Section 4 - A Guide to Personalising Extra-curricular Music Projects
Getting the fullest picture of students’ musical progression is best served by piecing together their experiences in formal, non-formal and informal locations
Supporting pathways
By ‘formal’, we mean the young people’s experiences through the curriculum and instrumental tuition; ‘non-formal’ – supervised work undertaken outside school hours and ‘informal’ – the music making young people get up to themselves, without supervision. In Leeds, the Music Service believes its role is to support the varied pathways which students follow and, crucially, to support those professionals who try to make sense of these journeys, so that students can be guided toward further progression.
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Case study links
Writers Unblocked
Working with the band Pixel, the project was designed to try to get the participants using the website to discuss and share their ideas, music and appraise each others work. They had an initial website training session, three music workshops sessions over two months culminating in a performance and a recording session. Between the workshop sessions, their 'works in progress' were recorded and uploaded onto the website.
Writers Unblocked 2
A multi-media project to create original films or music videos and compose the soundtracks for them. The participants first learnt how to use the software to create short compositions. They then progressed onto composing music for a short piece of film they had made, making sure the music was synchronised to the visuals. Throughout this process they learnt about the rudiments of film music and its variety of functions and how to create an interesting piece of music that had a clear structure.
Sound Track Club
A group Year 8 pupils visited Armley Mills to record sound samples. Then they use music technology to create weird and wonderful sounds on computer, putting together tracks, making samples from field recordings and having a go on some musical instruments (having not played an instrument before!). The results are six excellent tracks featured in the Sound Track Club Project. The students are continuing to work in a similar way with their music teacher in school and many of the pupils involved have started instrumental lessons
Rouen Round 2 - Judges' Feedback
A competition to give one band the opportunity to perform at an international festival. Ten bands were auditioned in Round 2 of the competition, with 4 being selected to progress to the next stage. For all the participating bands, this was a valuable experience and the judges' feedback report (downloadable here) provides them with vital feedback, encouraging them to develop their talents even further.
