The Power of Music
Howard Goodall, Singing Ambassador, explains why handing down a passion for singing to the next generation is the raison d’être of the new Sing Up programme
I can’t remember a time when I didn’t sing. From my earliest memories there was singing at home, at school, in the playground, at parties, at church, more or less everywhere.
Sadly that is not the case for many of the children and young people growing up now. Why is that? Music is probably more prevalent than ever – from the private soundtrack of an MP3 player to relentless ear-candy in every shop and public space.
There is certainly no evidence that young people don’t want to sing – look at those massive crowds of X-Factor and Any Dream Will Do hopefuls – but group singing, particularly in school, appears to be something of a postcode lottery. I am told that in many cases the answer is because teachers were told they couldn’t sing as children or have not received enough training either during their teacher training course or through INSET to give them the confidence they need both to sing and to lead singing.
There is also the fact that although there are plenty of great resources for teachers, it is often hard to find them unless you know what you are looking for and then, even if you do find them, you might not know how to use them. In addition to all this is the need for those who do want to lead singing to receive better support and understanding from colleagues, heads, governors and parents. Children need to know that everyone around them likes to sing before they too will venture to open their mouths.
Singing is good for you
So how do we change the situation and why should we? Let’s look at the why first. Singing is good for you. Singing helps accelerate learning and boosts the ‘memory muscle’. It can help with literacy and numeracy, encourages team work, and builds community spirit – an old-fashioned notion but a much-needed one, I believe.
Singing improves a child’s confidence and is even proven to be healthy – helping with breathing, posture, and general well-being. Many singing leaders across the country tell me that they can tell when a school is a singing school. A singing school is an achieving school, a happy school. Of course that is not to say that other schools aren’t these things without singing, but where singing is at the heart of daily life in a school, all the staff and parents agree that it makes a difference to that school as a whole and to individual pupils in all year groups. Scientific studies across the world have shown that learning a piece of information – whatever it is – attached to a tune embeds that information more rapidly and with greater longevity than without it.
Taking the initiative
How do we help make every school a singing school? Two years ago we began to look at singing and how it could be a part of helping to provide a better music education offer to children and young people. I chaired a working group for the Music Manifesto which researched and developed a set of recommendations that were published as part of the Music Manifesto’s Report No. 2 – Making Every Child’s Music Matter. This report was presented at an event in London entitled State of Play, which took place in January of this year. In response, the then Secretary of State for Education, Alan Johnson, made a pledge of £10m to realise our recommendations.
We suggested a threefold initiative. First, we said that there was a need for a high-profile public campaign to show parents, governors, head teachers, teachers, even the children and young people themselves, why singing can be such a valuable tool in the educational, social and emotional development of all children and young people.
Secondly we recommended that there must be accessible, easy-to-use resources freely available through publications and the internet; a first stop for all things singing. There are already lots of songs available for children and young people and teaching materials to support these songs, but we need to enable everyone to find out what’s available, what might be appropriate for them to use, and how to access it quickly and simply.
Thirdly, and perhaps our most important recommendation, was that investment must be made into a comprehensive training programme. A programme which not only highlights the many excellent existing training opportunities, but also provides additional ones where appropriate, so that everyone who wants to lead singing can gain more skills to do so – whether they consider themselves a singer or not.
From aspiration to reality
So, the Music Manifesto National Singing Programme was born and following a bidding process, Youth Music, in partnership with Abbott Mead Vickers, Faber Music and The Sage Gateshead, were chosen by the Department for Children, Schools and Families to run the programme. They have given the programme a name – Sing Up – and have begun to realise the recommendations, and this magazine is
part of that realisation.
In the pages of this, the first edition of Sing Up Magazine, are details of the work that we have begun as well as some highlights of what already takes place and from which we can learn so much. We hope that being inspired by what you read will make you want to try some or all of the songs and other free resources at the back of the magazine too.
It is our goal that, as we approach the next decade, children and young people will be able to say that they can’t remember a time when they didn’t sing, and we hope that you will want to be a part of this singing revolution.
