Music Manifesto Case Study #2 - Lucy
- Lucy is seven years old
- She lives in South Shields with her parents and younger brother
- She’s been having violin lessons from a local private teacher for 12 months
- She also knows a lot about morris dancing
- Lucy thinks music should be helpful, like ‘playing for a friend who dances’
- She also thinks music is ‘a nice thing to do and more people should have the chance to do it’
Lucy has an interesting current view on what makes a piece of music any good or not: “Mixed rhythms are good”. Lucy’s fascination with rhythms possibly derives as much from her watching her father’s morris dancing team as from her violin playing. Maybe the constant beat of the morris tune has prompted a desire to be more adventurous in that area of music. But it’s early days yet, as Lucy is only seven.
She started having violin lessons one year ago. “I liked the violins, especially during morris dancing, so I asked if I could learn to play one”. In fact it was a couple of fiddle-playing teenagers in the group who became role models: “I’d like to be like older musicians, like Heather and Rebecca”.
But finding a teacher was not so easy. Lucy lives in South Shields with her public service worker parents and younger brother, and violin playing is not something she’s able to do at school. As luck would have it, a semi-retired violin teacher was discovered nearby and she visits every Tuesday after school. So Lucy’s musical world is a mixture of simple classical style melodies, folk and traditional tunes, school songs and the whatever comes out of the radio and TV. Probably richer than she, or indeed her parents, imagine it to be.
Certainly, Lucy surprised her father one day by mentioning a traditional tune, Aiken Drum (“It’s a really good tune, dad. Play it in the ceilidh band please”), which he knew for certain neither she nor he had played before. Perhaps it won’t be long before Lucy herself is joining in the band.
Lucy’s father is self-taught on guitars, banjo and similar instruments. And he still sings regularly, having discovered his voice as a young schoolboy and developed something of a reputation as a boy treble soloist. So there was always an intention to respond to any signs of musical interest – coupled with a resolve never to succumb to the ‘my child’s a musical genius’ syndrome.
But there’s already a sense of realism in her recognition that there’s no instant pay-off in learning the violin. “It makes me frustrated when I don’t get the hang of tunes. And it was hard getting the right way to practise”. Now her practice regime seems to have resolved itself and takes place three days a week, including one ‘play what I want’ session.
So what keeps her going? “My teacher’s good; there’s no tests. And the tunes are fun. I like music because it makes me want to go out and do things”. And what’s the most exciting thing you’ve done with music? ‘When I played the violin in front of everyone at school’. Lucy’s sense of music’s entertainment potential is tempered with a more personal insight: “It’s for myself. It’s to make me feel I am part of music”.
Oddly enough, Lucy’s fascination has centred equally on the reading process: how signs and symbols can become sounds. A fascination no doubt related to her fresh experiences in learning to read prose. And her father is adamant that the reading skill should be mastered as soon as possible. It should be an aid to getting pleasure through music, not become a burden or a disadvantage later. An interesting observation from someone who’s own musical engagements are mostly by ear – though he was able to sight sing from a early age.
So, what next? At seven years old, there is little sense of the future, but Lucy already has a sense of process: “Some tunes grow on us as you get the hang of them”. She also has a musical goal: “I want to play in a group”. And some awareness of what the future holds: “Enjoyment, but also more hard work”.
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