How to introduce keyboard within Wider Opportunities

Mike Adcock shares his experience

I began teaching on Wider Opportunities in September 2005 to a double-intake Year 4 group at a primary school in Hemel Hempstead. I had been teaching keyboard in the school for eight years, from the time I first joined Hertfordshire Music Service and we had built up a good relationship. This was a brand new venture for both of us and the inevitable teething problems were soon in evidence. I had attended a Wider Opportunities training session where a group of violin teachers demonstrated a first lesson beginning with instruction on how to take the violin out of its case and hold it. It didn't take long to be reminded that things are not quite the same with electronic instruments. Before the afternoon session seven keyboards had to be taken from seven cardboard boxes stacked in a general storage cupboard and set up on refectory tables, though this only became possible once a dinner lady had cleared away the last of any surplus food, dishes and the odd slow eater still remaining from lunch. Seven power leads then had to find their way into seven sockets on whatever plug-boards could be found and tucked out of harm's way. And then fourteen pairs of headphones had to be connected to seven splitters, one of those into each keyboard. At the end of the afternoon the process was reversed. Generally I had the help of an invaluable teaching assistant, but this was already proving a bit more than I had bargained for. After a few weeks, it has to be said, things improved considerably with the provision of a dedicated classroom space with shelved cupboards to store the keyboards.

Without a music room with all the instruments permanently installed, something few primary schools can provide, teaching keyboard in Wider Opportunities does present practical, logistical challenges. This is probably one reason why it is not generally chosen as an instrument for the scheme: although no statistics are available, it does seem that only a minority of music services offer keyboard. Another reason might be cost, though the investment of a thousand pounds on half a dozen keyboards which should see service for a good number of years doesn't seem excessive. A further factor might well be that most keyboard teachers are also piano teachers, with a background of teaching individually. Whilst many have taken on small keyboard groups, teaching to a whole class may feel like a step too far, though I don't see why other instrumental teachers might not also consider using keyboard in Wider Opportunities. It certainly has a lot to offer. The very look of the things is enticing to young eyes. With their 21 st century silver sheen, an array of buttons, lights and displays and the promise of a galaxy of sounds and rhythms, eager hands yearn to reach out to them. There had been many previous occasions when I had seen non-learners catch sight of a keyboard in a classroom or at an assembly concert and the look of envy was unmistakeable.

There are those who argue that an electronic keyboard offers its rewards too easily, that its exotic sounds and enveloping accompaniments hide lazy musicianship, a substitute for real effort. I disagree. Keyboards offer an exciting way into playing music that sounds credible. Keyboards, played with the use of preset rhythms, offer a comfort zone, a means to begin playing in a way that doesn't leave the player feeling too exposed. For me, the crucial thing is to engage pupils in the music, and here they can begin to interact meaningfully in a musical world that doesn't sound light years away from what they hear coming from their TV and computer games. Of course, to begin with some will go straight for the wackiest, spaciest sounds, the gunshots, the barking dogs and so on, but in my experience the gimmicky tones are soon seen for what they are and these adventurers are then keen to find a way of making their own input. It's then that the real challenge can begin.

My Wider Opportunities teaching took place on a Tuesday afternoon. Each of the two Year 4 classes was divided into two and I was to see each half, one after another, for a half-hour session. This proved to be less than ideal. Apart from the difficulty of presenting a new idea with freshness and spontaneity when it's the fourth time you've done it in one afternoon, it was the practicalities which got in the way. By the time other classroom routines such as register-taking had been seen to and the change-over from one half-class to the next had taken place the thirty minutes was often reduced to twenty. No sooner had the group begun to settle into the day's activity than it was time for them to be bundled off and the next dozen or so keyboard novices marched in. They found it frustrating and so did I.

The numbers allowed two pupils to share a keyboard, and they were then able to work together using headphones. Again, with the example of informal learning in mind, I found that this allowed pupils the possibility of experimentation, discovering individually or in pairs what they were able to do, without being continually directed. Nevertheless, part of the point of learning in a large group is the opportunity it gives for ensemble playing and there was an element of this in each lesson. I also tried to ensure that when pupils had spent time working in pairs there was an opportunity for them to remove the headphone splitters from the keyboards and perform to the rest of us.

Because of the plenitude of attractions and sometime distractions that a keyboard presents, I decided to begin my Wider Opportunities programme by addressing these features head on. So rather than setting off with everyone's right-hand thumb on middle C, early lessons were dedicated primarily to exploring the musical characteristics inherent in the keyboards. In the first week each pair was given the task of listening to a set of tones and documenting their characteristics, dividing them into those with a very short decay, a medium decay or continuous sustain. In the second week we did begin playing the keyboard itself, making use of all fingers, but the following week's lesson was spent listening to the instruments' built-in rhythms, trying to identify the type of music and perhaps from what part of the world it might have originated. It surprised me that eight and nine year olds would have the breadth of musical knowledge they generally showed and how accurate were their observations. Without necessarily knowing it they are already part of the global village.

