S1Ep7: Inspiration & Motivation With Jane James, Founder of Little Voices.

In this guest episode of Heard It Through The Grooveline, Will Bennett, and guest Jane James, founder and director of Inspiration at Little Voices talk about Jane's journey from a childhood curiosity in music to her career in music and education. The conversation also includes discussion on how parents can support their child's musical education, keeping children motivated in music, and the impact of performing arts on children's confidence levels.

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Transcript

Hello and welcome to another episode of Heard It Through The Grooveline. My name is Will Bennett and I'm the founder of Grooveline Music Education. I'm here to help you know how to best support the musical education of your child, even if you are not musical yourself.  At Grooveline, when the lesson ends, the learning doesn't stop.

And so as part of our wraparound approach to music education, this episode, I will be interviewing Jane James, who is the founder and director of Inspiration at Little Voices. 

 And today I'm joined by Jane James from Little Voices. Hello, Jane. How are you doing? I'm good, thanks. Thank you for having me on, Will. This is very exciting. . I'm really keen to talk to you today in particular to talk about children's education, as we normally do.

 Please can you tell everyone who's listening who you are, what you do, and exactly how you are involved in education?  Absolutely. So as you say, my name is Jane James. It's took me a while to get used to that name because I was Jane Maudsley. So when people are Googling who I am, Maudsley is much more Google friendly.

It was a bad decision to change names when I got married. But anyway, my husband is very pleased. I am the founder and CEO of Little Voices. We train children aged four in reception all the way up to 18 in drama and singing specifically. We work in a lot of schools, we work in lots of local communities, and really it's not just about setting children up to be on the stage.

It's very much about core life skills and helping them to work well in teams and develop and find their own voice.  Through, through drama and singing and I recently changed my title, Will, which you might not have picked up on, but I was I was always known as CEO and founder and I found it terribly corporate and I didn't, it didn't resonate with me.

So I've been through a process of, of renaming some of our roles within Little Voices and I'm now.  Known as Director of Inspiration and Passion, and I think it feels much more me. Because I do like to inspire the next generation. I feel like I'm in a really privileged position to help them.

And also within my franchise network nationwide as well. So, Director of Inspiration and Passion it is. That is very suitable to you from the times we've spoken and met in real life as well, not just on Zoom. I think inspiring is exactly what you are and you're very helpful with everyone you speak to.

You've been really helpful with me and I've seen you talk to other people and you are full of life, which is which is fantastic and obviously suits the job role as well.  I think you've got to, you've got to resonate with what you do in life, haven't you? So CEO and founder, I just thought that leave that to some big corporates in America.

It's not for me. Yeah, like Elon Musk named himself Tech King at one point, didn't he? Oh, okay. Very interesting. Yeah, similar thing.  Well, a couple of things I picked up on there is that you're doing from four years old to 18 years old, which is fantastic. And one thing I'd love to talk about in a moment is the difference of how you approach those different ages.

Because at Groovline, we have a similar kind of age group, probably from about five or six. Up until about 16, 17, 18, and they normally go off to uni hopefully to study music, but of course not always. But first I wanted to ask, what is your own experience of music and performing arts education? Do you think back to when you were a child?

I don't know if you had... Drama lessons, for example, when you were a child and talk us through your educational journey all the way up until today, because of course, we're always still learning. Absolutely, we really are. I was very lucky from a young age that although none of my family were musical at all, so there was no Musical singing dramatic elements within my family, but in my grandmother's house at the time was an old piano that apparently my great great grandfather had played and that was a very traditional route to music years and generations ago.

There was always a piano in the house I think it was a piece of furniture, it was a mainstay of a family home. I guess because it was the only form of entertainment people would have had back then. And I used to bang on this piano from a very young age, and I really wanted it in our house. But the only way my mum was prepared to have that piano Was if I learned to play properly, but I was very young.

So I was three, four years old and actually no piano teacher was prepared to really take this little enthusiastic banging child on to teach them piano. But my mom did persevere and I was always very gutsy and determined. And I went to the Blackburn school of music. In my hometown and they used to sort of prop me up on books on the chair and so that my hands could actually fit on top of the keys.

