Music vs NAPLAN 2014

It sounds like a new release game or electro dance album moving into next year. If only it were, but I don't think any artist would be making it big anytime soon with a name like "Naplan".

The views that I'll be expressing in this article are purely from my perspective, and not representative of any other organisation apart from my own tuition business.

As the teaching wraps up towards the end of 2013, I continue to work hard with my students as we complete what is essentially out first term leading up to the events of July/August next year. We work towards this goal since it is the time where a lot of examinations, assessments, and post-competition performances take place.

Everything is moving along as it should, until I am notified about some of the primary schools and their plans heading into next year. Grafton is the first town where some schools start to announce proposed changes to external programs. The change that has the biggest impact is that external programs are not allowed to commence until the middle of the day (the proposed time was from 12:30pm). The mornings have to be left available throughout the week for students to complete their maths and literacy sessions, or even to the point of allocating more time to these subject areas.

I discussed this matter with a couple of other music tutors, and the only thing that I was hoping for was that other schools in the North Coast region would not be taking this lead. Unfortunately, another school announced they would be changing their subject approach and this may well have the same effect on other schools now. It has started to bring forth the sad reality that external programs of development and value are going to either trail behind or be discarded for the internal text-book style slog of literacy and numeracy teachings. I'm all for students receiving their education as deemed to be of greatest importance by the government and world-rankings, but not at the detriment of other programs that have proven consistently to be of benefit or assistance as a part of their education and/or behaviour management.

To be absolutely clear, this is not purely about music programs in schools. This is about any program that inspires creative, artistic activity. This includes anything that may be related to the use of cognitive, fine motor, or gross motor skills with an aspiration to learn and develop.

Using music as our primary example, studies and research have clearly given the results that if children take up a musical instrument and study it with intensity that other areas of their school work and behaviour improve. When I was in high school, my music teacher showed me an article where it was declared that mathematical skills would improve by 66% if you studied on a musical instrument. The proof is in the pudding as the improvements to learning, behaviour, and application are observed over time by the student, their parents, and their music teacher. And one would hope the classroom teacher too, as they wonder where the miraculous improvement has come from while (hopefully) looking past any previous behaviours, misdemeanors, or failures displayed by the student.

Over the years I have had many families give their thanks and remark at not only how well their child is playing (and what a joy it is to hear them play an instrument), but also how much their child enjoys school and the improving results in their classroom subjects. I’ve had teachers warn me about new students being problematic and having issues. The next term I would ask what the problem was.

The program limitations are of great concern. What I find annoying is the fact that a successful formula/program that these students are taking part in is going to be modified or possibly removed if a schedule is imposed and restricted enough. This will end up disadvantaging students and may cause them to regress, effectively lowering the standard instead of finding methods and teaching strategies to help reach the bar or push well above it. Why is it that these program proposals want to cut into an already effective teaching strategy that the families and students WANT to take part in?

The current hypothesis is that the brain is at its freshest in the morning. It will be if they’ve had a decent night of sleep and a satisfactory breakfast, but otherwise something I wholeheartedly agree with. So if the brain is at its freshest in the morning at the start of school, then it should be good to go ahead and saturate with textbook-style teaching. And we all know that students, in primary schools in particular, are going to be incredibly engaged with hooking into their maths equations and wanting to write the perfect bit of prose for a national testing scheme. Their brain may have a different opinion on that matter as it goes into an “osmosis mode”, instead of being in a more pro-active mode where greater brain activity is inspired and generated by creative tasks or activities.

During the last week of school, the Orara High School band participated in their school’s Presentation Day. This is a school program I have worked with for the last three years, something I didn’t realise until it was mentioned after the performance (time flies when you’re having fun, and doing stuff). Throughout the awards presentation, there were three different performances. There were two musical ones, and a dance routine presented by a duo of girls. Each performance received rapturous applause and support as people marveled at the skills displayed. The combination of horizontal and vertical dimensions of the dance duo as one displayed a routine on the floor while the other danced with vertical silks as they tumbled, rolled and twirled to the profound music (and it was if you observed the routine and heard the lyrics at the same time). The gripping performance of a contemporary celtic-style piece by a quintet including drums, bass guitar, acoustic guitar, banjo, violin and vocals left many students intrigued as they listened in silence. Lastly was the school band as they gave an outstanding performance of Pirates of the Caribbean, surprising both the music teacher and I as we performed along with them. The students from all of the performances had positive, personal highlights as they performed in front of local, state and federal political dignitaries.

