AI Music To Our Ears Or Should We Be Worried?

Laura Valentine is the Deputy Headteacher at Dedham Primary School in North Essex and is an active member of the East of England EdTech Hub.

Her recent presentation at the East of England Pizza and PedTech event explored her use of AI in music and revealed several nuanced themes.  

Rather than taking a purely utopian or dystopian view, her insights reflect the practical, balanced perspective of a primary school educator navigating an ever-changing technology landscape.

Here are the key themes that emerge from her presentation:

1.  Is AI a Threat or an Opportunity for Primary Music Education? 

A central theme is the tension between the traditional arts community and the rise of AI generation. Laura sets up a clear dichotomy between existential dread and educational opportunity:

• Protecting Musical Foundations: Drawing on her own musical background, Laura addresses a common concern among music coordinators: the fear that AI might discourage pupils from learning physical instruments. The consensus is clear: the goal must remain firmly on protecting core skills like rhythm, notation, and vocal performance, ensuring AI acts as an enhancement to the music curriculum, not a substitute. 

•  An Equity Tool for Classroom Inclusion:  Conversely, AI serves as an accessibility tool that "opens doors" for pupils who face barriers to traditional arts education. For Pupil Premium students or schools with limited instrument resources, AI composition software provides a low-threshold entry point, sparking a passion for creation and boosting confidence. 

"Could this technology be used to bring a new generation of people into the arts? Could it enhance the creative output of those people who are already creative?"

2. Bespoke Personalisation over Generic Content

Laura Valentine’s case study reveals that the true value of AI in primary schools lies in hyper-localisation rather than generic content generation.

• Institutional Identity: By feeding a school's distinct vision and values into an AI generator, educators can create unique songs that reflect the school's specific culture. Laura turned to AI because commercial tracks didn't capture her school's specific culture. By feeding the AI her school's distinct vision and values, she created a unique celebration song.
  
  
• Granular Classroom Utility:  Teachers can quickly build contextual resources that explicitly name groups or reinforce concepts. Laura highlights how AI helped build a transition "tidy-up" song that explicitly names the classroom's table groups and others that reinforce maths concepts, like counting down from ten.
  

3. The Educator as "Co-Creator" and Editor

An important theme is that AI does not replace human judgment; it requires active curation and refinement.

• Prompt Engineering & Teacher Workload: AI rarely delivers the perfect educational resource on the first attempt. Laura notes that maximising these tools requires iterative refinement,  "tweaking the lyrics," adjusting tempos, and repeating specific lines she valued to match teaching objectives. 
  
  
• Stepping into the Composer Role: Even when utilising automated audio tools, the educator remains the executive artist in the room. Laura discusses upgrading to premium tiers specifically to gain granular control over musical structures (like changing a "bridge" she didn't like). The technology acts as the vehicle, but the teacher drives the pedagogy.

4. Pragmatic, High-Impact, Low-Frequency Integration

Laura explicitly rejects the idea that AI should become a constant fixture in the classroom curriculum.

• A Tool for the Pedagogical Toolkit: AI music engines like Suno are not meant for everyday use. Instead, she emphasises that they are best framed as a specialised utility reserved for high-impact, situational moments that boost student engagement
  
  
• Targeted Implementation: Purposeful Implementation in School Life:</strong> From generating a niche, genre-specific track for a school magic act to producing an entertainment interval song for <i>Dedham’s Got Talent</i>, AI excels at keeping pupils focused during transitions. It serves a functional, situational purpose rather than replacing fundamental music pedagogy and hands-on instrument practice. 
• Instead, she frames it as a utility for high-impact, specific moments—like generating a niche, Harry Potter-esque track for a school magic act or creating an interval song for Dedham’s Got Talent to keep pupils engaged while votes are counted.
  It serves a functional, situational purpose rather than replacing fundamental music pedagogy.

Which of these themes—the existential debate around creativity or the practical side of making bespoke school songs—resonates most with your own view of AI in education?

Mapping Laura's Themes to LGfL Core Resources

1. Creating Immersive Atmospheres & School Events

Laura shared how she used AI to create unique, instrumental tracks for school magic acts, talent show intervals, or genre-inspired background music.

• Additional Suggested Resource Link: BBC Sound Effects Library
  
  
• How it connects: If you love the idea of using tailored audio to hook pupils but want to stick to traditional, high-quality human audio, this resource provides over 16,000 copyright-cleared, professional-grade sound effects. You can use them to build immediate classroom engagement or challenge pupils to layer these real-world sounds over a Suno-generated instrumental track for an advanced cross-curricular audio project.

2. Enhancing Early Years & Primary Routines

Laura highlighted the use of AI to generate targeted "tidy up" tracks or counting songs that call out specific table group names to keep younger learners engaged.

• The LGfL Resource Link: Busy Things
  
  
• How it connects: For educators looking to anchor those exact foundational skills (like counting down from 10 or mastering daily classroom routines), Busy Things is a fantastic companion. It offers award-winning, highly creative digital activities across the curriculum for EYFS, KS1, and KS2. Pairing a bespoke Suno transition song with the vibrant visual tools in Busy Things gives you a powerful, multisensory approach to classroom management.

3. Merging Computational Thinking with the Creative Arts

A major theme in Laura's talk was the balance between technology "opening doors" and the fear of losing traditional creativity. She noted that her sister, a musician, was initially deeply worried about the rise of AI.

• The LGfL Resource Link: Computing Spotlight & Sandbox AR
  
  
• How it connects: Prompt engineering—the very skill Laura used to generate and refine her school song—is fundamentally a data and computing concept. LGfL’s Computing Spotlight links together key resources to help teachers demystify how algorithms and modern technologies function. If you want to take that "tech as a creative open door" philosophy even further, Sandbox AR allows pupils to merge computing and the arts by building their own augmented reality scenarios.

4. Drafting, Co-Creating, and Reflecting on Lyrics

Laura emphasised that she didn't just accept the first automated output; she spent time actively "tweaking the lyrics," repeating key lines, and taking on the role of an editor.

• The LGfL Resource Link: Just2Easy (J2e) ToolSuite
  
  
• How it connects: Before pupils feed ideas into an AI music engine, they need a structured space to brainstorm, draft, and critique text. The J2e Digital Platform is the perfect ecosystem for this. Pupils can use it to write their song verses, peer-assess the rhythm and rhyme of their text, and even use the blogging tools to write a reflective review of what it felt like to co-create a piece of music with AI.