Once a week, every week at primary school, we would gather cross-legged on the classroom floor in a circle, wielding a recorder.
The ear-splitting sound of Three Blind Mice (or something akin to it) would fill the room for a good 20 minutes thereafter, until we were all out of puff from blowing into the plastic instrument.
It’s strange to think about now, but for many of us 80s and 90s kids, the humble recorder would’ve been our very first taste of music and it likely inspired some of our classmates to go on to play the trumpet, violin, or piano.
But in a devastating turn of events, it seems the squeaky childhood staple is at risk of going extinct in schools.
New research, by The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM), has found that the number of children playing the recorder at school has almost halved in the last decade.
In 2014, 28% of primary school children played the recorder, while now that figure sits at just 16%, with one in six children learning to play it.
Instead the youth of today are predominantly being taught to play bangers like London’s Burning on ukuleles or guitars instead.
The survey of 1,000 children aged between five and 17, also revealed that the number of students who sang at school has decreased over the last 10 years, going from 66% to 54%.
While the recorder might not be a firm favourite anymore and has been declared one of the most ‘given up’ instruments, a number of others have seen a rise in popularity of late.
Outside of school, for private music lessons the piano remains the most popular instrument choice, followed by the electric guitar, drums, flute and violin.
The number of children playing electric guitar rose from 13% in 2014 to 17% today, while the number of kids playing the flute has more than doubled going from 7% to 15%.
Overwhelmingly, 84% of young people said making, learning and engaging with music was key to their mental health, however there was found to be a sharp drop in pupils learning music between the age of 12 and 15 – which we all know can be an especially difficult time.
For some this change was due to the cost of music lessons – which was found to be a ‘barrier’ preventing 29% of children from learning to play any instruments at all.
This is something singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran has recently been vocal about, writing to Prime Minister Keir Starmer asking him to create £250m of funding for music education in schools and youth groups.
As part of the Ed Sheeran Foundation’s Protect & Grow Music Education letter, he said: ‘Learning an instrument and getting up on stage – whether in school or a community club – is now a luxury not every child can afford.’
He then asked the government to provide funding for music in the same way that it’s given for sports, and encouraged the training of more music teachers.
Speaking about the research, ABRSM chief executive Chris Cobb said: ‘Children get to play an instrument for the first time in large classes. The recorder has been great for that but schools are now looking at other instruments that can be used – the ukulele and acoustic guitar among them. Singing is also a key part of whole-class music-making.’
He continued: ‘The mental health benefits of music are hugely important at a time when mental illness is so rife but there are so many other benefits too. The tragedy is that the same research shows how young people disengage from music learning, both when they shift to secondary school and when they start GCSEs.
‘The challenge facing us all is how we can support schools and the communities around them to help young people continue experiencing the benefits of music.’
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