Music Education and the Education Reform Act

Author(s): Keith Swanwick

Source: The Musical Times, Vol. 131, No. 1768 (Jun., 1990), pp. 305-308
Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd.
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Music Education and
Reform Act
Keith Swanwick
FollowingDenis Vaughan'sThe Powerof Music' publishedin Januaryas thefirst of a seriesto providean openforum
for discussion,the secondhas beeninvitedfromKeithSwanwickto presenthis views on the implicationsfor music in
Educationas the law forceschange.
While looking at the implications for music education of
the recent changes in the law on schooling and educa-
tional funding, we need to take note of some out-
standing characteristics of music education in Britain
which might be endangered, or at least require some
realignment.
I regard music education in Britain as being, in some
ways highly advanced, if somewhat erratic; well-
principled, though often messy in practice. As one who
has been privileged to travel quite widely I feel con-
fident in saying that it is unique. Reflecting on what it is
that distinguishes music education in Britain from what
happens elsewhere, it seems that it is in the schools that
the difference is strikingly apparent. Music in Higher
Education - particularly in universities and conser-
vatories - has models and replicas in other parts of the
globe; though the growth of courses in Polytechnics
and Colleges of Higher Education has generated new
forms of degree and helped to loosen up the whole
concept of music education.
But it is mostly in the schools that the pioneering
work has been done and music education comes of age.
We have seen the effects of the theory and practice of
various Arts and Music Curriculum projects, including
that in York two decades ago. There was an early
advocacy of a serious regard for Afro-American musics.
(My long-out-of-print book, Popular Music and the
Teacher,was published more than 20 years ago after
initially being given a dusty reception by one of the
typescript readers, who thought it a betrayal of proper
cultural standards). Some of us have worked hard to
establish a credible and serviceable philosophy of
music education and tried to tease out the psycho-
logical and sociological essentials of musical experience
in order to come to some working principles that
recognise diversity of practice within a context of
priorities. It was, eventually, the GCSE that marked out
the official acceptance of much of what had been
pioneered before, and it will be the GCSE, for better or
worse, that helps to shape 'A' Levels in one direction
and the National Curriculum in the other.
Consider the range of activities to be found today in
school music classrooms. In a study carried out in 19881,
we found in primary schools an emphasis on skill
acquisition: including imitating rhythms; learning per-
cussion accompaniments; playing listening games;
identifying metre or the number of notes in a chord,
responding to changes in levels of loudness and learn-
ing new vocal material. These kinds of activity
accounted for over nearly 50% of the total music time.
No significant amount of time was recorded spent on
directly seeking to impart information aboutmusic.
'Keith Swanwick, 'Music in Schools: A Study of Context and Curricu-
lum Practice', British Journal of Music Education,Vol. 6, no. 2, (1989),
pp.155-172
the Education
In secondary schools 2.5% of the time was spent
transmitting information, while nearly 18% was spent
in individual, pair, group or whole class composing -
half of this without any form of notation. About 9.5%of
the time was given to music listening and 22% to skill
acquisition, with 6.7%on performance.
Western classical music, along with less easily classi-
fied songs and carols, was the most frequently cited
musical type. There was, however, considerable varia-
tion between individual teachers who either worked or
did not work with jazz, or rock and pop, or 'ethnic'
music (dreadful term). The use of published materials
was equally diverse: over 130 titles were mentioned.
Nearly everyone devises their own material.
In summary, the essential moves forward include: the
recognition that music is a practical activity; that
composing is both a desirable and feasible enterprise,
no more mysterious than speaking to one another or
writing a letter to a friend; the relegation of the role of
staff notation to its proper supporting position in music
learning, in the knowledge that much music is notated
in other ways and some not at all; the broadening of
out-of-timetable activities beyond the traditional
choral and orchestral models. The conceptual analysis
in A Basis for Music Education2still seems to have an
influence and has been further developed in Music,
Mind and Education.3In spite of suggestions to the
contrary, there are still but three psychological avenues
down which any of us can approach music; in the role of
composer, performer, or audience-listener. This trinity
is neither an invention of mine, nor of Benjamin Britten,
but waits to be discovered whenever we carefully
reflect on musical experience anc its social context.
