A personal view from one of Wren Music's young music leaders
This was written by one of Wren Music’s Young Music Leaders and I thought it worth sharing with you.
This was written by one of Wren Music’s Young Music Leaders and I thought it worth sharing with you.
"Over the years that I have studied music at school I have often noticed the different views that people have on Music in terms of the worth of the subject in competition with any other academic subjects. I chose this subject/issue to focus on as I wanted to find out why the funding for the majority of Music departments in schools in the UK is dropping and the different views people have on the relevance of Music as a subject.
The things that I have noticed include how focused people are in lessons, the funding that our personal music department has (not a lot) and through conversations and discussions with others I have picked up that many people believe that Music and other Arts subjects alike are not very important subjects in terms of what’s going to help you when it comes to getting a job and making a living later in life.
Evidence of this is that they have decided to leave an Arts subject out of the English Baccalaureate, which now means that for many jobs, having an Arts subject may not be looked upon as importantly than it has been before. There are fears that many schools will not encourage Arts subjects as much if they do not count towards the Ebacc, and therefore not seen as a core qualification. According to recent research, 27% of schools withdrew subjects from the curriculum in response to the EBacc this academic year. The most commonly withdrawn subjects were Drama, Performing Arts and Art. There has also been an increased focus in school on the subjects Maths and English as many Universities, employers and colleges have been said to be displeased with the results of these two subjects. This could be seen as pulling focus away from the more creative subjects.
However personally I strongly believe that Music helps you enormously and develops more that just your musical ability. It allows you to build your self-confidence, explore your creativity, so that you can sometimes see things in a different way than others can see it (this can be helpful in problem solving or even starting your own successful business ideas).
When interviewing a teacher from Ottery St. Mary Primary School, Devon, she said:
“Music is valuable because it gives a chance for both academic and non-academic children to shine and create, developing confidence and self-esteem in ways that other subjects wouldn’t allow. Music links all sorts of areas in your brain, which will help with all other areas of learning.” I think this is an incredibly valid point as Music can help and develop people in ways that other subjects don’t (e.g. confidence) and teaches your brain to think in different and more creative ways than before. During this interview, she also mentioned that: “It is good for listening skills – something children really need to learn about, as they live in a very visual world” and “It also brings people together through performing, making bands and groups. This builds a child’s ability to co-operate and be part of a team”.
Through these two quotes, you can gather that Music has a big influence on communication and hugely broadens social skills to give young children a more confident start to school, and especially going up to Secondary school, when its almost impossible not to meet new people.
When I had the same discussion with a student at The Kings School studying Music he said: “It's a lot freer and is a lesson that you can look forward to. If you've chosen academic subjects it's a good lesson that you can relax in and have fun”. This shows that Music is a fun, free and creative way of learning that has a positive effect on the student.
However, unfortunately others believe that it is not a very important subject, as they believe that you are less likely to succeed in a career in Music then if you become a Professor in Mathematics, for example. This has led to loss of funding for not just Performing Arts departments, and as a result children may not be able to be educated in Music as well as they could be if they had better equipment to use.
To find out more research on this subject I took the question to my fellow peers over Facebook. From a total of 90 results, 60 said ‘Yes’ and 30 said ‘No’ to the question ‘Do you think Music, as a subject, is as important as any other academic subjects like Maths or English?’.
These results were what I expected, and supported the points I have made. I suspect the reasons why the results were this way is that people tend to enjoy the subject as they can be creative and it is a change from other academic subjects. As someone in the comments said: ‘Music is a fantastic way for kids and adults alike too express themselves! Plus Music can be very useful in day to day life!’."