The express purpose of this project is to enable non-musical class teachers to deliver the National Curriculum of Music easily and with confidence.
And yes, it’s FREE at the moment, but not for long.
Ben Hewlett is the ‘visiting’ expert, your class teachers are the facilitators.
It’s all on video – your teachers simply point the children at the screen and Ben does the rest.
HERE’S HOW IT WORKS…
Please watch this two minute video
We are offering this program to enable schools to comply with curricular requirements and deliver ongoing high quality whole-class music tuition FREE OF CHARGE.
This is a pioneering new program being tested in 25 schools.
Each block of five lessons covers the National Curriculum for Music for the chosen year group.
Some schools want five weeks for all six year groups; so throughout the year 30 lessons are taken and all children cover the music curriculum.
Some schools have only class on the program for the full year and use 20/25 lessons.
- National curriculum for music – delivered.
- Children find it fun and are keen to have a go.
- It’s free for schools – we are not charging at this early stage of the project
- It’s also free for children and parents
- Flexible – your teachers schedule it when they want (and can repeat sessions)
- Children can continue learning and practising at home as the classes are on-line and they can have access via phone, tablet or computer.
- The evidence is to see the children performing and demonstrating their new skills in your productions
- Music is clearly a good thing for children to learn – much research reveals how children learn and develop better when they play music, let alone learning team work, social skills, confidence and self reliance.
How does it actually work? Three things. (All free)
- The initial set-up is a visit from Ben Hewlett who teaches one lesson for all the children involved so they understand the basics
- Ben trains your regular class teachers, or selected teachers if you prefer
- Ben can also do an assembly demonstration to show all the children what they can do with their harmonica and where it comes from.
- HarpsCool provides one 5-10 minute video lesson per week to play to the children and use as the core of the lesson. These are streamable (not downloadable) and currently live at
- Each video lesson comes with a 2-minute teachers video to watch giving them ideas and hints on what’s covered and some extension ideas.
- Each lesson comes with audio (mp3) file and visual (pdf) files to use off-line where appropriate.
- Your teacher unpacks the lesson by simply showing the video, pausing where they choose, or using the pre programmed pauses, whilst relying using the expertise from the ‘visiting’ expert – Ben Hewlett who is doing all the teaching on all the videos.
- The result is a 20-30 minute lesson at a time to suit your teachers and it can be repeated any time.
- The ‘Performance Pieces’ can be used any time a 2 minute burst of energy is needed.
- HarpsCool provides all the instruments, and all instruments must be purchased through HarpsCool. That’s HarpsCool’s only income from the program.
Syllabus:
The syllabus has been developed over twenty years of experience teaching harmonica in primary schools.
- It consists of thirty 5/10 minute videos, written material and audio playalong tracks per year group
- There is one set of video lessons for KS1 children, another for Y3/4 and another for Y5/6
- Teachers are encouraged to add their own material to the syllabus provided the children have learned enough skills to manage that new material. For example local music, local songs, school favourites etc.
- This can be backed up by further training videos from HarpsCool on request.
Here’s a short movie of us setting one of these projects in Pensiri School in Yala, Southern Thailand in December 2015 – the principle is the same in the UK
HarpsCool whole class lessons