcing new workshop dates and locations soon. Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter to find a workshop near you!

Ken and Anna are just back from our most recent trip to China, where we have been working with instrumental, teachers, students and parents and learning a huge amount about how Musical Futures is resonating in contexts that are very different from where it first began!

Our presentation, given as part of the NAMM University sessions at Music China, considered how it might be possible to build on the years of research and proven outcomes from Musical Futures as predominantly a classroom approach might also change mindsets of instrumental teachers about how and why they teach music.

Could working with instrumental teachers and their employers help us to move towards finding a continuum of student voice, engagement, relevance and personalisation within the formal contexts of the Chinese instrumental music education system to keep more people playing more music for longer?

We talked about what expectations parents, students and teachers might bring to the music learning on offer and how what happens in lessons could be enriched by placing more of an emphasis on student agency than might currently be in place.

Later in the week we had the chance to test out some of this in practical workshops with parents, students and teachers in 2 different cities, Changchun and Harbin.

We were keen to find out if it could it be possible for instrumental teachers to relate to the content of the workshops and more importantly to be able to apply any of it to their own teaching situation. How could the experiences of participating in large group music-making really relate to a one to one teaching situation? 

What relevance might engaging with popular music have to traditional piano teaching? How could students' own musical interests be accommodated in an exams-driven teaching situation and more importantly why might this even be necessary?

Would getting parents to play music alongside their children have any impact on their expectations of a music lesson?

And most importantly could we communicate the learning that sits behind the practical workshops through translators?

​Read on to find out......

We popped into our host school for our January Introduction to Musical Futures intensive 2 day workshops! Our host teacher James showed us around the fantastic music spaces and we even got to watch the sun set over the roof garden! if you would like to join us in January, all the details can be found here 

 The location for the first of our workshops was the MusicBaby Arts centre, part of the impressive Bole Music showrooms in Changchun. We started with a full day of workshops for 30 children with parents and teachers observing. However feedback during the break was that they were getting bored just watching so we pulled everyone in and had a great afternoon jamming together. 

The following day was our first with the teachers. In order to communicate our aims we hooked our workshops around the premise that there are many different ways to learn music and that we would experience some of these as participants then reflect on whether they might be relevant to the way that the teachers work with their students.

We identified some key things we wanted to explore under the heading "ways to learn music" and in each activity referred back to the list:

• I play, you play
• Listen and copy
• Notation as support
• Be creative (compose and improvise)
• Play together
• Play while the music plays
• Pulse and rhythm

At the start of day 2, our hosts led a really interesting discussion about the need to change approaches in China. The discussion started with the teachers each sharing a sentence in response to the questions 'what is creativity' and then they were taken through some history and context of music education in China. Then 2 teachers were selected to share their feedback on the workshops so far and how they thought they might be able to apply any of the learning to their situation.

The one theme that kept recurring was that it was the expectations of parents that was the main barrier to creative approaches to instrumental teaching in China. Students start learning music around age 4, but by the time they get to 8 they have too much homework to be able to continue. So some parents want their children to follow a narrow pathway through exam grades as far as they can get and as quickly as possible before they have to stop and move onto other things having ticked the music education box.

With an opportunity to work directly with parents ahead, how best to communicate other benefits to learning and experiencing music than just exam certificates?

We finished day 2 with some great large group composing and improvising activities which got everyone making music together and brought the 3 days to a really musical end.

Just over an hour by train from Changchun is Harbin, the location for our last workshops for this trip. Armed with all the learning from the last 2 days, we included the creativity discussion session, again led by our hosts, as part of day 1, just before 15 small children and their parents arrived for an evening workshop. 

We decided that we would use our new 'Styles' resources because these incorporate percussion, chords and riffs, enough to be divided between the large group we were working with. We started by teaching the parents to play guitar and uke chords, we supported them with some soloing and then brought in the children to add in the percussion groove. The teachers from the workshops were also there and it was great to get everyone playing together and to make a judgement on the variety of ability levels within the group. Based on that, we ended with one big 'funky jam'

Following that uplifting session, day 2 was a brilliant day of playing, rapping, singing, laughing and the taking of many photos with Anna and Ken!

Without lyrics and a melody, you haven't really got a song and therefore it's really important for students to feel confident to try out ideas vocally as they write their own songs.

​We have rounded up 5 of our favourite pieces of advice for creating a positive ethos for singing and songwriting in class to help students to feel more confident in general with singing.

​We have also provided a few video resources from the Musical Futures Find Your Voice program which was developed to increase confidence amongst teachers to lead singing activities with their classes and we will be sharing more of these in the next few months.

Some students, particularly adolescents find the term singing a bit off-putting. This could be based on previous experience, associations of singing with primary school or a lack of confidence with changing voices for boys. Instead of branding activities as singing, incorporate and encourage any use of the voice including beat-boxing, humming, chanting, rapping, vocal percussion even whistling! The following video is one of a series designed to get started with beatboxing and you can find the rest here 

As our recent article about songwriting with backing tracks suggests, having some kind of accompaniment perhaps played on piano or guitar by the teacher or using a backing track as you sing or compose helps students feel far less exposed than when singing alone.

