For every musician who earns awards and scores number one hits, there are hundreds…even thousands…of musicians who earn a steady income making music in pubs, clubs, and classrooms. And there are thousands more behind the scenes people working in the music industry.
Looking to help “pay it forward”, British musician Ed Sheeran has formed a new foundation to help ensure British schoolchildren get a “high-quality” musical education in the United Kingdom.
Sheeran and his songwriting partner Amy Wadge are visiting schools in Cardiff, Wales; Coventry, England; Edinburgh, Scotland; and Belfast, North Ireland to spread the word about his new foundation…and to offer some encouragement to budding musicians and songwriters.
Sheeran noted that along with other professions, music should be treated as a legitimate career option, saying, “Britain has this sort of thing where it’s pushing people towards being bankers or like working in tech or finance or like all this sort of stuff.”
He added, “we’ve basically just come here today being like, We’ve done it. We both came from state school education and all that takes is you guys having confidence built in you by the teachers around you.”
And the students got to see Sheeran in action when he gave a performance of “Shape of You” to students in Cardiff.
The Sheeran Foundation says that it has supported “18 grassroots music education organizations or state school music departments, which will improve access to instruments and lessons for 12,000 children.”
The Foundation is also advocating for the “essential role of music teachers” and how music can “transform the lives of young people”.
In a social media post Sheeran noted, “it was incredible for my mental health as a kid, feeling a sense of purpose and achievement, even just learning piano or cello at a young age way before songwriting. I want kids to be able to learn instruments, learn production and songwriting, performing, and have apprenticeship schemes help them learn different skills to enter the industry.”