A Seeing Ear and a Hearing Eye
In this feature, Des McLean, Head of Music at St Andrew's Secondary School in Glasgow, discusses his approach to teaching music composition. He explains how singing (using the Kodály method) is integral to performing, inventing and listening, and to the development of a 'seeing ear and a hearing eye'. He outlines his department's music making approach, which has clearly been successful with 22 'A' passes at Higher last session.
Composing versus inventing
It is my belief that all young people must be exposed to systematic musical training to enable them to have a 'seeing ear and a hearing eye'. When this is in place, there is then a real chance that pupils' work in composition will be creative rather than formulaic. In Scotland we have generally trained pupils to merely 'join the dots' to create a musical result that will meet the requirements of Standard Grade Music. My experience leads me to believe that the greatest amount of angst among staff and pupils in Scottish musical education lies in the area of composition, or, as it is irksomely called – inventing!
Over the past few years at St Andrew's Secondary School, we have introduced 'inventing' courses that are designed to help our young people compose music. We aim to free them from the restraints of lack of knowledge or skill, or the view that composing is a quasi-mathematical or scientific process. We have provided our pupils with the tools to use the 'nuts and bolts' required to invent. We can give young people structures, formulae, chord progressions, pentatonic note patterns and so on until we are blue in the face. However, in most cases, it will yield only derivative compositions. Creativity develops from exposing children to high quality music making, linked to an incremental understanding of the mechanics of how sound is created.
Music making should start young
I am certain that in Scotland we would be more successful if we started music making in the first year of primary school rather than leaving it to secondary school. To this end, I initiated a practical music making project that is delivered by our nursery and primary colleagues. As St Andrew's Secondary School was made a New Learning Community by Glasgow City Council several years ago, this created a more vibrant interface between the primary and nursery schools that are partners in the geographical area served by St Andrew's. The interface enables a terrific amount of cross-fertilisation of expertise, teaching, professional development and transfer of information.
Using the Kodály method
Our method is based on the teaching of recorder and Kodály singing method. The development the 'seeing ear, hearing eye' principle can be advanced in our very young pupils by having an experience of five minutes of recorder and Kodály singing every day, in addition to their normal music making curriculum. This project has been embraced by most of our partner primary and nursery schools. By 2010-11, the first group of pupils transferring from primary to secondary should come with a much increased awareness of sound and have a significantly more developed 'seeing ear, hearing eye' ability than has hitherto been the case.
In our music department, all pupils from S1 upwards experience a progressive and consistent range of aural training, from basic Kodály methods to a fully integrated practical music making approach in S4, S5 and S6. This is centred around the so called PIL (performing, inventing listening) method. Every period that pupils are in the music department is an opportunity for their 'seeing ear, hearing eye' skills to be developed. Most pupils sing effortlessly and contribute to vocal work in class without the need for constant teacher prompting and many plainly enjoy the experience.
Chamber Choir and Battle of the Bands
By the time they reach S5, all pupils who undertake music from Intermediate 1 to Advanced Higher automatically become members of the Chamber Choir. The choir is timetabled for one period a week and has been found to be of enormous benefit to all choristers pursuing aural work, composition and general musicianship. The same is equally true for those pupils who participate in our annual Rock School's 'Battle of the Bands' contest. Although this experience is very much more informal, the benefits accruing are just as valid and equally relevant and rewarding for the participants.
Scottish Music Centre Composition Chart
Young composers are also benefiting from sharing and reviewing their work through the use of downloadable music files on the internet. The Scottish Music Centre (formerly the Scottish Music Archive) has seen the potential of this and has set up an exciting project based around the idea of having a Composition Chart that can be accessed online and voted on. This resource will be an invaluable asset not only for composers to submit their own work for others to comment on but to have a bank of compositions that could be used by staff and pupils as the basis for discussion forums in our own departments.
Some of the pupils at St Andrew's have listened to the compositions and have done so for a variety of reasons:
- Some felt inspired by listening to the works of other pupils.
- Others used it to compare what they had written in terms of 'listenability' and as a catalyst for their own compositions.
- Two are hoping that their own compositions will feature on the centre's Chart in the near future.
All agreed that it was a quite magnificent resource to go back to time and again for reference or simply just pleasure!
Success of the programme at St Andrew's Secondary School
Clearly, our approach is yielding excellent results. It is becoming commonplace for pupils to rehearse fairly complex music in both vocal and instrumental contexts as part of their composition lessons. This year's 15 Advanced Higher students can readily sight-read polyphonic scores and are becoming increasingly adept at analysing music that is played or sung. For me, this is because they possess well developed 'seeing ears and hearing eyes' that clearly impact on their ability to compose and on their listening and performing skills too.
In conclusion, curriculum planning for inventing should include varied activities so that all pupils experience creativity, expression, collaboration, self-esteem, and most importantly enjoyment. Fun aural training in all music activities in our schools will lead to pupils developing a 'seeing ear and a hearing eye'. This in turn will open up a music-rich environment for them, where they can develop their naturally intuitive inner music, and become musicians who can perform with ease, compose with creative alacrity and have a knowledge of the mechanics of sound within their very being.
Contact
Des McLean
Faculty Head of Music, Art & Design and Drama
St Andrew's Secondary School
47 Torphin Crescent
Glasgow G32 6QE
Tel: 0141 582 0240
Fax: 0141 582 0241
E-mail Des McLean
DMcLean@st-Andrew's-sec.glasgow.sch.uk
Additional information about the department
St Andrew's Secondary School has the second largest roll in the City of Glasgow with 1650 pupils. In the music department there are five classroom teachers and five instrumental teachers. It is an active department supporting the following bands and events with pupils:
- Senior Concert Band
- Intermediate Concert Band
- Junior Band
- Senior Jazz Band
- Junior Jazz Band
- Brass Band
- Samba Band
- Rock School
- Guitar Group
- School Choir
- Chamber Choir
- Annual School Show
Date posted: November 2004