Drake Music have written a new music course which is accessible for any student. It incorporates re-usable teaching and learning resources written using Clicker software and references areas of study at KS3/4. The course has four units: Introduction to Musical Notation; Creating Soundtracks for Films; Developing Music Skills for Performance; Composing Music using Chance Methods. The course is available at Entry Level, L1 and L2 and is accredited by NOCN. More info: contact Jonathan Westrup
This film captures a session focussing on 'Developing Music Skills for Performance', one of the units in our new music course, currently being piloted. The film looks at how our student plays music (using assistive music technology) and also highlights learning objectives within the unit, in this case 'lead one section of an ensemble piece'.
The improvisation featured in the film is a slow, Spanish-themed piece. The background music heard at beginning and middle of the film also features our student: playing a violin part with his head (MIDIsensor), whilst controlling a glissando effect with his right hand (also via a MIDIsensor).
Bradley, our student, has been playing music with Drake Music since primary school. Although he faces physically disabling barriers to playing music, he has no significant learning difficulties and has achieved fantastic results across a range of composing and performing tasks.
The key to this is access, both to learning and assessment resources (i.e. accessible by switch users in Clicker), and to assistive music technology (in the widest sense, not necessarily 'hi-tech'). He has completed three of the four units on the course, all at Level 1 (equivalent to a GCSE pass at D - G level) and is planning to present his work and experiences of the course to PGCE Music students at Bristol University.
Drake Music plan to make the course available to music educators working in a range of settings: special schools, mainstream, PRUs; the course is designed to be accessible for any interested student, whatever their individual needs. For further information contact Jonathan Westrup via this page.
Reflection on Teaching and Learning
What similar examples exist of music teachers developing accessible, re-usable teaching/learning resources for disabled students?
What experiences have music teachers/ educators had in finding accessible accreditation opportunities for disabled/SEN students?
What challenges, if any, are posed by assessing work produced using assistive music technology alongside that produced using conventional instruments?