Our latest free e-book, available to anyone who signs up to our mailing list, contains free backing tracks and play along videos in different musical styles as well as ideas for using Soundtrap to incorporate music tech to support singing and songwriting. Sign up here to get hold of your copy today!

The Musical Futures Informal Learning model places student choice at its very heart and there's no reason why this can't apply to singing as well. Revisit Lucy Green's informal learning principles and why not try our Find Your Voice whole class 4-chord mash up activity where students perform and record their own accompaniment to create medleys and mash ups from songs of their choice.

A note about the role of the teacher. The guidance for teachers that is threaded through Musical Futures is something that every single teacher can try no matter where or what they are teaching.

It asks that first the teacher stands back and observes, empathises with the outcomes that students set for themselves and helps THEM to find ways to get there rather than laying out the path in front of them for them to follow.

It asks that they model instead of tell, play with and for the students so that the music surrounds the learning and the teaching comes from the music itself.

This can be a real challenge - allowing students time and space to show what they already know and to show how they can find solutions and answers without being told, especially when it comes to singing.

However, the sense of ownership and empowerment that results is one that requires a 2-way transfer of learning and creating a happy and positive ethos towards singing and vocal work in the classroom is an exciting and important aspect of helping students along the way to writing and performing songs of their own.

In the next few months, Musical Futures International will be supporting some new research into creative education working with Melbourne Graduate School of Education and Geelong Grammar School. Two teacher pilot groups, one in Australia and one in the UK will be tasked with providing practical, classroom focused input into the development of the finished product, approach and resources. 

Nick Beach is a music education consultant, writer and musician.  He took his degree at Dartington, following this with orchestral training at the National Centre of Orchestral Studies.  Nick successfully mixed playing and teaching, working for Berkshire Young Musicians Trust as Head of Education. He joined Trinity College London in 2002, becoming Academic Director in 2011, a post which he held until early 2018.  He now works on a freelance basis and has recently completed a three-month project in Australia. ​Nick was also a guest presenter at Musical Futures International 's 'The Big Gig' teacher conference in Melbourne in June.

Do a web search on “why learn a musical instrument” and you will get thousands of hits telling you that playing a musical instrument will make you smarter, improve your memory, make you more organised, make you a team worker, make you better at maths, co-ordinated, resilient, the list goes on and on.  Few children, however, consider these things when they put up their hand and volunteer, or ask their parents for instrumental music lessons.

Look again at the web search and you will see that most of the sites listed are music teaching organisations and the information provided is really there to help convince parents that the money they spend on instrumental lessons is an investment in their child’s future.  

Whilst some of the claims made on such sites are stretching credibility somewhat, most of us as music teachers would agree with the general principle that learning a musical instrument has benefits that go beyond the purely musical. However there is a danger amidst all this parent-targeted noise that we lose, if we had it in the first place, any sense of the child’s view. Why do children want to learn musical instruments?   What draws them to a particular instrument? What do they think will happen in lessons? To what extent are those expectations met? And perhaps most critically of all, what is the sequence of experiences, events and decisions that leads them to give up – sometimes all too soon?

A primary school head teacher in the UK, in a discussion about introducing instrumental lessons in his school, once told me: “I’ve seen it all before, 10 children start instruments at the beginning of the year and by the end of the year you have 2 or 3 left – what’s the point of that?”  In the ABRSM Making Music report, 50% of 8-10 year olds said they had lessons on an instrument, and amongst 16-17 year olds 61% used to have lessons but have now given up.

Whether or not the Making Music survey is reflective of the wider population, this represents a huge number of children and young people who have had the opportunity to learn a musical instrument and have, at some point, made the decision to stop.

So does this matter?  Is there a natural pyramid in musical development and opportunity?  

The Key Data on Music Education Hubs 2016 report shows that UK Music Hubs delivered beginner classes to over 650,000 children in 2015/16, along with over 500,000 taking ongoing instrumental lessons of some sort.  

​The Association of British Orchestras 2016 report suggests that 2,411 musicians are engaged in permanent or long-term positions with UK orchestras. Roughly extrapolating from this figure suggests that there are 27 professional orchestral vacancies for violinists each year, 3 for oboists, etc.  

Clearly it is absurd to base a pyramid on orchestral jobs – the music industry is a significant employer across a huge range roles, most of which are not performance – but is preparation for work what we are offering when we offer instrumental lessons? It may not be, but it is probably fair to say that much instrumental teaching is delivered in a way that suggests that there is an end point or goal in mind – if not in the mind of the pupil then in the mind of the teacher.

Much is made of the term progression in instrumental music teaching, and this is probably most widely understood by reference to external scales.  The graded music exam is ubiquitous in many countries around the world and has become synonymous with musical progression. Parents are possibly the most aggressive in their use of the graded exam as a benchmark for their child’s speed of progression – too often used as a means of comparison with other people’s children!  

The graded exam is a wonderful assessment model – you can take it at any age, it celebrates musical performance and it is assessed live by experts. However, like any educational tool, it can be misused.

“The candidate struggled through his Grade 5 trumpet exam and when the last test was over he eagerly asked the examiner: ‘Have I passed?’.  On being told by the examiner that he would have to wait for the results his face fell. ‘Why is it so important?’ asked the examiner. ‘Well,’ answered the candidate, ‘My dad says that if I pass I can give it up.’

