Music in all its forms is in good health in our schools at present with much of that success down to access to the tuition now being eyed by the number crunchers tasked with cost-cutting on a grand scale.

That's not to say that existing provision is exactly lavish. But it has clearly provided an avenue for the nurturing of talent that might otherwise never be discovered. The fear - as voiced in this week's paper by one grateful beneficiary of the current system - is that only parents with deep enough pockets will be able to develop the potential of their offspring. That can't be right.

When the cost-cutting axe falls, the arts are often regarded as a soft option. As has been acknowledged before in this column, nothing is sacred when you're talking about identifying savings of £36 million. To be clear, the threat to music tuition is at present only one of scores of potential cuts being put under Highland Council's microscope and opened up to public debate.

The initial response though suggests that this is being regarded as anything but a soft option by a growing band of people.

It seems that whatever happens, some creative solutions are going to have to be found across a whole range of services.

In the meantime, the protest mounting over tuition is likely to rise to a cacophony which will be anything but music to the ears of those trying to trim the budget.

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