The new National Plan for Music Education talks about the importance of good quality music in Early Years. YY&M has worked in this area for many years, and we’ve talked before about learning pulse, pitch, rhythm and dynamics and some of the tried and tested methods, like Kodaly.

The brilliant BBC – which, in October, will have been serving us for 100 years, has always done great children’s broadcasting. Here’s Yolanda Browns’ Live Jam, making learning about musical instruments engaging, if you’re 4!

YolanDa's Live Jam - CBeebies - BBC

As it happens, Yolanda is currently the Chair of Youth Music, which is one of the organisations that funds us and our work, and we’ve already linked to Youth Music’s own response to the new national plan.

We think young people’s musical choices should have featured more in the plan. When people say they like music, they usually mean something more specific. People who like sport like some sport, not all of it. Music is the same.

Both Pulp and ABC were formed by pupils at City School Sheffield (now an Outwood Academy), when our Director Gail was at school there. And part of the reason you have heard of them is because of Ken Patten, who built a recording studio in his house in Handsworth, Sheffield, where both bands made early recordings whilst they were still at school:

The Sheffield council house that became a pioneer of rock recording | Sheffield | The Guardian

Here's a bit of ABC as a little bonus (and because we couldn't resist):

You might never have heard ‘Disco 2000’ and ‘Poison Arrow’ if it hadn’t been for Ken. And Gail is unwilling to share a photo of herself from the same era...

Fast forward ‘to the year 2000’; Daniel Bedingfield made this track in his bedroom, using his voice, a mic, a PC and an early DAW (digital audio workstation), Reason. 

Fast forward again to now, and here’s Kitty-May Hayes, aged 18, from Suffolk who made these bonus Sounds Like... playlist track in her bedroom in 2021:

Stream Kitty-May Hayes music | Listen to songs, albums, playlists for free on SoundCloud