Music Education and R3 and BBC

[DracoM]

Music Matters has just had 'experts in the field' talking about music and education. Good as far as it goes.

Now the reality:
From a small rural primary or secondary school in the North West, it costs £500+ to get a class to a 'centre' eight miles away. for a same class to a big venue 35 miles away, £1k. Plus extra teachers for safeguarding, plus what it costs parents to get into school late evening to pick up in a catchment area that stretches in a roughly 30 miles diameter- no kid is to be allowed to walk home in the dark these days even in remote but friendly rural town.

[a] Can spouting 'experts' tell me if they have any idea of the huge hit this has on school's finances? The Music Dept's budget? Teachers' time? Yet we had the outline of wonderful hub-based contact schemes, inclusion initiatives, outreach strategies - got the super-cool managerial-speak yet?

[b] Where do these people live who pontificate about their exciting programmes? Cities. Right, so that's it sorted and OK for city kids because obviously rural kids aren't interested in or likely to appreciate live music, are they? And sure as heck they mostly can't afford to get to the 'hubs' / 'centres' etc, so....?

[c] The biggest national patron of musics of all kinds in UK is? = the BBC. More ensembles, musicians etc in their employ or at their beck than anyone. What is the BBC's role in making musicians available in areas beyond the reach / budget of rural schools? Apparently, accordong to this Music Matters [ha!] it is none.

I simply wept as I listened.

[french frank]

How would you solve the problem, as far as the BBC and remote rural areas are concerned?

[Cockney Sparrow]

....I simply wept as I listened.....

I know exactly how you feel. Mrs CS had a truly wonderful music set up in a primary school. Those pupils from "hard working families" (or less prosperous than that) were highly unlikely to trek from one side of town to the "Music Centre" on the other, so for those families - especially the children with siblings - the school was their opportunity. After two hard years, Mrs CS concluded that she / music were not wanted and resigned.

It seems to be happening all over the County - we wonder if the message has gone out to heads, and most of them are complying - funding will be ever tighter - OFSTED want Maths, English, Science - get rid of the creative subject teachers and let the class teachers tick boxes for those areas, ready for the OFSTED inspection. The chance of OFSTED being interested in music teaching, certainly at Primary level, is less than that of a meteor landing on the playing field.

[MrGongGong]

I haven't listened to this yet
BUT the whole NPME in England is a car crash in slow motion
and (if you have a look you will find a rather ranty thing I wrote online when it came out) may I be the first to say

I F*CKING TOLD YOU SO (not you personally, I hasten to add)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I know exactly how you feel. Mrs CS had a truly wonderful music set up in a primary school. Those pupils from "hard working families" (or less prosperous than that) were highly unlikely to trek from one side of town to the "Music Centre" on the other, so for those families - especially the children with siblings - the school was their opportunity. After two hard years, Mrs CS concluded that she / music were not wanted and resigned.

It seems to be happening all over the County - we wonder if the message has gone out to heads, and most of them are complying - funding will be ever tighter - OFSTED want Maths, English, Science - get rid of the creative subject teachers and let the class teachers tick boxes for those areas, ready for the OFSTED inspection. The chance of OFSTED being interested in music teaching, certainly at Primary level, is less than that of a meteor landing on the playing field.

Sadly, this is so true. I worked for a music service between 1997 until the end of 2014. At first, we supported music in schools rather well. Then Wider Opportunities came in. The Music Services didn't know what they were doing, and the primary school teachers were effectively deskilled from then on. Anyone (like yours truly) who spoke up about it was regarded a a pariah and told to shut up, as it was "our jobs" that were on the line. Nothing whatever about whether we were doing the right thing (which we weren't). Schools had to pay for a service that they could probably have done better themselves, if given the right support. To attend Music Centre activities, it was fine if you happened to live in the county town, but very expensive and time-consuming for everyone else.

Don't blame the BBC for the inadequacy of others.

[Cockney Sparrow]

I was going to observe that the musicians of the future will develop firstly from families with a degree of prosperity - the comfortable middle class etc - as ever. With the addition of the assisted talented/determined (scholarships, dedicated teachers/parents).

