The evidence is very very clear increpatio. Over the past two decades (principally during the Thatcher years) this country witnessed an almost total decimation of peripatetic music teaching - the very life-blood of school music support for ages in this country! It was, of course, maintained in the Private sector simply because there were no cost implications (i.e. anybody going to schools in that sector already paid for this anyway). It is true that there has been some partial (though minimal) restoration of peripatetic teaching in the state sector in recent years, but generally it is a provision that is reserved only for those who can afford to pay for it - and (frankly) it is often patchy and very poor in comparison with what used to be provided.

In the days when such music teaching was a normal provision (outside the timetable), the level was higher, and this is where individuals learnt and applied their understanding of theory through their practice of reading musical notation (and even - dare I say it - being entered for graded Theory examinations).

But is there any of this around now in the state sector? (Perhaps there is, but I should think it is very thinly spread.)

Baz

I can only speak for Brighton and Hove, where there is very good peripatetic music teaching, but it doesn't come particularly cheap - more than £100 per term for instrumental teaching and participation in ensembles.  Not a problem for middle-class professional people like me, but there will be plenty for whom it is.  And of course I suspect we might just be lucky here.

I have recently been accompanying my daughter to prospective sixth-form colleges, and one of the interesting things has been the way that those teaching music to A-level appear to discount the GCSE course completely - we have been told repeatedly that Grade 5 theory, plus a similar level on an instrument, is what colleges want; and we've had the interesting spectacle of A-level teachers actually trying to dissuade students from applying to their courses, on the grounds that, even with a GCSE qualification, unless they have the theory and the instrumental background, they won't cope with the course.  It confirms my impression that the bar at GCSE is set woefully low, and I have had a number of conversations with teachers deeply frustrated by pupils who can belt out a few guitar riffs, or beat out a simple rhythm (all of course with the necessary swagger and posturing), and therefore regard themselves as musicians, but who have no background or grounding that enables them to go further, and who don't see the need to acquire that background because they think that they can already do everything they need.  I really feel that a salutary dose of rigour might just give them the impetus and the confidence to set their sights on something a bit more ambitious.