Learning and playing piano "elitist"?...

[Gill the Piano]

Well with this wonderful government throwing money at music (320 million quid betweeen ALL the state schools in Britain? How very generous... ), I'm afraid that it IS now elitist, in that as with so many other things, only the relatively well-off can afford it. As a kid in the 1960s, playing the piano was relatively rare in my infants & junior schools, but when I got to the next school, lessons were subsidised by the local council and every school of secondary age given a certain number of free lessons to be allocated as the music staff saw fit. Then schools were given full charge of their own money, and anything involving sport, and later, computers, got precedence. School pianos were no longer tuned three times a year (oo, we could buy some FOOTBALLS with that), and the rot set in.
The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. That's why the government are suddenly encouraging singing - free instrument, see? They don't have to fork out for it.
So yes, even if people can afford the piano, they often can't afford the lessons. Yet they can often afford 98" flat screen plasma tellies and packs of faggs. It's down to priorities, I suppose in those cases.

[Stuart]

The arts have always been elitist - which is the negative slant, when family background and money are considered. However, the arts are for the few: those that value artistic expression and aspects of life that do not revolve around acquiring material possessions. Musical history is full of poor people who have bucked the system and created great art. Yes, they have to fight harder and no doubt many more with talent/genius failed, too.
I am even older than Gill. At 13, in the '50's (1950's, that is, Gill!), I had to give up music at school because I was studying languages. My parents sacrificed a good deal to keep me in private piano lessons and I have not only enjoyed playing - and still do - for private pleasure, but have also earned some small fees for public performances. No-one in any of the arts has it easy, even with money behind them. Enthusiasm and hard work are the two main requirements.
Stuart

[markymark]

I do agree with you there! I can't really think of hardly any popular musicians that lead bands or perform from the piano. Today, Jools Holland, Elton John and Jamie McCullum are the three British pianists in popular music that spring to mind. Laying aside, classical performers, who else is there really? I was watching American Idol last week and I think I counted four contestants that chose to perform and sing from the keyboard out of 200-odd other contestants, many of which with musical experience. I'm looking forward to a few more pianists appearing on the British popular music scene I have to say.

Here's something else for the discussion: has anyone ever encountered the attitude that piano playing, by modern standards, is an effeminate past-time. I'll explain what I mean; I moved to a new school two years ago, the only male teacher in the school, and I was treated as a bit of a phenomenon, firstly, because I was a male teacher, and secondly, because I was fulfilling the role of music co-ordinator for the school! I think people were expecting me to burst through the door in a dirty rugby gear, two hockey stickers under my arm and a dumbell between my teeth!

[Gill the Piano]

I know that a lot of teenage boys give up the piano; it isn't 'cool', but for 'cool', you can read 'masculine'. The cleverest teachers flip them on to jazz/blues at that point, because that, paradoxically, IS cool, when classical isn't. Go figure, as the colonials say...