This may be a new concept to some, but it has already been in use, with great success, for over 18 months thanks to the pioneering work of Dan Jones of The Mix Music Education. Former UK Music Teacher of the Year Jones set up Mix Music in 2010, recently he teamed up with Ministry of Sound to makes sure that London's schools are getting the most out of music.
The Ministry of Sound brand is probably better known to most as the home of dance music rather than as an educator, but it has teamed up with Jones for a joint installation, just down the road from its London base, at St James' primary school in Bermondsey.
''Our intention has always been to help educators fully engage their students,'' says Jones. ''Every year thousands of students disengage with music learning as it's not perceived as current, and this leads towards disaffection with school. JamPod resets that balance and teaming up with Ministry makes it that little bit more cool."
A large part of what has made Jones' work possible is the aptly named JamHub silent rehearsal studio, distributed in the UK by SCV London. Invented by American musician Steve Skillings, it was originally developed so that bands could rehearse without upsetting the neighbours. But Jones saw far-reaching possibilities for using it to improve the quality of music education.
The result was JamPod. Working with a number of music equipment and software manufacturers, Jones devised this concept to allow schools and other educational establishments to radically improve the quantity and quality of music education. Critically, it allows music education to take place almost anywhere, doing away with the need to spend thousands of pounds on dedicated music teaching rooms.
"I think it's fair to say that we have been well ahead of the game," says Jones. "The National Plan for Music Education sets out four core values: Ensuring that every child aged 5-18 has the opportunity to learn a musical instrument through whole class ensemble teaching; provide opportunities to play in ensembles and to perform from an early stage; ensure clear progression routes are available and affordable to all young people; develop a singing strategy to ensure every child sings regularly.
"All of these are an integral part of the JamPod concept and are already being achieved by schools we work with throughout the UK.
"At every site we install, we help them to set it up as a business, giving schools not only an exceptional space for curriculum delivery, but also a resource that communities want to engage with outside of lesson time," says JOnes. "Sites can launch fee charging academies after school, which mostly run three or four times a week and lets the school recoup the cost of the investment very quickly.''
"But at the same time, it has to be affordable for the students. Most extra-curricular students will be paying at the very least £10 for a half hour lesson in a conventional music teaching facility. Our current sites set their own fee's but on average students are paying £5 for 45 minutes on a course in the process of being accredited by one of the biggest exam boards in the world, Rockschool.''
Outside London, sites with JamPods already installed include Arnot St Mary & St John's primary schools, Resonate Studios all in Liverpool, Sevenfields Primary School, Gorse Hill Primary School and Swindon College all in Swindon, Duffryn High School in Newport, Wales, Altrincham College of Arts, William Romney Academy in Tetbury, Gloustershire, Turton High School in Bolton and the Rock & Pop Foundation in Aldershot. Installations have also taken place in community centres, including the Urban Music Academy in Torfaen in South Wales.
Jones concludes, "The National Plan for Music Education has