Once they started to find their way around the black and white keys we started playing tunes, some well-known, determined through democratic choice, others that I contributed, the first of which became our theme song. Easy to play (based on a five-note ascending and descending scale) and with pertinent lyrics it was no contender for a Mercury Prize but it did the trick:

Tuesday afternoon / We'll be playing keyboard

Learn to play some tunes / There's no way we'll be bored.

In the spring term, desperate to bring some variety into my afternoon if only to keep me on my toes, I wrote four two-part tunes, one for each group, which they learnt through a combination of listening, fingering indication and notation. The policy at Hertfordshire was that we were not expected to teach notation in Wider Opportunities. In the early stages I didn't use it at all but as I introduced later pieces of music I presented the notation on a sheet as an option, mainly for those who were already using it in other instrumental lessons. I decided to explain the concept and principles of notation to the whole group post-experientially. In other words, once they had learned some pieces, I introduced notation by showing them what the tune they could already play looked like written down. It feels a much less intimidating way of getting the idea across, particularly to a large group.

In my own playing and in my teaching I use a lot of improvisation. I was determined to extend this into the Wider Opportunities sessions and it worked well. I started off by taking the well-trodden path of pentatonic improvisation using the black notes, with me playing an appropriate chord sequence using a keyboard rhythm accompaniment. Having a dozen or so beginners improvising all at once would have been pretty meaningless - it can seem so even with that number of professionals at it - so I adopted various different strategies. By structuring the improvisation through, for example, going around the group in a series of overlapping duets and trios they were able to demonstrate real musical sensibility and a preparedness to listen as they played and when they didn't.

At the end of the year all those who had taken part in the Wider Opportunities scheme presented a performance in a school assembly with invited parents and relatives. All the pupils played to their strengths, whether it was supplying an agreed part or improvising; everyone had a good time and the audience seemed suitably impressed. Any pupil choosing to have instrumental lessons in school will probably guess that being asked to play in front of an audience at some point is part of the deal. But at the beginning of that year playing the keyboard in front of the school was not something most of these children anticipated, yet they rose to the occasion admirably.

When I finished my year of Wider Opportunities I also ended a nine-year period of working for Hertfordshire Music Service and moved to Gloucestershire. Another keyboard teacher has taken over and is continuing the project. As with any pilot scheme things needed refining and there have been various changes for the better. Because my sessions coincided with PPA time for one of the classroom teachers there wasn't the possibility of directly involving them, which would seem, to say the least, desirable. This has changed, and classroom teachers are involved in at least some of the lessons. It is now Year 3 pupils who follow the scheme, giving those who want to carry on the possibility of a further three more years of lessons. Following the purchase of more keyboards each lesson is now to a whole class which means that the group gets the best part of an hour, with far more opportunity to settle into things and try out more.

At the end of a year teaching Wider Opportunities the question inevitably comes to mind about what is going to happen next. Having given children a taste of the joys of playing music how can that knowledge, experience and enthusiasm they have shown be sustained, nurtured and developed? Most primary school teachers won't feel equipped to carry on with similar work. Some pupils will feel inspired to carry on by taking individual or group lessons in the school but for many the family budget will not stretch to cover the cost. On a return visit to my Hertfordshire school I decided, with the support of the current keyboard teacher, to give a questionnaire to the two year groups, now Year 4 and 5, who have already benefited from Wider Opportunities with her. I was interested to find out what sort of impression the scheme had left and what their musical aspirations might be. With a return of sixty nine questionnaires it's certainly not possible to claim it reflects a national picture, but some of the results seem significant. Most remember the experience well or quite well, most enjoyed it and out of the sixty nine pupils, twenty took up keyboard lessons. Given the economic restraints in a neighbourhood which is not particularly affluent, this seems agreeably high. The result that impressed me most, however, was that when asked if they would like to learn to play an instrument when they go to secondary school 73% answered “yes”.

The majority of pupils taking instrumental lessons give up after a relatively short period of time. There seems to be, for various reasons, what is clumsily referred to as a disconnect, a breakdown between aspiration and reality. Yet if 73% of Year 4 and 5 pupils in a school wish to learn an instrument when they move on to their secondary school, and it is reasonable to assume that their Wider Opportunities experience fed that wish, then it is important that that interest is allowed to flourish. With the changes in the Key Stage 3 music syllabus bringing in a greater emphasis on playing and creative work and the informal learning methods of Musical Futures becoming more assimilated into the classroom, things are clearly going in the right direction. The government has stated a hope that at least 50% of those who do Wider Opportunities will continue playing. The scheme is to receive funding until 2011, but no one is certain what is going to happen after that, not least because there could be a change of government. I said at the beginning that the original government pledge made it seem there was no turning back. If that is to be the case, then Wider Opportunities should not just continue but be extended beyond the isolated experience it currently is. It should stretch even wider. If music in schools can instil not just a good critical awareness and knowledge of music, but a belief that playing music or singing is for everyone and that it benefits us all, it really will be achieving something. This process must begin at primary level and Wider Opportunities is showing how. Incidentally, I think they should all learn keyboard. But then I would.

Mike Adcock works as an instrumental teacher for Gloucestershire Music and is currently preparing a book of keyboard pieces for use in Wider Opportunities and beyond.