And I did learn to play from a very young age and was very, very passionate about it and loved it. So it came from me. I drove that interest in music. It wasn't something that my parents obviously helped to facilitate it, but it wasn't something they could ever help me with or guide me on. And I carried on with piano from the age of four upwards, four or five upwards, taking grades you know, going into music shops.

Will, I loved going into traditional music shops where there was loads of books and albums. And, you know, they used to be in every sort of village and town back then, like a little bookshop of music books, but it's not so common now because we can buy everything online, I guess. But I had a real hunger and a thirst for, for repertoire and not particularly, it always was sort of musical theatre or songs that I knew, popular songs I'd learn to play and then sing along with.

And then in junior school I auditioned for the school nativity and I was given the role of Mary. And there was three solos within that part, sort of age 10, 9, 10. And I stood on the stage and performed as Mary and sang these songs. And everybody, my mom and my dad were like, Oh, she's got a voice. And people were coming up afterwards saying, do you have singing lessons?

You should have singing lessons. And I said to my mom, is singing lessons thing and even a thing like I didn't realize. And I want to go. And so she researched some really good teachers and sort of the journey started there.  I had a wonderful singing teacher. I did shows with her. I did competitions, local music festivals.

I would play piano. I would also do the singing entries as well. And I just loved it. And my mum was really, my mum and my dad and my grandma really supportive, packed up picnics, came with me and embraced that competitive side of, of what I wanted to do.  Senior school, you know, because you've asked for the whole journey in the choir.

I was with Joseph and the Amazing Technical Dreamcoat years ago on the stage at the Blackpool Opera House. So that was a sort of taste of the drama and the performing arts and being on a huge stage, one of the biggest stages in Europe. I think it is the biggest stage in Europe. And it was a professional production that we took part in as part of the choir.

 So that was an interesting time out of school and sort of balancing academics with professional work.  And then I did a music degree at Sheffield University, still wanted to sing, so that was very traditional, kind of quite safe, I played it quite safe. And eventually went to do my Masters and Diploma in Opera at the Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.

So I am a trained opera singer by trade and it, my passion and my love at school and my out of school activities have driven what my career is now.  Brilliant, that's fantastic.  What I liked there is you got a very common thing spoke about in another podcast with another guest is when you ask a lot of successful musicians about their story often starts with something along the lines of at home music was always played or my nan had a piano or something like that and I like that part of his story and it sounds like you had a very supportive family as well, which is really important. 

It sure is. And, you know, without our support, I mean, you can't progress, you know, not only paying for these sort of activities, but also you know, being traveling everywhere. My mom was in the car constantly with me and, you know, I've done it with my own daughter in sport, but my mom did it with me and music and I'll be forever grateful for that.

That's brilliant. So a very direct question now, does a parent need to be musical in order to support their child's musical education?  No.  I agree. That's good.  That's my honest answer.

I didn't know what your viewpoint was, actually.  But  I don't think they do. And actually my parents, if they were sat here on this interview with us, they'd say they didn't have a musical bone in their body. 

But I think we all have an appreciation of music. I would, I'd find it very odd to hear that a household has never played a song or been  to a restaurant where songs have been playing or the favorite songs come on the radio and the car, or. You know, even if you just dance around your kitchen making, making the dinner, I feel like music would touch every single family, or am I ignorant?

No, I think you're correct, pretty much. There may be some exceptional cases, but I would say so, yeah. Maybe in certain cultures or, or certain religions or something in, in parts of America, perhaps. But I think in general, especially in the UK, I think you're absolutely correct. And therefore I think if you've got that curiosity and that interest and that, and it touches you in some way, then you know, that curiosity will, will drive you forward and a parent who sees their child curious and interested and engaged, you know, will go on that journey with them. 

Yes, exactly. So, how could a parent, if they bring their child to Little Voices, let's imagine they're seven years old. They bring them up to  little voices class. How can the parent best support them other than obviously driving them there and back? What could they do in between each weekly session to support their child's musical education?

