Making the necessary arrangements: Shake It Up competition

With magnificent views over central London, high up on the 8th floor at the PRS for Music office, the awards ceremony for the Shake It Up competition took place, accompanied by live jazz and delightful refreshments. The competition was set up to help promote awareness and engagement with the Schools Printed Music Licence, and to celebrate music education in schools. It invited music teachers to submit a unique arrangement of any piece of already published music.

Since 2013, Jane Dyball – CEO of the Music Publishers Association group of companies – has been keen to remove the fear that many teachers have of being caught up in copyright problems. This has all been made possible with a blanket licence, paid for by the Department for Education. Primary and secondary schools can now photocopy pretty much any owned music book. Teachers are then cleared to make their own arrangements. They can even bring this music into notation software such as Dorico or Sibelius to help facilitate this.

The awards evening showcased the high quality of music education taking place across the UK and the standard of new original arrangements was extremely high. Entries were judged by a team of music professionals: YolanDa Brown, Jane Dyball, Chrissy Kinsella, Richard King, and MT editor Alex Stevens.

The road to victory

The entries had to be notated and accompanied by a written account about why the arrangement was made, and one on the importance of giving students music to read. There also had to be a distinct reason for the arrangement, based around it being musically beneficial for their students.

The shortlisted finalists then had their performances audio-visually recorded. The six finalists were:

• ‘I Believe in Father Christmas’ by Greg Lake – Arranged by Iain Wilkinson of Keswick School. The quality of this guitar ensemble arrangement really impressed the judges by how it met the needs of the pupils for whom it was arranged. There were lots of techniques employed to keep the pupils’ interest, including swapping the melody between parts and variation between strumming and plucking.
• ‘Olympic Fanfare and Theme’ by John Williams – Arranged by Ian Raisbeck of Sandbach School. The judges particularly liked the incorporation of the top three parts for beginner pupils from feeder primary schools. These were cleverly written, being at a low level but also rewarding, enabling the players to feel part of the overall ensemble, making a real contribution to the performance.
• ‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams – Arranged by Peter Desmond, Welbourne Primary School. This was a skilful arrangement of a popular song, with variation and interest incorporated by a variety of means. The pupils clearly enjoyed playing it and got a real sense of achievement by being able to play one of their favourite songs as an ensemble.
• ‘Eye of the Tiger’ by Jim Peterik and Frankie Sullivan – Arranged by Frazer Hinchley, Croft Primary School. This arrangement was made to help primary-level pupils learn about the basics of rhythm and notation while maintaining the spirit of the original song, which the judges greatly appreciated.
• ‘Float On’ – Arranged by James Stevenson, North Oxfordshire Academy. This was a good samba-styled song, with judges being impressed with the range of students being catered for, including those with SEND.
• ‘I Giorni’ by Einaudi – Arranged by Sarah Fletcher, Our Lady & St Chad Catholic Academy. This was a good flute ensemble arrangement of a popular piano piece. The judges particularly liked the inclusion of performance marks such as accents and slurs. They also approved of the arrangement being written for a mixed-ability group.

At the end of the evening, the winner was announced as Iain Wilkinson of Keswick School, who took away £700 in prize money. Iain was delighted with his victory, saying that he would probably spend the money to fund more ensemble activities, music resources and tuition. The two runners-up were Ian Raisbeck of Sandbach School and Peter Desmond of Welbourne Primary School, who each received £400 in prize money. All the shortlisted finalists were also presented with a certificate acknowledging their achievement.

Following the success of this inaugural event, it has been announced that the Shake It Up competition will now run annually.

If you would like more information about the Schools Printed Music Licence, please visit www.cla.co.uk or email support@claedqueries.zendesk.com