Tag: writing

Can Music Improvisation Help Neurodiverse Students?

by mwrightmusic

In this edition, I’ll share how teaching music improvisation has helped my neurodiverse students learn how music is constructed and performed in their own ways. I’ll also discuss how my own neurodiversity informs my teaching strategies and improvisation methods.

As a caveat: My advice is not a one-size-fits-all for students. Everyone’s neurodivergence is different, and much of how we learn is down to personal characteristics and opinions/bias towards a subject. That said, I will categorise neurodivergent types into stereotypical traits, but only to provide an overview.

If you have read my previous articles on improv teaching in Music Teacher magazine (do check out my latest instalment on how genre plays a part in music improvisation, see ‘How Informed Is Your Improv?’, you will know that I favour breaking down musical elements into sections to use then as models to improvise with; effective improvisation teaching always gives the student a model/template to use to embellish stimuli in real time. My ongoing development as an improviser and educator leads me to question my practice in both the institutions I work at and the wider community.

I view improvisation’s place in UK music education as mainly autotelic and transgressive, sometimes at odds with the constructs of curriculum and learning. As someone with ADHD and Dyslexia, having to adapt to such constructs has and continues to be a challenge, and I know my students also have similar challenges! There have been many arguments and advocacy on social media about how neurodiversity/SEN has been undervalued in our system both in financial and importance, but rather than focus on what we are not in control of, we can focus on what we can change in our practice and that is how we can help our students. Music teachers are in a unique position compared to other subjects, in that music is malleable enough to be taught in many ways.

In learning contexts, music improvisation can be ‘valued as a way to encourage agency and creativity in students and workshop participants and here, too, issues of freedom and constraint surface’ (Borgo, 2007; Kanellopolous, 2011), though as I have written before, this takes a copious amount of planning and direction to steer the learning whilst not over-directing the lesson (2007, p. 83).

Music improvisation offers a uniquely inclusive pathway for students, as it values process over product, encourages personal expression, allows multiple correct answers, creates a level playing field, and engages cognition, interpersonal skills, and emotional well-being. It does this through timbre, rhythm, pitch, dynamics, and gesture, largely without the reliance on words or text, which can be of enormous benefit to students who are non-verbal or have speech and language difficulties.

Having a lay understanding of what part of the brain controls music and what parts of the brain are affected by neurodiversity, I understand that the right hemisphere is in control of music – pitch, melody, tonal memory and sound. It also controls the creative and doing aspects, which is why I heard the term ‘right brain activities’ (Shmerling, 2017) come up a few times in my research.

The left hemisphere focuses on logic, reasoning and more pertinently, reading, spelling, but also rhythm (Overy et al.,2004). Improvisation is a predominantly ‘right-brain’ activity, and students with dyslexia, for instance, are often drawn to activities such as music, art, acting, and sport; therefore, it might make sense that improvisation suits our inclination for this type of learning. It is also why I have mentioned before in previous articles, and in my research that when teaching music improvisation, avoid activities where students are having to think/process whilst engaging with improvising. It is better to do than reflect afterwards.

I would not advocate a ‘free’ improvisation model in any neurodiverse/SEN setting, curriculum or otherwise. Though there would be advantages to not having any restraints regarding personality, individual expression, or aesthetic differences (Hickey, 2015), not having any boundaries will create problems that I won’t need to go into detail about, such as classroom management, relationship dynamics between students, and, of course, learning outcomes. Teaching music improvisation is no different in its preparation to any other musical discipline.

Teachers, though, must consider their students’ profiles to predict how they will handle music improvisation. How much do students understand the fundamentals of music making? How do students interpret worksheets/resources? How will students negotiate boundaries with one another when the learning has no definitive endpoint? (Hickey, 2015, Borgo, 2007 and Berliner, 1994).

