Is the quality of students improving?
Is string playing swinging back to just being the preserve of the rich?

hmmm...good questions! im not a string student but you can have my opinion anyway!
im not sure about standards improving, i just think that music is maybe more avaliable to people compared to how it used to be, which would mean that it isnt just a preserve of the rich. although i could understand how playing proffesionally costs a lot of money with the price of instruments, music, teaching etc. Does this answer them at all?
hoxie
x

Not a string player but I do know that when I started high-school (1993) instrumental lessons in school were free but then, whilst I was there, the subsidy was cut and people had to pay for them, and a lot of people gave up. Maybe it's simply, as you say, that some people can't afford them now ; or maybe it just means that people only think about doing it if they really want to, rather than they may as well because it's free. Probably a little of both I would think.


I though that was meant to mean one got paid money; not that one paid money .

Ahh, once again reminding me: music seems to have slipped under the radar when it comes to 'access for all'. In every other academic discipline, one can receive an education in it from the state sufficient to go on to study it at university.

Music, though - unless one is lucky enough to live in one of the few areas where schools/LEAs fund music lessons, one can only receive an education in music sufficient to study it at university level if one can pay for private teaching. I was lucky in that my mum and dad had the resources to fund my music lessons; not everyone has the opportunity though. That said, in the end, I didn't choose to study music at university, but I guess it would have been an option.

With all the money being spent on trying to raise standards in education, startlingly little or any of it goes on encouraging the uptake of musical instruments. Not only does it make one able to play an instrument, it encourages one to sit down and work by oneself on something for a bit of time every day - later in life, when such skills are useful for schoolwork and such, the idea isn't so alien as one has being doing it for years for one's music practice.

Surrey Music Teaching service is currently running a campaign to try and get more people - of ALL ages - to take up playing a musical instrument.

According to promotional material, music industry research says that playing a musical instrument, "Makes you smarter, keeps you younger and is good for your health".

I don't disagree. I have no doubt that music does make you feel better, has the power to de-stress and it can also be a great ice-breaker and social activity, but, try and convince 'cool dude' teenagers that playing the piano or the trombone for example will be good for for them. How many teenagers WANT to study music beyond priamary or perhaps junior school? A tiny handful by comparison to those going on to study history, sports science or one of the most most popular degree these days - media studies. In many state schools music is not a cool subject - it wasn't even when I was at school in the late 80's and early 90's. You were seen as boring and a social outcast if you studied music seriously.

With Sony Playstations, MSN messaging, 3G mobile phones, the internet, TV soaps, a glut of football and TV reality shows (no matter how dreaful), being the focus of younger generations - plus the ease of simply sitting on their backsides to do all of the above - I don't believe society as whole in the UK has enough interest in cultural activities, or indeed the drive, to take on learning a musical instrument. Ask an average 12 year old what they want when they leave education and the answer is likely to be "famous". Yes, but what for? doing something dumb on TV that will leave people just laughing at you for all the wrong reasons. What happens when the TV viewing public get tired of you, what'ya gonna do then???

On the subject of 'are students getting better', on the whole I would say no. I believe the standard required to 'pass' has dropped in the music grade exams in the last decade or so. But, the standard required to get into one of the top music conservatoires has increased, mainly because there is so much competition from foreign students. This is where the need for cash and private tuition comes in, or at least a bursary payment for tuition (in the case of talented students) is needed just to get to the required standard of playing.

General music however should be for all, but it's a pity so few people have sufficient get-up-and-go to take up music purely for pleasure.