Madam,

I would like to respond to the letter from Steve Fletcher (‘Some get nothing from the music service’.

It is sad that your child was not able to partake of lessons from the music service. You do not say what instrument your child wanted. Perhaps it was guitar?

Unfortunately this is not the first time the Ceredigion Music Service has been threatened or suffered cuts.

The service, before cuts took hold, offered guitar in primary schools but unfortunately that went in a previous round of cuts and rationalisation.

Hard decisions have had to be taken about what could be realistically offered to schools on an ever-decreasing budget.

Many smaller schools could no longer offer every discipline (brass, strings, woodwind, harp ) so had to make choices.

The teaching staff have made every effort to give children what they wanted by working with schools where ‘clustered’ to bring pupils to one central school for lessons.

In my last letter I mentioned the instruments available for beginners. Ultimately children were encouraged to release instruments and buy/rent their own with the exception of some very large expensive instruments.

I suggest that your child should have taken whatever was on offer if passionate about music, as it would have started his/her music education with a specialist.

Nothing is ever wasted and basic music rhythm and reading skills are more or less the same on all instruments.

I was happy to take large groups of children on violin knowing that later they might change to other instruments or indeed start a second instrument when appropriate.

Also we provide ‘Rock and Pop’ at secondary level which your child might have been able to tap into.

Learning a stringed instrument is available and appropriate to start at an earlier age than other instruments which may require a more developed physique or adult teeth (as in the case of some woodwind) .

As a fully qualified music specialist, I also supported small schools with curriculum music, an important part of the Ceredigion Music Service not highlighted.

This support for curriculum music in schools will no longer be available if the council decides to only employ ‘unqualified’ staff on a cheap hourly rate of pay.

Yours etc, Isobelle McGuinness, Formerly head of strings and assistant music service manager.

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