Conservatoire : outline brief

Abstract

I have always loved music. My mother recalls how I used to spend long hours experimenting with the sound of different pots and pans I could find in the cupboard when I was just a little toddler. This love for music kept growing until at the age of ten I began learning the clarinet at the L-'Unione' band club at Luqa and in 1986 became a member of this philharmonic band. This was not enough, and when I was sixteen years of age I began to study the pianoforte and the theory of music under the tutorship of Mro. John D. Zammit, and later with his father Mro. Chev. Dr. Charles Zammit. Studying music in band clubs or with private tutors, as I did up till now, is very common in Malta. A person who wants to study music can either do this, or else, go to the Johann Strauss school of Music at Valletta. On a rather higher level, then there is also the University, where students can choose music as their main subject in the Bachelor of Arts degree course. These systems vary in their way of teaching because their scope is different. For example, band clubs provide tuition in band instruments only, because the intention is that the students would ultimately play in the band. On the other hand, systems like the Johann Strauss school of Music and private tutors teach those students who either want to nurture their musical background or want to become professional musicians. The Johann Strauss school of Music teaches both theory and practice, the most popular instruments being the violin and the classical guitar. Here students learn up to a level of grade 8 and no higher education is provided. With private tuition the case is somewhat different because different tutors teach different things and up to different standards.