Richard Smyth, course director for the National Schools’ Symphony Orchestra and the IAPS Orchestra Trust, looks at the benefits of a musical education

Much has been written in recent years about the decline of musical education – resulting from increased pressure on the curriculum. With ever-greater emphasis on league tables and core academic subjects, it is easy to see why such an apparently-peripheral activity as music-making can become sidelined – especially as music, in particular, can be seen as an expensive option both for schools and for parents.

The finest of all team activities
But music can do more for an individual child’s development than perhaps any other subject or activity in the syllabus. The range of skills involved in learning an instrument is awesome: posture, strength and suppleness are all developed; complex technical mastery of an instrument; breathing control; training the ear to listen and respond; reading a completely new ‘language’ (sometimes several lines of print at once); sensitivity; precision and the finest attention to detail; and, perhaps most importantly of all, an understanding of collaboration, whether with an individual accompanist or with a large group. In music more than in any other area of school life, the group has to operate as a single unit to achieve the desired result.

Independent schools have, by and large, been in a far better position to resist the pressure to marginalise the creative and performing arts and have managed to keep a lively and flourishing musical tradition alive, alongside art, drama and of course sport. Most will have collective music lessons as part of the weekly timetable – at least in the junior years – and will be able to offer a range of instrumental lessons given by peripatetic teachers. It is easy for music, however, to be seen primarily as an individual option, paid for as an ‘extra’ and pursued in single practice rooms, rather than as perhaps the finest of all team activities. The discipline, concentration, commitment, teamwork and ultimately the sheer buzz of playing in an orchestra or band or singing in a well-trained choir are at least the equal, I suggest, of those required for any sport.

Finding the time
Many schools of course provide a number of such ensembles, from orchestras and bands to choirs and chamber groups – but, like so many other activities, they may inevitably be restricted for time. A first-rate orchestra requires, above all, the time to work together (just as a sports team needs time to learn to operate as a unit) which can be hard to achieve amongst all the pressures of daily life in today’s schools.

This is why the experiences offered in holiday periods by courses such as those run by IAPS and NSSO can be so valuable. Ever since four preparatory school heads got together in the early 1970s and came up with the idea of a preparatory schools’ orchestra, the courses run by IAPS have become a popular and essential part of a child’s musical experience and development. Now with at least eight courses every year, covering all standards from Grade II upwards, IAPS provides for two full symphony orchestras, a junior string group, two concert bands, choral and jazz courses and instrumental workshops – as well as a competition to find the IAPS Young Musician of the Year. Over 500 children are involved in these courses each year.

The National Schools Symphony Orchestra (NSSO) which started some ten years ago as a continuation of the IAPS experience, runs a full-scale Symphony Orchestra for senior school pupils: in 2005 this will take place at Wellington College with its final concert at Eton. The standard is high (most members of the orchestra will be working at around Grade VIII) and the experience, both musically and socially, is unique. In the coming years it is hoped to increase the scope of NSSO to include a wider range of courses, similar to those offered by IAPS.

However good your school orchestra – and many are very good indeed – the boost that can come from spending a week of the holidays in the company of like-minded young musicians, being coached by professional orchestral players and working under the baton of a professional conductor, is incomparable. In seven years of organising the various IAPS courses, I never cease to be amazed by the standard of music that children can produce, as well as their ability to derive so much enjoyment from their week away – as witnessed by the large numbers who come back time and again. For them, and potentially for many more pupils in our schools, music really is the greatest team game!

Richard Smyth, a former Headmaster of Terra Nova and of Millfield Prep, has run the IAPS Music Courses for the past seven years and has now taken on the administration of NSSO as well. All enquiries about either organisation should be addressed to him at:
Stonebridge House
Llansannan
Denbigh LL16 5ND

Tel:  01745 870345 or 07760 147490;
Email to: richardsmyth@iaps.freeserve.co.uk

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