One of the first lessons I learned when teaching students who struggle to access learning, particularly Dyslexic students, is to allow more freedom during an activity. I still struggle to read stave notation to this day, despite knowing everything there is to know about Western staff notation and pitch; dots on a stave confuse me! I know some of my students feel the same, as they tell me. So, I revert to what we have been identified as being good at: aural and sound recognition. Here is a recent example of one of my Y9 students. She struggles with reading and has yet to link letters to pitches and translate them into keyboard input. I taught her the rhythm of a melody (the opening to ‘Commendatore’ from Don Giovanni). Then I asked her to pick three white keys and practice putting any combination of them to the template. As her confidence grew, having a sense of what the passage should sound like, I went on to ask her to play passages from the melody as written, and then improvise the rest:

This is how I first learned to play from notation: listening to the music first, improvising what I heard, learning parts of the chart, then interspersing that with my improvisations until I developed enough confidence to know how the music should sound.

Regarding student focus, it is worth keeping in mind that when students engage with music improvisation, they can either demonstrate a monotropic (i.e. tunnel vision or an ability to focus on a limited number of tasks/interests more associated with students exhibiting ADHD and autistic traits) or polytropic (ability to diversify attention without becoming overwhelmed). A polytropic may handle improvisation better than a monotropic. Still, the latter’s intense focus, if directed well can work better when developing improv skills, owing to their ability to lock in, or at the very least, focus just enough before they get distracted or disinterested. Music improvisation gives students endless combinations of melodic or rhythmic ideas and freedom to experiment without a ‘right’ or wrong’ answer, to keep interest.

Many students with dyslexia and ADHD prefer to memorise their work rather than rely on worksheets. Early lessons emphasise modelling and visual or pitch cues, so by the end, students often no longer need written prompts. I use improvisation and embellishment as extension tasks, building confidence and justifying higher grades. Personally, I also learn best by listening, internalising, and memorising music—I’m sure I could still play the bass part from Jesus Christ Superstar after all that practice! From what I understand about myself, owing to issues with short-term memory, monotrophic cognitive load, and heightened auditory sensitivity; Music must be heard first, before I form a relationship with it. Sound over symbol, if you will.

I must also stress the need for us to be relatable and patient with students. I, like you, have seen when students become dysregulated, lost in the fog of processing and keeping emotions at bay. One does not have to be neurodivergent to understand this. As teachers, we are all altruistic and kind-hearted by nature, but making students feel we can relate goes a long way, and sharing our frustrations and successes with them helps. I have always approached my 1-2-1s with the sense that my student and I are discovering improvisation together; we both hear and experience it at the same time. That is something the notated score cannot do, as the teacher already knows it, so the student is merely trying to prove they can play it. Once your student(s) improvise, provide real-time feedback and mirror their improvisations, pinpointing where they did well, where they can improve, and, more importantly, what they can do next to develop more ideas. This method helps students create their own ideas without giving them the answer. For some SEN students, having multiple paths is liberating, knowing that any one they take will lead to the correct answer; for others, the ambiguity and lack of clarity about what is the ‘right’ answer will frustrate them. To that,

I have this analogy:

‘6×2=12 is correct, But so is 4×3, and 20-8, and 24÷2…’

Improvisation is merely the act of solving an equation, and the best improvisers know many ways to solve equations.

Setting the proper environment is vital for your students, preparing them to improvise. Here, you would need to scaffold the learning to pay attention to:

  • Understand pulse and meter, making sure the body knows this first before transferring it to an instrument or voice
  • Modelling and practising improvisations over a solid and reliable backing track/groove, where students can dip in and out of performing/devising without the fear of getting lost
  • Peer support: avoid setting students up to practice improvisations alone. Students can always go to work individually once they feel confident doing so, e.g., for GCSE compositional work.
  • Modelling how a change of musical element can alter the improvisation, i.e., a change of pitch, direction of melody (ascending and descending)
  • Reliance on rhythm and phrases. Leave gaps or ‘thinking time’ in the improvisation and encourage repetition of rhythms as a way of recycling one idea into another
  • Mistakes are part of the process. Frame students’ improvisations as demonstrating equations whilst also showing the workings out

(Wright, 2023)

One method that I have used comes from Tim Palmer, who devised improvisation stimuli based on the ‘Solid, Liquid & Gas’ method, which, in his words, promotes ‘dialogic pedagogies that are student-centred, relational, socially transformative and that support empathy for alternate voices’ (Palmer, 2023.40). The alternative voices can be interpreted as support for SEN/neurodiverse students and the plan can be taught as part of a scheme of work or as individual lessons.  

