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| Author | Topic: I Can't Afford a Music Degree - And If I Could, I Wouldn't Buy O |
DiBo
Registered User
Registered:
1/14/2004 | posted: 1/15/2004 at 1:02:09 AM ET
Every person who has decided to quit studying an instrument shares a common dissatisfaction. Otherwise, why stop? It’s not difficult to understand the aesthetically satisfying and therapeutic benefits of music. For most people, music is an integral part of their everyday lives. But why do some people take up an instrument just to decide that it’s not a worthwhile investment of their time? Could it be that the immeasurable amount of theoretical information involved in learning about music seems more like science than leisure? Could it be that one doesn’t have enough free time in their day to truly devote an adequate amount of time to an instrument? Unfortunately, one of the most common reasons is just plain laziness. When a student fails to practice, it more than likely means that the student doesn’t feel that learning their instrument is interesting enough to devote time to practicing. Not all students who feel this way are really dissatisfied with the instrument, but with the means by which they are learning.
There are several different approaches to all different styles of learning, even though it would be nice to believe that one method may work well with everyone. Some teachers use the same approach with every student. I don’t believe it’s fair to judge anyone on the premise that any one teaching method will work automatically. There are so many different types of students who have different expectations when taking up an instrument. The ones who feel that they will be able to pick up a guitar and magically start playing it usually get frustrated within a month or two if their desire to study and practice is half-hearted. Other more unfortunate cases involve students who have a desperate desire to learn only what they want to learn. They nonchalantly struggle through lessons month after month always excelling when learning the music they want to play. However, when asked to study something else, it takes three times as long to complete the task. Then there are students whose passion for music is so strong that they are ready and willing to practice everything you put in front of them. Those students still have to be handled with much care as to what exactly gets put in front of them. Again, not all students have the same mindset.
The answer to this dilemma is to find a way to teach the student something that they will retain, while at the same time, keep their interest. It’s hard to explain to a beginning student just why he or she should practice something that seems totally irrelevant. A new student might not understand why learning notes or doing finger exercises is going to help them play cool guitar riffs. The harsh reality is that it takes hard work to realize successful results. Many students hear the words “hard work” and automatically relate it to the kind of manual labor that they have learned to associate with discomfort. Ironically, by immediately altering the mindset of the student, the teacher will be able to assign a fair regiment of lesson material without making the student feel like he or she has done any real work. That is my goal as a teacher.
Some people believe we have to let go of every expectation we have in any given situation and go with the flow. Music is very much that way. You can study music your whole life and understand everything about the craft, but nothing about the art. More commonly, however, most people are more inclined to dedicate their life to an art for which they know no craft. To many, music is not a science. It’s not spoken in theories or studied in textbooks. The best music schools in the world are free, and they’re right around the corner. Spending a hundred-thousand dollars for a certificate is a joke to a lot of phenomenally hard working musicians who struggle in the rat race of the modern music industry. Sadly, for the people who wish to teach music in any sort of politically regulated institution (public or private) a college degree is their only hope. And it sucks.
In my experience with college level music study, I was completely disappointed and even less intrigued with the limited guitar programs. Since I was a music education major and guitar is my main instrument, I was forced to study classical guitar with no other option. This would have been great if it were the 1600s. The nylon string classical guitar is such a beautiful and important instrument. Unfortunately, it would take a lifetime devoted to solely classical guitar to truly respect the music written for it. Yet, this lost art form was being force fed to me as if it was the only style of guitar playing known to man. Why not teach finger style bossa rhythms or Spanish guitar ballads on a steel string acoustic? I have never, in over five years of teaching experience, had a student who specifically asked to play classical guitar. There is no demand for classical guitar music in today’s youth. The most classical sounding material they have been exposed to is Yes “Fragile,” if they’re lucky. Many people who teach and play classical music are so caught up in the discipline that they close their minds to everything else. The music school I attended was overrun by classical and jazz snobs who could spend hours arguing whose breakfast cereal held the key to memorizing sixteenth-note Mixolydian scales at 200 BPM. Who cares? And that was the least disturbing part.
The most disturbing part is that as a music education major was the courses of study. One must study numerous concert band and orchestra instruments, for a half-semester each, excluding the saxophone. There is also a requirement that all music ed majors are to be in at least two ensembles. Yet the only guitar specific ensemble offered is Guitar Ensemble. If you are a guitar player, all of your instrument oriented classes have to be choral, since there are no guitar specific classes offered. I guess I should have just been a clarinet major.
