Bridget’s Blog: Improving ‘A Common Approach’

I’m always talking about ‘Music for Music’s Sake and Music for Goodness Sake’, the idea of championing how access to a variety of musical opportunities will develop musicality, musical knowledge and so on, but also provide all the wider benefits we know music can support. Research makes it clear that engaging in music at any age supports the development in both, but at Music Mark we are particularly focused on those specifically engaged in learning – in education.

The majority of our work in the time I have been CEO has focused on supporting the music education ecology that is delivering to school-aged children, although in the past few years, we have increased our involvement in higher education (are you coming to our HE Conference in Cardiff?). However, we have highlighted over the years a strong-held belief that musical learning should not start at 5. Indeed, music is already at the heart of much early years learning, and we are honoured to have many expert practitioners and organisations who work with these young children in our membership. But we perceived there remained a gap nationally in how we support early years practitioners to structure learning in this most formative of stages in development, so last year we set about thinking what might help address this.

Originally published in 2002, Music Mark ‘refreshed’ and published a digital version of A Common Approach in 2022. Set out as a guide to teaching instruments and the voice, it aims to support teachers in structuring lessons holistically. At the time we published it, we recognised that there was a need to add chapters on instruments which had historically not been included, such as harp and bass guitar, but we also made it clear that we would look to expand and develop the resource to ensure it was as useful and accessible as possible to all music educators.

So, over the past 4 years, we have been slowly adding new chapters (as well as considering what updates might be needed to existing pages/sections). We hope that what we have produced is valued and, most importantly, useful! But like the fabled ‘painting of the Fourth Road Bridge’, we are not sure we’ll ever finish work on it!

Enter therefore our new chapter published this month!

We hope that the guidance we are providing on teaching music in Early Years – written by an amazing team of specialists – will become a staple resource for everyone who is working with, or would like to work with, young children. Engaging them in musical opportunities will support so much of their learning, health and social development, but we also hope it will set them up for a lifelong love of making and listening to music.

Do take time to explore this new resource, let us know what you think, and also tell us what you think our next chapter should be!