“Until now, creativity has been stifled by the need to acquire playing skills. Now, using the computer, any child can play": Unearthed BBC video from 1986 shows what music technology in the classroom used to look and sound like

The BBC has dipped into its archive once again to give us another fascinating look at how the relationship between computers and music was perceived in the late 20th century.

This time, the year is 1986, and we’re at Hugh Faringdon School in Reading to see how a computer – a Yamaha CX5M, unless we’re mistaken – was changing the way that music was being taught. The clip comes from BBC Two computing show Micro Live, which you may well remember if you’re over the age of 45, grew up in the UK, and spent a lot of time trying to learn BASIC in the mid-’80s.