Formative Music Experiences & Composition Teaching Confidence
This section will examine the data found relating to the second research question. When analysing data relating to this question, a number of themes were uncovered such as primary school composition experiences, formative music experiences at home, playing instruments (outside of school) and teachers’ confidence to teach music composition.
Composition at school
Six teachers were unable to recall any creative work opportunities where they explored sound or expressed themselves creatively with music. Although, Laura reflected on the possibility of being unable to remember these opportunities due to her perception of “not being musical”: “I just wasn’t receptive to it…that it was going
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Luke believed people with “musical greatness” composed classical music, whereas, he believed ballads “could be about anybody – by anybody.” Unlike the situation painted by Durrant and Welch (1995) in the UK, teachers in this study did not experience “elitist” attitudes towards composition from their primary teachers. However, this is possibly due to composition’s minor role in the 1971 curriculum (as creative …show more content…
Amanda felt that she never tried to compose music because of the pressure to learn how to play an instrument: “we didn’t enjoy it: I think it was just forced on us that none of us ever picked it [composition] up...” Two other teachers remembered siblings’ composition attempts. Deirdre recalled: “My brother kinda maybe did a bit of song-writing, but he wouldn’t be […] very professional or anything.” It seems that siblings’ composing at home did not have a clear influence on these teachers’ confidence or attitudes to teach composition in the same way Apfelstadt (1989) described the influence of siblings singing at home. Jill was the only teacher who mentioned childhood composition pursuits: “I did write my own little songs, but I think I did them with the letters not the [notes]…” She was the only teacher in this study who felt confident teaching composition: whether or not her composition pursuits as a child influenced her current confidence, cannot be confirmed for