Upon graduation, a new music teacher would then be qualified to teach in a professional level position, perhaps in a high school or community college. Now, the teacher is ready to use the one month of experience he or she has on each instrument to teach your children. So what happens after your child has studied their instrument for a month? Do they start assigning the teacher homework? No. Your children continue to receive lessons from someone who doesn’t know anymore about the clarinet than you do. I’m not putting down the teacher; I’m putting down the system. It’s not the teacher’s fault that schools are too cheap to hire more than one or two band directors for thirty to forty children. It’s also not the teacher’s fault that the school won’t hire a handful of independent contractors to give lessons on each instrument the school offers. Instead, the school opts to let a completely under-qualified teacher take the responsibility. Unless the teacher is giving lessons on his or her main instrument, there is no way to fulfill an adequate standard of success when teaching a student. It’s this kind of half-ass dictation in college that leads to half-ass music programs in public schools.
The situation's such a son of a bitch, it's a hand I could not lend...the problem here is that we need to move on - it's the music or the end...
| Anonymous
Anonymous Poster
From Internet Network:
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| posted: 1/15/2004 at 9:18:40 AM ET
My Mus Ed degree program was not ideal either. Too much theory, definitely not enough music history, no option to take instrument methods as a choral/general major, no option to take arranging, and only 4 methods classes with ANYTHING that had something practical to offer once getting in the classroom! I could have done with 4 semesters of elementary methods, not one! It seems like teachers are still being thrown to the wolves and spending the first year or two learning from mistakes that could be prevented in the first place with more PRACTICAL instruction from experienced classroom teachers!
| trumpet guru
Registered User
From:
Washington State
Registered:
8/22/2003 | posted: 1/15/2004 at 11:42:07 PM ET
wow,
Where to start . . .
1st, it sounds like you should have chosen your college more carefully. There are many colleges with wonderful guitar programs and open minded professors. Bummer that you missed out.
2nd, The colleges require a "minimum" of the student, but the student is free to seek more. When I got my degrees, I didn't pay attention only to what the school said I had to take, but to what courses would help me get the knowledge and skills I desired. I took many unrequired classes because I thought I needed them.
3rd - instrumental musicians (if serious about their performance) should study classically regardless of the students preferred style. All music styles technical skill. This is why Miles Davis studied classical trumpet as well as jazz.
No offense, but it sounds like whining over stuff you could have done something about.
GOOOOOOROOOOOO
(BA Music Ed. Instrumental, Choral and General endorsements; Masters Degree in Music with Conducting emphasis. 17 year veteran music teacher at all levels).
| DiBo
Registered User
Registered:
1/14/2004 | posted: 1/16/2004 at 4:05:11 AM ET
It's easy to sit back and say there is something I could have done about my misfortunes. I attended two different music schools and had the exact same limited guitar options. There is no need to play a nylon string guitar to study classical music. Since us poor folk can't afford Berkley or Juliard, I had to opt for a local state college. It's very easy to read a my big long rant and completely ignore the point and start finding something negative in it. I never said anything bad about the study of classical music. It's great that you know neat facts about Miles Davis, thanks for pointing that out about a completely moot point.
Being the trumpet guru that you are, you probably also know that Miles Davis also released an album with Jimi Hendrix when Miles was going through his whole heroin binge. My opinion differs from yours. Don't count it out because you hear it as whiny.
The situation's such a son of a bitch, it's a hand I could not lend...the problem here is that we need to move on - it's the music or the end...
| Anonymous
Anonymous Poster
From Internet Network:
205.188.208.x
| posted: 2/16/2004 at 12:32:41 AM ET
DiBo:
You teach, and I learn at a school that works students at its hardest to turn out architects or doctors with little elective choices to the student, and thats a bitch too.
Instead of cramming 9 classes a day we should have been given a choice for an elective.
(The test to get in tested reading and math, and just because I got a certain score on a test doesn't mean I was genuinely interested in technology, but nobody seems to understand this.)
There should be an arts major in our school and maybe more teachers would be hired to accomodate. If not, music can be part of our math acadamy. Instead of a Calculus elective we could choose music for a year and accomplish more than one term freshmen year.
Learning to count music has been harder than any math I've taken. I can't master counting in 1/16 notes and the concept of subdivision, and I'm a complete retard in anything outside the 4/4 measure.
I'm just trying to get a head start because I don't want to be one of those kids "who will just leave when we start to read music," as you said a couple of days ago. Thats not reason to quit.
However, you just have to say it, our school is full of really shitty kids. Shitty kids who dont care about math, science, and history as much as music. There is no differentiation to them, so you have to realize that its not just learning to play an instrument that kids are neglecting. It overall learning.
Good luck with Tommy. 300 pages isn't that much.
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