El Sistema is a unique program, designed to achieve social change and offer children of underprivileged communities intensive music education through ensemble practice. It is a publicly financed voluntary sector music education program in Venezuela, founded in 1975 by Venezuelan educator, musician and activist José Antonio Abreu (Tunstall 2012, p. 273). It has become hugely successful, involving around 400,000 children and comprising approximately sixty children’s orchestras, 200 youth orchestras, thirty professional
orchestras, and dozens of choirs. El Sistema’s philosophy is based on the main idea of music as a vehicle of social change: the search for musical excellence teaches students to strive for quality in all areas of their lives. El Sistema later adopted the motto “Social Action for Music”. In other words, it is “free classical music education that promotes human opportunity and development for impoverished children” (Slevin 2013).
By 2015, according to official figures, El Sistema consisted of over 400 music centers and 700,000 young musicians. The program provides four hours of musical training and rehearsal per week day after school as well as work on weekends (Lesniak 2012). The program is known for rescuing young people in extremely impoverished circumstances from the environment of drug abuse and crime into which they would otherwise be likely to be drawn. The Venezuelan government began to fully finance Abreu’s orchestra after it had succeeded at the International Festival of Youth Orchestras in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1976. From the beginning, El Sistema has fallen within the remit of the Ministry of Social Services, not the Ministry of Culture, which has strategically helped it to survive. Abreu received the National Music Prize for his work in 1979 and became Minister of Culture in 1983. Today, El Sistema is a supported by the government program: the country now has over 500,000 students with plans to expand it to 1,000,000 annually.
The Fundamentals2
El Sistema’s compatibility with various pedagogical approaches is a much-discussed issue among music educators, who sometimes see it as a pedagogy of competition with others. But El Sistema has proven to be efficient in this regard: it can absorb many pedagogical approaches because it is a set of principles, fundamental assumptions, and understandings rather than a strict pedagogical concept. In the course of widespread travels to observe El Sistema programs in different countries, I had the opportunity to see children playing Orff instruments in El Sistema Denmark; children dancing with Dalcroze movements in El Sistema Italy; in many places, children playing Suzuki repertoire; and even, in El Sistema Bosnia, a child having an almost-individual piano lesson while another child played the accordion and seven fascinated children watched and listened. (This last was simply because those were the only instruments around. Most of the work of this El Sistema program is choir singing.) In every case, the particular pedagogical concept in play seemed to synchronize naturally with an El Sistema learning environment, an ethos of inclusion and group activity.
Currently, El Sistema is the model of music education for changing life studied most in the world. There are many projects born in Europe, Asia and America, Africa and Oceania that have been inspired by this model.
El Sistema promotes intensive ensemble participation from the earliest stages, group learning, peer teaching, and a commitment to keeping the joy and fun of musical learning and music-making present. In the following, the main themes that characterize the Venezuelan project are outlined (http://www.elsistemausa.org/el-sistema-in-venezuela.htm). Jonathan Govias, a member of the first group of Abreu Fellows at the New England Conservatory, wrote about the five main fundamentals that govern El Sistema’s philosophies and values in order to show the differences between the Venezuelan teaching style and “conservatory-style” training (Govias 2014). Govias states that even though El Sistema is called a “system”, there is no strict sense of a curriculum or pedagogical concept (ibid. p. 26).
He then suggests an analogy of how healthcare and justice “systems” are considered large institutions rather than governing bodies that dictate a specific set of policies and procedures to be followed (ibid., p. 21).
The five fundamentals have been developed from Govias’:
2 This paragraph has been adapted from El Sistema documentations, published at http://fundamusical.org.ve.
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[…] firsthand observation and practical hands-on experience within multiple nucleos [facilities within the physical location where classes are held] across a broad geographic distribution. They are qualitative distinctions only in the sense that they attempt to identify and explain the roots of practices without defining the proficiency or sophistication with which that practice is delivered (ibid., p. 24).
The five fundamentals encompass social change, ensembles, frequency, accessibility, and connectivity.