Apart from these groups, I've come to the conclusion that nobody much cares about music - in education, in government, in society generally, or certainly not to any great extent (I've yet to read today's "Are we in a bubble thread?"). I recall a principle of the Royal Academy saying that society does not need a surfeit of musicians to function it needs (presently) accountants, technicians, farmers, shop workers, medics and carers etc. Consequently there are only so many who can make a living practising music. For this government let it be the groups above. If we get a Socialist government I wait with bated breath to see whether we get the equivalent of the "Moscow Transport Workers Orchestra no 2" but I suspect the likes of Jeremy will see it as elitist and (if it includes an instrument in the hands of all children costing less than £10 - a.k.a The Recorder) retrograde.
Music Services are businesses now. They will jump ship on to any funding stream going, and perpetuate the employment of the "signed up" staff. As I say I was going to include this, but it seemed rather disillusioned and bitter. Whether the BBC should blow the whistle on this or not I do not know. I'd like the BBC to keep its funding formula, safe from the present bunch of "outsource all functions to our friends and donors in the ""free"" " market" operators in government. Others should be calling the government to account....

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Music Services are businesses now. They will jump ship on to any funding stream going, and perpetuate the employment of the "signed up" staff.

Exactly my point.

[Serial_Apologist]

I have a cassette recording of Ian Carr interviewing the great drummer Max Roach in 1988, in which they discussed music education in the States. Exactly the same thing was happening then under Reaganonomics - gifted children, often from black working class families, were suddenly confronted with the withdrawal of funding for national, state or local authority music funding schemes, meaning they were no longer introduced to quality musics or support for obtaining a musical instrument, as had famous people such as Miles Davis and Charlie Parker, going right back to the 1940s. Roach saw the outcome of all this as being manifest in the rise of Rap and Hip-Hop, which he himself was involved in trying to steer in beneficial directions, pointing out that musical creativity will come out in young people finding their own solutions, as has happened here in this country with the rise of Grunge and Garage music. Meanwhile the prevalence of youngsters from middle class backgrounds in the area of most interest personally, jazz, is perpetuated, and while one welcomes anybody being attracted to this area of musicking, it is undoubtedly shaping the character of the music, as presumably is also the case with classical music education.

[MrGongGong]

Don't worry though
If I believe the hype
now that Sir Simon is back and he gets his wonderful hall everything will be sorted

(small point: music education isn't solely about finding the professional musicians of the future, that's the easy bit)

[DracoM]

<< (small point: music education isn't solely about finding the professional musicians of the future, that's the easy bit)>>

Oh, really?

[MrGongGong]

<< (small point: music education isn't solely about finding the professional musicians of the future, that's the easy bit)>>

Oh, really?

Yes

We have enough musicians, how many flautists (for example) apply for each orchestral post?
Peter Renshaw was banging on about this in an articulate manner many years ago

[DracoM]

I bow to the wise.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

<< (small point: music education isn't solely about finding the professional musicians of the future, that's the easy bit)>>
Oh, really?

Well - "the easier bit", perhaps? Teaching already-motivated children (those learning an instrument, for example, with at least half an idea of becoming professional Musicians) is a difficult and complicated business, but not as difficult and complicated as finding ways of demonstrating that Music (making Music, thinking about it, actively - rather than passively - listening to it - even just being aware of it) can play an important part in the lives and well-being of those who think that at best that it's just a "hobby" for other people, and not something that's relevant to them.

And, whilst I'm here, I'd add my usual refrain that it's not just Music that's suffering in this respect: all the creative/imaginative subject areas (visual Art, Drama, Dance) are being displaced in schools even as those very schools will use "creativity" and "imagination" as buzzwords in their prospectuses to attract parents. (Not "proper", "real" subjects, you see ... just "hobbies".)

Hardly surprising, when "Education" itself has been replaced by "Training", "knowledge" by "skills", etc etc ...

[Bryn]

A refrain from my old 'Maoist' days: "An army without culture is a dull-witted army, and a dull witted-army cannot defeat the enemy".

[Ein Heldenleben]

Just on a reductionist "economic" note in fact we do need trained musicians and we need to find a way of training those who have a talent and can't afford the very considerable costs. The creative industries are one of the UK's great success stories and rock, pop , film and yes classical music loom large in that success. Privately educated pupils figure disproportionately in the rock business partly because those schools still teach pupils to sing and , for an extra fee , learn an instrument or several . There must be so much wasted talent out there .
I won't go into the myriad other arguments for enhancing music education . I did listen to the Radio three discussion . It gave the impression that things were pretty much ok with the music hub system . That isn't what I'm hearing locally - in a city in a very rural county .Nor does it square with my personal experience with my children : state school academic music tuition that ranged from absolutely excellent to patchy and self- funding private instrumental tuition running into four figures per year.