How I used Palmer’s method mainly focused on starter activities for my KS2 students, with ‘Solid’ representing improvising repetitive rhythmic patterns through body percussion or hand percussion, changing only as the rhythm fades out. For ‘Liquid’, this involved using ‘gesture-led’ (conducting) by ushering in different ‘waves’ to the shore, the waves being other students’ improvised parts which overlap with one another, i.e. students are free to move ‘outside the chosen mode to generate harmonic variety’ (Ibid, 45-46). For ‘Gas’, I used numerical melodic patterns ‘designed to represent gases dispersing into the air from a confined space’ (Ibid, 47). Starting on the 1 (1st, students would then add more notes from a scale to expand their improvisations. We began with the pentatonic scales (black keys, major and minor), then moved to major and minor scales. I understood Palmer’s vignettes to be open to interpretation, which, on reflection, helped my SEN students make music accessible, reduce reliance on text or musical symbols not yet understood, and create space for students to explore music and use their imaginations.

Palmer, 2023 49

Palmer separated his improvised method into the model below:

Ibid, 46

I reflected after each lesson on how students engaged with Palmer’s method, how I structured activities, and which outcomes I targeted. Some factors were beyond my control; students often switched engagement styles or shifted focus from melody to rhythm, such as turning a keyboard into a drum kit. Over time, I learned to accept these variations. Neurodiverse/SEN students absorb information in their own unique ways—often different from non-neurodiverse students.

Support for your high-ability/confident students can also utilise music improvisation; they may already be improvising naturally. Referring to monotrophism, the process of learning improvisation will naturally require concentration and immersion in the minutiae of how it all works. I recommend sign-posting your students to specific musicians and challenging them to learn their language carefully. ‘How does Stevie Ray Vaughn’s vibrato technique differ from John Mayer?’ ‘What do you notice about the rhythmic phrasing of Chick Corea?’

If your students are not drawn to musicianship, use what they already know and build on it. ‘I notice you always start your improvisations with long notes, how about playing shorter notes first?’ ‘You like using the black keys on the keyboard, don’t you? Ever wondered what one of the white keys would sound like if you included them?’ (a trial-and-error method here; you could nudge students towards using B, C, and F, or highlight chromatic passing notes).

This is somewhat autobiographical for me. I remember not knowing anything about music theory in school, and I could just about read tablature. I could pick things up incredibly quickly by ear and internalise them to the point that I could play musically correct parts while demonstrating the details of who I was mimicking. I knew so much about music theory before even knowing what music theory was! Lessons were, as in the 90s, not as diverse regarding adaptive learning as they are today so music lessons focused on notation I could not read (I could not read properly anyway), music I did not understand (If it was not BB king or Offspring, then I would switch off) or practicing with fellow students who could not play (I would learn the part from the teacher, then get frustrated as to why my mates could not do the same). It was much later that I knew the theory that I could put all the pieces together, but I wish I could have done it sooner; another trait of neurodiversity: the feeling of regret mixed with a bit of embarrassment.