Eric Booth, an El Sistema Global advisory board member, supplements Govias’ list by adding a few of his own topics to the list of El Sistema’s core values: flexibility in teaching, the nucleo environment, the CATS teacher model, ambition and achievement. The fundamental elements3 of the educational approach of El Sistema (which are continually being refined) are:
Learning sequence
Children of preschool age begin with work on body expressiveness and rhythm. Encouraging the children to keep their bodies active while playing (without losing technique) is a key feature of the program in later years. At age five, children pick up their first instruments, starting with the recorder and percussion. They also join a choir in order to build a community through ensemble work. By age seven, all children can pick their first string or wind instrument. They can change instruments but are not encouraged to do so frivolously.
Instruction
Early instruction includes singing and playing instruments, often focusing on a single note within a group song; this helps to develop a sense of quality sound. Learning how to use full standard notation often takes many years and is organically incorporated into learning. There are three levels of practice every week: full ensemble work, section work and private lessons.
Learners often encounter the same teacher in both their group and individual lessons. This allows them to progress quickly, as bad habits are quickly corrected and good habits are regularly enforced.
Learning through performing
The children play in front of audiences as much as possible. This reduces the pressure of formal performance and allows performing to become a
3 ibid.
natural part of the children's musical life. They frequently watch their fellow learners perform, allowing them to both observe and be inspired by the accomplishments of their peers. From a young age, the children are exposed to the variety of orchestras within the system, from the lowest level to the internationally successful Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra.
Environment
El Sistema’s primary focus is to create a daily haven of safety, joy and fun that builds every child’s self-esteem and sense of value. Discipline is relaxed but enforced. Attendance is not an issue; the children themselves want to be at their local nucleo, with their teachers and their fellow learners. Hard work and true achievement are crucial to the success of El Sistema. However, there is always a feeling of fun.
Teachers
The majority of El Sistema teachers and nucleo leaders are former participants in the program. They understand both the social and musical mission of the program: they nurture both the individual and the musician at the same time. Teachers are able to give each learner individual attention. If they notice that a child has missed a second day at the nucleo without prior notice, they often go to their home to enquire about the absence.
Curriculum
El Sistema has a national curriculum, including an established musical sequence. However, local leaders can customize their program. When a local experiment produces good results, it is shared and may be adopted everywhere. The musical curriculum starts with simple arrangements of big pieces with a big sound. These masterworks are often reintroduced as the children progress through the system. As Gustavo Dudamel said, “We have lived our whole lives inside these pieces. When we play Beethoven’s Fifth, it is the most important thing happening in the world.”
Music
El Sistema introduces its learners to internationally known classical composers, Latin American composers and Venezuelan folk musicians.
Work with parents
El Sistema takes considerable time working with the children's parents.
For a child of age two or three, teachers make home visits to ensure that the family understands the level of commitment required of them. As the children begin to learn their instruments, teachers instruct the parents how
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to best support their child’s practice schedule at home, giving feedback and encouragement. If a child wins a place in a youth or city orchestra, they receive a stipend; this not only recognizes their accomplishments, but places real value on music-making for the family. Thus, they do not need to take the child out of El Sistema to work.
Building a community
El Sistema grows from loving children first and loving music second.
Emphasis is placed on creating a community in which learners support one another. Teachers and students alike are committed to being part of an environment where children feel safe and their efforts can lead to both personal and community success. El Sistema graduates leave with a sense of capability, endurance and resilience: they have the confidence to face enormous challenges in their lives. A deep sense of value, of being loved and appreciated, and trust for the group process and cooperation enables them to feel that excellence is in their own hands.
As Tricia Tunstall observes, accessibility means that no El Sistema program in Venezuela rejects a child based on talent. Government funding means it is a program that is free for all. This is very important because it is estimated that about seventy to ninety percent of the El Sistema participants live in poverty (Tunstall 2012). As a learning practice, El Sistema activities share a cooperative learning approach. When cooperative learning is applied, the learners become teachers of other learners, and teachers become facilitators. Ideas come from the learners and develop into learning and activity (Hoffman 2013). Learners become more independent, responsible for their own learning progress and more capable of applying what they have learned to solve problems within the framework of the subject. Cooperative learning creates a happy, enthusiastic environment that benefits everyone and helps children thrive in the twenty-first century (Dozza 2007). In this way, cooperative learning can enhance and even transform music teaching and provide learners with opportunities to embrace music with the joy and natural easiness that children possess.
This is the mission of El Sistema.
El Sistema: methodological approach
The methodological approach of El Sistema is not easy to explain to an outsider. Different pedagogical approaches such as Suzuki, Dalcroze, Kodàly, Roland, Orff, etc. are combined.