Sampling new styles with FutureDJs

Picture the scene: it was the 2017 Music & Drama Education Expo and I had just consumed my entire daily calorie intake in giveaway chocolates, when I suddenly noticed a company called FutureDJs in the showguide. The name intrigued me, and since I was ignorant to the world of DJing, I thought I would investigate. Within the first five minutes I'd learned that DJing had been made a GCSE performance instrument in 2016 for AQA, OCR, and Eduqas, and that FutureDJs was providing schools with access to this very technology.

Within a manner of weeks, following a quick chat and a short email exchange, the team were at my school (free-of-charge.) FutureDJs is a very exciting and attractive idea for most teenagers, and my Year 7s and 8s were completely transfixed by the DJ skillset that was demonstrated in an assembly: beat-matching, filter sweeps and scratching. Clearly a positive change to my otherwise enthusiastic, yet less multi-sensory music assemblies. All interested students then filled in a flyer, and all I had to do was give FutureDJs the parents’ email addresses (our parents agree that this can be shared beforehand, or alternatively FutureDJs can provide a permission slip template) and they took it from there. A week or so later, the first lessons took place, complete with a set of professional Pioneer decks for the school to use.

While these lessons are on the costly side at £220 per student per term – which means ten 30-minute lessons – you get a lot for your money. The lessons include a trained and fully DBS-checked tutor – who is also given regular CPD training by the lead tutor, Mark Blundell (DJ Mark One) – the aforementioned DJ decks, and as much support as you want or need from the team. For many schools, this price isn't going to be a problem, but for those of us with pupil premium students, finding the money to subsidise lessons is a challenging task. A popular solution at my school has been to organise paired lessons, which many of my students have loved.

New instrumentalists

Over the last two years, I've had an interesting set of students taking up the instrument, from classical trumpeters to boys who have never set foot in the music department before. At a time, where numbers of children studying music are falling across the country, this feels like a step in the right direction. I also now have an army of DJs ready to provide music for parents, during intervals in school concerts or plays. My next step is to fully integrate them into live ensembles, so that they are considered soloists in their own right.

With DJing now a core part of the music curriculum at my school, FutureDJs has integrated itself into the timetabling and budget of the department. For schools like mine who largely access their tutors via their local music service, FutureDJs is also steadily expanding its work with music education hubs across the country and is continuing to refine its offer. Its since written and published a whole DJing curriculum with three levels: Debut (Grade 1), Breakthrough (Grade 3) and Artist (Grade 5). By following this curriculum, I've come to understand how DJ decks are a full-blown musical instrument. Like the violin, flute or clarinet, DJing requires an immense amount of skill. Scratching requires dexterity and interdependence, as your hands play different rhythms simultaneously, much like a drummer. Beat-matching (keeping tracks in time while mixing), also requires a finely tuned ear, as well as in-depth knowledge of your instrument, allowing you to improvise and control the energy throughout.

Although electronic music is considered to have a different set of musical priorities to classical music, it is a study that is just as worthwhile. The skills and knowledge gained from DJing indeed contribute to a student's wider musical knowledge, the same as learning any other instrument.

While classically trained musicians may first listen out for pitch, harmony and melody; electronic musicians instead develop their understanding of timbre, tone, rhythm and space. Not to mention that in the long-term, DJing is one of the few jobs in the industry where you've got a good chance of getting a gig on a Friday night.

Facing challenges

However, it would be asinine to pretend that teaching DJing in schools is easy. Despite so many of our students craving the opportunity to learn, there is yet to be a wider supportive curriculum to follow, and the majority of classroom music teachers still know little about it. Add in a dollop of suspicion from my more sceptical colleagues (‘Can't you just put on a Spotify playlist?’) and I understand why DJing is experiencing a slow start in schools.

Marking a GCSE DJ performance is something that is well out of my comfort zone, even with my experience of dissecting electronic music and teaching Music Technology. Fortunately, our DJ tutor has been happy to assist with this. It's been helpful to have an expert on hand to tell me what's good, and I've even been offered a term of free lessons to improve my own knowledge and understanding.

There were some teething problems at the beginning, mainly down to miscommunication, but now they're a bigger team and I have my own dedicated account manager, things are a lot simpler. That said, the tutors are always present and prepared; even when I've forgotten to tell them about a school INSET. The inevitable challenge will be maintaining the quality and consistency of teaching as they expand and grow.

I've got my first group of DJs taking their GCSE performances this year – I'm excited, intrigued and nervous about the results. Nonetheless, this is the future. There's more of a buzz around my department, and I feel like I'm finally striking the right balance between broadening horizons and giving my students socially relevant music-making opportunities, that they crave. At a time when our subject is threatened with extinction, what can we lose by providing our students with more opportunities to embrace music making? Who knows, our subject might even outlive us in the end.