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In September 2010, in my role as trombone teacher with Gwent Music Support Service in South Wales, I was given the task of running a whole class trombone project with a 31 strong Y4 class at Rogiet Primary School in South Wales. In England whole class instrumental projects are well-established across most music services under the title “Wider Opportunites”. However, in Wales whole class teaching is something that has not really been explored in any depth; in fact I believe the whole class project that I ran was amongst a handful to have been carried out in Wales last year.
I remember clearly the image that greeting me on first day that I turned up at Rogiet School, it was quite a sight, I’d never seen anything like it. I walked through the school doors and 31 trombones were neatly stacked up against the wall nervously waiting to be deployed to these unsuspecting children. A very small boy, (roughly able to fit inside the trombone case) ran up to me as I started sifting through the mass of instruments and asked me if he was going to be playing the trombone. It was at that point I wondered what I let myself in for, how on earth am I single-handedly going to get 31 pint sized children to even hold these full-size trombones, let alone play them?!
As it turns out I was met with relentless enthusiasm from the children and staff, who, after a few weeks of preparatory training on note-reading and lip buzzing exercises were ready for their first trombone lesson…. Lesson Number 1: How to open the case! It was a slow-moving process, as you can imagine with a class that size everything needed to be organised and explained in such a way so that no one got left behind. Everything from assembling the trombone to playing their first notes was carried out with military precision so that every child, musical or none musical, could enjoy the experience.
It was important to not lose sight of the purpose of the project. I was not there to turn these children into trombone child prodigies; it was my aim to give them a musical experience through the medium of the trombone. I could have gone there with any instrument, it did not matter, the most important thing was that they were learning about music and having fun. In addition, my initial fear of running the class alone soon dissipated as I soon realised that the trombone is probably the best instrument to do a whole class project alone, no sticky valves or broken strings to contend with, just 31 plain old slides which needed comparatively little maintenance so I could concentrate on running the class efficiently.
By Christmas the project was going better than I had expected, all 31 children were quite at ease with playing five notes on their trombones and after two successful debut performances of Jingle Bells and Good King Wenceslas I had a million and one ideas of what to do with the children next, it was hard not to get carried away. As I had just completed a Master of Arts course at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, I spoke about the project with Kevin Price, the Head of Brass. With the assistance of the college trombone choir we wondered about the possibilities of running a trombone day in conjunction with Rogiet school, especially seeing as the school was in such a good location for other young trombone players across South Wales and South England. Kevin was, as ever, massively supportive, and not only did he give me starting ideas about running the day, but put me in touch with Arlene Macfarlane (co-principal trombone with the BBC NOW, and British Trombone Representative for Wales). Between us we meticulously devised an outline for a Tiddly Trombone Day, a day specifically aimed at beginner trombone players and on June 5th 2011, and with the support of the British Trombone Society, the day came to fruition. What had started as a weekly hour-long whole class trombone project turned into something very special, an opportunity for those children at the very beginning of their musical journey to spend time with and listen to students and professional trombone players. After the Tiddly Trom day every child I had spoken to took away an experience that I believe had made a long lasting impression on them.
It is too early to say whether, as a result of the whole class experience last year, we have any budding Christian Lindbergs or Brett Bakers to watch out for, but in my opinion two things outlined the success of my project last year:
1) A large number of the children in Rogiet Primary School have gone on to play other instruments, and my colleagues within Gwent Music Service have expressed their astonishment at how musically proficient the children who participated in the whole class project are.
2) For a second year running the school are continuing the trombone project with a different class, I find it a huge compliment that the school are willing to continue the project, especially given the current financial climate. In addition to this there will be a sequel to the Tiddly Trom day for the summer term in 2012, watch this space!
