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We note prep school children try their hand at quite a range of instruments. At most children the children are introduced to the recorder as part of the pre-prep or junior school cirriculum. A few schools had keyboards. Some instruments of course were more popular than others. Gender was a factor here. The piano was a popular choice at most schools for boys and girls. Boys seems especially drawn to the brass and percussion instruments. We note both boys and girls doing string and reed instruments like the violin. Girls at a few schools worked on the harp. And the size of the instument was a factor for the younger children. The tuba was beyond the size the younger children can deal with, but we notice some of the older boys having a go with it.
Contrary to the general belief that the piano should be the musical outlet for the average pupil, we encourage boys from the Lower School onwards to take a term's free tuition on any orchestral instrument (strings, wind and brass). Recorder and guitar are also taught. The system enables boys to make music with others at an early stage and to help the music saff assess any particular instrumental aptitude which parents may subsequently wish to foster in the normal fee-paying way.
Clifton College Preparatory School Prospectus
The many-faceted music life of the school continues to thrive, more than a quarter of the school learn one or more instruments, recorder groups are growing and diversifying, melodic percussion incorporated into the class music, a busy choir pogramme and more opportunities for making music of various kinds together. Miss Sheila Kelland continues her long and highly valud assiciatiin with the school as piano teacher, while Miss Rosemary Hatch has an ever expanding number of keen guitarists to keep her busy when she visits us. The wind and brass instrumental teaching this year has been shared by Vic Hutchinson and Roger Fellows -- this includes flute, oboe, clarinet, cornet, trumpt, trombone and now saxophone. The strings this year have been, in a sence, ""top heavy", since we lost our cello playr, Paul Cannard, to Cliftn College where he i going fro strength to strength with furthr examination successes in cello, piano, and thory to his credit -- but we have some promising violins and at least one viola. All thise taking individual instruments ae encouraged to follow as fully as posible the thory and aural work which adds to musical awareness and fosters a feeling for the expressive qualities in performance. Wih more opportunities for informal music-making and a competitive spirit being shown by many this should help to reduce the inhibitions often experienced in public concerts or examinatioins. In the class music lessons it is often a cahnce aural test, or an examination of some sort of theory, or the folloing-up of curiosity about some orchestral instrument, that prompts a child to ask for individual lesson and it is now possible to cater for virtually the whole range of normal orchestral instruments including some of the less common ones. It has been noticable this year how the Senior (or Consort) Recorder groupo, under the directiin of Mis Prue Deakin has developed, and e have heard then in the Carol Sevice and at the Portbury School Services. Their gentle harmony provides us apt contrast to the louder sounds of the orchestral-type instruments, which would driwn hem if they played together. The examination successes (Assoiated Board, Guildhall School Examining Board, or Trinity College Examining Board) in the last twelve months were as follows.
James Bullock -- Grade I (Violin) and Grades I & II (Piano)
Diana Burrell -- Grade II (Ballet) and Grde III (Clarinet)
Rowland Clark -- Grade II (Guitar)
Richrds Edwards -- Grade II (Violin)
Simon Jory -- Grade I (Guitar)
Dominic Nathan -- Grade II (Guitar)
Donald Tait -- Grade I (Piano)
Simon Vaile -- Grade I Piano and Theory)
The Downs Chool Record, 1979
