Singing is for Everyone 

by Sue McPhail 

I’m a musicianship tutor with the NYCOS Edinburgh Regional Choir, and teach Primary 3 level in Edinburgh schools with the Youth Music Initiative Sounds Musical project. My journey with NYCOS began with a Go for Bronze course with Lucinda Geoghegan (NYCOS Creative Learning Director) ten years ago, and it turned out to be a turning point in my life. I had taught before, as a Maths teacher, but I struggled with classroom management and making myself heard. 

The first revelation was that we learn far more by doing than by listening. Every class with Lucinda, whatever your age, involves singing and playing games. It’s freeing to know I don’t need to have my class sitting and listening to me, but I can encourage them to experience new concepts. Watching Lucinda in action I learnt (and I’m still learning!) the skills I needed in the classroom. 

How do you get children to sing on their own? There are games, such as a ball-passing song including the name of the person who gets it next. If I’m thinking about which of my classmates hasn’t had a turn yet, I’m not worrying about singing alone. 

How do we separate the rhythm from the beat? With games! Everyone has a turn to walk along the stepping stones to Queen Caroline’s zoo in time to the beat. Then, children are arranged on the stepping stones to represent the rhythm of the words. In the process, we have heard, seen and acted out the difference between beat and rhythm, so hopefully reached auditory, visual and kinaesthetic learners. 

How do you introduce part singing? With games! There are rounds with games that form interlocking patterns, so that we are singing in harmony while focusing purely on the actions and the way they fit together.  

My first NYCOS Summer School was another revelation. For a week, some of the best Kodaly musicianship, methodology and instrumental specialists from around the world share their passion and skills, helping delegates develop their musicianship and pedagogy. As well as being drenched in beautiful singing, you spend your days with other music teachers, some of the loveliest and most generous, nurturing people you could hope to meet. There is so much learning that I’ve come to expect an ‘exploding brain’ sensation, with enough new ideas to last me right through the year. 

So why Kodaly? It’s important in the way anatomy is important to medical students – it takes us under the skin of the music and helps us understand what we are doing. Making music is innately human. Good musical education provides a safe place to make mistakes and fix them, and opportunities to create something as a group; it allows us to breathe together, move together and be still together. 

Singing together encourages us to experiment, collaborate and have the freedom to make mistakes and fix them. This is exactly what many of my Maths students lack. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that every choir I have belonged to is full of competent people from all walks of life. Choral singing is such good training in practising and paying attention to achieve something worthwhile.  

NYCOS is not just about the flagship choir. There are NYCOS tutors working with toddlers and their carers, as well as throughout primary and secondary school. It’s such a pleasure seeing children learn so much because of, rather than in spite of, the fun they are having. It’s equally important to create opportunities for every child to make music and to foster real excellence in young people of exceptional talent. It makes me happy to be part of an organisation that fosters both.