1. In precisely two days, I will be on Spring Break. And then I will (maybe) start to blog (semi) regularly again. (Probably.)
2. Remember this girl? And how she was literally handed a brand new clarinet which she was apparently okay with not even trying out and playing at all for at least six hours after she received the instrument? (The things you learn about your students through Facebook...) She posted this today:
And her father's response was:
"Don't ever feel like you have to play to please anyone but youself if you don't feel like palying [sic] then don't but if you feel like it by all means play. That is what I have said before about Music Programs sometimes they force the fun out of playing. Playing music should be fun and when alot of pressure is put on you playing it is more like work than fun."
Ugh. Okay. Here's the thing. Music is fun. To 99% of the regular population, music is FUN. Going to concerts is fun. Rocking out to the radio and looking like an idiot in your car is fun. Playing in high school band - this is key - and going on band trips is fun. But being a music major - with just the hope of making music your career - isn't supposed to be fun. It's WORK. Being a music major in college isn't the same thing as high school. You don't just get to be a "band nerd" for four extra years and then magically get a job at the end of it. Unfortunately, it seems like that is what this student thought. And also unfortunately, what will - hopefully - end up happening is that this student will realize that being a serious musician is not for her, change her major...and sell that clarinet. Instead of it going to another dedicated, hard-working music student who deserves it.
And the really unfortunate thing is that this student will probably never realize that the real "fun" in being a musician comes after you have done all that distasteful work. After you've done the long tones and the scales and the technique exercises and thrown a chair around in your practice room and listened back to recordings of your performances with a grimace on your face and listened to teachers and mentors and clinicians and conductors listen to you play and tell you everything you didn't do well enough. After you've spent hours in the library reading and researching the history and background of the composers whose music you are performing. After you've been hunched over your desk at 3 in the morning analyzing a musical excerpt for your theory professor. Then you earn the privilege of experiencing music as a craft and art at a higher level than just going on band trips with your friends. Yeah, sometimes it's fun. If you're lucky, it can be even more than that.
But whatever.
3. I feel like I've been PMS-ing forever. Out, damn uteral lining! Out!
2. Remember this girl? And how she was literally handed a brand new clarinet which she was apparently okay with not even trying out and playing at all for at least six hours after she received the instrument? (The things you learn about your students through Facebook...) She posted this today:
And her father's response was:
"Don't ever feel like you have to play to please anyone but youself if you don't feel like palying [sic] then don't but if you feel like it by all means play. That is what I have said before about Music Programs sometimes they force the fun out of playing. Playing music should be fun and when alot of pressure is put on you playing it is more like work than fun."
Ugh. Okay. Here's the thing. Music is fun. To 99% of the regular population, music is FUN. Going to concerts is fun. Rocking out to the radio and looking like an idiot in your car is fun. Playing in high school band - this is key - and going on band trips is fun. But being a music major - with just the hope of making music your career - isn't supposed to be fun. It's WORK. Being a music major in college isn't the same thing as high school. You don't just get to be a "band nerd" for four extra years and then magically get a job at the end of it. Unfortunately, it seems like that is what this student thought. And also unfortunately, what will - hopefully - end up happening is that this student will realize that being a serious musician is not for her, change her major...and sell that clarinet. Instead of it going to another dedicated, hard-working music student who deserves it.
And the really unfortunate thing is that this student will probably never realize that the real "fun" in being a musician comes after you have done all that distasteful work. After you've done the long tones and the scales and the technique exercises and thrown a chair around in your practice room and listened back to recordings of your performances with a grimace on your face and listened to teachers and mentors and clinicians and conductors listen to you play and tell you everything you didn't do well enough. After you've spent hours in the library reading and researching the history and background of the composers whose music you are performing. After you've been hunched over your desk at 3 in the morning analyzing a musical excerpt for your theory professor. Then you earn the privilege of experiencing music as a craft and art at a higher level than just going on band trips with your friends. Yeah, sometimes it's fun. If you're lucky, it can be even more than that.
But whatever.
3. I feel like I've been PMS-ing forever. Out, damn uteral lining! Out!
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