Playing music is hard! It isnt easy! Never let the music educational system so devoid of reality tell you otherwise. Getting a good gig is hard! It isnt easy! Anyone with an interest in a career as a sideman can only expect to be hired if they demonstrate several noncompromizing skills as players. In most cases, modern music education has made a sideman career next to impossible. Music would have allowed everyone a chance at either a career, or an opportunity to express ones self in their music. Today, this is a generation that cant tune a guitar without a tuner, play in time without a metronome, play with fluidity without a handgrip or stretching exercises. The parts industry wins! The players lose! Instead, musical content and a work ethic to practice it is now a non-issue in most cases. Listen! I have a right to be outraged! I am on a course toward a kinder me, a more accepting me. But, I am a rare person in music. I am a classically trained musician, a musician trained in jazz a self taught musician, a regularly gigging musician, an artist that aims toward my own thing, a sideman, a bandleader, a co-bandleader, a student, and also a teacher. Plus, I go to therapy!!!!! I regularly played with the best musicians on Earth since I was 19, and I was a student of several of the finest private music teachers in jazz history. So, I am mad as hell because music education is a disaster in most cases. If I were given the authority, I would ban 95% of what is being taught. I would fire teachers. I would close the doors of most centers of learning, I would prohibit by LAW music magazines from offering teaching columns. I would prevent players from teaching as they teach from their perspective, not the perspective of musical content. I am just amazed that there isnt a huge community of players that dont feel the same as I do. Arent people just a little upset that they spent all that money and still cant play well? Ive done enough clinics over the years and have heard enough players, hundreds from all over the world and noticed a commonality that most share; they cant play in time, they dont know their notes, and no one is showing them what to do about this. So I am mad! And therefore, I give homework to guys at my clinics because in three minutes, I can figure out what a player needs to work on. And it nearly always turns out to the exact same thing; they need MUSIC to practice because, I promise you, unless you are paying to learn great musical content, you arent going to improve as a player, even while you are having a lot of fun in that learning environment The word fun has distorted what playing music is about. This word has messed up music education. Being a musician is about hard work, sweat, disapointment, review, and hopefully afterward, triumph, reward and the satisfaction of knowing that you have done right by yourselves. to Hell with the kind and nurturing teacher. Give me a guy that knows more than I do. Besides, most teachers are nice people anyway, and ultimately, who cares what kind of a guy this is. Grow a pair and if you want to play, then dammit, get to work and work hard. If you love music, this wouldnt be a sacrifice. It is an apprenticeship. Oh, how I would like things to change toward this philosophy.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 17:31:17 +0000
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