Book reviews: Count Me In!

Co-authored by Adam Ockelford, Sophie Gray, Jon Cohen and Max Mai, Count Me In! – resources for making music inclusively with children and young people with learning difficulties is a comprehensive resource combining impressive expertise in research, publications, teaching, musicianship, recording and arranging. Based on the Sounds of Intent framework, which encourages teachers to target activities at their pupils’ and students’ levels of musical development, it contains material that all young people can engage with simultaneously. Pieces are deconstructed into separate activities for ‘sound-makers’, ‘pattern-makers’, ‘motif-makers’ and ‘song-makers’, all supported by assistive technology and a website with free audio.

Music teachers are used to having a wide spread of musical abilities and experiences in any class, perhaps more so in specialist provision. Differentiation is key if the class is to enjoy shared, group musical experiences, and is central to the structure of this resource. Published by Routledge/Speechmark, the book offers 12 pieces of music differentiated for the four levels named above. Each level practises its section’s music before coming together as a large group, and each builds on and reinforces previous activities. This serves a range of those who perceive and create sounds to those with a deep understanding of musical structure and practices, and potentially high levels of musicianship.