Popular Music Education (PME) and Informal Music Pedagogy (IMP) are approaches to teaching music which stem from the learning practices of popular musicians. IMP has five key principles.,,

1. Students choose the repertoire/music they would like to learn about/perform 

2. Students focus on learning this music aurally, via the use of recordings and/or digital resources

3. Students learn musical skills and knowledges from their peers

4. The learning does not always follow a set sequence. Isstead, students learn musical skills as they are needed to perform partcular songts

5. Listening, composing and performing skills are learned concurrently

When all 5 of these principles are employed in the classroom IMP is being utilsed. When some but not all of these five principles are being utilised the practice is often labelled as PME.

Different teachers and different schools use IMP and PME in diverse ways. Some popular approaches include...

• Having students create small band groups which select, learn and perform a group selected work using aural learning. This method is often associated with the organisation Musical Futures

• Creating a large ensemble in which students aurally learn a popular music song on appropriate instruments as a whole class group. This method is often associated with the organisation Music Will

To read about ways other teachers have used PME/IMP in their practice click the "how do other schools use PME/IMP" button below