Thankfully few graded exams are used in this way, but we should perhaps ask ourselves whether the expectations of progression that are common in instrumental learning match those of learners.  Does it matter how long a learner takes to get to Grade 1, 2 or 3? Indeed does it matter if they never do?

This brings us back to the issue of giving up.  The statistics from the ABRSM research above bear out the conversations we all have when someone you meet learns that you are a musician.  “Oh, I used the play the xxxx at school, but I gave it up”, often followed by a rather wistful look reflecting an opportunity lost. So does it matter – or is this level of attrition just the way of things?   I would argue that surely it does matter. If we believe all these good things will stem from learning a musical instrument (and we haven’t even touched on the lifelong love of music that can flow from it) then it is vital that we understand the reasons students give up, thus denying themselves all of these benefits.  

The student will arrive at their first lesson with great excitement and hope, from pupil, parent and teacher.  And although none of these three (apart from maybe the pupil!) will admit to prodigious expectations doesn’t every parent harbour at the back of their mind the fond hope that their child might “have talent”?  

Similarly the teacher will often be on the look-out for students that show that special potential. Are the danger signs here already? The teacher sets the student off on a path of progressive mastery, where skills are accumulated and progressively harder pieces offered.  There may be occasional sideways forays (often at the end of term) when the relentlessly increasing challenge is relaxed, but for the most part there is a constant expectation that the next piece the student learns will be harder than the last.

Most of the material that teachers will offer students will reflect this incline: tutor books with ever harder pieces, graded repertoire, and of course graded exams.  The bar on the instrumental learning high jump is inexorably heightened, with the increasing danger that the student will crash into it rather than fly over it. This is often the point where the student gives up.

In a study in 2000, Gary McPherson considers the reasons children give for giving up instrumental lessons under the headings of motivation, quality and quantity of practice, parental support, enjoyment and satisfaction.  This is an analysis that most teachers would recognise, as they would his categorisation of the students after 20 months of learning into the three groups: still enthusiastic, keeping going but waning, and already given up.  However these second two categories do beg the question we asked earlier: what were the students expecting when they opted for lessons, and was it a failure to meet those expectations that resulted in them giving up?

Perhaps these questions might be the subject of further research, but as teachers we might also experiment in this area.  Are there other models of instrumental learning than those described above? Perhaps it is time that we challenged some of the assumptions that have underpinned instrumental music learning for generations, such as:

• Progression means playing ever harder pieces
• Parental support is vital for success in instrumental learning
• Regular practice is key to fulfilment on a musical instrument

​
We could ask ourselves what instrumental music teaching might look like if we removed these assumptions and replaced them with something like these:  
​

• A musical experience is about what is happening now – it is not concerned with how much better it is than last week or how much it will improve next week.
• The musical experience is about meeting the needs and expectations of the student – no-one else.
• Practice, if it happens, is something the student decides to do, and the teacher has no view on whether this is a good or bad thing.

​
In an environment underpinned by such principles the weekly lesson might not be so much a lesson as a musical event where an expert musician (the teacher) spends time engaged in musical activities with less experienced musicians (formerly known as the student) each bringing something of their own musical character and personality to the session.  

In such a session the teacher might meet the students where they are, not where the teacher would like them to be. Some of the music performed would be pre-existing, but much would probably be composed, co-created or improvised by the teacher and students. Perhaps as the opportunities presented by the instrument emerge the student might want to develop new skills to harness these, or perhaps not.  Technical progress would therefore be on a needs basis, not on the basis of an externally imposed gradient.

There are huge challenges in approaches such as these, not least the demands they place on the teacher.  There is something comforting about an instrumental lesson structure based on warm ups, ever more difficult pieces, ever more difficult scales, etc., where the teacher’s role essentially involves giving tasks to the student and helping them to overcome them.  The designing of engaging musical activities appropriate to the needs of individual students is much demanding and time consuming – and potentially risky and uncomfortable. But if we really believe as educators that learning a musical instrument is a worthwhile thing to do then we must find better ways to help more children learn for longer.

There are many different ways to get started with songwriting and as the diagram above, taken from our free guide to songwriting suggests these could be words, words and music or music. 

A great way to help students grow in confidence to try out their ideas is to provide them with backing tracks to sing along to. The advantages of this are:

• The backing tracks can be in any style of music such as reggae, rock, hip hop that students recognise.
• The associations they have with these styles and familiarity with songs they have heard before often helps them to feel more confident to sing along, try out ideas and take inspiration from music they already know
• They don't need to know too much about chords, keys, instrumentation or harmony as this is done for them, however they do need to demonstrate some understanding of how to add a melody and make it fit and the only way to do this is to sing or play along!
• They can take the energy and feel of the backing track and put that into their performance
• A good quality backing track with a strong groove or swing means that moving as they sing comes naturally
• If they are struggling with lyrics they can repeat one line or word and experiment with just the melody keeping in time and in the style of the backing track and it can still sound like a 'real' song!
•  The backing tracks can already be arranged into song structure which can help students to start to recognise how to develop verse, chorus and other sections, preparing them for when they create their own music

A selection of backing tracks and play along videos are available in our free e-book which you will receive if you join Musical Futures. Already a member? Drop us an email and we can send it to you! 

