Activity Resource 4b: Defining and challenging able musicians

This resource is designed to help you consider what makes musicians ‘able’, and how you can best challenge and stretch them to develop even further.

Start by making a list of three or four pupils with different backgrounds whom you consider to be able musicians. If you can, identify pupils who might fall into one of each of these categories.

1. someone traditionally trained in solo, western classical styles of music, either through private instrumental/vocal lessons, or through music service provision;
2. someone originally self-taught in rock or popular music (but who might also now be receiving lessons);
3. someone who has developed a particular expertise through participation in school/LA ensembles (e.g. a saxophone player who gained a lot of experience with a jazz band);
4. someone who is very good and ‘shines’ in class music, but who does not play an instrument or sing in groups outside of curriculum time.

Now, for each of these four pupils, list their musical excellence – what makes them ‘special’; what do they bring to their learning; what skills or aptitudes do they have that are more sophisticated than their peers?

Now compare your descriptions of their excellence with the definition of the able musician in Document A51  138kb – do they match? Are your pupils ‘musical thinkers’ who demonstrate creativity and understanding of a range of musics – or have you identified them mainly because of their high level of practical skills? How do your listed pupils compare with others who may have some technical proficiency but lack that quality of musicianship and musical understanding that we see in the most able musicians?

What does this suggest to you – about your view regarding what makes an able musician; or how you can best support these pupils to challenge and stretch them even further?