Recognising this has been essential to music curriculum
development and balance.
There seem to me to be several fundamental resident
characteristics of British music education, all of which
may be currently under notice to quit unless we are
watchful. To begin with, we have a history in education
generally and arts education in particular of being
professionally inarticulate; preferring the non-explicit
remark to the direct statement. We favour what is
sometimes called the 'process' model, rather than the
definition of instructional objectives. However vague
this might sound, there is a profound truth to be
uncovered here which has been beautifully and simply
expressed by the scientist/philosopher, Polanyi, in his
pregnant phrase, 'we can know more than we can tell'.
Much, if not most knowledge, is indeed tacit: we do
know more than we can tell or indeed want to be
bothered to tell. So a child is asked, 'what did you learn
at school today?' and responds with 'nothing'. The
2Keith Swanwick, A Basis for Music Education,(Windsor: NFER/Nelson,
1979).
3Keith Swanwick, Music, Mind and Education, (London: Routledge,
1988).
305
 teacher is asked; 'what do you intend your class to learn
tomorrow?' To answer 'nothing' is not only in career
terms somewhat risky - even in times of teacher
shortage - but is professionally unsound.
Yet one can understand the impulse to make such
responses. We are not happy with glib predications of
learning outcomes and, generally speaking, are sus-
picious of all educational pronouncements unless they
correspond truthfully with an inner landscape of
values; a vista perhaps only vaguely apprehended, a
terrain of beliefs and feelings which sustain that in-
tuitive sense of 'rightness' (or 'wrongness') which
guides every thought and action. This luxury of the
undeclared; the hidden curriculum; the 'secret garden'
is gradually being invaded by educational accountants
who want to know what it is we actually buy and sell
and at what price. Surely we need to become and are
becoming more articulate about the curriculum, but
this will never totally displace the intuitive sense of
rightness.
We are aesthetically ambitiouspeople. 'Rarely, comest
thou, Spirit of Delight', says Shelley, who is quoted by
Elgar at the head of his Second Symphony. We rightly
worry about the plodding certainty of a 'linear' curricu-
lum with check-lists of linked competencies, and there
are indeed grounds for this disquiet if we observe some
of the mechanical and undelightful teaching routines
that can, at times, characterise music teaching under
such systems of accountability.
Shall we then be losing more than we gain if we swing
towards the explicit curriculum? Not necessarily. It is
only fair that all students have the chance to be initiated
into some musical procedures in a way that is less
haphazard than can be found on the street. That is what
formal education is about. All may be well if we hold on
to our own secret agenda and try as far as possible to
match the explicitly stated curriculum to our informed
and implicit musical sensitivities.
In any case, the Spirit of Delight is fickle and
unpredictable. As Shelley also tells us:
'Spirit false! thou hast forgot
All but those who need thee not.' (Invocation)
We cannot plan to be delighted any more than we can
organise to be happy, good or wise; but we can work
along with these qualities in mind and at least know
and rejoice in delight, happiness, goodness and wisdom
when they occur. We cannot write 'delight' into the
National Curriculum: though we can prepare for its
coming through sensitive descriptions of our educa-
tional intentions while retaining our faith in the power
of the unspecified; the untold; the ultimate supremacy
of the unplanned.
We have though to see that the National Curriculum
for music is not fudged. It must not be reduced to inert,
verbalised 'concepts' strung out in lists over pages of
documentation. What we are looking for is the identifi-
cation of a range of musical procedureswith which
students can be practically engaged, as a basis for the
promotion of critical and sensitive judgments. We can
stay close to music by setting tasks, even the 'stan-
dardised tasks' required under the new dispensation,
that at least have the propensity for musical richness.
Sensitively and imaginatively prepared broadly-based
projects could be specified without forcing the music
curriculum into a centrally imposed strait-jacket of
piecemeal attainment targets, and the results may yield
important information about the musical development
of children. The responses of pupils can be evaluated
306
along the lines of the what are called 'profile com-
ponents' which I have already outlined elsewhere and
will do so again here. Understanding more about how
music actually works and how people develop in their
capacities to perceive, make and respond to music can
only illuminate the curriculum and infuse further
quality into teaching and learning.
