Benefits of music education to previously disadvantaged South African learners: Perspectives of music teachers in the greater Tshwane Metropolis

Participant teachers

Participants included three established teachers educated under the traditional system who devoted their time to the betterment of the lives of previously disadvantaged learners, and two student teachers who were educated in two of the represented programs. The teachers are all working in Tshwane, Gauteng, the most densely populated South African province situated on the mainland plateau, representing a heterogeneous population of learners.

The participant teachers all gave permission for their names to be disclosed. Dr Lynette Pruneau was one of the first teachers to be seconded by the Gauteng Department of Education to start the Mamelodi Music Project (MMP) in Mamelodi West, Pretoria. While still working at Pro Arte Alphen Park, she always wanted to start a ballet outreach project. However, an opportunity arose to start a Music Outreach Project at the Mamelodi Secondary School, drawing learners from 15 primary and secondary schools. Two of Pruneau’s colleagues were also seconded to Mamelodi after she left Pro Arte in 2000. Violin and viola teacher Hester Wohlitz first started her own outreach and later became involved with John Roos’s outreach on Saturdays in Soshanguve, where the third participant teacher, Mandy Low, had also been involved with the Unisa Soshanguve Recorder Outreach Project for 10 years until the program was discontinued. Wohlitz was also involved with the Soshanguve viola ensemble and Tshwane Youth Orchestra. She still teaches at the Unisa Music Foundation Project in Pretoria, where learners can choose either strings or woodwinds. Tebogo Shibambo, one of the student teachers, was educated in the State Theater Elementary Performance Program (STEPP; a large project in Pretoria which ran for many years and was discontinued following the death of its founder, Phillip Clifford), and subsequently joined the Unisa Music Foundation Project running in Pretoria, while Onica Ramatjela founded a new project for learners in Mamelodi East, Mamelodi Music Conservatory (MMC), running since 2009. MMP runs on weekday afternoons, while the Soshanguve Music Project MMC are Saturday Outreach Programs.

Purpose, discipline, and academic achievement

Participant teachers perceived that benefits of music education to previously disadvantaged learners extend beyond merely the ability to play an instrument. Pruneau remarked, “These children who at times had to steal to survive, became these wonderful adults. They are disciplined, have initiative, and know what they want in life. I believe that music developed all of this.” Ramatjela observed that most of the learners coming to music school are already disciplined and that the other learners copy the disciplined ones. She does not know whether music helped them to improve academically. However, Wohlitz, having followed learners over many years, states as follows:

Music greatly helped the learners with discipline, it gave them focus in life, and their academic marks improved. I always ask them about school, and about what they want to become. Their matric ⁶ marks were good enough for them to have been accepted at the University of the Free State and music also played a role in their academic achievements. (Wohlitz)

Furthermore, Wohlitz says that children learn discipline to practice and gain confidence through participating in Eisteddfods and that the exposure of public performance increases their self-esteem and gives them confidence. Low stated that music taught learners to take responsibility and to be able to work on their own. She says, “Music taught them to take responsibility, to practise, and to ‘deliver the goods’. Some walked for an hour every Saturday to get to the Community Centre to get a lift to their music lessons.” Pruneau said, “In themselves these children from Mamelodi did not have direction in life. Music gave them both direction as well as work.”

Pertaining to brain development, Wohlitz states that the memorization of scales—patterns—is excellent for brain development. Low said that the brain “works and develops with systems and practising scales is a great system for them to develop their brains.” Furthermore, she believes that music teaches them hand coordination as well as linking of the left and right brains.

In the words of one of the student teachers, Tebogo Shibambo,

When I started with music lessons, I had friends who were a bad influence on me—both in school and at home. We didn’t have any dreams. But when I started playing, I had a dream to live for. Cutting down music in the schools by the government will put more kids on the street. They might be more violent and they wouldn’t have much direction.

Participating teachers perceived that music education cultivates uncanny perseverance in these learners. Wohlitz observed that those music learners who did not pass matric the first time around had the personal discipline to repeat subjects until they did pass their matric exams. According to Low, while the children from the Soshanguve music project all did very well in life including becoming engineers, lawyers, and doctors, it concerns her that few carried on with music professionally. She thinks they know they are able to earn more in other professions than in music. Primarily choosing professions other than music was not the trend for the programs in which Pruneau and Wohlitz are involved.

Sometimes, however, circumstances beyond their control interfered with the continuity of their music studies. Wohlitz said that learners sometimes missed lessons as they had to take extra academic classes after teacher strikes. During 2014, many older students left MMC due to extra academic classes they had to attend at their various schools.