There may be a thought as to whether music can help neurodiverse/SEN students learn actually mean, can music help neurodiverse/SEN students behave more in a non-neurodiverse/SEN way? The challenge we face when planning for all learners is the time required, the considerations for all learners, and the pressures from our institutions to show results within their frameworks. We also need to factor in behaviour for learning aspects, and the more demanding our students needs are, the more challenging they are for classroom management and our energy levels. My model of using music improvisation I feel is akin to an adaptive learning framework. I plan my lessons for the baseline of learners but allow for freedom within what is learned via improvisation. No extra planning needed, just giving students my permission to interpret what is learned in their own way, whilst putting in gentle scaffolding to ensure what is being improvised still fits within the lesson objective. This is more so for ADHD students, as they may produce multiple versions of the lesson objective and forget what they created (depending on the type of ADHD, of course). Autistic students, by and large, like the familiarity of structure and avoidance of change or extension tasks, unless one can communicate the benefits of these changes, which are mood dependent. Improvisation can be effective for students with Autism, more so when devising/composing. Still, it becomes a problem when performing, especially when students become dysregulated.

How music improvisation could benefit our neurodiverse students is a research topic I really want to develop, not only for my classroom practice but also because I feel it is important and perhaps still to be discovered, with the potential it may have for our students.  

REFERENCES

Berliner, P. (1994). Thinking in Jazz. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Borgo, D. (2007). Free Jazz in the classroom: An ecological approach to music education. Jazz Perspectives, 1(1): 61–88.

Hickey, M. (2015). “Can improvisation be ‘taught’?’: A call for free improvisation in our schools. International Journal of Music Education, 27(4), 285–299.

Kanellopolous P. A. (2011). Freedom and responsibility: The aesthetics of free musical improvisation and its educational implication– A view from Bakhtin. Philosophy of Music Education Review, 19(2), 113–135.

Overy, K. Norton, A. Cronin, K. Gaab, N. Alsop, D. C. Winner, E. Schlaug, G. (2004). Imaging Melody and Rhythm Processing in Young Children, National Library of Medicine

Philpott, C and Cooke, C (2023). A Practical Guide to Teaching Music in the Secondary School. Second edition. Routledge Teaching Guides. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, (Palmer, T), p.39, p.43-49

Shmerling, R, H (2024),‘Right brain/left brain, right?’health.harvard.edu

Walduck, J. (2024). Improvisation Pedagogy: What can be learned from off-task sounds and the art of the musical heckle? British Journal of Music Education, 1-11. Wright, M (2023), Teaching Music Improvisation

How To Get You and Your Students Improvising #thatmusicimprovteacher

by mwrightmusic

This article will be in Music Teacher Association Ensemble Magazine Autumn 2025 edition, available to MTA Members:

To join, click here https://www.musicteachers.org/join-us/

Hello all! I hope you have all begun the year well and have already used some improvising techniques with your students!

I offer you some tips and a sample lesson plan to get your students improvising in music and present some tips on assessing and strategies on how you can embed improvisation in your teaching.

But first, a reminder:

Improvisation is often thought of as spontaneous musical creativity, i.e. an “on the spot” exercise, but as I have mentioned in previous editions and articles, it is actually built upon a foundation of learned vocabulary, developed through practice, and carefully scaffolded by the teacher to break down into manageable chunks. It is necessary for you and your students to build a memory bank of ideas, rhythms and patterns to recall them at any moment (think of this as one’s music improv vocabulary), having the confidence and play to manipulate them in the moment. This is why students freeze when asked to improvise; they probably have nothing to draw upon!

Advice for your Students  

For keyboard/Xylophone players, the pentatonic notes and major/minor are valuable for accessibility. They represent differentiation by colour and shapes and provide an almost guaranteed fail-safe to not play ‘wrong’ notes. The pentatonic scale is the safest space for initial improvisation, before moving to more challenging scales. I suggest narrowing the key range (e.g., one octave) and having students use triads/dyads for any chordal accompaniment.

But what if they hit the ‘wrong’ note?!

Paraphrasing Miles Davis here, there is no such thing as ‘wrong’ notes in improvisation. If your students were to stumble across a wrong note, tell them they are but one note away from the ‘right’ note. Jazzers call these ‘passing tones’, chromatic links to notes within a scale, e.g. play a C# over a C7 chord? No problem! Move up a semitone to a D to make a lovely C9 sound or down a semitone to play the tonic.

