As a music teacher and director of the Loughton Music Academy in Essex, I work with over 30 exceptional teachers, and almost 600 students per term, both on our premises and live online. Since 2005 we have put hundreds of students through the exam process across many different exam boards.
Over this period the cost of education and exams has increased significantly. This has put an obvious pressure on many parents which has, in some cases, been unwittingly transferred to the child through the need to obtain a grade so the lessons have more value – most notably in guitar. I must stress this is not in all cases, as many students and parents do choose grading to provide a benchmark of success and are happy to do so. However, rarely do you see students excited to enter the building where they will take their exam, and more often than not, the most terrified are the parents.
I wanted to create an educational experience that would be more economically viable to all and be versatile enough to go against price increases. I wanted to create an examination experience that could take advantage of the technologies we have and work with the environmental demands of the future. I wanted to create qualifications in music that reduced the pressure on students to perform but instead encouraged them to enjoy the experience of playing what they have studied, and most important of all, I wanted everyone to have access.
Online Music Exams evolved from a not-for-profit company, Community Music Initiative, which I started in 2010. This aimed to improve access to music lessons for kids who simply could not afford to learn (and please visit the Online Music Exams page to find out more on how we started).
Our new online exams aim to provide affordable, accessible and accredited music courses. We would have really struggled to achieve all of this so soon if it wasn't for the partnership we established with Orange Amplification, which wanted its own affordable and accessible guitar syllabus, and awarding organisation The Learning Machine, which is regulated by Ofqual and Qualifications in Wales.
From this, our first musical instrument accredited online course was born: The Orange Rock Guitar Course. All materials from Debut to Grade 8 – which usually takes students around eight years to complete – are produced completely free. The exams for these courses are also completely online, so students can sit their exam from the comfort of their home, even with their teacher. The exams are recorded: the student simply clicks record and a pre-recorded examiner starts telling them what to do, just like in an exam.
The benefits of this system include quicker results, as our examiners can mark and send marking sheets and certificates in as little as 24 hours later. There are no more examination windows, so students can take their exam on any day of the year. All musical backing tracks, aural tests and sight-reading tests come free to download with the learning materials. Students can, if necessary, retake their exams the day after receiving their results and, being recorded, exams can be moderated and checked for accuracy if the student is not happy with the results.
We feel this fills a huge gap in the market, as we see funding for music and the arts drop and the cost of learning materials rising – making it more difficult for parents to justify their child taking up an instrument.
I believe education should not come at a price and should not increase with inflation. If we start pricing students out of education we will start going backwards, and the divide between people who can and can't afford it will increase. We need to develop a sustainable future for our next generation so that everyone can have access to quality education.
Online music exams, combined with an online syllabus, mean that all learning materials can be made available free online – significantly reducing costs to students and teachers, and making it much more environmentally sustainable. The system provides immense flexibility, enabling exams to be taken when and where students feel most comfortable. This means lessons and exams can be more fun, and less stressful.
We are using technology to help the student and the teacher reach their goals faster, and with fewer financial burdens. I hope and believe that what we are achieving will help return control to the teacher, making music learning more sustainable and more viable not just for the UK, but for the world.
Finally, if you know anyone who could benefit from these free materials then please let them know. Already we have companies from as far afield as Hong Kong partnering with us to create new courses in piano, drums and acoustic guitar.
Cliff Cooper is lead developer at Orange Music Education, and director of the Loughton Music Academy
