Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Reflection by Andrew Eales
In the latest issue of Music Teacher magazine, three teachers who I very much respect team up to reflect on current trends in grade exams, and in particular whether “populism is killing progression”, and whether current syllabi are helping teachers to “get the fundamentals right”.
I was particularly struck by this from the ever-brilliant Murray McLachlan:
“Whether boards care to admit it or not, they have a huge responsibility to ensure that grade requirements present a balanced selection of material that will add and guide pedagogical progression for those customers they serve who are primarily or even exclusively exam-oriented. There should be no loopholes or easy options that take away from this surely essential mission.”
I think he makes an important point that ABRSM, Trinity, and the rest need to consider with care.
But in all fairness, are teachers perhaps at times in danger of blaming exam boards for our own failings? Because, whether we care to admit it or not, they have long stressed that their syllabi are not designed to deliver a complete instrumental and vocal curriculum.
So where is our curriculum?
Around the year 2000, I had the honour of collaborating with such leading music education luminaries as Richard Crozier, Brian Ley, Richard and Sue Hallam, John Witchell and others, planning and writing what would become the A Common Approach instrumental curriculum.
Their shared view, all those years ago, was that too many teachers merely followed exam syllabus requirements, rather than structuring pedagogically sound and musically rich learning pathways. They saw that more guidance could and should be offered to teachers, and would be needed in order to help prevent a downward spiral.
Recently updated and now freely available online, A Common Approach delivers a radical, much-needed instrumental curriculum, offering detailed advice on the fundamentals of good teaching, along with learning objectives and instrument-specific lesson activities suitable for use with learners from beginner to advanced level.
It was a privilege to contribute to the creation of detailed keyboard and piano schemes alongside such experienced educators as Mark Ray, Anthony Williams, Heli Ignatius Fleet, Margaret Cowling, Patricia Powell, Nancy Litten, and others.
Our essential mission
Fast forward a quarter of a century, and despite so many brilliant educators tirelessly arguing the case for a broad, holistic, and more balanced approach, it is dispiriting to see that the dial has yet to decisively shift.
Why is the lazy trend of “teaching to the test” still so deeply ingrained in our culture? Exam boards are undoubtedly culpable, but so are teachers. If exam boards, dazzled by academic assessment culture and technology, cannot see beyond the monetisation of individuated box-ticking, that’s to their loss and shame. But we cannot remain complicit in a race to the bottom, however expedient it may seem to do so.
Nor should we allow the obvious limitations of the exam syllabus (with its declining emphasis on core skills, enduring repertoire, and live performing) diminish the value of learning to play an instrument, or restrict access to the broader cultural and social benefits music offers.
Rather than passing responsibility, we need to take a lead in shaping a better, more positive musical future based on the aspiration and continuing standards of A Common Approach, our shared curriculum, our essential mission.
With a return to higher strategic and musical thinking, we could again promote challenge, celebrate true accomplishment, and raise the bar. The curriculum comes first, and only then, the prize.
A Common Approach was updated as an online resource in 2022, and is fully and freely available here:
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