Students may benefit from recording their improvisations by writing or recording them. This helps build their memory bank of ideas and track their progress, satisfying learning progression, demonstrating aural skills and showing understanding of the learning outcomes.

Tips for Teachers

  • Start Small: You don’t need to be a jazz expert to teach improvisation. Begin with pentatonic scales/limited major and minor scales. Develop call-and-response activities to include more choices for responses.
  • Be Honest: It’s ok to share that you are not the most confident improviser unless you say, ‘I’m rubbish at this kids’ in which case, best to keep it to yourself! Turn the activity into a joint learning venture and choose the model of improvisation that you feel most comfortable with.
  • Use Technology or Models: Backing tracks, ostinati loops, or recorded examples help set a framework for improv. DAWs can be an excellent tool for students to experiment without being heard, and you can save progress.
  • Seek CPD and Support: My research on secondary school improvisation showed that many teachers have had little to no opportunities to develop as improvisers during their musical and teacher training. Whilst jazz academics like Barry Harris or Ed Sarath offer wisdom on how musicians can develop, it caters to more experienced improvisers. Jazz in Education UK founders Pauline Black and Simon Purcell, both as influential as the former two, help those taking the first steps into teaching improvisation.
  • Model Risk‑Taking: Play an imperfect improvisation, play how the ‘wrong’ notes work in an improvisation, take a well-known melody and improvise around it. Show your students that music can be manipulated into anything you want it to sound like!

Sample Lesson Plan for Teaching Improvised Melody (a Focus on Rhythm). 55-60mins

  1. Warm-Up: Body Call-and-Response
    • Teacher uses body percussion for students to echo, turning it into a fun musical register rather than saying their names. Improvise accessible rhythmic ideas first, then move on to a selection of rhythms on the board (no more than four, scaffold the difficulty and include some known ones). Do the C&R again but have students respond with any they wish after learning them.
  2. Model: Use of Pentatonic Notes on the piano w. Rhythmic Templates
    • Demonstrate how to use any rhythmic templates combined with the pentatonic scale. Start with two notes, then three etc. Ensure you show that you are improvising the selection of notes and recycling them at will.
  3. Lesson Task: Practice Improvisation
    • Students go in pairs, select rhythm(s) from the worksheet/from the board, then improvise note choices over the rhythm. Build confidence by starting with two notes, then three etc. More confident students can add C and F to the scale to create modal possibilities.
  4. Performance
    • Play a chord vamp/use a backing track. Get the pairs to play their improvisations one by one.
  5. Plenary
    • Think Pair Share the following questions:
      • Which rhythm(s) did you enjoy improvising around?
      • Which combination of notes from the pentatonic scale did you enjoy using?
      • What happened when you made a ‘mistake’?
      • Which improvisations from the group were memorable?

Final Thoughts

The benefit of teaching music improvisation is that one can find ways of creating/devising through play. Anything can be improvised! Provided you believe it can. I got one of my ensemble students to improvise the opening of Vivaldi’s Winter on the flute by getting him to reorder the bars. Granted, some passages did not work, but most did, as they added to his improv vocabulary. Improvisation is trial and error, but who is to say that a particular idea won’t work in another context?

By changing our relationship with the ‘notated score’ as Tim Palmer puts it, one can view music not necessarily as a collection of dots and symbols to perform, but as an act of expression, discovery and adventure. Embrace the uncertainty, scaffold wisely, and watch your students (and perhaps yourself!) grow into confident, spontaneous musical voices.

Please do get in touch if you are interested in me running a session/programme to help your students/department develop improvisation.

Make sure to include any examples, successes or ideas using #thatmusicimprovteacher on your social media.

mwrightbass@gmail.com

LinkedIn – mwrightmusic

Beating the Count: A Message for Music Teachers Who Need Some TLC

by mwrightmusic

First published on my LinkedIn profile

In preparation for the new academic year and a commemoration of my posting a blog since the last one which was in the late 1800s, I think, I began drafting something akin to James Manwaring MBE’s brilliant post on what he did to recharge and get inspired, and Katie Staggs’ post on teachers joining a new department. The idea sat in my drafts for ages, and I could not fathom why it was. Was it writer’s block? Summer holiday brain? Or just some good ol’ fashion procrastination? After all, that bike ride along the Tarka Trail would not ride itself.

