Richard Saxel, Director of Music at Cranleigh School, on teaching music through a different lens to give students the opportunity to aim higher
Most professional musicians enjoy a portfolio career, and I am fortunate to have combined 25 years in independent music education with performing internationally as a concert pianist. The symbiotic relationship between these two career strands is typical of the approach we take at Cranleigh School, where all our Music Department staff are professional performing musicians with active careers on the concert stage. Our experiences as professional musicians allow us to view music education through a different lens.
Preparing a concert programme to performance standard at international level requires total immersion in the repertoire one is performing. This process begins many months beforehand, with a period of research designed to inform the choice of repertoire. This involves listening to recordings of great musicians, understanding the social, historical and cultural context, forensic study of musical scores, and further consideration of potential themes and relationships between pieces in a recital programme.
The EPQ (Extended Project Qualification) requires these exact skills in its Assessment Objectives, and the initial phase of gathering information, and reviewing authenticity and relevance is directly comparable. Students develop skills in assimilating a wide range of research material, evaluating and reviewing this, and learn how to use this research to inform their intended objective – whether that be in writing a dissertation, creating an artefact, running an experiment or, indeed, preparing a performance.
Musicians then begin the process of learning how to execute the physical demands of the music. In other words, they practise! There is a constant desire to improve the execution of each and every note, phrase, detail, and – ultimately – the whole performance. Fine motor skills are refined, a vast amount of material is synthesised, and critical evaluation of each and every aspect is both crucial and constant.
Educational project work demands much the same kind of process and embraces many of the same skills. Dissertations, artefacts, experiments and performances are refined, leading to more persuasive arguments, more imaginative works of art, more accurate and meaningful experiments, and more creative performances, with constant questioning from supervisors or teachers illuminating the way.
“Preparing a concert programme requires total immersion – the EPQ requires these exact skills in its Assessment Objectives”
Music performance demands a rare combination of skills; the ability to combine intellectual research with highly refined physical skills, plus an ability to connect and portray abstract emotion through one’s performance, often under extreme pressure. Careful study of the score, control over its physical realisation, and capacity to become one with the work of another musician lead to a deeply fulfilling experience as a performer. There are other creative art forms where this is also true, but perhaps none where the moment of creation is quite so public, and immediate.
As educational theory develops, project work is increasingly valued for the range, depth and variety of skills it develops. It encourages valuable and extended immersion in a topic, and intellectual and creative curiosity, all of which have been skills musicians have relied on for decades, and which are ingrained in the principles of learning a musical instrument.
Cranleigh School cranleigh.org
Further reading: Wells Cathedral School on why sharing music matters
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