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(Continued from 'Getting out of the way' part 1)

Starting afresh
A flyer was sent to all the children of Years 4 and 5, inviting anyone who was interested to attend a taster session of Violin Club with the four established members. Prospective new members were not put forward by teachers as being especially suitable in any way (in fact, it was quite clear that one child had considerable difficulties with basic literacy skills). The children had all applied to join Violin Club because they had seen it in action, and thought it looked fun. Quite by chance the project ended up with equal numbers of boys and girls: the Year 6 mentors consisted of three boys and one girl, the newcomers were three girls from Year 4 and one boy from Year 5.

Integrated sessions
Each week the four mentors and the four beginners worked together for 45 minutes. The younger children then left to enable the mentors to have a more advanced lesson for 30 minutes. The joint sessions encompassed a range of activities: these might include some Dalcroze Eurhythmics, instrumental technique, a variety of aural, notation and reading skills (often delivered via ‘games’), learning new pieces, improving known repertoire, and some quiet time listening to recorded music.

Mentoring
I discussed very carefully with the existing Year 6 members of Violin Club precisely how they were to help the new Year 4/5 beginners. It was clearly established that the Year 6 players would participate fully on their instruments in the joint sessions, and only offer assistance when it was appropriate. We had a mentoring partnership rota, with different pairings of pupils each week. This gave the whole group the chance to benefit from each others’ differing strengths. At first the Year 6 pupils were asked to hold back, and wait for instructions before acting as mentors. Once it was clear that my instructions had been understood, there were various situations in which they were encouraged to help. Some might appear to be rather basic but got the group working together as a team from the onset.

The mentors demonstrated, and assisted with, practical procedures, for example how to set up at the beginning of a session:

· chairs, music stands and mats to be collected, then positioned and spaced
· violin cases on chair seats
· jackets / coats hung on backs of chairs, other belongings behind chairs
· mats in front of stands, for safe temporary storage of violins and bows
· pencil, notebook and MSS files all within easy reach

They also demonstrated and assisted with, basics of pre-playing technique, such as:

· how to take the violin out of the case correctly
· how to place the violin on the shoulder
· how to take the bow out of the case
· how to tighten and loosen the bow
· how to apply rosin.

One particularly vital role was helping the beginners to tune up. To begin with, the mentors tuned the beginners' violins for them, using an electronic tuner. Later, they supervised the beginners' use of the tuner, including showing them how to play long notes, to enable it to work properly. Frequently, a mentor and a partner would work as a pair, quietly talking through and marking up a new piece. Also working in pairs, a mentor might supervise a partner during the playing of a piece.

The mentors worked alongside the beginners in all the Dalcroze Eurhythmics movement games. Interestingly, although the original Violin Club members had found it hard to understand the point of getting the rhythmic co-ordination 'spot on' in Dalcroze exercises, when demonstrating these games to the new beginners, they assumed a quite different mind-set. In this new setting, they quickly grasped how the exercises related to actual playing skills. So they were able both to perform and demonstrate them extremely effectively, and it was a valuable experience for all concerned.

I involved the mentors in the introduction of new technical skills. One particularly bold experiment that proved a great success concerned the use of the bow. Because the mentors had the usual range of problems with their own bowing technique, I was interested to see if they would themselves benefit from being entrusted with modelling bow holds to the beginners. I also gave them the job of imparting vital safety information about how to bow without poking anyone in the face, and allowed them to initiate the beginners' first use of the bow.

Although ready to deal with difficulties, during the whole of the first session using bows, I was able to supervise from a distance, and in the event needed only to offer a minimum of verbal comments. The following week the whole group discussed bow holds thoroughly. Once again, it seemed as though the mind-set of the mentors had undergone a sea change. Far from thinking that technique was something other people possessed, which it was almost unreasonable for me to require of them, they suddenly started to look at it as something enabling, and to correct their younger charges if they didn't do things properly. This did not mean, of course, that the mentors suddenly became model pupils, banishing all their own ingrained problems instantaneously! But it had become much easier to get everyone involved when we discussed technical matters.

