ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns what happened when informal learning practices were adapted for Western classical music, broadly defined, during Stages 6 and 7 of the project. The use of classical music involved two immediate differences from the previous stages. Firstly, the music was neither chosen by the pupils nor, in most cases, familiar to them. Secondly, such music is not normally passed on, at least in the present day and age, through informal learning practices.1 In other respects, most of the main issues that have already been discussed in preceding chapters were pertinent to the classical music stages as well, in general terms. These include how pupils approached the listening-and-copying task as music-makers, how they developed as music listeners, how they responded to being given some autonomy to direct their own learning, and how they co-operated in groups. I will avoid repeating findings relating to such themes, although they will be implicit in the discussion, since they provide its context. But my main aim is to focus on those aspects of the findings that were specific and unique to the use of classical music within the project. Although we were not able to investigate other musical styles, the findings also contain implications for further research going beyond classical music, to touch upon the use of ‘world musics’, or any music, in the classroom.
