The benefits of music tuition for youngsters run far deeper than merely learning to play an instrument and should be protected at all costs, according to a teacher and noted conductor.
Speaking exclusively to The Courier, Wallace Galbraith called for an end to continuing uncertainty over instrumental tuition in schools amid tightening public finances.
Mr Galbraith, a teacher in Ayrshire schools for the past 34 years, said tuition’s place outside the school curriculum can make it an easy target.
In recent years, Fife’s tuition spending has been slashed dramatically, although further cuts were avoided in the most recent budget after a public campaign.
Angus and Dundee councils have hiked tuition fees. In Perth and Kinross, there are 26 instrumental tutors and there has been no move to cut that number, but their position remains insecure until financial stability is regained.
Mr Galbraith said past and future cuts would be a massive mistake.
Taking time out from adjudicating the Perform In Perth music festival, he said, “Instrumental music tuition in schools is a vital part of youngsters’ training because, although the vast majority of young people who are given instrumental tuition don’t go into the music profession, the skills they learn by the discipline of playing an instrument are very important.
“They become part of a group such as an orchestra or wind band and that teaches them so much about interaction with their peers and behaviour issues which they also take forward into later years.
“For someone like me who’s been teaching many years, it is wonderful to meet old students I’ve taught previously who are now in their forties and they look back on their time learning an instrument and see formative elements of their character.
“To the outsider, instrumental tuition is all about music but it’s actually nothing to do with music at all.
“The sad thing is that educationalists understand and practise the values of instrumental tuition but when times are hard financially, instrumental tuition is not part of the curriculum and it tends to be one aspect of musical education they look at cutting.
“It takes years to build something up and in one fell swoop, if a teacher is lost, it takes years to regain that position.”
Mr Galbraith formed the internationally renowned Ayrshire Fiddle Orchestra in 1982, and was conductor of the Ayrshire Symphony Orchestra for over a decade.
He was awarded the MBE for services to music in 2000.
He said the standard he has seen at the ongoing festival in Perth was encouraging despite the doom and gloom.
“Fortunately here in Perth things seem to be buoyant and they haven’t had to bear the brunt of cuts but that’s certainly not the case in other areas of the country…
“Between what is going on with Perth and Kinross Council and the local independent schools, there is a tremendous future here and that should not be threatened by cuts.”