Music Ed. in the UK

This is not a post about me per se, it's more so I can remember these things, and to possibly enlighten those who have a particular interest in music education.

Having just finished my four year Bachelors degree in Music Ed, you'd think I'd be sick of thinking and writing about it...
but that's where you are wrong my friend!

Apparently Dr Cummings did his job well ... well enough for me to want to get up at 7am on a Monday morning  to go observe Jo teach at a local school. What can I say?! I was really curious to see the difference in the educational systems between the US and the UK, and if that meant getting up early after a busy weekend, then so be it. I am a nerd, and a proud one at that.

I watched Jo teach all day, and wow. The systems are completely different...but the kids (and their excuses for not practicing) are all the same  ;)

((I would like to point out that anything I type may be wrong - I was only there for a day, and I may have interpreted something wrong, or perhaps not asked the right questions!))

1. It seems to me as if schools don't actually employ music teachers. When I observed Jo, she got to pull kinds out of class to give them individual lessons. The parents of these children send a check (cheque) with their child to give to Jo for every lesson. The whole afternoon, she gave lessons to kids who sang or played instruments like cornet or saxophone. She does teach an orchestra and a beginning cornet class which she receives a stipend for, and which is also free to the children. It seems to me like music teachers offer their services to the school rather than the school offering an actual position...

 - - - This is pretty different from the US from what I can tell. You are usually employed by the school, and unless you teach at a tiny school, individual lessons are almost out of the question. You are usually thrown into a class of 9 year-olds with recorders, or a class of 15-30 of beginners on all different instruments. Group learning is the method. I think a lot of non-music teachers would make a huge fuss about individual kids going in and out of their classes for individual music lessons.

2. Kids also start a lot earlier here. Her cornet class is most 7 and 8 year olds...we generally start them at 9 or 10.

3. The UK has this overseeing body called  The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM). They mainly set standards for students and assess them through a series of exams. There are different 'grades' of musicians; if you pass the exam for grade five for example, you can call yourself a grade five tuba player (or whatever you play/sing). There are eight grades. Each of these exams - from grades one to eight, on any instrument - has different areas that you must pass. In the brass syllabus, you must play three pieces, one each from lists A, B, and C. You also must be able to pass an aural skills/ear training test, play designated scales and arpeggios (including chromatic, major, minor, and in the higher grades, whole tone, dominant sevenths, and diminished sevenths), pass a transposition test and also do sight reading. For the higher grades, there is a prerequisite that you must also be at least a grade five in Music Theory, Practical Musicianship, or any solo Jazz subject. It must be said that not all kids go through this system - the exams are quite expensive and from what I can tell, being designated a grade is essentially for you to put on an audition form or to show that you know what you're doing if you'd like to become a teacher.

 - - - As far as music goes, the US has nine standards for music education, and each state has it's own standards for what should be taught in schools. For music teachers, these are important guidelines if you'd like your students to become well rounded and successful musicians...but these standards are ignored by school administrators; none of these standards are on any school/state/nationwide standardized test, and not all schools can afford to hire a music teacher anyway. Even for music teachers though, some of these standards are neglected, because a lot of programs just focus on performance. This grading system by ABRSM is incredible...I honestly do not think I could pass all of these exams if you were to test me right now. I know I only started when I was 15, but I feel like that shouldn't matter at this point and there really isn't a good enough excuse. Looking at the grade 7 and 8 tuba stuff is scary for me. AND it also scares me that the people I will soon be rubbing shoulders with have gone through this system. (You know what that means though right? Time to get my patootie in a practice room!!)

When I told Jo that we have no system like this in the US, and that individual lessons are basically nonexistent in schools, she was really surprised. And then she asked me, "How do any of you get any good?!"    After seeing how it's done here, I kinda wondered the same thing.

BUT, along with good instruction, timely opportunities, and motivation/determination, you can 'get good' at whatever you want. An individual's intense drive for success in music - or any field for that matter - is essentially the most important part of 'getting good'. Not all American children turn out to be 'good' like Aaron Copland or Duke Ellington, but it is also the case that not all English children turn out to be Benjamin Britten or Ralph Vaughan Williams... (not that any of these people went through the same educational systems as we have today...)

If you want to check out the standards for the grades, they're on the ABRSM website:   www.abrsm.org

If you have any questions, the comment box should be open for anyone and I can do my best to answer!