HOW THE XYLOFUN PROJECT BEGAN
Pedro Espi Sanchis has been involved in music education and teacher training across South Africa for over thirty years now. In this work he has met a multitude of teachers who feel that they face an impossible task. How do you teach a curriculum that includes difficult theoretical concepts such as scales, chords and chord progressions, when you yourself have not had the necessary training, and there are no instruments at all in your school? That is the situation of the great majority of teachers tasked with teaching classroom music in this country.
As a result, most children in South Africa do not receive any practical music education. This is a huge opportunity lost, and not only because of the creative experience in itself. There is powerful evidence that learning music has a positive effect on a child’s educational outcomes across a range of disciplines, memory, maths and reading skills among them.
Pedro’s response was to develop a high quality, low cost instrument and a method that allows students to play real music from the word go, and to acquire musical knowledge through the practical experience. At the beginning of 2017 Pedro launched the XyloFun project to provide instruments and training to teachers and to extend the benefits of music education to the most under-resourced schools in South Africa.
HOW DOES THE XYLOFUN METHOD WORK?
Learners of all ages love the action of playing xylophones. The XyloFun method works at every level from pre-school through primary to high school.
It is built around a custom-designed 15 note Alto xylophone, made with a very strong wood from a sustainable source, which has a beautiful ring. The keys are marked with three colours - red, blue and green - which are the basis for an accessible notation system and correspond to the three chords used in most of the songs that we know - C, F and G. The programme is based on a repetoire of wonderful classic songs from the South African songbook. Students play exciting, rewarding music from the very first lesson. The lessons are carefully graded so that the their skills and knowledge are extended every time.
Using a playing technique inspired from traditional African xylophones, each instrument can accommodate three players.
Each xylophone comes with a guidebook and a CD.
The XyloFun project raises funding to provide instruments and training courses to teachers in rural and urban areas all over South Africa. More details about this can be seen below.
TEACHERS’ TRAINING COURSES
XyloFun training courses are personally delivered by Pedro with the assistance of talented local musician-facilitators.
Each training course brings together teachers from ten to twelve disadvantaged schools in one particular geographic area. The teachers receive 12 hours of training over five sessions. On the final day they perform a concert for their students and communities. At the end of that day each participating school receives a set of xylophone packages to take back with them to their classrooms.
Successful workshops have been conducted at schools for children with special needs and the colour-coded XyloFun system has been particularly effective for hearing-impaired students. The last workshop to date was for teachers from a network of special needs schools in Khayalitsha, Cape Town.
To date (until February 2020) the project has delivered training courses to 14 different districts in the provinces of Gauteng, Free State, Limpopo, Eastern Cape, Western Cape and Kwazulu-Natal. These courses have been completed by 440 teachers and instruments have been supplied to 168 schools.
The implementation of the XyloFun project in different regions of South Africa depends on a network of committed teachers, principals, subject advisers, artists, community leaders and NGOs, built up over decades in music education.
TESTIMONIALS
LETTER FROM Nombulelo Leqheku, Subject Adviser, Creative Arts, Free State province
Music is one of the difficult Subjects that teachers need to teach without or inadequate training. The applied XyloFun techniques are very much effective and inspiring with one Xylophone played by 1 to 3 players at a go. It is so interesting and fun. The CAPS Theory of Music Requirements are easily and practically covered with the XyloFun Programme. Teachers on the last day performed an Exhibition Concert in the presence of their principals, learners and other stakeholders. It was so fantastic.
LETTER FROM Yvette Hardie, Director, ASSITEJ SA
This is a relatively low-cost instrument and fulfils all requirements of the CAPS, which requires a melodic instrument on which a basic scale can be played. The teachers have spoken about the vast improvement in their learners’ music skills since aquiring the instruments, often stating that the learners will stay for hours after schools to practise their playing.
LETTER FROM Mr P. T. Ndaba, Principal, Inkosi Mijwayeli Primary School, Drakensberg, KwaZulu-Natal
I by this letter write to appreciate the excellent XyloFun workshop you have conducted. On behalf of Inkosi Mjwayeli and other four participating schools we are over the moon about the project and the workshop.
LETTER FROM Ntsane Mopeli, Acting Manager, Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation
I wish to express how positive the workshop was to our educators because it stimulated and ignited the arts and culture interest in them even though the workshop took place for a short period. Thank you once more for the instruments donated to the schools.
OUR MISSION
to empower teachers to teach the music curriculum effectively, regardless of their previous experience
to extend the benefits of practical instrumental music education to the schools in South Africa that need it the most
to contribute to the closing of the achievement gap between the advantaged and the disadvantaged in our education system
to foster an appreciation of our African musical heritage and develop it as a resource in our classrooms
to demonstrate that the most serious learning can take place through a process full of joy and fun