I feel that the project has confirmed my hypotheses: the students were able to communicate freely and feel safe in the groups. Some important topics were raised during the group lessons, which meant they did not have to be addressed individually. The students were able to practise how to communicate constructively in a situation where I was always present and could guide them towards being more constructive in their feedback if necessary. The students learnt a great deal through observation and were able to identify bad habits in their own playing by observing the same problems in others. Although it was still important for the students to be able to perform frequently, many of them appreciated the feedback from their peers and declared a desire for more in-depth discussions.

Perhaps the most important outcome of the group lessons is that the students have become more confident in their own thinking, but also that they have gained the ability to articulate things and express themselves constructively. These are important skills when working with other musicians or future pupils, but also when you are working on yourself. It continues to surprise me how smart the students are when you give them the opportunity to speak their mind. The diversity of opinion during the group lessons has also helped make me more open to alternative views.

What I found with this project is that there is a great need amongst the students for something more than “just performing”. I take the view that there is a broad range of learning objectives that can be achieved with group lessons and a variety of activities that can be tried out. Identifying and further developing these is important.

Organising group lessons calls for some extra effort on the part of the teacher in terms of putting together the groups and finding time in the schedule, but it does not take much to make it work.

The group lessons should not be considered a substitute for one-to-one lessons, and one could ask whether they leave too little one-to-one time with each student, but in my opinion the allocation of resources was acceptable.

This model worked very well with my horn students, and I can only recommend that others try it. The consequence of the project is that group lessons are now a permanent fixture in the timetable.

I think the students learnt a great deal during, and as a result of, the group lessons. It was not only the students who learnt from them, however; I got a huge amount out of both the lessons and my students. I worked with 3–4 groups, and it was varied, challenging, interesting and inspiring. Giving the students an opportunity to think out loud was educational for both them and me. I learnt about a great many new things: about how the students think, but also about things they may have misunderstood or need help with; something that is not always immediately obvious when you just listen to them play.

I also learnt from being part of the CEMPE group of teachers involved in various group tuition projects. Having an arena where we could discuss what we were doing on our respective projects meant that I learnt a great deal from, and together with, my colleagues.