Marching Mocs

Mahad Ahmed is the Under-13 Scottish champion in the 200m and holds the British record in the 100m. He attends Glasgow School of Sport at Bellahouston Academy, which excels in coaching athletics, badminton, gymnastics, hockey and swimming. Pupils have eight hours of sport coaching a week which fits in around their academic commitments and entry is by selection only.”One of the school’s hockey coaches saw me running and suggested I had a trial,” says Mahad. “My parents were really proud when I was accepted. Yes, I study hard but I also get to run the 60m, 100m and 200m, which is great!”

Mahad Ahmed is a budding athleteGlasgow School of Sport is the first academy of its kind in Scotland and one of an elite collection of UK schools for talented children. These adapt the curriculum specially for pupils so that they can focus on core academic studies and develop their talent in tandem.

Inevitably some subjects have to be sacrificed, but many of these schools achieve excellent academic results. In 2007, 84 per cent of pupils at The Purcell School for Young Musicians in Hertfordshire achieved grades A or B at A-level and the overall pass rate was 100 per cent.

‘Results’ take on new meaning in these remarkable schools. “By nurturing our pupils and creating individualised programmes, our coaching teams have had some outstanding results – more than 60 pupils have represented Scotland in their sport,” says the school’s director, Angela Porter.

Gifted or talented?

How do you know if your child is gifted enough to warrant a place at a specialist school? The Department for Children, Schools and Families defines gifted learners as ‘those who have abilities in one or more academic subjects such as maths or English’ and talented learners as ‘those who have particular abilities in sport, music, design or creative and performing arts’. To give an approximate guide numbers, the most talented children represent the top five per cent among their peer group.Pupils can borrow instruments from schools

If teachers believe that your child falls into this category and your son or daughter is passionate about developing a talent, it may be worth talking to them about a specialist school. There are various ages for admissions so if a child has qualms about boarding or attending a new school perhaps they could join in sixth form.

A nurturing environment

Children with great talent may need the kind of nurturing that these schools provide. Yehudi Menuhin was conscious that children specialising in music often struggled in the school system, so in 1963 he founded what was to become a world-famous music school.

Based in peaceful surroundings at Cobham in Surrey, the school is home to 60 musically gifted children from all over the world. Pupils are not only taught by excellent teachers, they are given plenty of time to practise and the chance to perform regularly both solo and as part of an ensemble.

“I believe specialist schools are necessary because children need the atmosphere, environment, special curriculum and above all the specialist teaching if they’re to develop their talent,” says Nicolas Chisholm, the headmaster of school. “It’s essential that gifted children realise they’re not so unusual and that others have the same aims and aspirations – it makes for a very focused and united cohort.

Small classes, bright children

“Inevitably, the curriculum is restricted but the classes are small and the children are bright,” Nicolas continues. “We cover two thirds of the curriculum in half the time, leaving the remainder for music. Our pupils have many wonderful opportunities to perform and they learn a great deal from each other.

The selection process at the school is thorough and rigorous: “We spend a great deal of time selecting our pupils,” says Nicolas. “They must have the potential to be world class and we only select those pupils that meet our standards – it’s just like choosing a world-class football team.

Funding is available for dancers and athletes“Pupils from the UK get bursaries from the Department for Children, Schools and Families, but these are means-tested so the parents pay what they can afford. It’s great because those parents on extremely low incomes get their child’s education free. We have a stock of valuable instruments that we lend to pupils, although some are able to purchase their own.”

Bursaries for talented performers

The bursaries at The Yehudi Menuhin School are funded via the government’s Music and Dance Scheme, which enables young, talented dancers and musicians to receive full-time education and training at a specialist school irrespective of their parent’s finances. Support is provided for almost 800 pupils at nine specialist music and dance schools, including Chetham’s School of Music, in Manchester.

“Schools like Chetham’s are essential,” says Nick Oliver, Joint Head of Accompaniment. “The students are surrounded by others with the same passion and staff who teach to the highest standards. I believe such standards are unique to specialist music schools.”

The concept of specialism is being extended to secondary schools, with private sponsors and the government providing extra funding for state academies that specialise in one of 10 disciplines. These include arts, business and enterprise, engineering, humanities, languages, mathematics and computing, music, science, sports and technology.

State schools are required to identify a number of gifted and talented pupils in every year group (usually around 10 per cent). Research suggests that this happens in well-run schools, but falls by the wayside in others. In another initiative, the government launched a national register of gifted and talented children, the Young, Gifted and Talented Learner Academy. Registered pupils receive e-learning opportunities and vouchers for extra lessons.

