In the last few weeks I’ve seen a worrying trend on music teacher online forums. Every day someone posts something like, “Has this happened to anyone else? I’ve just been told I’m not needed next year. Apparently, music is a luxury they can’t afford.”
I’m not surprised. Paper is a luxury most schools can’t afford at the moment. The government don’t pay for the increased fuel bills or add anything to a school’s budget to cover the necessary support staff pay increase that was awarded in September. When they finally settle on teacher’s pay they won’t fund that either, so many of us who work in schools will lose our jobs or have to do the work of three or four people.
The idea that music is an unaffordable luxury, though is bizarre. We need music. It’s important to all humans. The BBC singers and the BBC orchestras have also lost all or part of their funding this week, this won’t stop people making music but it is a worrying trend. I hate the idea that music is only for the rich but if we keep calling it’s exorbitant extravagance then it will put people off trying it.
I was lucky with my musical education. My grandad played the piano in a pub for beer and even as a small child I was allowed to play fairies and giants on it when I went round. There were recorder clubs and choirs in infant school and a local music school encouraged us to learn instruments. There was a local brass band and teachers in junior school who were enthusiastic and encouraging.
I loved my recorder: pocket-sized, portable and useful for playing tunes you’ve heard on the TV or radio. I still have a good repertoire of Doctor Finlay’s Casebook, Black Beauty, The Archers and Crossroads amongst others. One of the best on a recorder was Match of the Day. It starts with a second inversion of a G major arpeggio, which has a great finger feel. I feel that I’ve lost you but trust me, it’s a banger of a tune and easy on the recorder and you don’t need to know the theory to play it. It was so good that I played it all the time. We weren’t a football playing/watching family, which I suspect made my obsession with this tune even more annoying.
The Long Suffering Husband called me upstairs to see what had happened on Match of the Day. Due to a disagreement between Gary Lineker and the BBC about partiality of tweets he had been pulled from the show and everyone else had walked with him and so they called it football highlights and just showed the games. It was like going to watch a match without the beer and other people to talk to through the boring bits. I offered to whip out my recorder and play the theme tune in a minor key to help the mood but the LSH declined.
A quick look at Twitter this morning and I found I wasn’t the only one to want the theme tune back. Lots of dogs offered their services.
https://twitter.com/mrnickharvey/status/1634566935173111809?s=61&t=DGJHUr4cNHJ4lTQpvkya9A
This was my favourite and the Prime Minister appears to be looking for a solution to the luxury that we can’t afford but clearly need.
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