The Scottish Chamber Orchestra has a long record of involvement in music education. Its latest venture, Laboratory Music Projects, differs from others by being player-led.

The concept arose out of a personal development programme for flautist Lis Dooner, which was funded by the Scottish Arts Council. She studied approaches to educational work with a variety of orchestras and music organisations, as well as undertaking a month-long course at the Guildhall in London.

“I’ve been involved in education work since I joined the SCO in 1988,” Ms Dooner says, “but I felt we had to find a way for the players to be more pro-active in that area. We have done a lot of work with composers or animateurs or artists from other disciplines, which is great, but I felt we could get more involved ourselves.

“In the past that has meant going into schools and demonstrating what we do as orchestral musicians. I wanted to try to develop that into working with other groups or musicians in a different way, which would also help to develop or extend our skills.

“The Guildhall course was really about that, exploring a different way of learning and creating music within a group context. I could see that was a strong way forward.”

Laboratory Music Projects was launched this autumn by eight musicians from the orchestra with a project at the Tolbooth in Stirling in which they worked with rock guitarist Paul Griffiths and percussionist Peter Vilk.

Last week, they undertook their first project with school musicians at Kelso High, in the Scottish Borders. Ms Dooner and her colleagues worked all week with 22 Standard and Higher grade pupils, many of whom play in the school’s Celtic music group and are confident performing.

“I felt that would be a good starting point for our first school project. Performance is a big part of what we do with Laboratory Music Projects, but so is finding a way into the creative process within a group. It’s also a great bonding experience for the players.

“The students actually learned our music much more quickly than we learned theirs. They are used to working by ear and by rote in traditional music. It took us longer to pick up a simple reel than it did for them to learn quite sophisticated music.

“We work through compositional processes but it is all based on playing. A lot of it comes initially from improvisation; it is then worked into more structured forms, just not written down.

“We took the students beyond the idioms they already knew and they will be able to take some of those ideas back into their own composition projects.

“We stretched them in ways they don’t normally experience and the learning experience was really important for us as well. We were very excited with the final concert.”

“The school felt it was outstandingly successful,” says Charles Robertson, headteacher of Kelso High. “The participants got a huge amount from it and the concert itself was an absolute highlight. One person in the audience - who wasn’t a parent - told me afterwards that it was the most exciting music he had ever heard coming out of a school.

“The pupils had to give up some of their curriculum time to take part, but it was time very well spent, not only in their musical education, but in having a chance to see professionals at work.

“I feel it is a model for school-industry liaison, with the pupils and the professionals working together in that way. I don’t think we do nearly enough of that.”

Ms Dooner is collaborating with Stephen Deazley, the SCO’s education development director, in making Laboratory Music Projects part of the orchestra’s long-term educational and outreach activities programme.

“We are committed to getting together and building up our skills between projects and that will let us bring more to it each time,” Ms Dooner says.

The SCO plans to archive the results of the various projects on its website.

Stephen Deazley, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, tel 0131 557 6802