What better way to demonstrate this in action than in the following video examples which were recorded in Dalian, Northern China in 2017. The teachers were given a selection of backing tracks on their phones, asked to choose one, then add and perform a vocal line.

​Singing in another language made no difference to the overall shapes of the melodies and the delivery of the performances and it was a fun way to end our workshops because very little explanation was needed, once they heard the backing tracks they quickly started to write and experiment with the lyrics with no help at all from the workshop leaders.

Space: The space you work in will really affect how much you and the participants can achieve. Make sure it is big enough for you to work in and that you have enough rooms if you want to do small group work.

Resources: Access to resources is very important. Who is providing the equipment? Will it be you, the school/venue or the participants themselves?  Make it clear at the planning stage what you are willing to provide and what you want others to bring.

Communication: This is very obvious but essential to the smooth running of a project. Being able to contact people you need to speak to and being willing to be flexible is a necessity. Do the participants know exactly what is expected of them? Can they contact you between workshops? If not have you provided them with resources to help them continue their work? Is there a person within the group or organisational team apart from yourself that they can ask for help or information?

Time: The most popular time for workshops is after school. This can be a tiring time of day for all involved, especially if the participants are coming straight from lessons to you. Food is often a useful incentive for completing tasks but also really boosts energy half way through a session. 

Preparation: You must have a clear idea of what you want to achieve in the project, even if it is as broad as getting young people to play together in time. Getting the balance between preparation and flexibility is the skill. You need to have a plan of activities, both long and short term, but also be ready to adapt them. If somebody starts to develop ideas not originally in your plan, but you feel it’s helping them develop as musicians, then respond. You will find a way to make it fit within the general aims of the project. How prepared you want to be is a very personal issue. You need to find what works best for you, but our advice is that you have a long term plan for the project which you review, adjust and adapt after each session.

​Faith: There are always low points in a project as well as the highs. You as the practitioner must keep positive and be as constructive as possible through these harder times. Frustration (the participants’ and yours) will rear its ugly head as new skills are tackled, but keep encouraging and they will come through in the end.

We are excited to announce that to complement our free Guide to Songwriting which is now available on our website, anyone signing up to our mailing list will also receive a free e- book as a thank you for joining us. Not only does this contain video and audio resources for songwriting, it also comes with a free 3 month trial of Soundtrap Edu (unlimited seats).

We hope that you will enjoy using the ideas with your classes and hope to see you at one of our workshops soon!

We are heading back to China soon and this time we are taking some new friends with us. Despite the fact that they aren't wearing the obligatory Musical Futures T Shirt, we hope that they will help us to introduce some new ideas to teachers of younger children over the next few months!

Ziggi, Kara, Moa and Jon are all characters in an app and approach for music theory for younger children called Mussila Music School.

Mussila is a tool to learn the basics of music theory and link the musical ear to the written language of music. As well as teaching the basics of music in a fun and creative way, the Mussila Music School app and approach reinforces some of the core skills that also appear in Musical Futures: Everyone Can Play, our entry level offer for younger children.

Everyone Can Play incorporates activities that include I play, you play, listen then copy, take your turn, find, hear and keep a pulse and basic instrumental skills all of which are also nurtured through the Mussila games through interactive exploration of the basics of music theory, especially through the use of rhythm, melody and timbres.

With the help of the Mussila characters and story we are also going to look at how incorporating creativity and music technology into our Everyone Can Play series of entry level Musical Futures ideas might encourage younger children to start to write songs of their own.

We will soon be embarking on a pilot project that explores Musical Futures and Creative Education working with Melbourne Graduate School of Education, Geelong Grammar School and with teachers in Australia and the UK implementing some new ideas in their classrooms across 2019.

​Our focus on creative education also feeds into to our revamped work on songwriting in particular an emphasis on story telling and how and why people are inspired to write songs . We hope that the Mussila characters and story might provide a useful start point for exploring this important aspect of songwriting.

We also love the creative opportunities that music tech; apps, cloud based or online platforms and hardware and equipment, can bring, especially when it comes to writing songs. 

​MF: Studio is about finding an approach for music tech that sits within the core Musical Futures pedagogy so we are interested to see how Mussila DJ which encourages the players to create their own musical soundscape and to remix existing songs, record and capture sounds from around them and layer loops and mix the sound to create a live music performance, can help younger children to recognise and use the basic tools of a music studio in creative ways.

As always, we will be sharing our travels so to keep up to date follow @mufuinternat on Twitter, or register for our updates by clicking here

Musical Futures was developed in response to a need to improve music education and in particular to improve access to music making in schools and to increase its relevance to children and young adults. So we are really proud to hear that 97% of respondents to our recent independent evaluation of Musical Futures believe that MF removes barriers to participation. We also loved some of the verbal feedback from our teachers and students involved in a wider series of interviews, so we have shared some more or our favourite quotes throughout this article! 

You can read more of our impressive feedback from teachers involved in the first cohort of the Victorian Government PD program here and join the growing numbers of teachers worldwide who report that using music in school results in:

• An increase in numbers of students taking up instrumental lessons on a wider range of instruments
• Increased student participation in concerts and performances
• Better engagement with classroom music for all ages

What's not to love about more people making more music for longer?

