Musical Instrument Teaching In The UK

Music creators and performers joined together at the Royal College of Music in London today to announce the results of The Performing Right Society (PRS) mapping exercise into the provision of musical instrument teaching for school children in the UK.

The survey results are being made freely available by PRS in the interests of improving access to instrumental tuition in schools. The survey was carried out by MORI and was funded by PricewaterhouseCoopers and PRS.

Two government departments have already received a presentation of the findings, and last week jointly announced a 163180m boost for music in schools. The Department of Culture, Media and Sport and the Department of Education and Employment will be able to use the information provided by the survey to support work being undertaken by the Youth Music Trust and to support increased provision by Local Education Authorities.

The mapping exercise, which arose from discussions with Culture Secretary, Chris Smith, provides important information about what is really happening to music education across the country and has already stimulated debate and contributed to government understanding. Surveys of schools and Local Education Authorities were conducted in the Autumn of 1998 by MORI, and compared against the last available MORI survey of 1993.

Some of the main findings of the research are:

• In many more schools, parents are paying for their children's music tuition but the availability of fee remission for poor families depends on where they happen to live
• There are more opportunities for individual tuition and a wider range of musical instruments to learn but in many areas, demand still exceeds supply
• Despite the fact that a wide range of other music services in addition to tuition is available from Music Services, schools make less use of them and perceive there to have been a significant decrease in the availability of instrumental and vocal performance groups
• One in five schools does not spend delegated money buying in its local Music Service
• Schools perceive that the quality of musical instrument teaching has improved whilst Music Services themselves are more reserved in judging their own quality
• Productivity of Music Services has been increased by reducing full-time teaching posts by 35% while doubling the number of part-time posts and by teachers working longer hours teaching more pupils per group and per hour at reduced travel rates.

Andrew Potter, Chairman of PRS and of the mapping exercise steering group, said:

"The continuing success of UK music of whatever genre depends on a firm base of broad musical experience and skills, whether in the studio or concert venue. For this reason, the 30,000 creator and publisher members of the Performing Right Society are concerned to help in any way they can to make sustained instrument teaching of the best quality available to all children in the UK, no matter what their circumstances."

"In commissioning this survey, we simply wanted to produce a document which could be used by those organisations who have the power or influence to do so, to bring about an increase in musical instrument teaching in schools. We hope it will stimulate some badly needed medium to long-term planning and commitment."

"Our findings have unearthed a number of strengths which we believe can be built on and we hope, too, that the information will be of use to LEA's to strengthen their music budgets, especially in the light of the national support announced last week by the government. Some authorities may be comforted by our findings, others will find themselves with a lot of work ahead in order to catch up."

"Anyone bringing about improvements will contribute to maintaining the success of our great British music industry, and will earn a huge amount of gratitude from every corner of the business."

John Lakin of PricewaterhouseCoopers who commissioned MORI to conduct the survey, added:

"The new survey confirms many of the trends that were identified in the last survey in 1993. The increase in opportunities for tuition and the range of instruments covered is good news, but the growing reliance on fees to parents raises the issue of access for children from poorer families. Also, the opportunities for children to participate in ensembles and bands outside the school seem to have narrowed and this may have implications for the ability of talented performers to progress to the national scene."

Technical details

• Andrew Potter is Chairman of the Performing Right Society and Director of Music and Bibles publishing at Oxford University Press.
• John Lakin is a principal consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers. He also commissioned the original survey by MORI carried out in 1993.
• The Performing Right Society is the UK performing right administration society for composers, songwriters and publishers. It currently has over 30,000 members.
• MORI conducted 940 postal self-completion interviews with a random cross section of primary and secondary schools across England and Wales between the 25th September and the 16th October 1998. Data were weighted to the overall number of schools by LEA type. In addition, 74 LEA's across the UK took part in a concurrent self-completion survey.
• The Youth Music Trust (YMT) aims to "encourage innovative ideas and more effective delivery of musical instrument and choral teaching."
• YMT Trustees include Professor Edward Gregson, Principal of the Royal Northern College of Music and a Director of the Performing Right Society. The YMT is chaired by Gavin Henderson, Principal of Trinity College.
• Members of the Musical Instrument Teaching Mapping Group:
• Judith Clarke, Arts Manager
• John Connelly (Observer), DfEE
• Malcolm Coster, Chairman of Ramesys Holdings & External Director, PRS
• Mo Darbyshire, Director of Music and Casting Services, BSkyB
• Peter Dunkley, Head of Music, Northamptonshire County Council
• Richard Hallam, Director of Music, Oxfordshire County Council
• Richard Hickman, Secretary, Federation of Music Services
• John Hutchinson, Chief Executive, MCPS-PRS Music Alliance
• Graham Jones, PricewaterhouseCoopers
• John Lakin, PricewaterhouseCoopers
• Brian Ley, Head of Gloucestershire Music Service
• Simon May, Composer
• Richard Morris, Chairman, Music Education Council
• David Newnes, President, Music Industries Association
• Fran Nverkla, Rights Committee Chairman, British Phonographic Industry
• Nanette Rigg, Director General, British Music Rights
• John Stephens, Director of Music Education, Trinity College of Music
• Michael Wearne, Chairman, Federation of Music Services
• Deborah Williams(Observer), Arts Division, DCMS