When the subject group for music is eventually
formed and begins its work, one of the first tasks may
have to be to determine what is actually meant by a
profile component.The definition given by the TGAT
(Task Group on Assessment and Testing) is ambiguous,
as are the illustrations that are there put forward.
Essentially, profile components should reflect 'the
variety of knowledge, skills and understanding to
which the subject gives rise'. There should, preferably,
be no more than four of these. We are given examples
from English of writing, oracy, reading comprehension
and listening, and in science of skills, knowledge and
understanding and exploration.4
What then are profile components? Are they
activities, like reading and singing, or are they learning
outcomes, like specified skills and defined under-
standings? This distinction is important. To say that
someone is playing the clarinet is by itself a fairly vague
piece of information. To say something about how he or
she is playing, what particular skills and understanding
seem to be involved, is to attempt a richer description,
much more useful to teaching and learning. Composing
music, performing or listening in audience are activities
that people do. But to say that someone is composing a
piece with an interesting structure, performing a phrase
in a strongly characterised way, or audience-listening
with fine discrimination to changing textures, would be
to go much further from the 'what' is being done to the
'how'; to convey something of the qualityof the activity.
I take it that the 'how' is what profile components
should be about. They are about quality not activity.To
establish them requires us to carefully analyse and
publicly declare something about the essential consti-
tuents of musical experience. Anything else will be a
fudge5.
Here are my own findings on this, not lightly
acquired and supported by much in the literature and
by empirical research. When a person engages in music
there are four major related, though different, sets of
experiential qualities.
1. We relate to the aesthetic surface of sensory
materials (the qualities of sounds), savouring them,
identifying and discriminating, trying to control them
in a skilful way.
2. We become aware of expressive character - not our
own personal reaction, but the identification of general
mood and atmosphere and more specific musical
gestures.
4NationalCurriculumTask Groupon Assessmentand Testing:A Report,DES,
1987).
5For example, on these grounds I would have to be critical of the
suggested profile components for music given in the UK Council for
Music Education and Training Newsletter,February, 1990. Three profile
components are put forward as a model: 'Making sounds and music';
'Understanding sounds and music'; 'Music, arts and culture'. But these
are all in different logical categories: the first suggests classroom
activities; the second, some form of learning outcome: the third, some
topics for study. Furthermore, one could continue to add to the list
indefinitely and we are still none the wiser about the kindsof knowledge
and understanding that may lie behind such statements. Attempts to
specify a curriculum on this basis, let alone to identify related
attainment targets, are likely to become a muddle.
6CircularNo. 2/89, DES.
 3. We hear these gestures in the context of a whole,
related together,articulated in a coherent and absorbing
form.
4. We come to a sustained value commitment, finding
musical engagement increasingly important and signi-
ficant in our lives.
Whatever we choose to call these elements; Materials,
Expression, Form and Value can be identified in
descriptions of any artistic experience, and these seem
therefore to be the four essential profile components
from which curriculum statements about music can be
sensibly, sensitively and logically generated, even
though consideration of Value (or attitude) is
apparently to be ruled out. What we are talking about
here are the essential dimensions of musical criticism.
(The rationale for this is set out in Music, Mind and
Education.)
Another distinguishing trait affecting British music
education is that we are, in the best sense of the term, a
nation of amateurs, and this may also be gradually
eroded in the present political climate. The negative
meaning of amateur needs no elaboration here: we are
certainly not to be content with the shoddy. Using
'amateurs' in its positive meaning refers to the urge to
do things because they seem intrinsically worthwhile,
whatever the level of material or extrinsic rewards.
Amateurs are not usually impressed by talk of the
'market place'. British music educators are not by
nature and nurture 'enterprise' people. This is changing
though, as teachers have wrestled with bids for TVEI
money and all the other signs of the conventions of
'enterprise culture'.
