Innovation in Music Education Is Only The First Step in Changing The Game - Music Australia

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Innovation in music
education is only the first
step in changing the game
February 2015
December 2014
November 2014
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Mary Jo Capps November 26, 2014

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No reader of this journal requires further proof, from me or anyone

else, of the value of music in education. Listing the intrinsic and
extrinsic value of an arts-rich education here would surely be
preaching to the converted. Yet, despite all the evidence and advocacy
of the past 30 years and more, approximately 80% of Australian
children still do not receive a music education program that is rich in
its resources, broad in its scope, and lasting in its impact, taught by
people who are equipped with specialist knowledge. So, how do we
collectively introduce a game-changer into this picture?
At Musica Viva, we have a birds-eye view of the potential obstacles.
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Since commencing Musica Viva In Schools (MVIS) in 1981, we have

enriched the lives of over 7 million children across Australia, hopefully
inspiring them to be more engaged in listening to, creating and
performing music in their lives. We are the largest private provider of
music education program in Australian classrooms, with a diverse
program across the country, including in regional and remote areas.
Last year, MVIS musicians travelled over 120,000 kilometres to deliver
music education programs to over 260,000 students through 1,700
concerts, workshops and residencies as well as providing direct
training for over 2000 teachers p.a. as well as a further 8000 teachers
p.a. involved less directly.
We pride ourselves on providing broad, high quality music education
programs for primary and secondary students which range from live
performance to digital learning, through to extended residencies,
intensive workshops, accessible resources and live interactive
videoconferencing events. Our musicians cover a wide range of music
genres, from operatic performance groups to rap, Indonesian, African
and Latin American ensembles, exposing students to over 100 unique
instruments from the viola de gamba to the trombone, harp and
waterphone.
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With this level of national coverage, we have heard most reasons why
schools would/could not introduce a rigorous music education
program: money, time, focus, internal capacity, to name but a few. Our
national research work a few years ago indicated two big factors that
would sway classroom teachers to engage more consistently with
music. Teachers were clamouring for digitally sophisticated resources
to engage students on their own terms more readily, and access to a
deeper exploration of Australian Indigenous culture. We set ourselves
the challenge of addressing the identified gaps, partnering with
relevant organisations whenever possible.
Quick forward a few years
to 2012, most notably with
the support of Rio Tinto
and DEEWR, and Musica
Viva unveiled digital
resources for interactive
whiteboards, linked to our
live music program. These
new resources were
automatically provided to
anyone who booked MVIS,
as well as providing them with the training to implement these
resources in the classroom. Suddenly children had interactive digital
music lessons, filled with fun-to-use activities to develop deeper
musical understanding, plus high quality video material to familiarise
the children with music styles as diverse as Balkan folk, Indonesian
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gamelan, early Western music and contemporary multi-media.

Earlier this year The Guardian UK, with the help of the British Councils
Creative Economy team, scanned the globe for projects that use digital
technologies in new and inspiring ways, and listed ten of their
favourites in the world. Musica Vivas interactive whiteboard resources
project was selected as one of them, and the only Australian project,
as you can read here.
But that is changing the game for those students engaged with Musica
Viva In Schools. What about the rest of the children? For many years,
we have built our programs on the premise that empowering the
classroom teacher is the only sure-fire way to introduce real change in
school music education, as most other interventions are necessarily
short-lived. The one-to-many approach has to have the greatest
potential impact. In 2014, our fully accredited professional
development program in every state and territory was transitioned to
deliver digital teacher professional development. This change has
enabled teachers to access professional development without the time
or distance constraints of the past. Where previously some teachers,
particularly those in regional areas, had to travel long distances to
attend workshops, they can now access quality live interactive
seminars at the click of a button, and review it as often as they like.
The teacher resources and online seminars are available at
www.musicstaffroom.com for all schools that book the MVIS Live
Performance Plus program.
The next game-changing step surely has to be pre-service
intervention, and ongoing mentorship of classroom teachers, giving
the tools to deliver quality music education throughout the year. Some
moves are underway in this regard, but we need to address this issue
before it becomes an even greater problem than it is now, as identified
years ago in the (then) Music Councils research, which confirmed how
little music tuition was provided during the course of tertiary teacher
training. Surely we can collectively arrange the means to start
addressing this, offering a variety of options for implementation in
2015, before any more years slip by!
On top of that, we need to
attack the issue from
another direction, and
make music education a
universally sought-after
program by children and
parents alike. The next
stage of Musica Vivas
digital development will
provide student-centred
resources, tailored to specific age and ability levels for students from
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Foundation through to Year 8. They will be equipped with

