For November’s in-service day music staff from the YMI project, the Music Instrumental Service and our Music Curriculum Support Teacher’s got together to hear from music educator Paul Harris.
Paul has written over six hundred books about music education and writes for major international music magazines. He performs regularly and is an examiner and an adjudicator at national events.
At our session he talked about his Simultaneous Learning approach to instrumental and singing teaching. There was so much to take in, both practical ideas and the theory of learning. One of the themes that really came across was the need for a teacher to be an empowering guide to their students, collaboratively going on a learning journey with them. His ‘Map of the Musical World’ is a practical presentation of the musical ingredients that learners need to develop. It helps both student and teacher move through, and make connections between, these ingredients to embed the learning and develop their skills.
We are already considering how we can bring Paul back to expand into group or whole class teaching and inspire non specialist class teachers.