Broadening musical horizons
In most joint sessions we spent a short period of time listening to a CD track. Usually this was an item from a classical compilation CD of orchestral pieces, of which each child had a copy for use at home. Occasionally, for a change, I would bring `world music', medieval or renaissance music, or contemporary music. Initially none of the pupils had much idea of style or period. For example, one pupil thought that a short piece by Pierre Boulez sounded ‘very old, and might be from the time of Henry the Eighth'. All the pupils recorded their reflections in specially designed 'Listening Diaries'. Starting off by consulting the CD booklet to copy down the track number, title and composer, they would draw a picture or write a few lines about their impression of the music. Each listening session would end with every person in the group contributing ‘one thought’ about that day's piece, followed by a brief group discussion. It was a really good activity for everyone to share on equal terms.

Harnessing technology
The mentors' previous experience of using easy repertoire books with CD accompaniments had been positive. Their group had been very confident with use of CD players, and I had introduced this material at the stage when the pieces could be sight-read without difficulty, and didn't stretch the players' technique in any way. Having these accompaniment tracks had encouraged playing at home between lessons, and enabled the pupils to show skills off to friends and family. One experiment I tried with the new beginners was to introduce this repertoire with CDs at an earlier stage, potentially as a way of broadening their musical experience. However, it soon became clear that this younger group were less happy using CDs outside lessons. They seemed less confident about using CD equipment at home, but reluctant to ask an adult or older sibling for help with the task.

Putting this material on one side for a while, I re-introduced it in the third term, and this time met with much greater success. During a session dedicated to playing with the CDs. I put the beginners in charge of the CD player and we spent a great deal of time simply ‘starting off’ items. Working out how to count in seemed to be a major hurdle. For some of the pieces the player needed to listen to bars of clicks before counting additional bars rest, sometimes there was just an introduction. Once this confusion had been cleared up, and the younger players had written additional instructions into their parts, they started to enjoy these books more. However, it was clear when given a choice, that they always preferred playing with a live piano accompaniment in lessons and concerts. This was a group of children who had taken part in ensemble music making from their first lesson. Having learned that it was fun to react to each other's playing and body language, it was significant that for them a CD track with a fixed tempo came a poor second to a human response.

Ensemble playing
Because even new member had the support of an experienced partner every week, it was possible to introduce simple duets at a very early stage. When the whole group was working together we used Superduets 1 and the Associated Board Music Medals Copper level ensemble book. In the mentors own group sessions we also used Superduets 2 and the Bronze level Music Medal book, progressing by the end of the year to some Silver level items. Once the beginners could hold down a duet line confidently, I stretched their ensemble skills by writing tiny trio and quartet pieces for the whole group. Occasionally I would bring my cello to the club, to play Superduets; and I had a beginner cellist pupil in the same school, the younger brother of one of the mentors, who joined us for some of the items we performed in assemblies.

CBSO Education workshops and concert
After the new beginners had been going for only a term, all the children involved in the peer mentoring project (plus a couple of former members who came back for the occasion) took part in a series of CBSO Education string chamber music workshops, which I was directing, leading to a big public performance. The piece they prepared, Wasps in the Playground, which they rehearsed with CBSO player Wendy Quirk, consisted of lots of simple parts interwoven with a junior string quartet, performed by pupils from Birmingham Music Services. All the Violin Club time devoted to the development of listening skills, co-operation, and team work really paid off in these workshops. A Birmingham Conservatoire student, Vanessa Kinman, was shadowing normal Violin Club sessions on a weekly basis, as part of her Postgraduate teaching course. She was also taking part in Elgar's Introduction and Allegro, conducted by Sakari Oramo, at this same CBSO Education concert. Of the Violin Club contribution she wrote. ‘This was a professional setting with older children taking part and professional musicians watching. Despite some of the group only having had ten lessons, they were totally unfazed by this situation, and played with confidence and gusto'.

Record keeping
Detailed record keeping, both during and after each session, was essential to enable me to draw well substantiated conclusions. On simple charts, I monitored seven important areas per pupil, per week, having chosen a wide range of skills to reflect the broad spectrum of strengths and weaknesses that might be encountered in a large group. These were:
· listening skills
· ability to relate rhythm to beat
· ability to play in tune
· violin technique
· working as or with a mentor
· team work with peer group
· music reading skills