The lyrics to Sing, the musical progeny of four young Victorians, were echoed by students and teachers across the nation at 11.30am. More than 2000 ACT students gathered at Parliament House to take part in Australia's biggest simultaneous music event, Music. Count Me In.

Music Council of Australia manager of Music. Play for Life Tina Broad said, ''[This event is a] massive collective effort to celebrate the importance of music in our schools.''

Studies have shown music education has many benefits, including increased cognitive ability and teamwork skills.

''When kids are in any kind of collective music making endeavour, they're actually negotiating and learning a whole heap of life skills unwittingly,'' Ms Broad said.

But supporters of music education argue it has been long neglected in school curriculums.

The 2005 National Survey of Schools found students could go through 13 years of schooling without getting any musical education.

This was especially true for the ACT, Victoria and Western Australia, where ''there are no mandatory requirements for music education''.

''Across the board, there's hardly a state getting it right, Ms Board said. ''[Although] there are often some bouquets that go off to Queensland ... which has state-funded instrumental music services going out to the great majority of kids in primary schools.''

Federal Arts Minister Peter Garrett said at yesterday's event that funding for programs like the artist-in-residence program, which received $11.8million over four years, demonstrated the Government's resolve on the issue.

But Ms Broad says the crux of the problem is teacher training.

''Primary classroom teachers, who've got to teach right across the curriculum ... are actually by and large poorly equipped to teach music,'' she said.

Ms Broad said she was pleased with the Rudd Government's philosophical commitment, but there was still a long way to go.

''We want the kind of structural change that brings music back into the classrooms for every Aussie kid,'' she said. ''It's got to be about the Federal Government and the state governments working together to prioritise it.''

Australian Idol musical director John Foreman said the event would help raise the profile of music education.

''Music is something that kids engage with all the time, through their mobile phones, iPods, computers and radios,'' he said.

''It's a case of encouraging them to be participants as well as consumers.''

Foreman lent his industry experience to the four Victorian students who wrote Sing, the tune at the centre of yesterday's event.

Olivia Hally and Charlotte Nicdao, from the Victorian College of the Arts, and Jordan Scotney and Hayden Schueler, from Blackburn High, wanted a message-driven song that would resonate with young and old.

''[Music's] not just something you have to practice for ages, it's fun, it's something that everyone is going to appreciate, and you should get involved in,'' Charlotte said.