A teacher’s perspective: Identifying Talent training

My trainer, Hugh Nankivell, was such an inspirational and motivational character. I’ve really enjoyed trying to incorporate his enthusiasm and drive into my teaching. He took the whole group along with him and made sure that everyone was included. The training made clear that the whole point is to identify musical potential, not necessarily aptitude on a particular instrument. I remember watching one of the film resources that was shown and there was one boy whose appreciation of what was going on around him was really evident. There were others who might have been easier to spot in terms of being louder and more upfront, but he was clearly thinking ‘now what’s actually going on here?’ and ‘if I play here this will make it more interesting.’ He was making musical choices. The training was about being able to spot that.

The following film introduces the principals of our Furthering Talent approach. It is one of 5 films comprising our Practical Progression series.