Let the music not die

Some 20 musicians have come together in UK and launched a unique but fantastic campaign - every primary school child to be taught to play an instrument, at no cost to them or their families.

All these 20 musicians are past winners of the BBC’s prestigious Young Musician competition and they have penned an open letter to The Guardian.

They have not really spelt out how they plan to achieve this but they have examples to follow - Under the Every Child a Musician program, in the London borough of Newham, more than 10,000 primary school kids are gifted a free musical instrument and taught how to read and play music in once-weekly, 30-minute classes. The program is run by the Newham government and costs taxpayers about £2 million a year.

There is no denying the fact that music should be made an important part of every child in the developing years. There is enough scientific proof to show that learning to play music engages young brains, supporting children’s development of attention, memory, literacy, concentration, creativity, and cognitive development.

In India, we are still working on ensuring that every child gets education – the right to education. But this is something which the private sector can take up on their CSR role and give Indian music too the push that it requires. Or maybe the contestants of reality shows on TV can run a similar campaign. We need to ensure that the next generation learns to play instruments like the veena, sarod, table, pakhawaj, harmonium or else they will die a natural death and we will be left with is digital music, aping the west.