ESTA MA Music – Strings

About the course

The instrumental teaching profession demands constant reflection and improvement from its practitioners. This course will help you to validate your personal development and formalise your academic qualification to teach.

Our programme of study is designed to enable you as an instrumental or vocal teacher to progress from the stage you are in your career and to take a fresh look at the way you approach your teaching.

The course begins with a summer residential study (5th – 9th August) at Dean Close School, Cheltenham, UK and then continues online each academic year from September 2024 – June 2026

Your studies will be online, engaging with tasks including webinars, meetings with your mentor, taking part in discussion groups, reading, making videos. You will reflect on and develop your teaching focusing on the context in which you work. This will help you to question things you may have taken for granted, explore work with and without notation and develop a holistic approach to your teaching.

You will be assigned a mentor who shares your specialism (e.g. brass, bowed strings, piano, voice, woodwind, percussion, plucked strings) and your mentor’s job is to guide you through the course, lead study sessions and feedback on your work and progress.

Being a student on this course is all about developing as a reflective practitioner, someone who is willing to stand back and look at their work and contemplate changing aspects which both you and your students will benefit. Your course leader will provide an overview of the whole course, lead study sessions, and also make assessments of all students’ work to ensure fairness.

To gain the maximum benefit for your investment in this programme of study you should plan your diary carefully to make sure you have all the deadlines for completion and submission of work highlighted – and then please take notice of them.

This programme is delivered by ESTA and validated by the University of Chichester.


Who is it for?

The ESTA MA (Bowed Strings) Practical Teaching provides students with the opportunity to reflect more deeply and demonstrate the application of learned theory in their own personal teaching setting.

The instrumental teaching profession demands constant reflection and improvement from its practitioners. This course will help you to validate your personal development and formalise your academic qualification to teach.

Participants will:

  • Develop practical skills in teaching musical and technical material, fostering an engaging and student-appropriate approach to music learning and performance
  • Foster an investigative and inquisitive approach to teaching by developing skills in both research and reflection
  • Actively develop communication skills to enable effective teaching
  • Develop skills in curriculum planning that are highly relevant in the profession.

Who teaches the course

Head of PG Cert

Helen Dromey

Helen Dromey is Course Leader for the ESTA PG Cert, having been involved with the course since its inception in 2017.

She is Principal Teaching Fellow in Music Performance and Pedagogy at the University of Southampton, supports UK Music Masters teachers through observations and consultancy, and continues to teach the violin and viola herself.

Previously, Helen was Lead Teacher for Strings for West Sussex Music, where she established String Start, a group violin-with-musicianship programme for children aged 4–7, and delivered a series of CPD programmes for instrumental teachers. 

Helen is currently completing doctoral research at the University of York, examining pupils’ progression beyond whole-class instrumental learning, and designing new pedagogies to improve engagement. This research draws on Helen’s wealth of experience of teaching the violin and viola in individual, small- and large-group settings, including Whole-Class Ensemble Tuition (WCET).
A qualified primary school teacher, she has also worked as a Music Coordinator, delivering classroom Music across Key Stages 1–2. 

Helen graduated from King’s College London in Music and, later, in Historical Musicology, gained her PGCE at the University of Chichester, and attained her LRAM at the Royal Academy of Music.

Head of Department – strings

Sarah Crooks

Sarah is a widely experienced teacher of the violin and general musicianship, working with string players in a range of contexts. Her approach as a teacher is to guide rather than to prescribe learning, encouraging self-discovery through exploration.

At the RNCM she is Senior Tutor of Young Strings, a programme with an integrated approach which aims to engage the whole child in musical learning. The methods of Dalcroze and Kodály are central to the programme’s pedagogy. Pupils move, sing, play, improvise, collaborate, discuss and reflect. This holistic, creative approach to music education underpins Sarah’s teaching in all settings, inspired by her training as a Dalcroze Eurhythmics teacher.

Sarah also enjoys working with advanced musicians and teachers, helping them to develop their teaching, research and reflection skills. She leads CPD in many settings and works regularly with undergraduate and postgraduate students at the RNCM. She was delighted to be invited to join the Mentor panel on the ESTA PG Cert and relishes the opportunities to share practice with teachers from all over the world.

In other roles, Sarah is a mother of two young children, a Child Protection Officer at the RNCM and a student of the Alexander Technique. She hopes to train as an Alexander teacher in the near future, which will add new dimensions to her work with musicians.

