Berrington, however, died in 1391, and though there are a few references to such an instructor in the later 1390s, it was not until 1416 that regular payments to named lay Cantors for giving instruction in music begin. The earliest surviving contract with one of these Cantors is that with John Steel in 1430. As well as specifying the extent of his personal involvement in services and stipulating the salary and other benefits he would receive in return, it required of him to instruct eight boys and an unspecified number of monks in the whole art of music. The contract includes the earliest known references to the disciplines, 'faburden' and 'counter'. From the contracts with his successors it transpires that the instruction was given daily in two morning and two afternoon sessions.

By the time the monastery surrendered to Henry VIII's commissioners in 1539 the boys were singing at the Jesus Mass, which was celebrated on Friday evenings at the Nave Altar, as well as at the daily Lady Mass in the Galilee Chapel. They also assisted at private Masses, but they were not involved in the daily services of the monks. They did, however, make some musical contribution on major Feast Days, for the rubric in a Durham ritual dated about 1420 refers to them responding 'from a high place' during the great Palm Sunday procession.

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