Month: August 2018

 

Its the year 10 class, coming up to the end of term, haven’t seen them in weeks and we’re all knackered, creatively speaking. Out of the blue one of my students (knowing I am a huge fan of pro wrestling) suggests they take a crack at writing a wrestlers entrance theme, brilliant! So I detailed the details on characters, leitmotif, melodic ideas and listened to models of themes and they produced some great work (they also had me enter the classroom as the wrestler they wrote for) Fast forward to this half term and I decided to write my own theme, I found some ideas already written on an ass-kicking, high flying tag team with a nod to the ’90s and I came up with this, having looked through my compositions plus transcriptions I realised there were allot of pastiche work there and it dawned on me, that’s how I have learned music!

Composing pastiche is a fascinating way to learn how to write music, it requires you not only to study a particular area in detail but to consider everything outside of the stereotypical, one must delve into what makes something tick, learn the technique and put something down as authentically as possible.

As for using pastiche to teach music, it does require the right context; GCSE composition would be an obvious choice but you can easily use it for younger composition classes.
What I found works best is to spend time getting your students familiar with the elements of the genre or period, getting them to follow scaffold-ed musical models to copy, next set up a research topic so they can look at the theory/context behind what they have learned (you may be thinking, why not get them to research first, then explore? My argument would be that it is pointless to go read up about something you have no idea about, the facts will not have any meaning as the mind has not made connections to knowledge, it also helps students road map better when traversing the difficult areas)
Next up is to begin writing. This is where you are needed the most as careful guidance is used to correct any wrong assumptions.
I would always go back to other examples as the lessons go on and reference more from the source material and more importantly, encourage freedom and ideas as you do not want to put off students by limiting creativity if some ideas don’t work, ask them to save it for another composition.

Of course, pastiche might not work for some students, a more rigid structure of learning composition with structural templates might be needed, but even if you are working with students who show promise in say rhyme or making beats, pastiche can easily work.
I have used this great video on hip hop artists rhyme (link here) for instance with great success. With this pastiche I got students to think about a particular artist (Drake in this instance) play examples from his era and deconstruct the music. For beat makers, it is the same principle and I had loads of fun with one student when using my J Dilla example.

Pastiche uses what I think we as humans have been doing all along, learning models of how to do things. I find it a lot of fun and have developed so much from it during my uni years, for something as complex as music its a great way for any student to develop musical language.
Let me know how you get on with this, it will be great to hear your thoughts!

 

Inspired by:
Kleon, A 2012, Steal like an artist, Workman; 01 edition, NY
Hobsbawm, E (Editor) 2012, The invention of tradition, Cambridge University Press; Reissue edition, UK
Kirby Ferguson. (2016). Everything is a Remix Remastered (2015 HD). [Online Video]. 16 May 2016. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJPERZDfyWc. [Accessed: 14 August 2018].

I remember my first day well on my PGCE course; brash, confident, hungry and above all very much looking forward to a new chapter in my career. Before the course, I had enjoyed a wonderfully nomadic career as a professional musician having trained at one of the top Jazz conservatoires in Europe (something I am immensely proud of) . My plan was simple, graduate and then work my way up to headlining Ronnie Scotts and the Pyramid Stage in Glastonbury, throw in an appearance on Jools Holland and job done, bucket list emptied, mic well and truly dropped…The reality was quite the opposite and dare I say, realistic?

I struggled to get ANY long-term gig after I graduated and lived a struggling artists existence but  things eventually picked up and up and got to travel all over the world, perform with some tremendous musicians and showbands plus I even did a couple of assistant teachers gigs at a Jazz summer school in France where other than learning from the best this side of the Atlantic.
I also met my wife whilst touring so it made sense to pack in the lazy day by the beaches, crazy jam sessions and cabin parties plus the three hour working days for the glamour of stressful days in last period music tech classes, no late nights in jam sessions and double-digit workdays, the things you do for love.

In truth, teaching was always my calling whether I was aware of it or not and the buzz I get from passing experience and knowledge to eager students far outstrips the day to day grind of gigging, at least the responses from a lesson are honest if albeit obnoxious (gotta love teenagers right?) and as my colleague pointed out you get to perform to an audience every day with music teaching. In the right institution, being a music teacher really gives you many opportunities to develop and mature as a musician and I’m enjoying my personal research on genres I never would have covered when I was gigging.

As performers we go into the industry with a sense of what kind of legacy we’d like to leave, that’s why we take risks with opportunities and relish those bookings where we get to perform at Glastonbury or Jools….then immortalise those moments on Instagram and wait for the likes to come flooding in! I chose to be a music teacher to leave my legacy in the hands of our future performers and to create memories with my students so they too can pass these on.

What made you decide to work as a music teacher?