So while I laud praise on these students that gave incredible artistic performances as part of the end of year festivities for Orara High School, what does this have to do with the current proposals for primary programs going into next year? The majority of these students that took part in these Presentation Day performances received awards of achievement in different subject areas. The awards of particular note, for students from years nine through to eleven, were the Overall Achievement awards. These awards are given to the top three ranking students for each year. Of the ten students (there was a tie for third in Year 9), eight I could readily name as being involved in a creative and/or artistic area of some kind whether it involved sound, visuals, or movement. For Year 9, it was a clean sweep of musicians with a different instrument for each recipient. I mentioned this to a couple of teachers and parents present, and the response was ever so clear.

“If only everyone realised and understood the benefits.”

Ensembles Galore (From Hong Kong to Home)

Two ensembles, that I have been involved with, have had a nice feature and some very welcome results these school holidays. It goes without saying that some of the most enjoyable music experiences are often the ones shared with your peers or fellow "muso's". Through playing music with other people we learn and develop new skills, form new relationships, and maybe even inspire to push our musical abilities further.

The first ensemble to mention in this post is the West of the (NSW) Divide Wind Ensemble. This week, the ensemble took part in an International Youth Music Festival held in Hong Kong where they performed as part of a competition, and were even permitted the opportunity to perform at Disneyland.

The buzz and the feeling of performing in such a competition, or at a unique venue, cannot be described. A few years ago I experienced this in New Zealand, but for these young musicians the feedback so far has been overwhelming from their trip. Adrenaline rushes, goosebumps, and an assortment of emotional reactions has been expressed so far from the students. I'm sure there would be students that would state that words couldn't describe what they experienced.

As part of the competition, the ensemble had to prepare four works, and one of these had to be by a composer of their home country. In this competition you are not necessarily performing against other ensembles, but for a rating that is either bronze, silver, or gold. Two years ago the ensemble flew to Hawaii and narrowly missed out on gold, and this group was lauded by several people as being one of the strongest ensembles from regional NSW. And it was with several high standard musicians in different sections throughout the ensemble, which really helped the group bond and perform well. For this group of musicians traveling to Hong Kong, it was a very different ensemble to what they had two years ago. After not being involved with the band camp program in 2012, I only recognised about half of the students from the programs at the workshop in January.

About halfway through the week the news started to trickle through about the result of the competition. A gold rating was awarded to the West of the Divide Wind Ensemble. I honestly couldn't believe it at first until a couple of photos of staff members with the award were shown. To be awarded a rating such as this, in my opinion, shows that you are setting an incredibly high standard. Possibly to even go as far as breaking into an international standard if the ensemble functions magnificently well in a lot of performance aspects, which this group has done.

While everyone in Hong Kong would have been on an absolute high with the result, I was sitting here at home absolutely speechless. No doubt when these students arrive at their home towns the superlatives of greatness are going to be announced throughout the local media, including the endearment of being "talented". When I was invited to work with this ensemble in January I didn't know what to expect, and I don't think the students did either until we started cracking the whip and working with them. One aspect I really enjoyed about this ensemble was that I could look around and not view anyone as assumed talent. By no means am I saying that no one involved in the ensemble, or as a whole, is not talented. However, what we were able to unearth was something far greater than talent and it was "strong work ethic", and it was required for the lineup of repertoire. From there the students have developed their performance work further individually and as a group, going on to produce not a gold performance under pressure, but, an absolute diamond.

A massive congratulations to the West of the Divide Wind Ensemble for another highly successful overseas adventure.

So while the Wind Ensemble was packing their items aboard for a flight home, I had the opportunity to work with a new ensemble that will be performing in the Coffs Harbour Eisteddfod next month. At the Clarence Valley Con, in Grafton, the Coastal Clarinet Project had its first rehearsal. This clarinet ensemble has been in the works for a while now, and it was great to see it lift off the ground on Friday. This collaboration is made up of members of the CVCon clarinet ensemble, "Clarinza", along with students from Bellingen and Coffs Harbour. By no means is this meant to be an "elite" ensemble, but the prerequisite that is set is that you are prepared to work hard (and everyone is with skills ranging from 1st through to 8th grade). Even though we only had six of our fifteen piece ensemble (those dreaded holidays...), a lot of success and enjoyment was had by everyone.