Mentors


Course content by unit

PG Cert ESTAPG01:
15 Credits
ESTAPG02:
15 Credits
ESTAPG03:
15 Credits
ESTAPG04:
15 Credits
Teaching strategies Learning to play Developing effective curricula Teaching effective technique
PG DIP ESTAPG05: 30 Credits ESTAPG06: 30 Credits
Teaching Individuals Creative Repertoire
MA ESTAPG07 DISSERTATION: 60 Credits
Teacher and Student Learning Process

Unit 1:  Teaching string instrument technique to children and young people learning string instruments 

  1. Posture
  2. Position of, and with, the instrument
  3. Bow
  4. Musculature
  5. Making the sound
  6. Left hand-Right hand
  7. Vibrato
  8. Shifting
  9. Tension and how to avoid it
  10. Pizzicato
  11. Warm-ups
  12. Slurred and legato bowing
  13. String crossing and legato bowings
  14. String crossing and double stops
  15. Bowing: detache, portato; spiccato; martelle; sautille
  16. Harmonics
  17. Repairs

Unit 2: How children and young people learn to play string instruments

  1. How learners learn
  2. Simultaneous Learning
  3. Learning spiral
  4. My learners now
  5. Understanding, assimilating and consolidating skills, knowledge and understanding
  6. Learning music musically
  7. Developing aural awareness/perception and acuity
  8. Pupil/teacher relationships
  9. Learning scales and studies
  10. Starting a lesson

Unit 3: Teaching strategies for string instrument teachers working with children and young people

  1. Understanding my teaching now
  2. Preparation for teaching
  3. Expectation of teaching outcomes
  4. Diagnosis of learners’ needs
  5. Audio-Visual-Kinaesthetic learning
  6. Aptitude for learning
  7. Motivation for learning
  8. Simultaneous learning
  9. Assessment
  10. Exams/Festivals/Competitions
  11. Tutors/methods
  12. Teaching whole classes/small groups/individuals
  13. Proactive and reactive teaching

Unit 4: Developing a string instrument teaching curriculum for children and young people           

  1. Understanding what is meant by a curriculum and a syllabus
  2. Preparing and implementing schemes of work
  3. Short/medium and long term planning
  4. Personalising learning
  5. Becoming a reflective practitioner
  6. Communicating as a musician
  7. Playing and performing
  8. Chamber music
  9. Special Needs
  10. Schools of string playing

Unit 5: Teaching Individuals

This module covers a solid base of teaching and learning theory and introduces students to core concepts in psychology having to do with learners as individuals, self-belief, motivation, and thinking processes. The structure of a private music lesson and methods for engaging learners as creative individuals are presented. Students explore various traditional and innovative music teaching methods and consider how these can be adapted for a range of learners.

This module challenges students to focus on the differences present in individual pupils. Students consider their choice of repertoire and how that relates to their critical approach to teaching each individual student. Topics to be covered include:

  1. Skills in written communication when articulating and planning teaching content
  2. Collecting and organising musical materials to support targeted strategies for teaching different learners
  3. Comparative analysis of learners’ progress over time
  4. Scholarly presentation and referencing
  5. Experience with private teaching in a variety of settings

Key Skills

  • Autonomous learning required for managing complex tasks
  • Psychological, imaginative, and intuitive understanding
  • Development and sustaining arguments to solve problems
  • Use research and extend current teaching methods to broaden understanding

Unit 6: Creative Repertoire

Throughout the semester, students explore various core pieces of technical and performance repertoire for their instrument. The focus is on the learning concepts in these pieces and how to address these concepts by engaging students and incorporating elements of creativity and fun.

Students are assigned pieces of music to examine and identify other pieces as models from within their traditional teaching and performance repertoire. They then create new purpose-designed repertoire for teaching using various structures and styles.

This newly created material can include adapted versions of existing material, use theme and variations, include duet or multi-player parts and /or be interactive repertoire. Students will explore creating repertoire in diverse styles (other than the original) such as using pop, jazz, blues, and classical models.

Key Skills

  • Autonomous learning required for managing complex tasks
  • Creative problem solving
  • Use of research tools in extending knowledge and understanding
  • Skills in music arrangement / composition to address musical and technical learning
  • Awareness of the needs of individual learners (their pupils)
  • Strategies for teaching technical / musical content

Unit 7: Dissertation – Teacher and Student learning process (double module)

 This module focuses on a holistic understanding of the learning experience, from both the teacher and the student point of view. The student view is authentic as learners on the MA become first-hand students as they undertake new learning experiences. The fresh look at learning and teaching prepares students to write a considered dissertation that reflects a current knowledge and understanding of aspects of practical teaching in the field.

Semester 1 focuses on the student perspective/experience with the students each receiving weekly lessons (as if they were a beginner/student) with course mentors/professor. These are recorded.