Have you got any top tips or advice? Ooh, top tips or advice. I mean, obviously at Little Voices, we work mainly on Musical theater, although we do lots of Dutch on lots of genres, but, you know, you can watch lots of different people, different artists on YouTube. Now we've got the wonderful world of the worldwide web and YouTube to find lots of different artists singing the same song in a slightly different way with a slightly different approach.

You know, watching movies. Of that song. We're lucky that we live in an age where there's loads of film musicals of the things that, you know, we don't have to go to the theatre and have that level of expense. But obviously going to the theatre, going to the cinema sitting around the table and listening to the track just orally rather than also watching something visually and what can you hear and what does that sound like?

How does that make you feel? Is that a high note? Is that a low note? Is that sad? Is that happy? You know, just talking about. Generally motion through songs, how that makes you feel. There's so many things that you can be doing on a week to week basis. And, you know, we obviously couple that with the drama and with ex you know, experiencing emotions and scripts, etc.

So each character around the dinner table or in the lounge, you know, each family member playing a different character works really well. And how would you deliver that? And how would you sing that? And how would you deliver that line if you were very angry? You know, it's  playing. I think you've just got to play with what you've, what you've been given.

Yeah, I completely agree. There is one podcast episode that I talk about my top five tips. And I think you touched on two of them there, really. I would, to summarize what you just said, I would say probably champion, championing music. So making it seem like the coolest thing.

I remember my parents did that a lot. They would make, they would talk about other children in a really positive way. Be like, wow, how cool is Archie because he plays guitar or, you know, that's quite a cool thing. And I think that makes the child  generally children want to impress their parents. So that's quite a good way to do that.

And also analyzing as well which is kind of the other thing you touched on. So talking about the music, how does it make you feel? And just, you know, talk, I remember we would be in the car and my brother was older than me, plays drums. When I was younger, he'd be like, what do you listen to when you listen to a song? 

And he said, I always listen to the drums. Wow. Oh, I'm always listening to the guitar. I'd never even, you know, thought about that before. And then I had to listen carefully and go, Oh, that's what the drums are doing. Oh, I can hear the difference with the bass guitar now compared to the, You know, and, and those kinds of conversations are quite useful really.

And maybe there's siblings who can do that. Or if not, you know, if you're a parent listening to this and you've got a young child, those kinds of conversations are really helpful. And I feel like  when children are young, they're such a sponge and one comment can be a seed that grows into a massive tree of knowledge kind of thing.

You know, I think that's the time these small conversations can have such a massive difference. And almost without realizing it, you're supporting your children's education in general, but particularly in musical education and having a really great effect. 

Absolutely. And I think it's interesting that you say what you listen to and what your brother listened to. In our car journeys, I'm wholly focused on the voice and the lyric.  Yeah, and sometimes I get really frustrated and I've shared that with my daughter on our school on journeys when we're listening to music, and I'll say, I don't, what is that word you're gonna have to look up the lyrics on the internet to tell me what that phrase is meant to be because I can't hear it clearly because that diction isn't good and, you know, it, it just promotes a completely different conversation, a really interesting one.

 And you can, you know, veer off into all sorts of educational conversations, like you say from that one little comment, what are you listening to? What, what can you hear? What emotion does that like rise up in you?  And from a really young age, I mean, as a child, we used to sing times tables in the car.

I don't know whether you did that well, but my mum was always at the times tables off.  Probably. Yeah, probably did.  And we were both at an event very recently where there was someone who stood on stage. He helps people to learn their times tables, and I don't think he'd learned them until he was in his 30s  or something.

And actually learning times tables or learning stuff to music,  it really aids that learning journey process.  Yeah, I think those comments and bits of advice that you just gave really could be for any age. I think, I mean, when I told you about that conversation I had with my brother, I'm trying to think how old I was at the time. 

Possibly 10 or something, you know, but those kinds of conversations you can have with, with someone any age. I know, I know you've got a daughter. She's, is she 15 or 16? She's 16 now. Yeah. So we, as you know, we do our podcast together called The School Run and we have the. best conversations in the car. And also it's a really good time, like you say, for actually listening to music and, and that to promote a conversation around that.

