The history of Exeter Young Strings and our values

We have two core values:

Learning musicianship, and not just bare instrument playing or musical theory was the reason for the foundation of Exeter Young Strings, as Kirsty Hugill explains:

“I founded Exeter Young Strings in May 2000. I modeled it on our sister group Malden Young Strings for which I was cello coach for some years. In my time with Malden Young Strings I was particularly struck with how the emphasis on musicianship training really helped the young musicians progress.”

“I deliberately set up something different from other musical groups in Exeter and had the main aim of empowering children with musical skills to make the process of learning an instrument a smooth journey.”

“We are the only organisation in Exeter to give young children musical training to assist them onto their chosen instrument and in that we deliberately run small groups (3 - 8 players per group).”

“Our first Christmas concert in December 2000 consisted of a Musical Awareness demonstration and 4 solos. We have come a long way since then and our recent Gala concert consisted of two hours of music. We now have four chamber groups in addition to the Music Awareness group.”

Musicianship and what it is.

Musicianship has been defined as ‘artistry in performing music’ - it’s a bit like the scent in a flower - without it a performance may be technically correct but something is missing.  It’s the difference between solving problems using tricks that you have mugged up for an exam and really understanding them.

How does this apply to Exeter Young Strings and children or even teens?

Well, what we are aiming for is children who can:
- hear in their heads what they see on the page without having to play it first
- easily put down on paper what they hear

Getting this ‘’under their skin’ so that musicianship becomes second nature really does make playing easy and a joy, rather than the torment so many parents will remember.

So starting with the musical awareness classes we teach the children to be able to sing in tune using songs and games to help them to hear where their fingers should go - rather than just instructing them to put a finger in a certain place will give them a certain pitch.We also use a variety of games and exercises to secure a strong sense of pulse and rhythm.

Conventionally, children are just taught how many beats in the bar and mathematically how the different rhythms add up, but are not taught how to feel this away from the instrument.

Another way of looking at it, is that musicianship is like theory only practical rather than on paper. Musicianship is recognised, and there are musicianship grades from 1 - 8 just as there are for instruments and theory.

So convinced are we of the importance of musicality, that we are the only organisation in the South West consistently using Kodaly and Dalcrose methods in develop musicianship skills. 

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