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Re: Re: To those who make a living off of music
I totally understand it. I was a music major for about a month in
college. While learning the theory was good, I also found it was
taking out the sense of wonder that's a major appeal of music to me. I
decided instead to be "self-taught".
Even though:
--I never learned to read music, which is like being an American who
doesn't know English
--I never developed the muscle accuracy that many musicians have
--I don't know the chords or advanced theory
--I knew I was giving up on the idea of being a professional musician
...I felt that if I knew how it would all worked, it would cease to be
interesting to me. So instead, I took one piano class to teach me some
nuts and bolts, then went out on my own, so to speak.
I'm still glad I did, because:
--I still think music is interesting.
--I got to spend the same amount of time focusing on the elements of
music that fascinated me, like sound color, using different sound
generation techniques, saturation, etc.
--I don't feel like I'm competing with other musicians on a continuum
of best to worst. [Not saying that most people do, but it's something
I used to do, and I didn't measure up too well.] :)
--In many cases, the things I don't know in music are opportunities to
explore at my own pace, and only if I want to.
--I like the idea of musicians having different skill sets and areas
of specialty.
--15 or so years in, I can honestly say I have a unique sound
identity. Not good or bad, necessarily, but I definitely sound like
me. That's the kind of musician I hoped to be when I got started.
(Though younger me thought I'd be more technically proficient.)
--
Matt Davignon
mattdavignon@gmail.com
www.ribosomemusic.com
Podcast! http://ribosomematt.podomatic.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/ribosomematt
> Kaylon went:
>>
>> Thanks man. I ask if you survived because the question popped up when my
>> english teacher said he first went to college for music but said that it
>> stripped all the fun out of it for him so he changed his major.
>
Then Rick Walker was all:
> It's interesting that you say this.
>
> I've had so many students go off to music colleges at the end of their
> high
> school experience
> and I've heard so many stories about how that experienced really got in
> the
> way of their
> experience of the music they loved (not all, of course).
>
> It's always occurred to me: you could save so much money if you
> found
> an accomplished musician
> in your area and took intensive lessons from them (2-5 a week) in a sort
> of
> musical boot camp
> that would give you such a much deeper and richer experience......forcing
> you to learn at a much higher
> rate. You would not end up with a degree doing this, but that
> degree is
> really only useful if you
> intend to teach music in a learning institution.
>
> I've had several students take 'bootcamp' classes from
> me........several a
> week of really intensive study.
> They always learn a tremendous amount in a short amount of time......and
> we're talking hundreds of dollars
> or perhaps a few thousand dollars NOT tens of thousands of dollars which
> is
> what Music College or Universities will set you back.
>
> On top of that, you have constant feedback and personal attention for
> your
> process which is very difficult to get in a place like , say, the Berklee
> School of Music.
>
> The one thing that you might miss out on in this example would be the
> high
> caliber of fellow students that you'd encounter at a place like Berklee
> or
> Julliard (or any other good musical University).
>
> rick walker
>