The truth is, I am struggling to find a place of positivity for the upcoming year. A combination of reading negative headlines in the press and social media regarding declining A-Level/GCSE Music uptake this part decade, EBacc still being a thorn in the promotion and inclusion of Music in Mainstream UK education, pressures of being a one person department (check out this episode I recorded with Liz Webb on Teachers Talk Radio), my sadness over how the education community engaged in identity politics with the passing of our dear Ruth Perry, and her passing itself still makes me feel uncomfortable as to why it happened and whether lessons have been learned. Its fair to say education has me in a headlock and the referee is raising my arm, one count.

Alas, if you’re a music teacher staring down the new academic year with a mix of apprehension and exhaustion, you’re not alone. Hi, nice to meet you. Pull up a chair, I’ll make a brew and if you don’t mind, I’ll mention a few things that may help you find that light switch you’ve been looking for in the dark, or even better, help you make the count, Hulk up, puff out your cheeks, cup your ears to the crowd and deliver that Big Leg Drop/People’s Elbow to the Negative Warrior (see what I did there?)

I. Find YOUR Reset Button and Hit It

This summer, I visited my family in Finland which I had not done in decades. I thought I would kick back with Sauna, sip a few Lonkeri’s and reminisce with my kin about the times I visited as a kid. What I did not expect was the profound and emotional effect this trip had on me, or how it reminded me of my Finnish roots, which influence me as a teacher and person. I felt a complete shift in my thinking, values, and ethics, bringing what I had been striving for into stark focus. This was the first time in my career when I had a holiday during which I did this; typically, I go into Standby mode and battleplan the academic year ahead, thinking of as many permutations as I can to navigate the job. I call it thinking², a term I use to describe overthinking about thinking to the power of 2. It often leaves me mentally exhausted and no closer to finding the solution to the problem.

It sounds so obvious, but I would wholeheartedly ask you to find THAT place for you when it comes to a rest, or a resit. I kick myself for not discovering it sooner, but I am thankful I found it in the first place.

II. It’s OK Not to Be OK

Do not fight your negative feelings; you will never win. Despite the positive posts that tell you how wonderful you are and how valued music teachers are, it means nothing if you don’t feel good inside, or your limbic system has been taken hostage and all you think about is the ‘what ifs’, ‘maybe they’s’ and ‘they won’ts’.

Yes, your thoughts may disappear, but they will only appear once something threatening occurs, extrinsic or intrinsic. Listen to them as data, as Mark Manson offers. Emotions are merely one’s mind reacting to life around us, they offer nothing more than feedback to convey what is sensed. If you find yourself in a mental quagmire, find clarity to not beat yourself up over it. If you do not, it will be like a double punch to the gut, the action that caused distress, then feeling bad for feeling bad. Easier said than done, I know. During an afternoon at the summer cottage in Finland, I listed my values and ethics as a music educator and conducted a mid-year review to see if they align. It was eye-opening and helped me focus on what I can control. Once I felt I had some control, I did not think so much about the things that had not happened or responses to adverse imagined scenarios. Thinking², folks.

Perhaps a F-It list may help, as it did with me. Think of it as a bucket list, but for all the things you shouldn’t give energy to, instead direct that energy into things/people that DO matter.

So, emotions as data, make sure you act upon them and don’t just list and post them, otherwise you end up getting sucked into my next point….

III. Stay Away from Social Media (Except LinkedIn)

Before I blame our woes on our social media overlords, I will caveat this point by saying that platforms like Facebook and X have a community of supportive, caring and insightful people there. Academics like John Finney, Gary Spruce, Tom Wilkinson all post invaluable content. Also, figures like Tom Rogers and Flora Cooper offer content and programmes designed to provide insight and community with their Teachers Talk Radio and Burn Brighter Leadership offerings, respectively.

