We haven’t heard a lot from Howard Goodall in the two months since the Department for Education and Skills proudly proclaimed him “singing ambassador” of a £10m initiative to give singing a prominent role in school life.

The composer was working flat-out to complete the score for his friend Rowan Atkinson’s new film, Mr Bean’s Holiday. Given its largely mute hero, the film, which opened on March 30, relies on the music rather heavily, after all. And, as he says, “I’m not Jamie.”

Although he does have a media profile thanks to a busy-ish television career — last year’s How Music Works series on Channel 4 was both serious and stimulating — and he is a fervent believer in the redemptive power of singing, especially for teenage boys. There is a big difference between him and the mouthy school food crusader. “I’m not trying to persuade children to stop eating what they like. They LIKE singing, they don’t have to be forced.”

Goodall, 48, speaks with authority, having visited plenty of schools as chairman of a strategy commission, which made the recommendations that went on to form the Music Manifesto. “I bullied them into giving the money to do it,” he says. He just didn’t take a film crew along.

The benefits of giving singing a more prominent role in school life are, to him, self-evident.

“For me, singing very young is the best route. It has knock-on effects on self-esteem, behaviour, and performance. Children can join a choir to a standard that individually they can’t reach — and that leads to a sense of achievement.”

And what does he want British kids to sing? He is keen to correct inaccurate press reports of his proposed new songbook for schools. It will contain about 300 songs, not 30, and while he won’t yet disclose what is included, we can rule out one journalist’s claim that one song on the list is Bob Dylan’s It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue — the favourite ditty of the education secretary, Alan Johnson. “We need songs that work with young voices,” Goodall says. “There are some songs — Robbie Williams, Puccini, folk songs — that are for adult voices.”

And as well as embedding the singing habit in primary schools, another priority is to get teenage boys to sing. “It’s glib and patronising to say, sing the Messiah, it’ll be good for you,” says Goodall, who began his musical career at age eight as a chorister for New College Oxford. “You start with a repertoire they think is fine, win their trust and then you can move on to Mozart. You don’t get children to read by starting with Jane Austen, do you?”

As the father of two teenage girls, Goodall is surprisingly sympathetic to young lads. “Something is happening to your voice, it’s going to change radically, and your confidence will change radically. As a 14-year-old you don’t know when you open your mouth what sound will come out. It’s hardly surprising they’re nervous about singing. It’s also seen in some places as 'girly'. I don’t think Robbie Williams worries about being seen as 'girly' — nor perhaps Bryn Terfel — but teenage girls collude, finding the butcher, naughtier boys more attractive.”

Goodall’s enthusiasm for his new ambassadorial role does not, he says, mean that school music is currently the Turkey Twizzler of the curriculum. “I found imaginative, involving, thorough work, but why is it not going on everywhere? The stuff we do well is definitely cutting edge, but being English we can’t believe we’re good at anything.”

So one of his priorities is to get the country’s inspirational teachers, or “singing leaders”, to share their skills with others, both specialist music teachers and “generalised primary teachers who are lacking in confidence”. They will also “campaign with head teachers to show the benefits of singing”.

“Heads of music in the state and independent sectors often have more in common with each other than with other teachers in their schools,” observes Goodall, who post-choir school, went to Stowe, then his local comp. “The differences in their challenges — such as getting boys to sing— are less great than in other subjects and there are outstanding music departments in both sectors. So both sectors need to share their solutions.”

He cites the examples of Guildford County School, a comprehensive co-ed school and venue for “my first official visit as czar” last month, where the three music staff run seven thriving voluntary choirs, and Ilderton Primary in a “challenging area” of south London, where there is “full on singing, staff and pupils, every day”.

So is a daily sing-song the aim? “You could do it more than once a day, invade the culture of the school, in French, for example, or singing times tables. I’ve been to schools where this is the case, I know it’s possible.”

Goodall’s aim is to harness the best ideas of the country’s best “singing leaders” to get all our school children singing.

“The point is, it’s not about hothousing, ordinary comprehensive children can be transformed as a group. That, in essence, is what goes on in singing. I don’t think there are many activities to offer teenagers that are non-competitive but do the same thing.”

And will it make him as famous as Jamie? “I couldn’t care less. If we get more children singing and not a single person knows who I am, that’s fine.”

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