So yeah, we've, we've had lots of car conversations and huge amounts of music played on our journeys because she loves music. And, and has an eclectic taste from me, her dad, her stepdad, her wider family. She sort of really understands lots of different types of music. That's fantastic. Yeah, I like that advice a lot, because that's one that can be applied to any age, as you say, you know, from maybe six or seven on the way to school, all the way up to 16 on the way to do their GCSEs, as you've been doing recently.

Yeah, absolutely. So, so how would you think it differs? Obviously that advice is kind of a universal one, but I asked you originally, if a seven year old comes along to Little Voices, what about if a 16 year old is coming along to Little Voices or Voices, as they're not little anymore? And then they, they come along, and maybe it's their first time, maybe they've had confidence issues, and they're coming along, and it's kind of bringing them out their shell a little bit. 

How could a parent support that kind of person, that kind of situation?  Yeah, I think for someone who's older, in that teenage age, there's a lot going on for a child of that age, and  it's probably not going to be, you know, if they've got confidence issues, or they've been a bit shy, or they've had some issues around friendships, or, you know, you're not maybe going to be doing the round the table stuff, and opening those conversations out to everyone, but obviously supporting them in terms of taking them to the class, maybe when they come out. 

What's happened this week, if you met, you know, taking it very slowly at a different pace of engaging that, you know, the music at home and the, and what's happening at home, maybe firing their interest with going to watch something that, you know, I don't know if they do lots of music in the parks now, don't they, or looking for other experiences that you can go to together,  but not actually, you know, that child has to give you something for you to be able to run with it.

Do you understand what I mean by that? So. You know, that they've shown a little bit of interest. I'd like to go to drama singing lessons or I'd like to learn the violin or whatever it is. And you taking them and supporting them and being there and waiting for them to deliver to you.  Something about that that you can then open up and say, well, maybe we could look at doing this as a supplement to, you know, to this enjoyment that you found.

It's slowly, slowly, slowly, because what you don't want  is,  , to imprint your thoughts and how it should be and let's listen to this and let's do that. Let it come from them, let them explore and bring it to your table, if that makes any kind of sense. I know we're trying to get past here.

Makes complete sense. And I think that's especially true when people are a little bit older which is, you know, obviously what the question was. So I think that's some good advice. If someone's listening and your child is perhaps a little bit older, maybe they're 13, 14, 15, 16. That's when you can really allow them to come to you with a little, a little nugget of interest of something and you can really delve into that with them.

Whereas perhaps, you know, when people are younger, they need a little bit more encouragement and they need showing because they don't yet know what exists in the world. They might not realize that you can learn an instrument. They haven't yet figured that out. Whereas by the time someone's 16, obviously they know that's an option.

And they may have chosen or they may have not chosen to do that, you know, consciously.  So it's quite important to make that distinction, I think. There's some really good advice there. Thank you, Jane. Some really good tips. And I also think with children, they need to feel, you know, they need to feel safe and once they feel safe in a not a health and safety way, but in a how they feel safe within what they're doing, they'll then start to feel happy and then their confidence will start to increase.

So, you know, certainly from. I can only talk from a little voices point of view because I've not worked in other organizations necessarily, but our classes are very very small so there's only eight children in a class. So we really work hard on that environment of every child feeling included and feeling safe to build the happiness to then see the confidence start to come out, and that might take a parent along there, picking up and dropping off and picking up and dropping off. 

But they won't see that development until, you know, maybe six, seven months down the line when the child then comes out and starts confidently singing in front of them or sharing something from that class. It takes time, especially with a child who's perhaps struggled with some confidence. Yeah, so it's important to be patient as a parent as well.

Absolutely. I think that is very true, especially I'm thinking about with Grooveline learning instruments, you know, it's not easy to learn an instrument and certainly it can take a while before they feel a child would feel confident to play something really securely all the way through. You know, that could take a little while and so patience is a really important thing.