What I refer to, and to and extent James to is the toxic underbelly of divisive, identity politics-based posts on these platforms, breeding grounds for doom-scrolling and proxy debates that frankly, make me feel ashamed of the profession at times. Intelligent voices are drowned out by outrage-driven content because they play the Algorithm game better. Too many people post what is wrong/needs fixing without suggesting how they would do it constructively. Facebook is also guilty of this, not on the level that X is, but maybe it has fewer bots posting on there.I may be preaching to the converted for some, but social media is designed to generate ‘outrage’ to play to our hearts and minds, see the responses of Ruth Perry and its vile/petulant reactions from educators and policy makers who frankly, should know better.

Here’s where the likes of LinkedIn and BlueSky come to play. I love the former, it has been refreshing to connect with colleagues in sharing my Teachers Talk Radio show, research and learn from people I admire. Its also been known to cheer a Groke up like me (Moomin reference), there is nothing better than scrolling the feed to read about the successes of former students, colleagues and others in my network.

IV. Find a Mentor or Accountability Buddy

If you’re lucky enough to have someone at work who can guide and support you, lean on them and buy whatever chocolate/booze they prefer at the end of term! If not, seek a mentor online through a professional. If you are a Music teacher, the Music Teachers Association is incredible for this. I credit my career successes to the people I met there, the advice I received, and the doors it opened for me. Accountability buddies can be an asset for your health as well. Someone trusted to ensure you are looking out for you, give support where needed, and tell you some harsh truths. For lone wolves like me, I know how significant they would be to my work as they have done wonders for my health. I would love to work with a professional mentor again, as it’s challenging to bounce off colleagues who do not teach your subject, but equally, I am happy to be someone’s mentor if needed too.

V. Find the Positives

Amid the pall, there are reasons for hope, dear reader:

  • The government has announced £88 million for extracurricular activities, including music, to help young people reconnect with their communities. A godsend for music educators who want extracurricular activities at their school but cannot afford it. Now is the time to knock on your Head’s door!
  • The Prime Minister recently told Classic FM he wants to ensure music “counts towards the curriculum” and spoke passionately about its role in building confidence and life skills. It’s been a while since a politician spoke so openly about music in UK education (open in a positive sense).
  • GCSE Music uptake this year is at a high. Classic FM report that ‘More than 38,000 students took GCSE music in 2025, an increase of 6.1% compared to 2024.’
  • Music Teachers Association, as mentioned before
  • Richard Llewellyn shared with me some cool pieces of kit for composing and performance, both for A-Level and GCSE students. ROLI Airwave looks like a lot of fun to use! As does Roland’s Moon Pan. The Fieldtone Weaver pedal looks like so much fun for field recording nerds like me. Instant recording and looping of sounds? Yup, I’m in!
  • Exam boards like ABRSM offer more courses to cater to the ever-expanding number of musicians who want to make music.

Final Thoughts

How do we feel about making that comeback? Is the referee holding up your arm in the middle of the ring? It’s ok, I am not there yet either, but if I take this day by day and focus on the things to care about and learn to ride this wave instead of worrying about wiping out, I’ll probably see this through. After all, you will get more respect riding a difficult one and learn more than standing from afar complaining about or shouting at it. People will think you are just weird.

I hope this post helps you feel less alone/as a fraud, eliminating the expectations that you, dear music teacher/teacher, have to be a beacon of sunshine upon your 1st day back on INSET. If you’re feeling nervous, anxious, or burnt out, please know this: you’re not failing—you’re human, a human who cares deeply about their job and has perhaps been let down or had bad experiences to date, which fuel your response to starting back. Teaching music, nay, teaching itself in today’s climate is tough, stats don’t lie, but it’s a job that is profoundly important and rewarding if you still believe so. Don’t let anyone take that away from you.  

Take care this year. Remember, the education community has your back, as do I.