Semester 2 delves into planning, reacting to, and working with different students. In this semester students will observe the recorded lessons. This will include observing each other being taught as well as lessons with different students (children and adults). The focus is shifted from the student experience to shadowing course mentors/staff in order to observe their teaching methods.

The first semester allows the students to get used to the teacher and make progress on particular repertoire and techniques. This also gives the student time to reflect on their learning processes, before turning to focus from the teacher’s perspective on planning and methods.

It is understood that when joining the course, students agree to be observed by their peers. Written consent is obtained for videos to become part of future course materials.


Course structure

This part-time course is timetabled over a period of two calendar years with the next intake beginning in August 2024.

There are 7 units of study which must all be completed in chronological order. A further three additional units focus on: safeguarding children and young people in music education; equality, diversity, and inclusion in music education, and promoting children and young people’s positive behaviour.

The course is delivered online plus 4 days summer residential study at Dean Close School, Cheltenham, UK. The course is delivered in English.

*Travel costs from the student’s location to Cheltenham are not included in the course fee


Course fees

  • £8,950.00 ESTA members (within Europe)
  • £9,950.00 UK Residents
  • £12,950.00 Overseas Resident

£9,750.00 For members of the following UK organisations

  • ISM members (UK residents only)

Students who already hold an ESTA PG Cert and are joining the 2nd year of the MA.

  • £4,999.00 ESTA members (within Europe)
  • £5,950.00 UK Residents
  • £7,450.00 Overseas Resident

*Fees include full board and accommodation at the ESTA Summer School.
** Travel costs from the student’s location to Cheltenham are not included in the course fee.
*** The summer school is a mandatory element of the course.


Entry requirements

There are two routes in to this programme:

1. Completed ESTA PG Cert

This programme has the distinctive feature of welcoming students who have completed the ESTA PG Cert Teaching, a programme delivered by ESTA UK. The PG Cert is available in all instrumental and vocal specialisms and the credits from this count as RPL (requirements of prior learning) for the first four taught modules on this MA. In the ESTA PG Cert students are taught in dedicated, small groups based on their instrumental family specialism, and benefit from a staff of internationally renowned teachers and practitioners. Students will network and develop links within the profession in both their instrument specialism and across instruments through the ESTA staff. All staff are qualified, established professionals currently working within the field of music teaching and performing.

2. Students can apply directly to join this MA from the beginning.

  • Applicants must hold a degree (which does not have to be in musical studies) that was taught or researched in English and is equivalent to a UK bachelor’s degree or above, or be able to demonstrate performance skills at licentiate diploma level (level 6) in music on the instrument they plan to study, alongside teaching experience.
  • Alternatively, they may hold an appropriate English language qualification that must be acceptable to the University of Chichester.
  • Applicants are expected to be proficient as musicians, demonstrating a performance level of a minimum standard equivalent to Grade 8 ABRSM or Trinity College London.
  • All applicants must have access to an online working environment. Skype will be used for mentor/student interaction on the course.
  • All applicants will be interviewed face-to-face in their own country or via Skype.

What you need

Students will need online access (at home) before, during and immediately following participation on the course. They will also need the facility to make simple audio and video recordings throughout the course (most smartphones and laptops will have this facility). These will be needed for:

  • Webinars: These will be prepared and delivered by the course leader, members of the mentor panel and invited guest presenters. Webinars will take the form of pre-recorded video presentations with accompanying audio-visual and reading material, each coupled with setting of follow-up work for students.
  • Videos of teaching: Students are required to submit  videos of themselves teaching. It is the student’s responsibility to obtain written permission from: the student they are teaching; the student they are teaching’s parent/carer or responsible adult, and the school or institution, where appropriate.
  • Follow-up work may include student discussion online (synchronous or asynchronous) or completion of questionnaires or submission of brief written statements.

Time commitment

Online classes take as much time as regular on-campus classes. You need to set aside sufficient time for study. Plan to spend at least as much time working on the assignments and studying as you would with a traditional course. We recommend that you need to set aside 12-15 hours for study per week in order to get the maximum benefit from the course.

Attendance

Students enrolled on the ESTA MA course are expected to attend and participate fully in all study sessions set out in the course documentation and Handbook.

We understand that musicians are often reluctant to turn down playing opportunities but it is unacceptable to use last minute playing engagements as an excuse to miss study sessions.

Please refer to the course website for details about computer literacy, levels of engagement and our student code of conduct. The course is delivered in the English language.

University of Chichester In-House Test.

The University of Chichester also offers a FREE TESTING service to students applying to Chichester. The test is an IELTS equivalent and is for students who are already in the UK or who are applying through one of our authorised agents in country.