Encouragement.  and patience put together, I think is probably the biggest things. I always say  to parents when they ask me, I say the biggest difference to how well your child will do on their musical instrument is the support they receive at home.  We teach, we're going to teach them the very best lesson we possibly can. 

But that is maybe half an hour every week. They're going to be with you all the other hours of the week, and that's what's going to make the difference. You know, if they're supported, if they're talking about music, encouraged. They're practicing, you're having those conversations. The parents have been patient, you know, all of those things that makes the biggest difference.

I would go as far as to say, and I can say this from my own experience. When I was a child, you can have bad. Music education, you know, I had some really great teachers but I also had some that were not very good. But even with bad education, if you've got a great environment at home, you can still do well.

Absolutely. I would say you could have a brilliant teacher,  but if you're getting no support and it's been discouraged, and you know,  people are saying music's not academic and all of these negative things. Then I would say, , even with the best teacher in the world, you're possibly not going to have the most success possible.

No, I mean, it's like anything, you know, at work, all of us in our roles, in our jobs, in any career, you become the average of the five people you spend most time with. And that support network of your top five people  the champion you are going to help you to succeed more than anything else. So you're, you're exactly right.

If they've got that support and encouragement and engagement at home, then.  That,  going to stand them in really, really good stead. ,  that patience piece as well about waiting for them ready, you might start to see that the child gets more confident. So someone comes to the, I don't know, the next door neighbor comes around for a brew or whatever happens at the weekend and the child's on the piano or the violin or singing a song.

And if they're doing that, then they're starting to show those signs that they're ready to. Maybe show off a little bit and maybe expect, do you want to come down and sing that for us? Do you want to play that in front of us? And you know, it might be the most squeaky violin you've ever heard, but  it's that confidence and that opportunity and that praise.

It goes so far because I'm sure that I wasn't playing all the right notes from the age of four upwards on that piano, but I loved a little concert and people sitting around listening. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you're completely correct. I remember. My next door neighbor's got two young children. They came around at Christmas exactly as you, they came around for a cup of tea or might have been a gin to be fair, it was Christmas.

But the kids went upstairs and played on my my brother's piano,  yeah. And that's exactly that. And you can see the confidence building. And I know they are in a musical environment at home and supported, you know, that's exactly why. So it's some really great tips there. One last question about motivation, something you mentioned before.

Do you have any top tips for keeping children motivated? I get a lot of questions from parents who are saying, you know, they love the lessons but we've noticed they're getting slightly less motivated. For example, now that it's summer and they're out playing football with their friends and the cricket season started and all of this.

All of these other things, you know, and they're struggling to maintain motivation. Do you have any general advice for parents about how they can help their children continue to be motivated?  Yeah, yeah, it's an interesting one, isn't it? And I don't think if I look at my own journey that I was highly motivated and engaged.

all the time. I know the piano lessons that I rocked up to, and you will have done the same, Will, we've got to be honest here, where you turned up and you've done no practice one week to the next. Yep, absolutely. And, and the, you know, so it's not particularly helpful, I, I don't think,  to, for the approach, because of a parent, you're paying for this, and you're taking them, and it's time, and it's effort, and if you're not seeing progress, then it becomes a little bit of an internal internal battle, doesn't it?

I don't think it's particularly helpful to say, well, If you're not practicing then I'm not paying for this any longer, you know, it's natural as a parent to default to that, obviously. But I think if the reaction I would focus on the reaction of your child when they leave. That lesson. And if you see a visible difference as the child comes out and you see that they've had a great time, great lesson, they've loved it, whether there's been a massive amounts of practice in between or not,  how they feel at the end of that is something to keep you motivated to keep bringing them and the battle to get them there.

Because, you know, straight after school, generally children want to eat crisps, watch TV, go on the Xbox, whatever it is, play football outside. Not necessarily get their bag together and go off to their music or drama or whatever lesson they're going to. But how they come out will be how that lesson is impacting them.

