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So how do you get young people to appreciate classical music, and get them along to live concerts? Some suggest . . Like writer and broadcaster Tom Service in this video about reaching new audiences, I suggest exposure and education. So how about trying the following clips as an accessible route in to the supposedly scary, mysterious world. Producer Gerald Strother went on a musical learning journey himself, from a starting point of not really knowing his Chopin from his Chopsticks...

'I saw orchestras when I was younger, they didn't have any great fascination for me ... I remember always finding it quite difficult to stay awake...'

This is how from indie pop combo described his youthful forays into orchestral music. He pretty accurately nailed my own personal experience.

To be fair, Stuart then went on to say that being exposed to orchestras as a child did sow some seeds in his brain and that as he grew so did his fascination for them. A growth I can't echo, I'm afraid to say.

It's not that I actively disliked orchestral music, it's just that as a youngster it didn't grab me in the same way that the ever available pop music did. As I grew up and began to really open my mind, musically speaking, there seemed like a natural path through early rock n roll, punk, blues, soul and it even took me quite naturally into electronic music and rap. However, I never saw a turning in the path which might take me to orchestral music. My beginning and end point with the classics tended to be through TV adverts and it was always the same stuff. To get beyond there - where do you begin? There's just so much of it. To me it was like turning up at a national library and telling them you wanted to read a book.

And that was how I continued to feel about orchestral music, until late last year when I was asked if I would produce and direct Talking Music, a series of four programmes which were to look at the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Scottish Symphony Orchestra and some of its collaborators.

Amy Cardigan and some of the first violins of the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ SSO

To say I was nervous embarking on the series is an understatement. Luckily for me though, the Executive Producer I worked with was not only very experienced in arts programmes but also someone who just loved orchestral music and was eager to share his knowledge.

As the production progressed and developed I began to speak to more people involved with the orchestra who were happy to give me pointers of what I might like, suggest seminal recordings, offer bits of background info and generally give me a few points of reference to work from. Heck, I even started listening to Radio 3 for inspiration and discovered a piece of music by Arvo Part, , which I would now proudly make part of my Desert Island Disc playlist (I think it would sit right fine next to Prince, the Afghan Whigs and the Rolling Stones).

Nicola Benedetti celebrates a performance with the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ SSO

There were lots of other gems I discovered along the way, and many of them appear in the series. For example, James MacMillan's , Elgar's , Reynaldo Hahn's beautiful and an absolutely enchanting rendition of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies' , performed by the Caliban Quartet of bassoonists.

If you head over to the Talking Music programme page then you can see films about Master of the Queen's Music , Aberdonian Soprano , violin virtuoso , Chief Conductor of the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ SSO and a good number of others. Not to mention Stuart Murdoch who talks about his orchestral pop project.

I'll bet his 10 year old self wouldn't have seen that one coming.

God Help the Girl play with the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ SSO as part of the History of Scotland concert

Clips from the Talking Music programmes have been added to our collection at Learning Zone Scotland and can be shared and embedded in blogs or other sites from the following page: /programmes/talkingmusic