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Music teaching can be an isolated experience and sometimes its's easy to lose sight of your musical roots once the realities of teaching take up more and more of your time! All of our workshops are practical, hands on and musical. We sing, play and always allow plenty of time for networking, sharing and getting to know each other. And it doesn't stop there. We also provide all the resources you need to get started with MF straight away for free and you can even come and join one our international music teacher chat group to continue the discussion as you get to grips with MF in your classroom. Meet the team and find out more about what happens on one of our 2 day intensive workshops here 
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In the last few months we have announced partnerships to help us keep the 'future' in Musical Futures. We are busy developing Musical Futures Studio, our new approach for music technology in partnership with Soundtrap and Mussila (for younger students) and approaches to progress, progression and assessment in partnership with Trinity College London.

Our new workshops for Musical Futures Styles, songwriting and exploring 'beyond the play along' are all being developed by members of the MF International Team.

And the best bit? All of these new ideas will be part of our day 1 Recharge and day 2 'Further into MF' schedules, or if you are new to MF you can spend day 1 getting up to speed with our core MF approaches Informal Learning, Classroom Workshopping, Find Your Voice and Just Play before going deeper in MF on day 2!

Finally if it's a more intensive introduction to MF that you are after, our 2 day intro workshop in Shanghai in January is the option for you.

We are looking forward to seeing you in Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai or Bangkok and if you have any questions drop an email to info@musicalfuturesinternational.org and we will get back to you!

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The Musical Futures Australia Professional Learning Program is a Victorian Department of Education sponsored PD program developed to support schools across the state to increase opportunities for all Victorian children and young people to access, participate in and experience quality music education programs.​ ​Since the program commenced in August 2015, over 700 schools and nearly 1,200 teachers throughout Victoria have been involved. 

The program was instigated following a Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the extent, benefits and potential of music education in Victorian schools (The Extent, Benefits and Potential of Music Education in Victorian Schools (2013)) which found there is now significant research which demonstrates that “engagement in the Arts, including music, resulted in higher academic grades, literacy results and attendance for primary school students.”

Some additional context:

•Victoria has no specialist teaching positions as such within the primary system.  All primary teachers are determined to be general classroom teachers and that would not change.
•School leadership has the ability to deploy teachers in specialist roles, visual art, PE, music etc. (specialist roles do exist in the secondary system)
•However comparative few schools around 300 of 1,500 primary schools had deployed teachers in the specialist music role resulting in many schools not offering music.  DET research suggested that 24% of government schools in 2014 offered a continuous music program.
•The Inquiry determined that more effort was required in primary schools if the benefits of music in school education were to be realised
•A new Australian curriculum was on the horizon that included the teaching of the arts and specifically music within years P-8
​
The Dandolo Partners Independent Evaluation of the Victorian Musical Futures Australia Professional Development Program was commissioned by the Victorian Department of Education and the evaluation involved around 280 teachers and around 180 schools who participated in the first program cohort.

​These teachers and schools had been using Musical Futures approaches and resources for at least 9 months prior to the research taking place.

​Scroll down to download the full report and summary of the evaluation.

From the cohort of 180 schools 24 schools were included in more detailed case studies and the following are an example of some of the feedback from teachers and students who participated:

‘The Musical Futures PD has moved us out of our comfort zones and helped us relate to student experience’ – Music teacher

‘Music class is so much better than in previous years as we now have more independence’ – Grade 6 student

‘I see Musical Futures as a hook to get them interested and to sustain that interest. From there I am able teach them theory and the other elements not explicitly covered by the Musical Futures resource’ – Music teacher

​‘I just want to learn and do music’ – Year 7 student

General Findings:

• Musical Futures meets both the Education State goals and the Victorian F-10 curriculum
• Program well designed and delivered – 96% of participants satisfied
• Musical Futures perceived to have a very positive impact on student participation and teacher skills
• Positive impact on teacher skills and confidence
• Increased student engagement – 68% of teachers report an increase in the number of students involved in music
• As intended most teachers incorporate other approaches in their classroom along with Musical Futures
• Most teachers involved have some music background – around 50% were non specialist

Teachers report that:

• Musical Futures approach removes barriers to participation 97%
• Musical Futures is an effective method 97%
• Musical Futures can be used to implement the Victorian Curriculum 91%

Following the workshops: 

• 94% of teachers said the digital resources were helpful
• 76% of teachers believed they had support from school leadership
• 79% were able to get additional support from Musical Futures
• 76% have been able to effectively implement a Musical Futures program
• 67% say they have been able to share with other teachers

Impact on teachers: 

• Provides a more practical approach 81%
• Ability to engage the whole class 80%
• Increased confidence 77%
• Student skills 75%
• Confidence to support students technical development 69%

Student impact:

• Enthusiasm 82%
• Sustained participation 82%
• Student confidence 81%
• Student confidence to play a range of instruments 79%
• Development of musical skills 77%

68% believe that the program has increased the number of students learning and playing a musical instrument via co-curricular or external programs 

, In June 2018, teachers from Australia, New Zealand, America and Asia arrived at the fantastic music space at The Melbourne Graduate School of Education in Melbourne's CBD for 2 days of workshops, discussion and networking for the 2018 Musical Futures International Conference The Big Gig.

