I retired as Head of Music in a large comprehensive school in December 2009. When i left I was teaching a total of 475 KS 3 students per week for just one hour each. I had created a resource of some 38 classical guitars, a class set of African percussion and a load of recorders. Now, some people might think this a bit backward but every one of those students was able to finger a three-chord trick, they all had a working knowledge of how to keep a steady beat and, those who actually enjoyed blowing things, were competent on the recorder. Even the 'problem' kids were able (and very proud to demonstrate) to calculate what each needed to play in order to produce polyrhythmic percussion (several were also good on the guitar). This meant that when a student was offered the opportunity to play violin, clarinet, etc. they already had developed some of the basic skills required.
From this we developed our 'Baroque Orchestra' - an ensemble which played a lot of what subscribers to this page would recognise as 'folk' and 'Playford' tunes executed with a fair amount of improvisation and complex arrangements - decisions on which were made by the students themselves.
In the space of a term after I left, the guitars had been consigned to the skip, the recorders similarly thrown out and the plastic keyboard became the force to be reckoned with.
Since then the results for that school at GCSE have dropped from our highly criticised 97% A* to C (not good enough) and the students are less musically adept. Why? Because they no longer play 'real' instruments. The computer sequencer is a powerful tool but it is not a short-cut to musical competence. That takes a real instrument.
The reasons for this change are that the school became an academy and in so doing set aside all of the traditions and gains made in its previous 88 year history. Even the school's Sword dance team (winners of DERT in 2005) were forced to move out of the school because they refused to change their colours. If the state of Music education were the only issue here I'd rest a lot easier but the facts are otherwise and it is perhaps surprising to realise that even English and Maths have been victims of the idiotic charge towards 'test-passing' as distinct from 'education'!