complementary lesson plans, assessment tools and classroom
activities which can be tailored for use by both generalist and
specialist music teachers. Importantly, the parents can be active
partners in the learning.
Musica Viva has spent many years and many hundreds of thousands of
dollars creating these platforms and programs in music education. Im
fervently hoping, in a country with as small a population as Australia,
that we resist the temptation for each of us to re-invent the wheel.
How powerful would it be if, instead, we collaborate to provide the
means by which content from other arts and language
organisations/artists can be transferred onto these existing platforms
to accelerating the pace of change. Time is running out, and no one
has endless resources. We are already exploring partnerships that will
achieve the ends we are all seeking that the next generation of
Australians will receive far better arts education as a right, not as
an optional extra available only to the privileged.
The capacity of these new resources to achieve significant results in
multiple disciplines has become most apparent in the project
addressing the other glaring gap in available resources for classrooms:
Aboriginal culture. A creative partnership including NAISDA Dance
College, elders from Elcho Island in North-East Arnhem Land (Yolngu
tribe) and Musica Viva, again with funding from Rio Tinto and a variety
of private and public supporters, has culminated in the hugely
successful Dtiwuy Dreaming. The program includes:
professional development for all participating teachers

digital teaching resource with interactive student activities,
mp3s, video, curriculum links (including literacy in both English
and Yolngu language, social studies, history, dance, and of
course music)
Instructional videos supporting teachers with the cultural
protocols in exploring an Aboriginal culture
Following the obvious

potential of this program
to preserve and activate
Yolngu language and
culture, Musica Viva is
keen to explore the
possibility of expanding
this model to create digital
resources to upskill
teachers to deliver a
Creative Arts curriculum as well as a means of capturing and sharing
the cultural heritage of the diverse language groups of Australias
many Aboriginal nations.
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There is scope to use Musica Vivas digital resources as a launch pad

for presenting and preserving cultural and language content for
Australias Indigenous people and for other cultures around the world.
And the next step? Musica Viva is currently exploring other avenues
for distributing its content more widely, which should be available early
in 2015.
So those game-changers were seeking? Were already making great
progress with innovative ways of bringing music alive for children in
school through both live and digital programs; with professional
development for teachers to engage their classes throughout the year,
using music as a platform to explore other subject areas as well as
musics own innate qualities; with Aboriginal cultural studies, offering
exploration of the subject area that is respectful and rigorous; and
increasingly, with student-centred resources that engage whole
families, inexorably leading them to push for more music education in
their local schools. After that? Hopefully, exponential change.
If youre interested in being part of this concerted effort forward, we
are interested in hearing from you. This problem is too big for any one
organisation to tackle, so lets make the only competition the one to
get music and arts into the lives of more children.
Photos: Musica Viva
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About: Mary Jo Capps

Mary Jo Capps has worked in the Australian cultural
industry for more than 30 years after graduating
with an MA in Musicology from the University of
Toronto. In 1999 she was appointed CEO of Musica
Viva Australia, where she continues to advance
chamber music and music education internationally.
In 2010, Mary Jo became the first female President of
the Sydney Business Chamber since it was founded in
1825. She is currently Chair of the Advisory Board of
the Faculty of the VCA and Melbourne
Conservatorium of Music, University of Melbourne, a
Board Director of the Community Council of
Australia, Green Music Australia and of the Peggy
Glanville Hicks Trust, and a Council member of the
Centre for Social Impact. She works as a professional
mentor and is actively engaged in supporting
emerging talent, particularly in arts administration.
View all posts by Mary Jo Capps
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Innovation in Music Education Is Only The First Step in Changing The Game - Music Australia

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Innovation in Music Education Is Only The First Step in Changing The Game - Music Australia

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Innovation in music education is only the first step in changin...

Mary Jo Capps November 26, 2014

No reader of this journal requires further proof, from me or anyone