The conference opened with a welcome from Director Ian Harvey placing The Big Gig in the context of "keeping the future in Musical Futures" followed by an energetic vocal and body percussion session led by Ollie Tunmer from Beat Goes on UK.

Workshop sessions included an introduction to our new Musical Futures Studio approach to music technology led by Steve Jackman from Shrewsbury International School Bangkok, exploring some new keyboard resources from Little Kids Rock delivered by Scott Burstein, Hip Hop for everyone led by Rapper and Poet Optamus from WA and more!

We also shared outcomes from our recent pilot project with Trinity College London and new workshops from Stephen Sajkowsky and Anna Gower from the MF International delivery team which will form a key part of our workshop program in Asia and Australia in 2018-19 (read more here).

Our panel session entitled 'beyond the 12 notes' included presentations from  Nick Beach, Mandy Stefanakis and Tim Patston.

We hope that all of our 200 delegates had an enjoyable, stimulating and challenging time with us at The Big Gig, we look forward to seeing them again at one of our workshops soon. 

You can keep up to date with all our new developments, pilot projects and news by joining Musical Futures to receive our newsletter and updates. 

The development of video resources to complement Musical Futures teacher development workshops marked a new departure for the organisation when they were first introduced as part of Just Play.  Although it isn't the first time that Musical Futures has provided resources to support our approaches, (see Musical Futures UK 'transition project' and Find Your Voice), the video play alongs were originally inspired by the work of Little Kids Rock. Our visit to take part in their workshops and to visit schools showed us how these were a great tool to support teachers and students with first access for popular music education. They help to get students playing together, provide a safety net for students and teachers to experiment with whole class music making and allow students to self-differentiate, ie everyone can take part, regardless of prior musical experience. If you haven't seen the play along videos, this video provides a useful overview of what's involved and how these resources work. 

The inclusion of play along videos as part of Just Play had the following aims:

• To support teachers to make the step to becoming musical leaders, leading while playing.
• To enable students to build foundational musical skills such as playing as part of an ensemble, hearing and playing to a pulse, listening, following, interpreting musical symbols and building instrumental skills on several instruments.
• To support students to play as a whole class band in a hands-on, practical way using music students would be likely to recognise and engage with.

Feedback from teachers has been incredibly positive with regard to the resources and how they help to get all their students playing, skilling them up through playing and learning as they play. 

But once they can play what next? Wait for Musical Futures to make and share the next play along? Make your own? Or explore how play alongs are just the start when it comes to getting a little deeper into the real-world approaches that Musical Futures is built on, whilst balancing the need to deliver the depth and breadth of content, knowledge and skills that is surely essential to a 'music education'?

At The Big Gig teacher conference, my session looked at moving on from play alongs and into informal learning and non-formal teaching, the approaches to learning and teaching music that are the heart and soul of Musical Futures.

We started by playing a song together along with a video play along. The song I chose simply repeated 4 chords throughout and the video consisted of a simple bass line, a suggested comping rhythm that fitted with the original track and as experienced musicians and teachers, delegates could play it easily. Too easily. Some people started to look bored, the performance lacked energy and didn't do justice to the quality of the musicianship in the room. Whilst some players embellished their lines slightly, most just played what was instructed in the visual cues in the video. 

We then reflected on the experience starting by looking at the 3 core strands of Musical Futures, (recently revamped with help from Emily Wilson, PHD student from MGSE). The focus was on understanding the pedagogy that underpins each strand, the role of the teacher in each of these approaches and to put Just Play, the play alongs and what we had just done as a group into the wider context of Musical Futures. 

Next we explored the balance between musical skills and knowledge in the context of the diagram above.

There are many papers and chapters that explore what musical knowledge is and how it manifests in various approaches to music education in different contexts. For the purposes of this session, I borrowed a slide from the recent webinar led by Gary Spruce for the MF international teacher community where Gary shared the descriptions below of different musical knowledge types.

This is a great starting point to reflect on what students are actually learning when they engage with a play along. If Just Play is to build foundational musical skills and engage students with music through playing, how can other aspects of Musical Futures (and other approaches) help to move students towards a deeper understanding of what/why/how they are playing and engaging with music and where this could lead?

The next reflection point was how Lucy Green's 5 principles of informal learning fit with music taught through a play along. Thinking about our performance as a group, we worked through each principle and dug a little deeper by reflecting on what we had just done. ​

Finally I asked the group 3 questions about the piece:

1) Can you sing the bass line from the song (which was a riff rather than just based on the root notes of each chord)
2) Can you clap the key rhythmic patterns on which the groove was based?
3) Can you sing or play any of the 12 melodic riffs that appear in different forms within the song?

This activity revealed that despite us playing the song and claiming to have listened as we played, most groups were unable to answer the 3 questions very well. Exploring the song through a play along meant we could play it, but we had really only scratched the surface in terms of understanding it.

Using the same song as a start point we then put together a whole class workshop. With the track playing we worked through the following activities (and others as they happened) before setting up a groove based on the original chord sequence and subsequent musical ideas that had developed from within the group.

• Clap the pulse
• I clap you clap
• Improvise your own patterns 
• Sing the bass line
• Sing the key riffs from the chorus and add harmonies
• Clap the rhythms of the riffs 
• Transfer the riffs to instruments (no chords allowed!)
• Add anything you can hear in the song that we haven't already discovered
• Look at the notated parts from the song and identify anything we missed from just listening (dynamics, articulations, remaining riffs)
• Perform and get creative with the final outcome - delegates took it in turn to come out the front and lead different sections.