This is an important further dimension which needs
to be considered. Although music is unquestionably a
part of the school curriculum it is also part of the fabric
of events in the wider community, frequently and
necessarily taking place outside of conventional time-
tabled lessons in schools. Because of this we may, for
example, want to take children to the theatre, to
concerts and so on. We also have a unique second tier of
music education located within our schools. I refer of
course to instrumental teaching schemes which
operate through local authorities and are articulated by
music advisers. Many of our young people find their
richest musical experiences not in classrooms but
rehearsing and performing in instrumental and vocal
groups, often out of school time and sometimes out of
school. This has been supported by the peripatetic
teacher working with very small groups and indi-
viduals. Things are on the move here and we need to be
vigilant.
The new regulations which took effect from 1 April,
1989 are complex. The DES has found it necessary to
produce a Circular to clarify the situation6. The Act
recognises that education in schools should be free of
charge, that activities taking place wholly or mainly
during school hours should be open to all pupils
regardless of parents' ability or willingness to pay, but
that LEAs and schools have the discretion to charge for
optional activities provided wholly or mainly out of
school hours. The Act also confirms the right of LEAs
and schools to invite voluntary contributions from
parents and others in support of any school activity.
In Circular2/89, individual tuition in playing a musical
instrument is picked out as an exception to the
principle of no charging. Even if such teaching takes
place in school hours a charge can be made. However, it
is possible to have instrumental instruction in groups
and this seems to be exempt from the possibility of
charges, as are individual or class lessons leading to a
'prescribed' public examination or following the re-
quirements of the National Curriculum. The crucial
issue seems to be to make sure that, on the one hand no
pupil is excluded from any activity through lack of the
means to pay and, conversely, that charges can be made
where necessary for the support of a valued enterprise.
In any circumstances, voluntary contributions can be
invited but no child is to be disadvantaged by such
invitations.
Transportation between a school and 'any other
place where education is to be provided by the LEA or
the school' must be free but there are such things as
'optional extras'. Technically, and in the words of the
Circular,an 'activity which takes place during school
hours cannot, by definition, be an optional extra'
(excluding individual instrumental lessons). Such
activities would therefore, by definition, take place
wholly or mainly out of school hours - perhaps going to
a theatre in the evening or a museum at the weekend. In
such cases, the agreement of parents is a necessary
prerequisite if any charges are to be made, though there
is no requirementto charge for these extras. The legisla-
tion is merely permissive. The new legislation turns out
in fact to be fairly flexible and a number of previous
anomalies have been removed.
Perhaps the most important feature of the legislation
is the emphasis given to the National Curriculum and
prescribed public examinations. The GCSE in particular
is helpful to the cause of instrumental teaching in the
secondary school, since performancein small ensemble is
obligatory. Here is a possible role to be developed for
instrumental teachers, though many will need to revise
their view of the job they do. Especially important
would be a greater commitment to make group teach-
ing work.
We need to remind ourselves of the virtues of
working with groups. Music is not only performed in a
social context but is learned and understood alongside
other people. Music and music-learning involves a
building up of psychological models, ways of thinking,
practising, playing and responding, which are largely
learned by imitation and comparison.
The basic requirements for anyone playing an instru-
ment are careful listening and perceptive watching. A
group with a good teacher is an ideal circumstance for
the development of such skills. Giving our attention to
someone else's sound, posture, style of playing and
technical achievement, is all part of group motivation,
so is the healthy stimulation of other people's triumphs
and the consolation of recognising their difficulties.
There are excellent examples of how this can work,
including the Tower Hamlets Project in what was once
the ILEA, and research we have carried out suggests
that technique is not necessarily held back or distorted
by group work.
