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Music lessons out of tune with talent

WHY do most students learning a musical instrument give up? Is it really true that they just don’t have the ‘talent’ for it?

Take the piano: for the first two years, they play nursery rhymes from an archaic book and if that doesn’t bore them to tears, then they are ready for exams. Starting with Grade 1, they learn three short pieces. For Grade 2 one year later, they learn another three pieces. By Grade 4, this boring process of playing three songs a year and never forming a connection with music can end with the student stopping, much to the dismay of their parents, who have invested in a few years of lessons.

Worse still, they are unable to retain anything they have learned because they only replicated notes for exams as if the piano were a typewriter.

The music exam system is broken. Grade 8 is seen as a status symbol, when the reality is most youngsters who get that far still wouldn’t be able to play Happy Birthday by ear at a friend’s party.

A functional, more connected musical training is needed.

The music industry bears no resemblance to how music is taught. Success across all genres consists of a rare artist who was lucky enough to go their own way. Be it Elton John, Jools Holland or finding out what Ed Sheeran has in common with Vivaldi, piano exams don’t reflect what really happens in music.

The way Elton scribbles his chords above Bernie Taupin’s lyrics to create memorable songs is a revelation of musical creativity that can be studied.

The same applies to classical music. Chopin used to jam on the piano in saloon bars and Mozart would improvise for long periods, like a jazz musician, in his piano concertos.

If Mozart were to show up at a piano competition today, he would be so experimental that the gatekeepers would kick him out. Likewise, Chopin wouldn’t win his own piano competition these days.

The real barriers to playing a musical instrument have been created by an outdated system.

This was one of the reasons why I founded the Contemporary School of Piano a decade ago.

This is not a counter-culture argument. The design of the piano reveals clues on how it can be taught. Ask a Grade 8 piano student to jam on the E flat blues scale and they would most likely say: ‘I never learnt jazz.’

Yet the E flat blues is all the black keys with an added A. Try doing it the next time you sit down at a piano and you’ll impress your friends.

Chopin used to teach the B major scale first because it’s a better shape for the hands. But education today puts theory ahead of practicality, so intuitive scales have to wait until Grade 5 onwards, when many students have already given up.

That’s a lack of strategy, not talent!

TOM DONALD, London W1.

Picture: Francesco Marchett

Solutions, not promises

IF BORIS Johnson wants to prove he is serious about climate change at the COP26 gathering of world leaders, he should propose bringing together all the best scientists in the world for the benefit of humankind.

Their challenge would be to create a safe energy source not limited by outside factors, such as solar panels and wind turbines.

There must be no patents on the findings, with every country having the same access and allowed to produce their own energy from the research if they wish.

Food, warmth and shelter are surely not unreasonable aspirations for everyone on this planet. The key to these aspirations is safe and affordable energy, which affects everyone’s lives and the planet itself.

It’s time for world leaders to deliver solutions, not promises.

JAMES WIGNALL, Accrington, Lancs.

I MIGHT think about changing my boiler for a heat pump if Boris and all the world leaders arrive by bicycle at COP26.

Mrs GWEN MOLLINGTON, Hastings, E. Sussex.

Time to bow out, Ma’am

THE Queen should have retired years ago (Letters). Instead, she and her reactionary advisers have clung to the obsolete ‘monarch for life’ dictum, which applied to a time when lives were short and insecure.

It seems unlikely that Prince Charles would bring a lot of searing heat into the monarchy, but he has commitment, ideas and imagination. It’s cruel to keep him waiting until he is in his dotage.

DAVID GALE, West Malling, Kent.

Bring back masks

DID we relax Covid restrictions too early? The weather is getting colder, which means windows won’t be left open and there will be less ventilation in crowded spaces such as buses, trains, shops and offices.

People are unsure of what they should be doing. I went into one shop and was asked to wear a mask, but in the one next door, no one bothered.

Why can’t we just make things simple with mandatory wearing of masks on public transport and in shops, and proof of a negative Covid test before attending events such as a football match or concert.

The last thing we want is another lockdown. A return to such measures could limit the rise in cases.

MIKE DUNNE, address supplied.

WE NEED to resist calls for Plan B curbs. Bringing in limitations on our freedom to placate control freaks would be easy.

Being able ever again to reclaim our normal way of life may well prove more difficult.

WILL FORROW, Dawlish, Devon.

PLAN B! Was there even a Plan A? The Government needs to be proactive, not reactive.

A. MIDDLETON, Hardwick, Cambs.

Lost crowning glory

MANY thanks to Sarah Standing for her article about losing her hair to chemotherapy (Mail).

I was diagnosed with breast cancer and when I was told I needed radiotherapy and chemo, my first concern was about losing my hair. It started coming out after the first treatment so a hairdresser shaved off the rest.

My hair grew back a much darker colour, frizzy and strawlike, so it’s not my crowning glory. It’s almost impossible to style, but I count myself fortunate to have come through cancer and the treatments with little discomfort and support from my husband and friends.

I will try to put up with bad hair days, no eyebrows and flaking nails. Thank you, Sarah, for reassuring me I’m not the only one.

Name and address supplied.

Bogus bureaucracy

WHY is the EU prepared to scrap 80 per cent of the bureaucracy and paperwork of the Northern Ireland Protocol after less than a year?

Does this mean it was not required in the first place and was only enforced to penalise us? Should we be questioning the need and value of the remaining 20 per cent?

With regard to French fishermen and politicians threatening blockades and retributions, trawlers involved in action that damages our economy and wellbeing can’t be welcomed into our fishing grounds.

Their fishing licences should be revoked immediately.

MICK TEDDER, Dover, Kent.

Dress code

THOUGH it seems no one was offended by Newcastle fans’ tribute to the new owners by wearing tea towels on their heads, the club has said those attending matches should wear the norm for their culture or religion.

Apart from any obvious dress that could cause offence, such as a Nazi uniform, surely we are entitled to wear what we want, regardless of where we are from.

If we are going to go down this cultural appropriation road, fans sporting a French plait should be banned, as would even the French, unless they are from Africa.

This is, of course, woke nonsense. Unless a country has been cut off from the rest of humanity, we have all been sharing cultural influences and language for thousands of years.

It’s time to cancel the woke brigade before we are all the poorer for it.

GARRY CARR, Yelland, Devon.

Roadwork rage

EVERYWHERE I drive there are roadworks. The digging here, the digging there, is never-ending.

What with temporary traffic lights, bollards and road closures, it seems there isn’t a day when I’m not stuck in a line of traffic.

Usually there’s not a worker in sight, but the potholes, broken slabs and lumpy Tarmac are still there.

S. T. VAUGHAN, Birmingham.

Explosive tradition

NEVER mind youngsters not knowing what carols are (Letters), I doubt that they even know what Christmas is other than the great annual present-giving day and a time for partying.

As for the annual fireworks festival — chucking bangers around has already started — do they know who Guy Fawkes was or what the Gunpowder Plot was about?

Isn’t it strange the failure of gunpowder to blow up the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament should be celebrated by exploding gunpowder!

JIM ADAMSON, Cupar, Fife.

Celebrity charade

IT’S impossible to turn on the TV without seeing a programme with the word Celebrity in the title.

The concept of a celebrity has been so watered down that it seems you only have to appear on one of these shows to automatically qualify to appear on the others.

The same old faces appear time after time. It’s one massive merry-go-round that never seems to end.

JOHN WILSON, Stafford.