following the transition to secondary school?
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Children's
involvement in musical activities |
Listening to Music
Over the three year period there was a steady increase in music listening, most of which was at home when the children were alone, and most of which comprised girls' listening. Control of choice was important to them. Therefore, they were twice as likely to listen to tapes/CDs as to the radio. Gender made no difference to levels of listening at school. But the amount of music heard at school declined following the transition to secondary school.
Dancing to Music
Unsurprisingly, this occurs mostly at parties or discos (59%) followed by when children dance by themselves (26%). And, again, perhaps unsurprisingly, girls dance significantly more than boys (it is tempting to speculate on whether the 'Billy Elliott' effect might make a difference to that statistic in the future!).
Singing
Far and away the most frequent singing activity happens when children are alone singing along to tapes, CDs or the radio. Girls report higher levels of singing than boys at all stages.
There is a fall from 22% to 9% singing in the school choir on arrival at secondary school and a similar decline in the number of occasions when any singing is done in front of people (school concert, church choir etc). Otherwise there are some puzzling findings here. For example, in answer to the question "How often do you sing in music class in school?"
In the category "Sometimes" there was an increase of over 12% from the primary to the secondary experience; yet in the category "Very often" a fall of similar magnitude. Dr O'Neill thinks that might be explained by the fact that many, if not most, Y7 children no longer have morning assembly, where they would be likely to sing.
Using a computer to make music
This was the only musical activity where no significant differences were found between girls and boys, with the exception of primary school (Y6) girls reporting higher levels of computer use for music at school than boys.
Nearly half the children never use a computer to make music, and of those who do most do so at home. Over 60% in Y6 and over 70% in Y7 never use a computer at school to make music.
Playing musical instruments
The
answers to these questions make one wish that there could be another stage
to this research. For example, very few children report playing outside
school in a group. Two years on, say, by the stage of Y9 the answer to that
question might be quite different. Unfortunately, a question was not asked
about playing with a group in school that was not the school orchestra
or band. A question was however asked about playing in the school orchestra
or band - predictably less than a third do. Perhaps other forms of group
playing were subsumed in 'playing in the classroom'.The main findings here were that
- there is a decline from Y6 to Y7, ie playing an instrument is given up following the transition to secondary school;
- most of the time spent here is when the children are playing on their own (60%) or in music class at school (55%);
- only about 30% receive instrumental music lessons;
- over a third teach themselves to play or make up their own music on an instrument;
- if the children have not started playing or have already given up playing by the end of primary school, they are unlikely to begin playing an instrument at secondary school.
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