Finally we played the original song again with the play along video. The performance had so much more in it with people singing, improvising, adding harmonies, far more of the original riffs and even the groove itself had far more energy!

My recent trip to Melbourne could have been a little shaky - I’d been working at a school in South Korea the week prior, then headed back to the UK for the launch of www.sambaoke.com (promo video on the way!), before the 26 hour journey down under.

Despite the slight disorientation, I could feel the warm and energy of the conference delegates from the word go.

One of STOMP’s first big bookings was the 1992 Melbourne Comedy Festival, so it was nice to kick things off here with some body percussion, inspired in no small part by my time in that show. I love how body percussion is initially highly accessible, but then as with any art-form, offers scope for more complex material.

The MF conference delegates proved themselves to be a highly rhythmic and up for it bunch, happy to step well outside of their comfort zones, a useful experience for all teachers!

I then led the first of several Afro Brazilian percussion workshops. Although African drumming is common in Australia, Afro-Brazilian percussion, including samba, is yet to become the staple that it is in UK schools. It was great fun exploring a range of styles from Rio-style ‘samba batucada’ to ‘drum’n’bass’, nodding to the Musical Futures ethos of incorporating students’ own musical preferences into lessons. Delegates seemed to enjoy these sessions and I’m looking forward to returning for a school workshop / PD tour - watch this space!

longside a range of fascinating workshops, talks and warm up ideas (Hadley’s ‘Chord Aerobics’ springs to mind!), the conference finished with a fantastic opportunity for teachers to play together. Some seriously impressive performances - Michelle Lewis excelled herself as my mic stand whilst delivering some superb vocals!

Session notes from my body percussion and Afro-Brazilian sessions are on the way and there are free downloadable resources at www.beatgoeson.co.uk

​Huge thanks to all involved, I look forward to seeing you again soon!

The National Music Education Conference in Bejing ran in partnership with the China Music Instrument Association and was supported by the National Music Education Service Alliance, in collaboration with the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) and the Confederation of European Music Industries (CAFIM).

As invited guests of the China Music Instrument Association, Anna and Ken led an introductory informal learning workshops with nearly 100 teachers at the conference, followed by workshops with teachers at Roland Digital Education Centre and with children and their parents at Hua Dong Music City.

Highlights of the trip included some fantastic musical performances showcasing exquisite performances of traditional Chinese music as well as a celebration concert from the Make Music Day China 2018 event that involved over 3000 musical events across China.

We are very much looking forward to returning to China in October for another round of 2-day teacher workshops and to as guests at Music China in Shanghai.

With just 3 weeks to go until Musical Futures teachers from across the world arrive in Melbourne for The Big Gig 2018, the final schedule and details of the fantastic international team of presenters has been announced.

Presenters will be flying in from the UK, Asia, USA and from across Australia and the sessions will explore (in typical Musical Futures style) everything from body percussion and Samba to Electronic Dance Music and Hip Hop. There will also be an opportunity to debate and explore what it means to be a creative music teacher and what it means to 'go beyond the notes' with Mandy Stefanakis, Nick Beach and Tim Patson as guests for our panel session. 

To read the full line up, browse through the conference schedule and grab your ticket, visit The Big Gig web page ​or drop us an email at info@musicalfuturesinternational.org

Australian Teachers Get Inspirational Boost from Musical Futures and Soundtrap, a Collaborative, Cloud-based Music Education Solution
 
Partnership Combines Individualised Learning Approaches and Game-Changing Music Technology to Deliver Student-Centered Classroom Experiences

​EduTech, Sydney, Australia – June 5, 2018 – Announced today in Sydney, Musical Futures Australia, a music education movement reshaping the way students learn and create music, and Soundtrap, the innovative online collaborative music and podcast recording studio, are partnering to deliver collaborative, hands-on musical workshops that will be accessible to teachers in Sydney, Australia and to music educators around the world.  It’s a revolutionary approach that provides teachers with new and innovative ways to engage their students in hands-on electronic music as part of their overall curriculum. The partnership officially launches at the EduTech conference scheduled for June 6-8 in Australia.
 
“We’ve been looking for a number of years for a music technology integration that works best for our workshops. Soundtrap has huge appeal to us because it’s cloud-based and enables the kind of collaborative work we’re already doing,” said Anna Gower, head of Training and Development, Musical Futures International. “We know that kids really engage with music tech, but some teachers do not. Until Soundtrap, we were unable to find a platform that didn’t cost a lot of money, didn’t require a large amount of expertise, and did not result in barriers between the teachers and students.”
 
The diverse community of students at Doveton P-9 College in Melbourne is finding a common language through Music Futures Australia (MFA). Recognized for its innovative curriculum, Doveton is one of MFA’s 12 Champion Schools. These Champion Schools are developing new ways of teaching children and teachers about music through technology.  With the help of Soundtrap and a Roland HS-5 Session Mixer, Doveton’s music students recently created, recorded, and later performed, a song they titled “Memory Lane.”  https://www.musicalfuturesaustralia.org/mf-videos.html. The process exposed the students to music composing techniques and processes they would not have experienced otherwise.
 
