Looking back to when the Music Manifesto launched five years ago, and when Youth Music launched ten years ago, what was state of music education?
As someone who has been in music education all my working life, starting as a secondary school teacher, I'd say it's actually the definition of music education that has been changing.
We now have a much broader definition of music education, which includes things happening in and out of school, different types of music, different approaches to teaching. And it's much more inclusive. There's a much larger number of children and young people who now feel music education is for them, simply because we have been all working together. Ten years ago music education was perceived and experienced through quite a narrow spectrum and as a result lots of children and young people were missing out, one way or another.
What have some of the main developments been?
When Youth Music started out there were some key concepts we put down markers on straight away, and I was really pleased to see that those markers got woven into the heart of the Music Manifesto, which gave them a much larger platform.
One of those was early years (under 5s),
which wasn't part of what was considered music education at that time. Then we looked at different styles of music making, different genres and different cultural traditions, and partnerships between formal and non-formal structures. And then singing, which was one of our key priorities early on. The Music Manifesto put a lot of energy behind that and now we have the national singing programme, Sing Up.
One more thing that's been central to Youth Music's work is about those children and young people in challenging circumstances who have always been left out. There's a lot of dedicated hard work and commitment needed to make sure that situation changes and I have seen strides forward in the last five years.
Is there a broad agreement that this inclusive approach is the way forward, or are there dissenters?
I think there's always some scepticism when you're talking about change and moving from the status quo, but that can be quite helpful. You need challenges to make sure the developments you're talking about are really robust.
Which projects or events have particularly inspired you?
There are so many! One which has stuck in my mind over the past months is a project happening down in Kent, Messing with Mozart. It was about getting a range of young people with different musical backgrounds involved in a music-making project with an orchestra at the centre.
For some of those young people it was the first time they'd had a practical experience of working with professional musicians, the first time working directly with music from Western classical tradition, or the first experience of being supported to create their own music. It was great to see this diverse group of young people - some of whom may have thought, 'Classical music isn't for me' - being really inspired to take on all sorts of music, and have their own music respected within that as well.
The musicians felt they were on a bit of a journey as well. Some of them hadn't worked in this way before. In the past it was about 'We present, you receive', rather than 'We do this together'. It made me reflect on the position of young people as music makers and as creators themselves. If we're talking about the differences in music education over the last five years, that is a significant one, that young people can shape their own musical development, with the support of professional musicians.
What are you most proud of achieving at Youth Music?
I suppose the biggest one has been the 21 Youth Music Action Zones across the country, consortiums of different organisations who got their heads together to work effectively in partnership: music organisations, children's and young people's services, those from the formal and non-formal sectors and from other art forms. It's about making sure that young people are drawn in, that there's a breadth of music made available and whatever the child's starting point, that they start to find pathways to progress musically, as well as getting social support.
Looking to the future, what do we still need to focus on?
Musical progression, across that breadth of musical genres. And underpinning that, workforce development. We've unearthed that there is a much bigger, wider workforce out there in terms of supporting all this, but we need to skill up that workforce so we know it's the very, very best.
I'd also like to see a greater, more imaginative use of technology. Firstly, in terms of knowledge management and sharing of practice. Some of the old fashioned sharing of practice, face-to-face, still needs to carry on, but I'm sure there are much more imaginative ways of using technology in addition to that. Secondly, in looking at musical learning and progression routes for young people. The way social networking has grown offers us opportunities to make a significant step forward if we use technology in a much more savvy way.
In a time of prospective cuts, what can we not afford to lose?
One of the things that we shouldn't lose is the breadth of expertise and experience in this wider definition of music education. There's a danger of retreating to where we were ten years ago.
Some aspects of the funding system, if they went, would cause serious problems - ringfenced funds like the Music Standards Fund, for example. I would be banging the drum to say let's have current ringfenced money for music education sustained. If you tried to use that money as general funds I think there would be serious, serious problems.
Whenever cuts come it's those children and young people in challenging circumstances who suffer most. Because it's more resource intensive, it's harder work, it's those young people who are always being let down, always on the end of short-term strategies. We have to find ways of giving them an ongoing commitment and look to judicious use of partnerships. It's not about the music sector trying to do it all themselves. If you look at children's services, they have the same agenda - you pool your resources and you can actually make things happen. The alternative is slash and burn.
This Feature was originally published by Music Manifesto, the campaign to improve music education 2004 – 2010.
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