Social connection and teachers as role models

Participating teachers are witnesses to music’s multiple benefits in socialization: learners relate to both peers and authority figures through music, and they feel a sense of belonging and, in performing music, they build up their self-esteem. Group work is central to the African cultural notion of Ubuntu, ⁷ according to these teachers and others working with previously disadvantaged learners. Wohlitz explains that teaching violin with the Suzuki method is specifically good for township children and adds that John Roos, the founder of the Unisa program, said that these children function better in groups since they are used to being among many people in their cultures. For this same reason, they find individual performance more nerve-wracking. Ramatjela also found that at first learners were very nervous about performing in front of their peers in performance classes, but they quickly became used to it and gained confidence. Low says that learners get together and play music under the trees. Pruneau also found that learners thrive on group work: “Learners come to the music centre and stay there the whole day: they watch in the classroom how the others have their lessons and learn through this.” She said that the teachers never experienced any resentment from the learners, but sometimes from the community. She perceived that this subsided once the community realized that the White teachers had only noble intentions.

From her many years of experience, Pruneau sums the situation up succinctly:

Parents—that is if the child has a parent, since some are from child-headed households—were not very involved. Dads work, or parents work far away and some stay with grandmothers in Mamelodi. They often have no family structure. I feel that this leads to a lot of our crime, since there often are no father/mother figures present and the children have a lack of role models. Part of the reason why music had such an impact on these children’s lives was because teachers became role models for them. It was an awesome experience to see these learners flourish. At the beginning, however, I didn’t know where to start since the need was so great and the resources scanty. (Pruneau)

Low says that she was very strict. Pruneau pointed out: “I was very strict, but gave them a lot of love.” The student teachers, Tebogo Shibambo and Onica Ramatjela, followed in the footsteps of their mentors (who included Wohlitz, Pruneau and many others) by becoming mentors themselves:

Music has the power to change people’s attitudes: I taught a student, Jabolela, who was my first student at the opera company. He used to have an attitude of no respect, it was either his way or the highway. I explained to him that music needs dedication, hard work, and above all, respect. He changed to be a great musician. I believe he changed because I respected him. He started to greet every old person, saying “morning sir, morning ma’am.” It took only two lessons for his attitude to change drastically. (Shibambo)

In my school I’m not only a music teacher, I’m also a sister. There was one case where a boy of about 11 years was playing guitar and calling himself a thug. He came at the beginning of 2012. I told him that is not going to get him anywhere in life!—in the beginning I thought he wasn’t listening but the following week all his jewellery were gone. At the end of the day, he carried on with music and his friends stopped. (Ramatjela)

In his many years as educator, Jonathan Jansen came to the conclusion that young people observe and imitate the example of their teachers much more than they listen to what they are told (Jansen, 2011). Furthermore, Jansen found that good leaders relate to the emotional and spiritual lives of their students and fair leaders always acknowledge the humanity of those entrusted to their care. Jansen believes that, in a broken country, the most important prerequisite for leading is first acknowledging how one is also broken through being a part of a broken system (Jansen, 2011).

Trust and consistency

One of the teachers formerly working with Pruneau qualified as a psychologist and her findings were that these children do not trust anyone. Pruneau and her former colleague perceived that this changed significantly—in their opinion, through learners learning to trust the teachers. Pruneau says that the most important thing to establish trust is consistency—they cannot handle inconsistency. A former learner, Thabang, is now employed at MMP:

I told him that he must never cancel his students’ lessons 5 minutes before the time, since then they experience inconsistency and lose trust and faith. If they do not know you will be there, the children do not come back. It is as if they give up. (Pruneau)

She aims to instill a disciplined mind-set in every new group of learners, and stresses the problem of starting something and then not completing it. Low contacts the learners personally to let them know when music lessons had to be canceled for whatever emergency. When learners do not come to music school, Ramatjela calls them. Teachers noticed that repetition and structure also give them a sense of safety, while music helped them to develop a very good sense of themselves. Low says that at the exam one boy came up to her and said, seeing that they had rehearsed the exam so many times, “is this for real?”

The findings on trust are significant for all attempted interventions in this population, since trust versus mistrust is the first and most fundamental stage of Erikson’s theory of the stages of psychosocial development. When the circumstances in which children grow up shake their basic trust in the world, all subsequent developmental stages could be affected through failure to develop a basic sense of trust (Erikson, 1997).

