Dr Anna Mariguddi, Lecturer in Music Education at Edge Hill

This very grey week in February has been brightened up by hearing about Dr Anna Mariguddi’s research in supporting student music teachers to use informal music learning in their teaching practice. Anna’s work will encourage music teachers at all stages to find new ways to work with their pupils.

What is informal learning and how can it be used in music?

This project is about taking the values and ideas of informal learning into music education settings, but first of all, teaching student teachers how they might do that. It aimed to ‘identify space in music education policy that did allow for an informal learning approach – re-examining our own interpretations of policy and expectations throughout.’

Anna, who carried out this project with her colleague, Dr Ian Shirley, explained the context for talking about this kind of learning, telling me that we are in a very formal moment for music education: ‘a perceived age of pedagogical traditionalism for student teachers in primary music education’. So for student teachers, the tension seems obvious.

Anna went on: ‘Informal learning was seen as being ‘different’ at a time when the student teachers wanted to adhere closely to professional expectations and ‘norms’ (they were close to gaining their qualification).’ Perhaps unsurprisingly, this lead to ‘anxiety about aspects of informal learning that were out of their ‘comfort zones’, both as musicians and as teachers; and relinquishing elements of teacher control.’

Working with student music teachers

How did they introduce student teachers to this alternate approach? ‘We facilitated timetabled sessions to familiarise our students with an informal learning approach and relevant underpinning research. Students experienced the approach themselves as musicians in small groups (learning a piece of popular music of their choice, by ear, in friendship groups), then they planned a learning episode for primary school children that was based upon the ethos of informal learning.’ She outlined the next steps:

‘We encouraged them to use an adapted and abbreviated version of informal learning to ensure that the task was appropriate for the context, where pupil choice, autonomy and aural learning were emphasised. Students facilitated the planned episode with a Year 5 group of primary school pupils, then reflected upon their experience gained throughout the project.’

What are the benefits? Anna explained ‘overall success – which some of our students were not expecting!’, as well as increased accessibility for aural learning, increased pupil control and making space for serendipity ‘which was liberating’. Crucially she says it allowed the ‘co-construction of music as a collective pursuit, nurturing a valuable sense of community.’

Next steps

Anna hopes music educators might use this work to continue to explore and reflect on what the values of informal learning might be in their own contexts:

‘We encourage educators to ‘hold their nerve’, and find opportunities in policy and practice to diversify the ways we can approach and facilitate music education – engaging in critical reflection and debate.’

Anna is a lecturer in music education and co-lead of the Inclusion, Diversity and Identity Research Network at Edge Hill University, North West England. She also teaches and supports primary student teachers and post-graduate research students. Prior to working in Higher Education, she worked as a secondary school music teacher. She explains ‘my background as a music learner was largely formal and traditional, which inspired me to explore alternative approaches as a researcher, such as informal learning – for its potential to increase student motivation and inclusion.’

Find out more about Anna’s work:

• Read the journal article (open access).

• Twitter/X for Anna and for Edge Hill’s Education faculty.

Interview by Dr Sarah K Whitfield, Research Lead for Music Mark

Music Mark has today launched a new campaign called Get Playing which celebrates the many benefits of musical learning. With a new webpage and original illustrated resources, it aims to encourage young learners across the UK to connect with their local music hub/service to Get Playing – whether that means learning to sing, play an instrument, or simply taking an interest in the wealth of musical opportunities available.

To make it even easier for parents, families, and those interested in music education to connect with the UK’s music hubs/services, the webpage features a ‘Find my local music service’ tool. Try it here. 

The campaign is the latest in a number of Music Mark advocacy campaigns over the last few years including 10 Things Schools Should Know About Music. This new initiative emerged from conversations with Music Mark members around the UK telling of the huge and varied impact of the pandemic.  It is clear that over the past year there has been a significant effect on the music education sector due to concerns and caution surrounding the spread of coronavirus through singing and other musical activities.

In particular, the recruitment of new young musicians has been severely disrupted,  not least because many music centres around the UK have been unable to fully open for almost an entire year.  A significant aspect of Get Playing is therefore to signpost parents and families to these centres as the ‘go to’ places for musical learning as well as celebrate the joy and reassurance music has brought to many throughout this challenging time. On social media, you can join in with the campaign and celebrate musical learning in all its forms with #GetPlaying.

Bridget Whyte, CEO of Music Mark said:  Over the past 18 months it has been fantastic to see so many young musicians engage with online tuition, recording their parts of multi-track performances and coming together as ensembles for social gatherings and activities despite not being able to  play together online due to latency.  However, it’s been hard for music services around the country to introduce youngsters to the instruments they might want to learn, get them signed up and subsequently get them started.  There have been some great projects across the country to try and drum up interest in musical learning, but the whole process of picking an instrument and getting started has been hard to replicate online.