The main piece we are working on for the eisteddfod is the "Doumka's Freilach" by Alexis Ciesla. Klezmer music has become increasingly popular over the last couple of years amongst students and audience members in this region. There was even a rousing standing ovation given to a performer at the Coffs Eisteddfod last year after a klezmer piece was performed.

As part of the preparations, I decided to take a leaf out of the "Wind Ensemble" book by using hymns as ensemble practice. A lot of skills can be developed through the use of this music, and I think everyone noticed the benefit of this yesterday. Dynamic balance, ensemble, leadership, and understanding of counterpoint were developed. The students present learned that the important parts aren't always held in the outer layers of the melody and bass, and that there are a lot of important aspects occurring on the inside with inner parts. With another rehearsal coming up on Friday we'll be looking at extending the skills and the playing even further, maybe even play the Doumka's Freilach faster (currently it's at 132 beats per minute after having been sitting around 120 bpm).

Time for me to get back into some practice while I have this extra time available in the holidays.

Practice and the Influence of Multimedia

About 4-5 years ago a colleague of mine shared a story with me in regards to a young musician. A primary school student was selected to play percussion in the Junior State Wind Band, an ensemble for students selected across NSW from year five through to eight. This student's role, in one piece of music, was to play the snare drum. The rhythms in the piece of music they had to perform were continuous and complex as they would be syncopated then return to being on the beat. My colleague, who was there at the time, was not sure whether or not they would be able to play their part. Come the first rehearsal, the student performed their snare part and did not miss one beat the entire time. After the rehearsal, the percussionist was asked how they learned such a complex part. Their response was simple; "I YouTubed it."

More often than not, I find a lot of young musicians these days conducting a lot of their own research using the internet and the vast websites available to give insight into performances of pieces of music. I'll even admit that I will use a variety of sites to find recordings, audio or visual, to gather some ideas on performing a piece of music or in a particular style/genre.

However, one aspect of this form of research I find very concerning these days is that a recorded resource will be used purely just to tell students how to perform a piece of music. A section may prove to be overly complex, especially in regards to rhythm, so instead of trying to figure out this rhythm on their own a student will instead listen to a recording and take it as gospel without ever really understanding why or how it functions. I have even worked with students who have almost refused to attempt playing a piece of music because they haven't heard the piece or I haven't played it to them.

On the way home from a workshop I taught at, this past week, I listened to an interview with past cricket captain, Greg Chappell, on the ABC sports program Inside Edge. There was quite a bit discussed about his early playing career and his mentors, especially with the influence from his family. One quote stood out for me for the whole interview. I even had to pull the car over to the side of the road in order to quickly write it down.

"If you can't think for yourself, you'll never quite understand it."

In the world of music and reading traditional notation, I find it quite amazing how transparent the language is to read and follow yet can be so simple to skim over and completely misinterpret. I think back to when I was a lot younger going through high school and deliberately missing or skipping basic pieces of detail that would not only make a piece of music sound better (and as intended), but easier to perform.

While something such as the example above would normally be assumed and dismissed as a "lack of maturity", I would disagree and suggest that it is more of a lack of discipline and determination. All the detail and instructions will always be found within the notation of a piece of music, yet there are students out there that don't trust to follow everything that is set out before them on their music (some may even admit it comes down to laziness). The instant gratification of listening to the piece of music is assumed to be acceptable, and the creative thought is sucked out as a carbon copy of the recording is replicated (or attempted to replicate). By no means am I saying recordings should never be used but they should be utilised in a studious manner once we know and understand how the music, we are working on, functions.

Musicians have the ability to anticipate, calculate, and analyse as part of their performance craft. This should be encouraged of all student musicians to embrace, and not purely to allow them to huddle themselves in a corner trusting someone else (or technology) to do it for them.

Yes, it does take time to learn the music without someone parroting it to you.

Yes, technology can give you the answers to your music faster. But, do you understand how you got to your answer?

Think about it.