FUN AND GAMES

Helena Ruinard discovers Stringbabies, a new approach to

teaching string instruments to the very youngest children
How do you teach something as demanding as
playing a string instrument to a young child who is
perhaps not even three years old? They have only
recently left babyhood and have just learned to
walk and talk. Add to that the issue of teaching
them to read notation when they may have little or
no grasp of reading words, and all the indications
suggest that youll be in for a bit of a struggle.

A NEW SYSTEM FOR LEARNING TO

READ MUSIC
Kay Tucker, who created Stringbabies, became
interested in teaching the very young about eight
years ago, first through her private practice and
then at Arundale School in Pulborough, West
Sussex. She says, What I found with pupils

aged six years and under was that their playing

was fine but their aural and music-reading skills
would hold them back. When Arundale School
said they were willing to trial cello lessons for
the children in the nursery class, I had to come
up with ways to tackle this for small groups of
children aged three or four years. My initial idea
was to link each string with a shape, instead of a
round note-head, so that there was no need for
a stave at first. This idea went on to become the
foundation of the Stringbabies method.
Once the pupil can recognise the pitches,
simple rhythms are added, followed by a twoline stave, then a three-line and finally a five-line
stave. This way, the pupil is introduced to the
concept of higher and lower pitches on the page
in the simplest way and with the help of easily
indentified shapes.

WHAT I FOUND WITH PUPILS AGED SIX YEARS AND UNDER

WAS THAT THEIR PLAYING WAS FINE BUT THEIR AURAL AND
MUSIC-READING SKILLS WOULD HOLD THEM BACK
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If the idea of reading music from a three-line

stave seems confusing, Tuckers experience would
suggest otherwise. One time I was teaching a
Grade 2 level student who had not been taught
through the Stringbabies method. One of the
Stringbabies pieces was still on the stand from
the previous lesson and as the new student sat
down, she sight-read straight through this piece,
which was written on a three-line stave, as if it
were the most natural thing in the world!

PLAY
Another strand of the philosophy behind
Stringbabies is that very young children learn
through play. The differently shaped noteheads are not only visually engaging; they are
also characterised by being given full names
instead of just letter names. So, for example,
when the pupil is ready to learn one finger on
the E string, he or she reads one note below the
line, called Ed, and one note on the line, called
Fred Sharp. With this simple system it is easy
for pupils to make up their own compositions,
perhaps with the teacher acting as the scribe,
and then experience the wonder of hearing their
compositions played back.
Teachers are encouraged to use games
regularly to improve posture, bowing and leftMAY 2012 | MUSIC TEACHER

35

MY INITIAL IDEA WAS TO LINK EACH STRING WITH

A SHAPE, INSTEAD OF A ROUND NOTE-HEAD
hand shape and dexterity. They might pretend
to be an army captain inspecting his violinists
on parade, or ask the children to pretend to be
monsters and then rag dolls to remind them
to stay relaxed rather than stiff and distorted.
A favourite with children is stirring the pot
which encourages a natural circular bowing
action. There is a nice selection of games in the
Stringbabies teachers book, but teachers are
encouraged to use their own games too.

SONGS AND AURAL AWARENESS

Right from the beginning, songs are used as a
way of embedding intervals, pulse and rhythm
into pupils aural awareness. There is a Hello
Song, which contains 5ths, and Goodbye, which
contains minor 3rds this interval probably
being the most natural to sing, occurring as it
does in many different playground songs. Other
simple songs containing these intervals are used
to consolidate the knowledge of 5ths and minor
3rds and teach rhythms through imaginative
rhymes.
Throughout the Stringbabies book, pupils
first learn the piece they are to play by singing

Stringbabies notation
36

MUSIC TEACHER | MAY 2012

it. All the pieces have amusing words, although

teachers are encouraged to use sol-fa as well.
Incidentally, sol-fa and its hand signs are
explained at the back of the teachers book for
those who may not be familiar with them.
Rhythm is taught using the words that we
have come to know through John Curwen and
Kodly, like ta and te-te, and there are pages
dedicated purely to rhythm, with teachers and
pupils always encouraged to create their own
rhythmic ostinatos to complement those on the
page and in the song. Interestingly, complexities
such as 68 rhythms and semiquavers are
introduced in the later stages, even though the
pieces are all fairly basic, which shows how highly
rhythmic knowledge is ranked in the Stringbabies
approach.

BACKGROUND, PRACTICE AND TAKE-UP

Tucker is a well-established cello teacher based
in West Sussex whose own background and
music education give an insight into the thinking
behind the Stringbabies system. I was a relatively
late starter on the cello at nearly 12 years old,
but quickly embraced it and knew I wanted to
make a career out of it, she says. At the age of
18 I was still a little behind my peers so I went to
study with Anna Shuttleworth and Susan Lowe
at Huddersfield School of Music for two years. It
was a case of starting again from scratch, which
was very hard although the process of analysing
and breaking down everything about my playing
made me think about it in a new way.
After this period of intense relearning she
went to the Guildhall School of Music and
Drama and later undertook a PGCE. Towards
the end of her time at the Guildhall, Tucker
became a member of the teaching panel of the
Inner London Education Authority (as it was
then), where all teachers received comprehensive
training and were fortunate to be able to observe
and work with Sheila Nelson. Anyone familiar
with Sheila Nelsons Essential String Method
and her work in Tower Hamlets, or Kodlys
methods of aural training, will see very quickly
where Stringbabies is coming from in terms of
its approach, and Tucker would be the first to
acknowledge her influences.

There are now three closely related

Stringbabies methods for violin, viola and cello.
One for double bass is currently being written,
and there are plans for piano and flute versions.
Each method is presented in two robust, spiralbound books, of which one belongs to the
pupil, with pieces, theory and exercises in big,
well-spaced print, with space and blank staves
for their own compositions. The accompanying
teacher-and-parent book divides the material
into 20 stages, each of which includes plenty
of ideas for fleshing out lessons so that there
is always something new to include, even if
pupils need to spend a few lessons on one
particularstage.
Stringbabies has been adopted at various
schools and music services across the country
as well as by private teachers, who undergo
accreditation in order to be able to advertise
using the registered trademark. Surrey Arts
is one of its main partners, and since parents
and schools have quickly seen the value of the
programme, the music service is rolling it out
across the county with children aged three to
seven. Laura Griffin, teaching and learning
manager at Surrey Arts, lists the many skills
children learn through the programme, like
technical, musical and interpersonal skills.
She also refers to its relevance to the National
Plan for Music Education, saying, Getting
the children started early in learning a musical
instrument is a very important feature of the
national plan, and Surrey Arts sees Stringbabies
as an important part of that First Access
programme.
Given the renewed push for children to learn
instruments from an early age, Stringbabies
could see rapid growth. The seeds that have been
planted and nurtured since 2008 certainly seem
to be sending out shoots. Indeed, some of them
are maturing in a very healthy way. MT
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