Damon Albarn says it's "disgraceful" that it is possible to gain an A level in GCSE without existence able to read or write music.
Composers and musicians have been arguing over the merits of eruditeness musical committal to writing techniques this week after it emerged that it is possible to score top examination grades without knowing how to understand or write music.
"If you don't memorize to learn music, then that's a whole tradition that becomes very exclusive and it shouldn't be," the Blur and Gorillaz man told BBC Music magazine.
"I victimised to write for small orchestras when I was 15. I sold my soul to the monster and became a pop star and forgot about it, simply in the past few years I have got back into orchestration," he added. "I think anyone interested in music should be strained to learn that correction."
However Richard Baker, head of composition at the Guildhall School Of Music and Drama, disagrees with Albarn.
"It depends what you believe a petty school musical education is for," he suggested. "If it's about accessing the western classical tradition, then of course you demand to get word staff notational system. If you think it's about giving children some understanding of a wide range of musical traditions, then teachers should have the flexibleness to talk about other ways in which euphony is transmitted," he said.
Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett's opera 'Monkey: A Journey To The West' was recently staged at the Royal Opera House in London.
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