I ought to make it very clear that group-teaching is
not the same as teaching individuals one after the other,
say, ten minutes each in half an hour. It requires a
totally different attitude where the group has a com-
mon focus. The teacher has to be alert. There can be no
casual drifting into lessons without preparation. There
can be no listening with half an ear whilst looking out of
the window, consulting the diary of engagements or
attending to the fingernails. There will not be time to
practice when pupils are absent. Constant questions
have to be held in mind. What is the next stage? Where
307
do we go from here? How do we involve all students at off minority who need no persuading about the value of
all times? Are there better ways of teaching this or these things and can afford to pay. My own feelings on
that? this are quite strong. At the age of 16 and with a few '0'
Resistance to group-teaching sometimes comes from Levels I set off from a Midlands town with a suitcase
those who have come through the colleges of music in and a trombone to become a student at the Royal
Britain, where the one-to-one ratio is jealously pre- Academy of Music. Although, as it turned out, I learned
served and no other alternative seems feasible. Yet we very little from some of the instrumental teachers, there
all recognise that people can learn a great deal by sitting were valuable opportunities in other directions. All this
next to each other as players in a a brass band or guitar only became a possibility because of experience in the
group, in an orchestra, or as a member of a master-class. local brass band and some help from the instrumental
The wider European model is very different and we service in Leicestershire, mainly the county orchestra.
would find much less emphasis on individual work in By all means then let us actively campaign to keep
the music colleges of France, for example. We also find these resources available - politicians are often un-
less emphasis in the schools of North America. In the aware of the consequences of their actions - but let us at
USA the High School Band is a large-scale teaching the same time try to improve them. There is much in
group of mixed wind and other instruments where what we do that is unequalled anywhere in the world,
most students learn much of their playing technique especially our LEA instrumental service and the best of
and stylistic understanding within the group itself. I our general music class teaching. We also need to get
would not advocate this as the best or only way of ourselves together. Instrumental teachers and those
learning but refer to it merely in order to point out that who facilitate them could be even more effective and
our way of working is extreme at the opposite end of the less elitist; indeed, in some areas they are becoming so.
spectrum. Nor am I saying that there is no place for the And those who make pronouncements about the
individual lesson: on the contrary, such instruction at general music curriculum should avoid giving the
certain times is vitally important. Even so, it has always impression that they are inventing the wheel. There are
been difficult to organise and justify in schools. well-developed concepts on music curriculum content
It is not good enough to go on as we do because we and process and in the aesthetics and psychology of
know no better. On purely educational grounds, let music, and there are researches from several countries
alone economic considerations, there is a great deal to offering evidence that points a way forward: let us hope
be gained from contemplating other possibilities. The that the Music subject group is not starting from zero.
growing and committed number of effective group There will be no time for that and, in any case, our
teachers (who have included among their number schools and children deserve better.
Gertrude Collins, Sheila Nelson, Robert Spencer,
Yvonne Enoch and Kenneth Van Barthold) have a great KeithSwanwickis Professorof Music Education,London
deal to show us. Once we see the value of such an UniversityInstituteof Education.
approach we shall begin to see that the ways in which
our schools and colleges are organised for music educa-
tion might need revision.
The Education Reform Act then, has at least forced us
to re-examine what we do and why and how we do it.
The effect is by no means totally negative.
One other problem needs attention: the coming of
LMS - Local Management of Schools. Each State school
is now responsible - through its Head (manager) and
the Governing Board - for most of the decisions on
spending and the budget. By means of a formula, they
will receive money from central government, bypassing
the LEA's. The worry here is that instrumental services The Editor invites
will not be sustained. Headteachers will have to con-
sider whether this form of instruction is economically
viable, when balanced against other things. Clearly, no letters in response to
school can provide a range of instrumental teachers to
cover all the main options and life might be very
complicated if schemes could only be mounted by some the points raised in
kind of federation with other schools on sharing the
supply and funding of instrumental teachers. And what
about the county orchestras and choirs? Will these still Professor Swanwick's
exist? We only have a Ministry of Education, unlike
most European countries where there is also a Ministry
of Culture to overlook Community Music Schools, Arts article. A selection
Centres and so on.
At the time of writing the future on this seems hazy,
and there has been much agitation to try to make sure
that politicians understand what they are doing. One
will be published.
thing is certain: if these facilities disappear or are
truncated then the rich British tradition of the profes-
sional and amateur musician will gradually be eroded
and participation in instrumental and vocal music will
become even more exclusively the property of a better-
308