And I think that, you know, I, I know we have children that leave lessons and they're on cloud nine and that.  That's enough to put up with the rest. Does that make sense? And to see that it's having a massive benefit. So then, you know, in the week, I suppose it's about, you know, teasing it out. Can you show me that?

What, what are you currently doing? What's happening next week? You know, in a very gentle, gentle way.  I know that instruments demand a different approach, Will, to perhaps the voice and you know, it's only miniscule amounts of practice on the voice. You don't want them singing for hours and hours and on end because it, it would tire that very delicate instrument.

I understand with piano, violin, flute, et cetera, it's got to be lots and lots and lots of practice.  But there's a time for that and I think it needs to be fun and enjoyable and you know, that, that lesson. fuels your child in some way. And those would be the signs I'd be looking for to help the engagement through the week to the next lesson.

Yeah, 100 percent agree. You know, I obviously have spent my whole life in music and playing guitar, but if I look back to my first three years, I hardly practiced at all. And you know, all, almost all parents at that point would have said, why are we doing this? This is a waste of money, you know, exactly as you said, but I think my parents did have that conversation with me, but I would always be like, no, no, no, I don't want to quit.

You know, and I'd really enjoy the guitar. I thought it was so cool that I could identify myself as a guitarist,  we used to listen to a lot of music. We used to go to gigs and stuff. So obviously had that interest, although I wasn't yet practicing loads.  But I think that's, that's fine.

That's an important part of the journey as well. And what I always say is if we can ignite the spark of enjoyment at a young age.  They will at some point as they get a bit older, the penny drops and they couple together the fact that  hard work and discipline equals more results equals more fun. And it's a great, you know, very positive circle to go round and round in.

And you know, maybe they don't know that in the first year, maybe it takes them 18 months, maybe it takes them three weeks. But every person at a different point that penny will drop and then you're going to see that they're kind of self motivating as well. And I think, you know, 99 percent of people will get there as long as they stick, stick to what they, you know, stick to their instrument and continue playing. 

I absolutely agree. And I think you can't underestimate the value of that time with your music teacher, drama teacher, performing artist, whoever it is. You know, that's a pretty special bond and it, and children in schools don't get the level of music arts education that I feel that they should have. And there's some very, very good schools doing some amazing stuff, don't get me wrong, but generally.

it's not so, you know, you have got parents invest in time, money, et cetera, into these kinds of activities, both in the school day and out of the school day. But actually the benefits of spending that one on one time or eight on one time, as it is in my situation with our teachers and students you can't underestimate the value of that.

I had the best conversations with my singing and piano teacher. They were another positive adult in my life.  We had some random conversations, you know, because it is a, you want a personal connection journey with them. And I think it's massively important. Children need positive adults in their lives. A hundred percent.

And I think in particularly with the voice, I think that's true because it's a very personal instrument. It's a part of you.  With the voice then. People do have that bond and you have to discuss confidence and you have to discuss what's holding you back. And, you know, I think with a singing teacher in particular, you get that really special bond, as you mentioned.

I think, you know, with all instrumental teachers, but I think particularly voice teachers. That's a really personal kind of connection. So Jane, thank you so much for all the top tips and advice you've given to all the parents that are listening. If people want to hear more about you or hear more of your comments, thoughts, and advice how can people check you out? 

Yeah. So we're on all the social media channels, so you can follow little voices, LTD,  little voices limited on Instagram, Facebook. Book LinkedIn. If you're a parent on LinkedIn I also have my own channels, Mrs. Jane James. And as I mentioned, we do have a podcast as well called the school run. It's me and my daughter.

So intergenerational thoughts on, on life and things we experienced at school. So you can find out more than that too. Yeah. And it's a very good podcast. I've listened to quite a few of the episodes, so please, everyone do check that out.  That's okay. Thank you so much for talking to us today, Jane, and we'll speak to you again soon.

Brilliant. Thanks so much. Thank you. 

  Thank you for listening to another episode of Heard It Through The Groove Line, the podcast that helps parents like you best support your children's musical education, even if you are not musical yourself.  To find out more you can follow us on social media and don't forget to hit like and subscribe.