“Technology gives us new ways to reach kids where they are. By combining Musical Futures and Soundtrap, the students had this unique opportunity to create something special—a composition that they could take ownership of,” said Jason Holmes, music teacher at Doveton.
 
Musical Futures equips teachers with the training, support and resources to give students informal, engaging ways to learn music. An international program with global reach, Musical Futures’ Australia affiliate is partnering with Soundtrap to provide workshops to 1,500 educators in Australia and New Zealand. From this base, the solution will be rolled out internationally.  The goal is to give kids, mainly in the primary and secondary schools (ages 6-18), individualised ways to experience and create music.
 
Soundtrap, the first cloud-based audio recording platform to work across iOS, Android, Chromebooks, Linux, Mac and Windows platforms, enables more than 1M users to co-create music, podcasts and other audio projects with others anywhere in the world. The platform is being used in thousands of schools around the world for music, technology, math, science and a host of other core subjects.
 
Soundtrap is especially suited for today’s mobile-intense generation of students because all projects are saved in a safe, protected environment, and can be accessed at any time, from any device. (See video: https://youtu.be/2ViLQD_2RK4)
 
Per Emanuelsson, CEO of Soundtrap, commented, “Music technology excites and engages school-age kids, and Soundtrap gives music teachers the ability to truly harness that excitement and make those connections, regardless of their geography or the type of personal device they own. This partnership with Musical Futures shines an even brighter spotlight on Soundtrap’s mission to provide a worldwide learning experience to every student with access to a computer or mobile device.”
 
About Soundtrap
Soundtrap is the first cloud-based audio recording platform to work across all operating systems, enabling users to co-create music anywhere in the world. Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, the company also has an office in Silicon Valley, California, US. Soundtrap provides an easy-to-use music and audio creation platform for all levels of musical interest and abilities, and is being used by the K-12 through higher-education markets. For more information, visit: http://www.soundtrap.com.
 
About Musical Futures
Musical Futures provides teachers with training, support, networks and resources to deliver practical, engaging, developmental music programs in the classroom. Rather than limiting students to specific musical styles or genres, Musical Futures believes music learning works best when young people are making music based on their musical culture, and when their existing passion for music is reflected and built upon in the classroom.
 
Musical Futures was recently recognised as one of the leading innovations in global education by HundrED (https://hundred.org/en) and its efforts are supported by a growing bank of research. For more information visit: https://www.musicalfuturesaustralia.org/ or  www.musicalfuturesinternational.org
 
 
Resource Videos:
What is Soundtrap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xheoUkbyhE4
Soundtrap in Education: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcMbVeTaD0xQZfUimscIhrw
How Soundtrap works -Collaboration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAPrEB07aFA
Photos: https://www.soundtrap.com/presskit
www.musicalfuturesinternational.org

.We are excited to announce that we will be offering 2 new workshops in Asia in January 2019, a 2 day introductory workshop in Shanghai and a we will be returning with new approaches and resources to Shrewsbury International School Bangkok 

Our Shanghai workshops will explore the introductory approaches of Musical Futures across 2 days and you can read more about the content we have planned for those days by clicking here

A few years ago, Anna Gower and her students at Monks Walk School in Herts, UK, opened the doors of the music department on a typical Monday to share the realities of embracing Musical Futures across all their lessons. Not a text book or desk in sight, just students, instruments and a willingness to expect the unexpected!

If you would like to share a day in the life of your music department, why not drop us an email and we will include it in our #talklessplaymore shares and feature you and your students on our blog! 

We are pleased to announce that we will be returning to Asia in November 2018 and January 2019 with new 2 day intensive Musical Futures workshops in Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai and  Bangkok. Whether you are new to Musical Futures or you have been to one of our workshops before, there is an option to suit you. ​Please note that our Shanghai workshop is a 2 day introduction to Musical Futures without the recharge options.

And there's more! Book before October and you'll be eligible for our early bird rates.

We are also able to offer some in-school consultancy to schools in Hong Kong and KL during our November visits. If you would like more details please drop us an email info@musicalfuturesinternational.org 

​On 16th May, music education expert, author and academic Gary Spruce will be leading a webinar for Musical Futures International all about teaching music musically and the connotations of the term ‘pedagogy’ in music education.

If you would like to join us then save the date and time, 16th May, 8.30pm AEST, 11.30am UK and all times in between! 
​
You can register now by clicking HERE  and even if you can’t join us on the day, everyone who registers will be able to access a paper outlining the aims of the webinar and a link to watch the video back afterwards. There will also be an opportunity to discuss any issues arising in our Musical Futures Facebook group at one of our regular Wednesday chats.

It was great to be back in Auckland for the second year running, meeting new teachers and running the first of our international 'Recharge' workshops to roll out some of our new approaches and resources to teachers who attended the workshops last year. It was interesting to hear how they had been getting on, to share stories and reflect on experiences with Musical Futures across the last year.

Many thanks to Hadley Roynane at Long Bay College, his staff and team of year 12 'Music Maestros' for hosting us so well. We look forward to seeing many of our Musical Futures New Zealand teacher community at The Big Gig teacher conference in Melbourne in June/July 2018!