I can’t remember a time when I didn’t sing. From my earliest memories there was singing at home, at school, in the playground, at parties, at church, more or less everywhere.
Sadly that is not the case for many of the children and young people growing up now. Why is that? Music is probably more prevalent than ever – from the private soundtrack of an MP3 player to relentless ear-candy in every shop and public space.
There is certainly no evidence that young people don’t want to sing – look at those massive crowds of X-Factor and Any Dream Will Do hopefuls – but group singing, particularly in school, appears to be something of a postcode lottery. I am told that in many cases the answer is because teachers were told they couldn’t sing as children or have not received enough training either during their teacher training course or through INSET to give them the confidence they need both to sing and to lead singing.
There is also the fact that although there are plenty of great resources for teachers, it is often hard to find them unless you know what you are looking for and then, even if you do find them, you might not know how to use them. In addition to all this is the need for those who do want to lead singing to receive better support and understanding from colleagues, heads, governors and parents. Children need to know that everyone around them likes to sing before they too will venture to open their mouths.
Singing is good for you
So how do we change the situation and why should we? Let’s look at the why first. Singing is good for you. Singing helps accelerate learning and boosts the ‘memory muscle’. It can help with literacy and numeracy, encourages team work, and builds community spirit – an old-fashioned notion but a much-needed one, I believe.
Singing improves a child’s confidence and is even proven to be healthy – helping with breathing, posture, and general well-being. Many singing leaders across the country tell me that they can tell when a school is a singing school. A singing school is an achieving school, a happy school. Of course that is not to say that other schools aren’t these things without singing, but where singing is at the heart of daily life in a school, all the staff and parents agree that it makes a difference to that school as a whole and to individual pupils in all year groups. Scientific studies across the world have shown that learning a piece of information – whatever it is – attached to a tune embeds that information more rapidly and with greater longevity than without it.
Taking the initiative
How do we help make every school a singing school? Two years ago we began to look at singing and how it could be a part of helping to provide a better music education offer to children and young people. I chaired a working group for the Music Manifesto which researched and developed a set of recommendations that were published as part of the Music Manifesto’s Report No. 2 – Making Every Child’s Music Matter. This report was presented at an event in London entitled State of Play, which took place in January of this year. In response, the then Secretary of State for Education, Alan Johnson, made a pledge of £10m to realise our recommendations.
We suggested a threefold initiative. First, we said that there was a need for a high-profile public campaign to show parents, governors, head teachers, teachers, even the children and young people themselves, why singing can be such a valuable tool in the educational, social and emotional development of all children and young people.
Secondly we recommended that there must be accessible, easy-to-use resources freely available through publications and the internet; a first stop for all things singing. There are already lots of songs available for children and young people and teaching materials to support these songs, but we need to enable everyone to find out what’s available, what might be appropriate for them to use, and how to access it quickly and simply.
Thirdly, and perhaps our most important recommendation, was that investment must be made into a comprehensive training programme. A programme which not only highlights the many excellent existing training opportunities, but also provides additional ones where appropriate, so that everyone who wants to lead singing can gain more skills to do so – whether they consider themselves a singer or not.
From aspiration to reality
So, the Music Manifesto National Singing Programme was born and following a bidding process, Youth Music, in partnership with Abbott Mead Vickers, Faber Music and The Sage Gateshead, were chosen by the Department for Children, Schools and Families to run the programme. They have given the programme a name – Sing Up – and have begun to realise the recommendations, and this magazine is
part of that realisation.
In the pages of this, the first edition of Sing Up Magazine, are details of the work that we have begun as well as some highlights of what already takes place and from which we can learn so much. We hope that being inspired by what you read will make you want to try some or all of the songs and other free resources at the back of the magazine too.
It is our goal that, as we approach the next decade, children and young people will be able to say that they can’t remember a time when they didn’t sing, and we hope that you will want to be a part of this singing revolution.
