Edinburgh Napier University

  Secondary music courses in Scotland currently do not provide applicants with the necessary knowledge, understanding or skillsets to be able to engage with music study at HE. Based on research conducted by the authors in 2016, it is clear that there is a sense amongst some students who studied in Scotland that they feel short-changed by their formal school music education, stating that it did not equip them for application to HE. This is particularly true in the case of popular music students.

The authors, in response to such problems, have worked with a local further education college to design and deliver two levels of music courses for students in Scotland to address the misalignment between current music courses and typical university entry requirements, and to allow for a student-focussed course that allows for students to engage practically with the music that they are interested in. The first level of the course has been piloted with students from two local secondary schools and the authors have undertaken a qualitative study to explore the experiences of all involved.

This paper will presents a conceptual overview of our rationale and motivations for developing new secondary music curricula in Scotland, before turning to provide a brief overview of the structure of the course, our pedagogic approaches, and our assessment practices in order to provide context. We then report on the aforementioned qualitative study that interrogated the experience of students, instrumental tutors, and school music teachers, who were involved in the course.