Nicolas Chisholm recognises the advances made in the UK but acknowledges there are limitations, also: “It’s great that there are lots of opportunities for young people. At least we have an education system now that recognises the gifted and talented, however blunt that recognition can be.”

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I remember when I started to study the history of music, I did not realize what I was getting into. I had a notion that music history was like a trivial pursuit. Honestly, I only took my history of classical music class because I needed the credits. I did not realize how fully interesting music history is. You see, in our culture a lot of us do not truly study to comprehend music. For much of the world, music is a language, but for us it is something that we consumed passively. When I began to study about the history of Western music, though, it changed all that for me. I have had some experience playing musical instruments, but I have never mastered one enough to really understand what music is all about. This class showed me.

When a lot of us think about the music history, we think of the history of rock music. We suppose that the history is plain because the music is plain. Actually, neither is the case. The history of music, whether you mean classical music, rock music, jazz music, or any other kind, is always complex. New chord structures are set up carrying with them new ways of comprehending humanity. New rhythmic patterns are introduced, bringing with them new ways of understanding time. And music shows all of it.

Even when the class was finished, I would not stop learning about the history of music. It had whetted my appetite, and I wanted more. I searched for all the music history volumes that I could locate. I even began to explore forms of music that had not interested me before in the hopes of improving my musical knowledge further. Although I was in school studying toward a very different subject – a degree in engineering – I had thought about giving it up and going back to get a degree in musicology. That is how much I am enthralled by the issue. If you never took a course in the history of music, you don’t realize what you are missing out on. The CDs will never sound the same to you again. The whole thing will sound a lot more rich, a lot more shinny, and much more significant. A new song can reflect a new way of being, and a new way of imagining life in the world. This is what learning about the history of music would do to a lot of us.

If your occupation is musician, sooner or later you will have to work into something kind of humiliating in order to pay the bills. A lot of musicians play for weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, or graduation and birthday parties. Others create songs for commercials and soundtracks. In my case, I am able to pay the bills working in a cover group.

It is tougher than you might imagine. You have to be on top of the tastes of the bar crowd, and that can be painful. At first, I really ignore how to stay up to date. I looked at the top 40 songs charts, figuring that that would be the best method to know what was in and what was not.

Song dynamics are central to the art of songwriting and music. Learn this songwriting craft so your song development goes to the next level.
What’s the big deal you might ask? The answer usually is, without dynamics the song gets boring fast.
Great songs and music need to be a journey for the listener. Too much of anything doesn’t work. It’s like eating too much turkey dinner.
Its gets uncomfortable and the thought of more is the last thing on your mind. It’s the same with music.
It’s like pitching baseball. The pitcher who only throws one kind of pitch doesn’t last long. If you don’t give your listeners music with variations or dynamics, the listener gets bored.
They get bored and they go looking for some other pitcher, in your case another song.
Variety is what gives listeners satisfaction; it’s the spice in music. It applies to all aspects of your song. For example,
1. What is the volume of the music or vocals during the chorus or verse of the song? How different are they?
2. How much do the notes in the melody rise and fall in different sections of the song?
3. How is the melody structured in each section of the song? Too much unique melody is hard for listeners to remember.
4. What kind of sectional differences are there between verses and choruses?
5. Where does the lyric phrase come in on the beat in the bar? Is it before or after the downbeat?
6. How are the various instruments attacked? Are there differences in verses, choruses and bridges?
7. How long are the notes held in each section? Are there variances between sections?
8. Are the vocals phrased differently between the sections?
The idea is to have your song sound like music and not noise. Listeners need softness to feel the swell to high volume in lines and verses.
They also need the swell or decay in individual words. Think of music as a journey of contrasts for the listener.
Dynamics can set the mood in your song or change the mood for your listener. It also gives the singer in your song something to work with.
A song needs to hold back or be soft in some places and let go in others. It’s the lows that make the highs stand out more.
Listen to Celine Dion’s songs. She can really belt out the vocals. But you’ll find she also sings softly at times.
This contrast makes her power much more noticeable. Sometimes playing something softly draws more attention than if it were played at full volume.
All aspects of your song need to complement each other, so think about this as you’re writing. Creating song dynamics will help your listener connect with your song because it will be a more enjoyable experience.
They will want more and that’s good for you and them.