We are hopeful that as we return to face-to-face learning and visiting music teachers are back in schools, Get Playing will help parents and families understand why learning an instrument, singing and composing or producing music is such a great thing and can then find the support they need to engage with the network of great music teachers that work across the country. 

In practical terms, Get Playing also provides Music Mark’s member Hubs/Music Services with resources which are free and ready to use, enhancing and supplementing their own student recruitment activities. This includes a set of digital assets for social media, a customisable poster, a marketing pack, and a webpage. The resources explore 10 benefits of musical learning and feature original illustrations by designer Esther Shelley, supplying Music Mark member music hubs/service with hassle-free marketing materials. All 10 of the illustrations are displayed on the webpage with more information about each of the benefits. Like the 10 Things poster and booklet, these resources will also soon be available in Welsh translation.

Visit Get Playing to see all 10 of the illustrated tiles and let us know what you love most about musical learning on Twitter with #GetPlaying 

When parents and carers are often the decision-makers in what children learn beyond the classroom, it is essential that we can get them on board with musical learning. CEO Bridget Whyte reflects on Get Playing – our latest national campaign to celebrate the benefits of music and signpost parents to local music education providers…

Music Mark CEO Bridget Whyte

My parents got me singing from a very early age and decided I’d learn the violin when I was just 4 years old.  Neither of them had musical parents but both trained as music teachers and I think were keen for me (and my brother) to learn an instrument.  I’ve never asked them, but I’m guessing they recognised the many benefits of learning an instrument and I certainly feel that I am more confident in front of people having performed from an early age to others (including being asked to stand on a table as a 4-year old to demonstrate something – I can’t now remember what – as part of a training session my Dad was involved in with Hampshire Music Service back in the 70s!).

However, there are many parents and carers who are not as aware of all the various benefits (and fun!) their child can gain from learning a musical instrument.  With the introduction of whole class instrumental tuition in schools they may well see some positive outcomes which they might perhaps attribute to this, but as the decision makers in what children learn beyond the classroom, how do we help them to understand why taking up an instrument can be so beneficial – socially, physically, emotionally, and holistically?

When I started at Music Mark there was a stack of boxes in the office full of leaflets linked to a programme called ‘Learn Music London’.  Part-funded by the Mayor of London and the ABRSM, it aimed to support music services in London to argue the case for musical learning with parents specifically.  There was a website with an interactive map to help people find their local music service and some videos of parents and pupils talking about why music was a great thing to learn. There were also little foldout publications called Why Music which we sent out batches of to every music service in London in my first few weeks at Music Mark. I was only once again reminded of these leaflets when I found one of them at the bottom of my desk when we closed the office last autumn.

Now, jump forward to earlier this year and a conversation which took place in the North East Regional Meeting. They were talking about coming together to run a campaign to help parents understand the benefits of musical learning to help with getting numbers back up after the pandemic…and I had an idea!  We could repurpose the little Why Music leaflet and develop a campaign which would support not just the North East hub partnerships but also hub partnerships and music services across the UK.

A few months later, we launched the national campaign Get Playing in early June. Rather than an interactive map on a rather unexciting independent website, we now have a postcode finder on our own site to help parents find their local music hub or service.  But I think the bit I love the most is our new set of engaging images and statements about why music is so great!

In preparation for launching the campaign, we identified 10 statements about learning music, added some explanations and links to research which backs them up.  We commissioned an illustrator to create an image for each statement and pulled the whole thing together into a poster as well as a set of digital ‘tiles’ which can be used in all sorts of ways. These are available to download in English or in Welsh – you can also use our #GetPlaying hashtag in Welsh – #TyrdIChwarae!  You may have seen one of these digital tiles as my footer on emails over the summer or on Twitter posted by one of the Music Hubs/Services, and I even remember seeing a short video from Plymouth Libraries who had printed off the poster to talk about the campaign and explain how to get involved with the local music hub.

It is great to hear from around the country that interest in musical lessons seems to be picking up, although I don’t think Get Playing can take all the credit! However, if we all work hard to highlight the importance of musical learning perhaps we will not only continue to see a rise in those taking up an instrument, but see a widespread understanding of the value of music in parents and carers who can then encourage their children to continue. After all, as one of our tiles says, a love of music lasts forever and one which brings so many benefits in practically every area of life.

Download our free Get Playing poster here. All Music Mark members can also download our full pack of Get Playing resources here. 

Tag #GetPlaying on social media to join the campaign as we celebrate musical learning together. 

“I love walking around our school and hearing all the music playing and people singing all the time!”

Year 4 Student

Located in Shrewsbury, Severndale Specialist Academy has over 400 students on roll and caters for the educational needs of young people with a complete range of abilities from the ages of 2 to 19. The school community is committed to strong values that surround inclusion at every age, stage of development and level of ability, and challenges the dominant narrative around societal perspectives of children and young people identified as having special educational needs.

