Symphony Orchestras, Sitars and Samba Schools - how does community affect musical development?

This article presents some thoughts about formal and informal music education, and how these two dimensions relate to musical development generally. It compares ideas about UK musical development with the international perspectives of North Indian classical music training, and music education in South America. Musical development is, of course, affected by music education – but this article considers how the ideals and beliefs underlying a particular education system might have as much of an effect on development as its content. Music development is also affected by a person’s immediate community and daily life. The very broad comparison of these three cases – the UK, North India, and South America (particularly Brazil) – also raises some issues about the transmission and appropriation of musical styles through colonization and social migration.