The excitement as the curtain rises or as you step onto stage. Violin in hand. Sheet music at the ready. If you remember this moment foundly, you likely had good music tuition at school. Learn how Sing Education brings the joy of instrumental learning to the next generation of children.
Sing Education instrumental music lessons would cover a variety of instrumental skills and musicianship skills.Â
Focusing on high-energy, active music making, we draw heavily upon the general curricular teaching approach of Sing Education – lessons employ singing games, props and flash cards, folk-based material and are singing led. A typical lesson is usually 30 minutes long. They feature either a small group session with up to six children or a one-to-one session with one child. Lessons are usually taught in a smaller music room within the school and lessons take place during the school day on the school sites.Â
In terms of teaching resources, we combine the assets of our bespoke music curriculum together with your preferred instrumental teaching materials. For example, if you have particular resources that you teach with regularly, we build a lesson architecture together with you. The result is that you are able to deliver your own tailored lessons – ones which draw on the skills and knowledge the children are learning in their classroom music lessons combined with your specialist instrumental teaching. This integration across curricular and instrumental learning is important. It enables the children to feel that their music tuition is seamlessly joined up. By structuring the two types of musicianship in tandem, pupils know that what they’re learning in an instrumental lesson is naturally linked to what they’re learning in their curriculum music lesson. While the teaching may be delivered by different professionals, the learning is all part of the same educational programme.
Whole class instrumental tuition enables an entire class, year group or school to focus on learning one instrument for a term or a year.Â
It may be the case that children learn the violin for a term with their Year 5 peers, or perhaps they learn the trumpet for a year on a schoolwide basis. Whatever the model elected, Sing Education actively encourages schools to combine whole class instrumental learning with curricular music. In our experience and because of the natural emphasis on instrumental technique, manual dexterity and the production of sound, we find that whole class instrumental works best when it is part of a schoolwide curricular programme for music.
In these instances – when whole class instrumental is combined within a broad and rich music curriculum that explores all areas of music and music making – the results are outstanding. The children are able to develop and explore the wider skills that they need for music making. They joyfully embrace all the elements of musicianship – theory, composition, performance, etc. Conversely, we’ve found that where whole class instrumental music is purely about learning the technique of the instrument, this doesn’t provide children with enough broad-based learning to generate the transferable skills they will need to make music for the rest of their lives.
Singing and instrumental lessons naturally create opportunities for performance.Â
Sing Education teachers routinely organise concerts showcasing their instrumental and vocal students. We offer support for schools wishing to arrange term-time shows, Nativity productions and sharing assemblies. As a curriculum music teacher, you will often support class teachers in preparing the children for these events. Though you may or may not be there on the day of performance, you will have an active role in just supporting the class teacher in preparing the children to perform that song or piece of music.
That said, we really believe that music education is not just about the performance.Â
While it’s wonderful to see pupils take a well-deserved bow at curtain call, for Sing Education the purpose of instrumental tuition is not to produce each note perfectly or play a score to the letter. A fantastic, successful performance comes from having had a great music tuition which develops a strong understanding of music, a love of singing and a joy of music. Pleasures which last a lifetime.
