Interview: Gareth Malone - Music Manifesto Feature

Since his mother played Vivaldi to him in the womb, Gareth Malone has loved music. Now as a vocal animateur and leader of the LSO community choir, he spreads the joy of singing for a living and he's best known as the crusading conductor of BBC2's The Choir.

In the first Bafta-winning series, Gareth took up the challenge of creating a youth choir from scratch to perform at the World Choir Games. Now he's back with a second series, taking choral music to Lancaster School in Leicester, an all-boys comprehensive well know for its sporting prowess but definitely not its singing. Can he put singing back on the school agenda? Read on to get the lowdown from the man himself.

MM: There was some criticism of the first series of The Choir from within the music sector, how did you react to that?

GM: I think the second series is the answer to most of the criticism. On reflection, after the first series I thought if I were asked to do it again, and I had a bit more clout, there were things I would do differently, and I got the chance to do that.

There were comments from people saying it was unrealistic - of course it's unrealistic, it's a television programme. But I've lost count of the number of people who've told me they've joined choirs, or set up choirs, or started singing as a consequence of the show and that outweighs everything else.

Why is it important to you to get boys singing?

I went to an all-boys school and I loved being in the choir but I got stick for it. I struggled against a tide of apathy and ridicule for many years and that's unfair. It's really odd how singing can be an amazingly aspirational thing to do if you want to be Craig David, and yet it's beyond the pale if you want to join the school choir.

So it was more about changing the culture around singing?

I wanted to give the opportunity to as many of them who might want to do it. You'll see in programme two the ice starts to thaw and boys start to come out of the woodwork. The music teacher at the school knew that these boys could sing but they were very reticent. That was to do with the culture of the boys and the expectations around them at that school.

The staff choir was a good way of setting an example...

I think it ought to be replicated everywhere, I thoroughly recommend it. It wasn't my idea. The Sage Gateshead has this wonderful programme and that's where I saw it. Helen Collins, the music teacher at Lancaster, had a small group of staff singers gathered together already and the moment I walked into that school I had a sense that this was a positive place and I knew that given the skills and the energy and focus we could do something

What benefits of singing did you want to pass on to students?

I wanted to give them a sense of the enormous benefit to your self confidence you get through singing and also open their eyes to the wider world of music. We have such a rich heritage of music from around the world and I want people to enjoy and get that deep pleasure from listening to music and being involved in music making.

Did you have more confidence you'd be successful second time round?

I went in feeling a little more cocksure and quickly found out that the challenge was much bigger and quite different because what I wanted to address was institutional reform for singing. I thought emotionally I'd be fine this time, but the pitfalls were completely different and it caught me totally unaware and it was emotionally draining and difficult. There were times when I thought this is really not working, but I asked for help and the school was brilliant.

Did you get a better idea of the challenges of classroom teaching this time?

It's a terribly hard job. You can't just be the friendly local singing animateur who pops in and it's always fun. You have to deal with discipline and sometimes you have to say, I'm sorry that's not acceptable. For me the hardest thing was teaching year 9, before they've chosen their options. They're still obliged to be involved in music and half of them don't want to be there. And that's very difficult. You can be faced with point blank refusal.

What were your techniques for dealing with resistant singers?

I tried about 25 different techniques. I did composition projects where they wrote their own songs, brought in new material, got them to suggest material. I chose lots of different songs - poppy songs that are easy and accessible. The way you ultimately win is by keeping on doing it, little and often, and normalising the activity.

A good tip is when you have them singing, get the headmaster to come round and listen to them. We did lots of impromptu concerts for senior management and that really helped boost their confidence.

In episode 1, the boys were very embarrassed to be made to sing in front of their peers, was it right to put them in such an uncomfortable situation?

I think you have to. You need a bit of danger and you need a bit of excitement, especially for boys. They love the energy and adrenaline you get from performance - it's like stepping out at Wembley Stadium. Especially in a sports college, they relate to the build-up, the tension and the excitement. It's important to give them performance opportunities. You learn a song and you don't really see what the point of it is until you stand up and deliver it and get that buzz.

Are the boys still singing at Lancaster?

It would be a foolish thing to say I've changed everything, but it is now much easier for a boy to say I want to be in the choir. They've got an upper voice choir and a lower voice choir and a chamber choir, which is an invited mix of the best singers from the staff choir and both boys' choirs and they're starting to sing four-part harmony. There are lots of year 7s coming up and the situation is definitely positive.

What reaction have you had from the teachers?

We have a group of beatboxers and MCs who formed a little break-off Urban Sounds choir and I think some of the teachers saw them in a different light. They got to see some boys who aren't always the easiest kids to deal with doing something positive and that's great.

So has music really transformed any of these young people's lives?

Chloe Sullivan is the obvious one, from series one. Chloe did a music production course straight after The Choir and I know for a fact she would not have done that were it not for The Choir. From that she got into youth work. She'd been struggling and I think she saw the light and got her life back together.

This series we have one boy, a rugby player, a real lad, and he starts to sing and amazingly he then changes his GCSE options to do a Music BTEC, so that's changed the course of his life. And there's a boy who's dyslexic and he has some really interesting things to say about himself following the process- I think that's the end of programme three, that's a good one to watch.

Don't worry Gareth, we'll be watching!

This feature was originally published by Music Manifesto, the campaign to improve music education 2004 � 2010.

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