TENBURY Town Band is providing a lifeline for young people who want a career in music – a subject not included in the measure applied to school standards.

Music has been squeezed out of the mainstream curriculum in schools according to Mark Yarnold, who is president of the Tenbury Town Band as well as chairman of governors at the primary school.

He believes that bands like the one in Tenbury gives young people who would not otherwise get the chance to get into music.

Tenbury Town Band has a reputation beyond West Worcestershire and will feature in a film The Reverend and Mrs Simpson that is set for a premiere in May.

In the film, which is set in the years after the Second World War, the band will feature playing at a traditional village fete.

It is the kind of thing that Tenbury Town Band does every year, but Mr Yarnold believes that it has an even bigger role providing a route into music that young people would otherwise not have.

“Teachers come into schools to teach music, but it is very much on a demand basis,” said Mr Yarnold.

He said that a staff music teacher and music lessons as part of the curriculum are a thing of the past.

“There is some good work done and some other lessons will include an element of music, but things are not how they used to be,” Mr Yarnold added.

“This means that it can be difficult for children who want to experience the joy of playing an instrument.”

He said that the Tenbury Town Band currently has eight members who are in education and is keen to help more young people who want to play.

The band has a philosophy that no one should be denied the chance to play music because they cannot afford it.

People who come to learn to play have basic lessons and also the opportunity to borrow an instrument and see how they get on.

A sell-out Christmas concert at the Regal in December saw the band raising just over £1,000 for its chosen charity Acorns Children’s Hospice.

Last year the Government announced that it had plans to strengthen music teaching in schools with a small boost in funding.

There was a fall of 17 per cent in the number of young people studying music at GCSE level reported in 2018.

In 2015 the number taking the exam was 43,370. That figure dropped to just 35,895 for 2018. Music isn’t included in the English Baccalaureate, a set of core subjects.