Rapid progress, career decisions, earning income, and future employment

A theme which kept recurring throughout these narratives is the rapid progress and extraordinary motivation demonstrated by many of these learners. Tebogo Shibambo started with music in 2009, when he was a matric learner, first learning recorder and going on to study the oboe. Shibambo has since taught at the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra Academy, taught theory learners for their Unisa exams, performed movements from concerti with the Johannesburg Symphony Orchestra and the Tshwane Youth Orchestra, played second oboe for the Gauteng Philharmonic Orchestra, and conducted the Tshwane Youth Orchestra in Grahamstown. Kgotatso Kekana is a learner who started with recorder in Grade 11. After matric, she passed her Unisa Grade 7 exam and went on to pursue a Bachelor of Music degree without a bridging course, passing the degree cum laude. She is playing bassoon now.

Music opened doors for these learners and enabled them to earn money, which, in turn, influenced their career decisions. Some learners played professionally in concerts with the Unisa Symphony Orchestra. Some play in shopping centers for which they get paid pocket money. According to Wohlitz, John Roos started a music festival for previously disadvantaged learners—Wohlitz perceived that the money prizes really motivated the learners.

Wohlitz and Low emphasized encouraging their students to teach their peers to help them discover whether they would like to teach or not. To qualify to teach, they do not necessarily have to possess a university degree, but must be in possession of a teacher’s licentiate: “One of the black pupils at the Soshanguve project went on to do the Unisa Teachers’ Licentiate and is teaching now” (Low). Thato Mamphsika did music as a subject for matric (clarinet) and is now employed by the Police Band.

Prestige, sense of achievement and inspiration to study music

More than most other subjects, music offers the possibility of performing in public and of being noticed by others. Wohlitz states that the Soshanguve ensemble were invited to open the 37th Viola Congress in Stellenbosch and also played at the opening of the 5th Unisa International Strings Competition. Learners also have the opportunity to take part in the National Youth Orchestra Course. Less advanced learners have opportunities to participate in informal Christmas concerts and end-of-term concerts, while more advanced learners get paid to participate in the yearly Unisa Christmas Concert. Some play for professional orchestras, including the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra. A former Soshanguve learner went to Pro Arte Alphen Park High School and completed her Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Pretoria, and during this time, she went to Switzerland on an exchange program. Today she has her own music studio.

Questioning the student teachers directly shed more light on why music became so important in their lives. Ramatjela explained that they see instruments live on television and that at church people sing:

The first time I heard an orchestra, my dream was to play violin. I didn’t know that you called it a “violin,” but when I saw this at Mamelodi Secondary, I jumped at the opportunity. My dream for now is to go overseas and to collect knowledge that I can get: to grasp what I can grasp and to bring it back home. When you get results, as a teacher, that is when it becomes overwhelming. (Ramatjela)

Ramatjela’s dream came true in 2014 when she went to France for a summer program presented by the Franco-American Vocal Academy. Shibambo also identified a few sociocultural challenges:

The problem with being a Classical musician is that we do not have much influence in the community. I tried to explain to my family what Classical music is, and I showed them a DVD. I now have huge support from my mum. My father is the only breadwinner, therefore he is always working and does not have as much time to come to my concerts. One of the things motivating me, is to show that black people can also play Classical music very well. When I went to STEPP my friends said “are you a coconut ⁸ now, do you want to be black or white?”

Facilities, support, and innovation from principals

Training and qualifications might not necessarily be the only indicators of potential and future success. While Smith (2011) identifies the problem that head teachers in less privileged schools are less likely to have professional leadership and management qualifications, Pruneau and Low point out how very creative and sustained interventions were implemented by such headmasters:

Mr Sebata, former principal of Mamelodi Secondary School, rolled out the red carpet for us, but is deceased now. On the first day about 100 children from Mamelodi Secondary School came and said that they wanted to do music. I talked and thereafter other colleagues also came. We shared a classroom which was in ruins. We also taught music under the trees. (Pruneau)

There was a very innovative headmaster: he asked the Botanical Gardens to come and show the people how to make a vegetable garden and use it in the appropriate way for sustainable food supply. They used the school grounds for vegetable gardening and fed the children two times per day from that. Children couldn’t concentrate because they were hungry. They also got hold of Plascon and painted educational things. It is because he is so dedicated that he opened the school for us on Saturdays for music lessons. We started at the Community Centre, but it was too small. Then we went to the school, Khenzani Primary School, for a long time until John (Roos) said that we can’t carry on with the safety risks posed by the transport arrangements. Pretoria Girls High then offered a venue for Saturdays, and Unisa brought the children in. (Low)

