Celtic Connections ended earlier this month, showcasing Scottish talent as the driving force of this international festival. Traditional music and the rise of new bands such as Niteworks are being increasingly recognised as a key asset for agencies such as Visit Scotland, who showcase the band for their promotional video for the Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology.
Yet, unbeknownst amidst the visage of festival frontage is that none of this could happen without the core base of community learning of traditional music. Tens of thousands of people in Scotland, the equivalent of thirty secondary schools, are learning traditional music.
Over 2016, the Traditional Music Forum (TMF) carried out a census exploring the learning of traditional music in community settings across Scotland. TMF noticed there was a gap in data for traditional music learning and as a network organisation realised they were in the perfect position to gather it.
Ellie Logan, Membership Officer for TMF, states: “We wanted to get an idea of what was happening and where, what is on offer and who is involved to get insights into gaps, challenges and costs. What it showed was a vibrant picture of traditional music being taught and played in community settings across Scotland.”
Across the 64 organisations taking part in the census, 23,198 people were involved in learning traditional music with 17,240 under 18. This equates to over 30 secondary schools and with this just being a snapshot, there is clearly a lot of learning and playing happening in our communities.
The options are increasing for learners too as it’s not just fiddles and accordions being taught, but over 27 instruments are on offer – including clarsach, flute, mandolin, percussion – and diverse access to delivery, from individual tutelage to group tuition and informal sessions, with many organisations offering more than one type of learning opportunity. But it’s not without challenges.
Ellie Logan continues, “Being a community based activity dependent on volunteers, there is an inherent fragility due to difficulties in finding permanent accommodation for classes, finding tutors, maintaining a supply of volunteers to run everything and, not surprisingly, raising funding.”
The average cost of delivering this learning is £60 per person, representing excellent value for money given that one lesson can cost £25. But organisations need to raise income to deliver this learning and very few organisations taking part were in receipt of local authority or Creative Scotland funding. Only 6 of the 64 organisations taking part had Creative Scotland funding and just 9 of the 64 had any kind of local authority funding.
The most common sources of income are fees, but organisations also must be creative in raising the balance of funds through a range of entrepreneurial activities such as performances, dances, merchandise, busking, tune book sales, gift aid and sponsorship. The nature of the community base also highlights that this activity is dependent on passion for the music through volunteers, with 2,140 volunteers involved across the 64 surveyed organisations, from delivery of tutoring through to fundraising and governance.
Responses were received from across Scotland, from Annan to Harris with an inevitable cluster of organisations in the main cities of Scotland. Rural areas seem less well served with no responses from mainland Argyll or Caithness and limited responses in many Scottish rural areas, where access is undoubtedly more restricted than in cities or towns.
One very active group in a rural area are Blackford Fiddle Group (BFG), based near Perth. They run a wide range of classes, sessions and ceilidhs which are getting people of all ages across the community involved in traditional music. Andrew Bachell of BFG highlights, “We are a self-funded volunteer led group and raise funds to support our work. Like many groups in rural areas our challenge is finding premises. Recently our village hall was shut for 8 months but we kept going wherever we could as it is so important for all of us. We have players from 7 years old to those in their seventies all learning alongside each other.”
Utilising these findings, the TMF will be highlighting the challenges facing community based learning with key funding bodies such as creative Scotland and local authorities, as well as sharing the good news that a thriving traditional music movement is being driven forward at the heart of communities across Scotland by a growing army of volunteers.
But it does need sustained and simple things such as making venues available and small amounts of funding support could make a real difference in nourishing the tradition at the heart of Scotland’s communities.
A full copy of the report can be found here
For further information and interviews contact:
Lindsay Corr lindsay@scottishstorytellingcentre.com 0785 335 2741
Ellie Logan membership@traditionalmusicforum.org 0779 174 9945
Andrew Bachell abachell@hotmail.co.uk 0790 087 0326