Music Manifesto Case Study #7 – Susan
- Susan (11) plays guitar (5 years), piano (4 years) and violin (3 years)
- She also sings and dances – an all-round entertainer in the making
- She lives with her mum and dad in East London, on a boat
- ‘Nothing could stop me continuing with music. It’s the reason I’m alive’
- Susan imagines, ‘in five years’ time I’ll be performing for the world’
Susan gets straight to the point: ‘I wrote a protest song about the [Iraq] war and recorded it on CD and sent it to Tony Blair’. She clearly lives her own musical philosophy. ‘I use music to explore the reasons for my feelings… and why we’re alive… and what people do in their lives’. In her final year at Gallions Primary School in East London, eleven year-old Susan seems pretty sorted in musical terms.
‘I play guitar, piano, violin and sing. I have been singing since I was three. When I was three and a half my family went to Tenerife. We went to a restaurant where a lady was singing. I was completely star-struck. And I asked the lady if I could sing with her. That was my first live performance. Because of mum’s business [she’s in hospitality] I hear music from all over the world, Asian, African, reggae…’ A bit like her instrument lessons, in fact. She has piano lessons at the Newham Academy of Music. ‘My [private] guitar teacher is from the Royal Academy of Music’. And her violin lessons, twice a week, are provided by the school. ‘I play violin in the school orchestra and play the piano and keyboards every day for enjoyment’.
Susan knows how to get people working for her. ‘My dad loves music too and he helps me with recording my music. Mum used to play the violin when she was at school. I have over 10,000 tracks on our home computer. Jazz, blues, R&B, everything’.
And on the creative side, ‘I ask my friends to help in writing songs, especially for topics in school. Our school has a composer to work with us and I love working with him’. Unusual – though perhaps it shouldn’t be! Gallions School has a unique philosophy of whole school music through violin playing and other creative work.
And her network is still expanding. ‘I played with the Newham Big Band but their practices were too late in the evening, so I had to give up. But mum holds functions for parties or whatever and I’ve met some bands and solo artists. Sometimes I was able to play with them. My most exciting thing so far was visiting the Abbey Road studios’.
Of course it’s not all plain sailing. ‘I had to audition for my new secondary school [a specialist music school]. I think there was a lot of competition. Then I get frustrated when I can’t learn a new tune properly. I really don’t like music that’s badly copied [from other artists]. But I like all music if it’s played well. Sometimes I need to hear a piece a few times before I decide if I like it or not’.
Notwithstanding the prolific music making in her school, Susan has clearly moved beyond her peers in terms of experience and commitment. It’s the way she understands how the profession works and how she can make her way in it. ‘In five years’ time I will be performing to the world!’ she declares. ‘I love performing in front of people and looking for their reaction’. And she’s proud of her unique knowledge: ‘I specially like listening to the musical legends that my friends have never heard of!’
It’s perhaps something more important to her than she lets on, since Susan has severe dyslexia and her normal school writing and reading activities can assume nightmarish proportions. But there’s a lot of respect for her musical commitment and talent. ‘My friends are always coming round to sing… make up dances or whatever’.
PS. Susan was on the Gifted and Talented Scheme at Gallions. She succeeded in getting onto the Pimlico Special Music Course.
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