Finances and patrons

Wohlitz and Low explain that the Unisa Music Foundation Outreach Program started through the initiative of John Roos, who was the person with the ability, love, and generosity that made everything work. Without the help of donations—particularly donations of instruments—the programs would not be successful. Low says that at the 23rd World Conference of the International Society for Music Education (ISME) held at the State Theater in Pretoria, South Africa, in 1998, Americans came and donated instruments to the children—they donated these to John Roos. Sasol ⁹ sponsored the Soshanguve Project initially for a couple of years. Pruneau explains that the Department of Education “does not have money,” but that with the patronage of a Swedish choir that visited South Africa and philanthropist Berit Uggla, things fell into place. One of Pruneau’s clarinet students, Thato Mamphsika, performed at a hotel where the Swedish choir was staying, after which she received an email from Berit Uggla which stated that they wanted to get involved and asked what they needed. Pruneau answered that they needed small violins. After the visit of the adult choir, a Swedish youth choir came and gave a concert in Mamelodi at which occasion each member brought a violin which was given to a child. The next year, the youth choir came again with instruments for the children.

Finances to pursue tertiary music education

Wohlitz explains that through the Outreach Project, Unisa sponsored the learners up to the age of 21 and singers up to 26. “After that they must give back such as by working for Unisa. Many buy their own instruments then.” She says that the biggest stumbling block for them to go and study is lack of financial resources: Unisa would carry them on the condition that they have to study music. They have the option to take one subject and in this way continue with practical exams. Bridging courses and scholarships are available. One violist and one violinist were sponsored to study toward a Bachelor of Music degree at the University of the Free State (UFS): after initially being required to do a bridging year, both completed their degrees and even went to Russia for masterclasses. When Ramatjela’s mother became unable to take a loan in her second year, she transferred from the University of Pretoria (UP) to Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) in 2008, where she studied opera on an National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) Scholarship from the government. She completed the Bachelor of Technology degree in vocal arts performance in 2009. Berit Uggla, the Swiss patron supporting MMP, paid the balance that Ramatjela owed to UP before she went to TUT.

Lessons and instruments

The programs which showed sustainability in that they are still running today were those where lessons were more frequent, where children were initially taught in groups, and where theory lessons were taught separately and not during the practical lesson time. In Pruneau’s program, learners are taught in group lessons; the children came every day and many learners stay at the music center for the entire afternoon. Children who can commence with individual lessons are identified through merit-based selection. “This system basically operates like a tunnel: as the group shrinks, new students join again,” says Pruneau. No learners are turned away, and the children would come to the teachers and say “Ma’am, here is my friend.” At MMC, “some children come with their brother or sister, who might be only 4 or 5 years old, and who is eager to learn,” says Ramatjela. “We taught them in groups, with 7- to 10-year-olds in one group, and 11- to 13-year-olds in another.” By its nature, the Suzuki method taught by Wohlitz involves group learning. At Soshanguve, learners started with half-hour individual lessons on Saturdays from the beginning, with no beginner group education. While some learners got to Grade 6 or 7 standard, there was no new intake in the years below, and therefore, the program came to an end in 2007.

Availability of space in the programs depends on which instruments are popular with learners and how well the system of sharing instruments works, as well as on donations. While Ramatjela was trained in opera singing, at her own program, MMC, where she teaches violin and music theory, she does not teach singing to the learners since she says that nobody is interested in opera singing. Pruneau says that violin is very popular among the children. At MMP, the violin staff expanded and learners can choose from violin, recorder, clarinet, singing, trumpet, and saxophone, while MMC also has a percussion teacher. Even young children had to use full-size violins. At MMP, they started with 10 violins and 10 clarinets which were donated by Berit Uggla from Sweden: the violin teacher taught the learners in groups of about 10 for 30 min per lesson. Learners cannot take piano lessons since they do not have instruments at home to practice on. The Gauteng Department of Education, however, had supplied an electronic piano. Ramatjela started her program with 10 violins, 5 recorders and 2 guitars donated by the Unisa Music Foundation, and trumpet and trombone was introduced in 2015. Students are placed on probation and after a 3-month trial period, they can sign a contract with Unisa and borrow the instruments. Some instruments are shared by students. Ramatjela says, “We share 3 cellos amongst 10 students, the good one who always practises always leaves with the cello and the other children get angry!” Wohlitz says that they do not give the beginners violins to take home because they do not yet know how to care for a violin. “They had to practise at the centre and if they showed dedication, they were allowed to take violins home.” In the beginning stages, MMP lost some violins when some children sold the violins. At the Soshanguve Project, Low taught recorder. The first instruments were secondhand soprano and alto recorders donated by an American family at the 1998 ISME conference while the Unisa Music Foundation bought the other instruments for the learners. Learners were allowed to keep their instruments. Low says, “There is a lot of demand for recorder teachers in schools since there are not enough recorder teachers.”

