McCaleb, J Murphy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9867-9909 (2024) Musical Ensembles and Inclusivity. In: Talk About Teaching 2024.

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Abstract

Students’ paths towards studying music in Higher Education are very different than they were even a decade ago. With fewer students able to study music for A-Levels, GCSEs, or BTECs, applicants are increasingly self-taught or educated informally. This has challenged the Music course team to adapt our curriculum and delivery to become inclusive of a wider population of potential students and, consequentially, more sustainable.

My primary efforts in this area have centred around how staff and students make music together. Building on YSJ Music’s history of ensemble practice, our current curriculum is interlinked with research on democratising the learning experience within musical ensembles. Key to this is giving the students a large role in choosing the ensembles they want to run and participate in – thus learning ‘musical independence […] by making musical decisions that matter’ (Shieh and Allsup, 2016: 33). This autonomy has not only increased students’ perceived ownership over their learning but also recognises and builds on their musical and cultural backgrounds. As a by-product, this has diversified the range of musics that are encountered throughout the degree. Basing the ensembles modules—the backbone of our course—on student autonomy impacts staff as much as it empowers students. Playing in students’ ensembles challenges staff to learn musics and repertoires they are not familiar with whilst modelling the transferable skills and experiential learning that will carry graduates through their careers. Thus, increasing students’ autonomy through ensemble musicking may help create a learning environment inclusive of their musical and cultural backgrounds.

This creative response demonstrates collaborative devising and rehearsing of music with students with accompanying contextual posters.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Poster)
Status:	Published
Subjects:	M Music and Books on Music > M Music M Music and Books on Music > MT Musical instruction and study > MT0018 Music in colleges and universities
School/Department:	School of the Arts
URI:	https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/10561

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