The emerging musical practitioner

Placement overview- Alternative Symphonic Band

Placement Host- Paige Millar

The placement was based around experienced musicians going back to basics and having to relearn a
new instrument in a field they had never worked in before e.g. string players learning woodwind.

Overview-

The aim of this placement was to give experienced players the chance to learn a new instrument but
also to show that there is always progress to be made in any area. By making experienced musicians
teach and learn in a short period of time, 30 mins teaching per week, this forces the players to adapt
and alter their teaching style into something that works for their paired partners. Many issues can
arise from this as not everyone in the group had taught their instrument before. The dynamics in the
groups also had an effect on the teaching styles, some people were less enthusiastic about learning
an instrument than others. This led to members having to change their teaching style, one of the
aims of the project was to explore and reflect on how you were as a teacher and a pupil. The
eventual outcome of this project wasn’t a performance or exhibition but in-fact a small rehearsal
where the band played the pieces learned together and then had a short reflective session on their
experiences and what they had learned, more than just their new instruments or a new piece.

Analysis of Situation-

This project was based around experienced musicians and performers, in doing this it creates a very
narrow subject group that can partake and learn from this experience. This creates an experienced
group of learners who can all share different approaches and experiences whilst also adapting to
their new situation and listening to others advice. By pairing musicians with instruments they had
never played before this created a challenge as they cannot apply all of their experience from their
own instrument to the new one. This creates a unique learning experience as the high level musician
must go back to basics and face a new challenge.

The negative aspect of this project was that it excluded people who had no experience in an
instrument but wanted to learn, this was not the aim of the project but this could be developed to
allow for a wider range of people to be reached.

Project Analysis-

As an observer the project runs relatively smoothly, people are often late without excuse. Other
than this the project had a focused route and generally stuck to the weekly plan, numbers
permitting. The project host, Paige Millar, was using this as her 4th year Music and Communities
degree final project. Many issues were faced as due to numbers plans had to alter sometimes,
attendance was low and therefore not every activity every week could be completed. The first weeks
focused more on the reflective techniques of Cole’s learning cycle and how this can be applied to
anything and not just learning in a formal context. This technique was revisited weekly with
worksheets or just general conversation within the group setting.

The advantages of this technique means that the members of the project were challenged weekly to
critical self-analysis of their actions, this method was also encouraged to be used outside of the
project setting and mirror it onto each and every action you take. This is an effective technique for
self-analysis as well as critical evaluation of teaching and learning methods within the project
setting.

Having a personal knowledge of the pedagogy that Paige Millar uses is a helpful analysis tool for
understanding why she uses these specific methods in the group environment. In understanding
Paige’s motivation, we can gain a deeper understanding to the methodology of the project itself.
Paige has a very critical outlook on her actions and always strives to understand and reflect on them,
this she mirrors into the group as an effective way of analysing the situation of the project as well as
helping the members take part in a critical analysis of themselves.

Good and Bad Practices

Having sustained a long friendship with Paige, it is hard to critically analyse her practice
methodology without being bias toward her. This however gives a unique opportunity to explore her
negative aspects in practice. Whilst the practice methods were generally very good, with outcomes
met and any issues overcome quickly.

The negative aspects however reflect badly on Paige as a practitioner due to her original plan to pair
herself and her partner in the project. This I believe would have created a bias toward the
performance aspect of the project as she possibly would have wanted to spend more time with her
partner than focus on the project. I was then paired with her partner due to numbers, this left Paige
without a partner for most of the project and gave her time to focus on the admin and running of it.

There was many aspects of good practice in this project with very little bad practice, in my own
personal opinion.