At Severndale, the pupil’s engagement and enjoyment is considered essential in encouraging effective and meaningful learning experiences. This 2018/19 academic year, Shropshire Music Service nominated Severndale Specialist Academy as a Music Mark School Member in recognition of their commitment to delivering high quality teaching and learning through music.

Daniel Ryng, SEN Teacher and PSHE Lead at Severndale, shares with us how his school strives to creatively utilise music for all of their children and young people to access learning, engage them in meaningful learning experiences and support them to meet their fullest potential. Here are some learning experiences from a typical school day.

…

“It’s just before the school’s opening time and there is tangible excitement in the air! Teachers and support staff from our school are hurriedly making their way to meet students coming into school and support them getting to their classes.

Today is a little bit different though. Staff have been diligently practising their Makaton signing whilst simultaneously singing along to the song ‘Can’t smile without you’ by Barry Manilow. This song is going to be performed each morning throughout the next few weeks as students arrive into school. The idea came to staff as a way to give our students and staff a welcoming and uplifting start to the day. Also, this idea provides extra practice for the schools upcoming ‘Guinness World Record’ attempt for the “most people signing in Makaton simultaneously”.  The enormous smiles, curiosity and wonder evident on both the student’s and parent’s faces as they arrive at the school gates is fantastic to witness. What a great way to start the day! We could be here all day…but it’s time to get to class…we’ll keep you posted on the results of our Guinness World Record’ attempt.

As our students settle into a new day, many classes get ready to start their ‘Communication through Music’ sessions. This was developed by staff in our school in recognition of the powerful impact music has in supporting the communication needs our diverse learners.

Our ‘Communication through Music’ sessions are designed to aid both our non-verbal and verbal learners in sustaining their attention and support the development of important concentration skills for learning. The sessions also give students who have language difficulties or may be non-verbal communicators a platform to develop their receptive and expressive communication skills. Additionally, these sessions aid our students in developing skills for other areas of learning such as: anticipating, responding, choice making and turn taking.

Students play follow the leader and develop their understanding of directional language, taking turns to choose which way we move. We sing directional instructions to various well know tunes.

Today, learning through music doesn’t stop there! Our next timetabled session is Maths and this week were learning about positional and directional language. What better way to support our student’s engagement and understanding of this, than to use our musical skills and include some singing and dancing. This approach supports student’s engagement but most importantly reinforces the vocabulary and conceptual understanding of positional/directional language.

After a short break and refuel, it’s time to start our next learning session. Today, our students will attend a musical intervention session with the aim of developing a range of skills. These include listening and attention skills and important collaborative skills to develop student’s social awareness and co-operation. Some of these sessions are delivered by external music professionals. Here at Severndale ‘Will and Dean’ are a family duo who run these workshops for our students. I ask Dean a difficult question, why does he think music is such a powerful learning tool?

“I think it’s just all about engagement and enjoyment” explains Dean. “We’ve known this for years but music has the power to reach students of all backgrounds, abilities and ages and bring them together for a common purpose. It’s amazing for me to watch their confidence, skills and understanding develop over the course of the sessions with them…it’s powerful stuff…I just love it”.

Our school also employs a Nordoff-Robins trained Music Therapist to support our student’s needs, Evangeline Adams gives some insight into her work with our students:

Dean working his magic with students during a music session

‘In my role as a Nordoff Robbins trained Music Therapist, I work with children from across the academy with a wide range of needs – both in small groups and individually. During sessions, I use music as the basis and foundation from which I identify and work towards specific and personal aims for each student. Whether they are related to developing communication skills, encouraging social interaction, improving concentration or fostering and improving self-confidence and self-esteem, they can all be worked upon using the non-verbal medium of music.  Music Therapy sessions are creative, playful and (very often) loud spaces in which students are encouraged to sing and play instruments, exploring musical ideas.  The improvisatory nature with which the Nordoff Robbins approach is concerned means that flexibility and changeability underpin each session and I can constantly evolve the music to support or challenge the student to work towards their personal aims as appropriate.’

Our academy also collaborates with local storyteller, musician and community artist Sally Tonge. Sally tells stories combined with music, and is especially skilled at working with young children, children with special and additional needs and people living with dementia and memory impairment. Sally also runs a weekly drop in ‘Social Sing’ session where our students are invited to join in and enjoy the pleasurable musical experiences she creates.

Our school staff, and the parents of our students, recognise the many benefits of music, and the joyful and enriching experiences it brings to our students’ learning. It is a real pleasure to see this happening as a pedagogical approach by staff throughout our setting.

After a day of supporting and developing students learning using music, it’s now almost home time. The students can go home and rest, for many of our staff…it’s time to go to the staff choir practice and unwind!”

Severndale Specialist Academy is a Music Mark School Member, nominated by Shropshire Music Service. Read HERE for more on School Membership.