Styles of music and learning, music to play, and the inclusion of music theory education

While it is important to allow crossover between styles, student teachers themselves acknowledge the value of a firm grounding in classical music. In Ramatjela’s experience, classically trained musicians can easily convert to other styles, and the Jazz teachers at another school in Mamelodi always ask her and her classically trained colleagues to help them. Wohlitz says that learners were encouraged to play African music on Western instruments and to do this at the end of lessons, after the hard work was done. Pruneau and her colleagues taught

the generic concept of what music is to these children, not limiting ourselves to Classical or any stereotypes. Only later did the learners realise that the music they were learning sounds different to popular music which they heard over the radio—and nobody had a problem with that!

Oral and aurally based methods of learning are common in a non-Western context and integrated into their teaching with great success by these South African teachers. Wohlitz says that township children displayed a remarkable ability to learn Jazz music, which they downloaded from their cell phones—“they played by ear, meaning they played what they heard.” Strumpf (2001) notes the success of the use of rote learning in the practice of traditional musicians in Zimbabwe and suggests that these approaches should be integrated with more modern teaching methods such as the use of notation and method book learning.

Low made use of music books specifically compiled for these learners by South African music educators. The recorder students worked from a book for consort or ensemble, Lessons from South Africa, edited by Potgieter (1998), as well as from Sina’s Songs by Kutu and Van Niekerk (1998). These are all notated in choir format for Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass and therefore also good for recorder consort. Low says that mothers of the learners requested that African music should be published, since many of the traditions are otherwise not preserved.

Having a firm grasp of music theory is essential for progress and also a prerequisite for playing the higher practical exams. Low said that at the Soshanguve program theory was taught in the children’s own weekly music lesson. Ramatjela taught theory by letting the children play games such as drawing notes in the sand. In 2014, 17 of Shibambo’s theory learners wrote Unisa exams. Group theory lessons appear to be more sustainable.

Feeder programs and additional programs

Wohlitz says that a professional orchestra, the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra’s cadet program, was discontinued and she thinks that there is a need for a feeder National Youth Orchestra. The lack of a feeder program meant that the Soshanguve project came to an end in the year that the original learners finished matric. Low says, “The group we worked with kept going for about 10 years, and the programme stopped in 2007. We didn’t have space for taking in new younger learners into the programme.”

Pruneau’s former students founded their own Saturday Music School in Mamelodi East. Pruneau says, “They saw the need: since we were in Mamelodi West, they saw that the children of Mamelodi East were underserved.” After the founding teachers taught voluntarily for 2 years, Ramatjela’s project is now sponsored by Unisa Music Foundation. She says, “I had 13 teachers but now have 7. We teach on Saturdays from 9:00 to 16:00.”

Obstacles and fears learners experience

Student teachers struggle to get learners’ parents involved, to obtain the necessary support for their programs and to find tutors with the necessary qualifications. Ramatjela says that although the parents attend the children’s performances, they do not attend parents’ meetings. During 2014, MMC lost two of its music tutors because they did not have the necessary qualifications. When the STEPP music school closed, Shibambo says that the biggest fear the learners had was that their instruments could be repossessed. Before he died, Phillip Clifford convinced John Roos from Unisa to give Shibambo the oboe which he currently plays on.

Dignity

To receive music education at the MMP, learners’ parents pay a minimal fee of R30 ¹⁰ per year. Pruneau says that this helps to instill a sense of responsibility and self-respect, since people feel that they are paying for the privilege of taking lessons. She says that parents came to thank the teachers for what music means for their children and that now they know where their children are in the afternoons and that they are safe.

Wohlitz says that the children’s self-esteem was greatly improved. “Some were classified as street children. When they look back, they do not want to identify with it! They actually became more tidy and hygienic and are proud of themselves.”

In summary, the factors that were identified by the three participating teachers to be important for the sustainability of programs include higher frequency of lessons (MMP), making space in the program for future generations (“tunnel effect”), teaching group theory lessons and not using practical lesson time for theory education, expanding the numbers of staff and the choice of instruments available to study, involving and communicating with the parents, and the responsibility of paying something even if only a very small amount.