A 17-year-old student of mine is applying to music at three universities. His family has decided that a degree is best at achieving employment in the real world.
I think this is unfortunate, and a possible waste of four years of his life. He has expressed no desire to teach music. He is a performer, a guitar rock musician. He writes and sings rock music.
This young man has now stopped taking SLS instruction to prepare for a Grade 9 vocal exam with another teacher. He is learning to sing classical in German, French, and Italian. He is having no trouble converting, because he is a natural. He gets it. This training, of course, is a prerequisite to university entry.
This young man will soak up everything at university. He is very intelligent.
What I’m concerned about is what he is not going to learn while away at university. He is not going to learn the latest blues and jazz riffs, or improvization on guitar, which he could get from private instruction with a great guitarist. He is not going to learn proper and safe technique to make “rock” sounds with his voice which he could get from private instruction. He is not going to enhance skills that can help him get a job in today’s music industry as a rock musician.
A better choice, I feel, would have been a college that teaches everything needed to succeed in today’s music business, along with private instruction for guitar and voice. These colleges are hard to find, but they do exist. There he could learn song writing, record engineering, music production, law, management….the list goes on. A topnotch college teaches all these things with the latest technology. There I said it……the ever-so-important word to succeed in today’s music business!! Technology! This would be a great addition to his already-natural talent.
This is just my two-cents worth. However, he will make a great school music teacher someday, and receive the pension, health benefits and dental benefits that go along with all that. The lucky ones here are his yet-to-be students!! I just hope he doesn’t regret his career choice.
I’m SouthCorean student.
Here are many colleges for contemporary music. I’m a student of one of them, I major in composition. I feel lucky that I didn’t go to classical school. Because, in here, I can transfer my musical talent to any style, any sounds freely! I can write&sing rock, jazz, ballad, movie score, experimental, and so on. They offer to me many chance to perfome.
I have a friend who is studying classical composition. He’s good at it but always said “I’m so tired of writing scores. I feel that I always STUDYING. It isn’t what I wanted. I want to ENJOY composing music.”
So I say, If you don’t REALLY love to do clasical music, If you don’t want to stuck in one style, If you don’t know what kind of musician you want to be, don’t go to them. Classical mucis is wonderful and admirable. But they have so many rules to press down your free musical soul.
All I know is that your love is not ‘rules and conventions’, but music itself.
Thank you for your comment. It is very true, and students all over the world are battling the same issues as your friend. Good luck with your future in contemporary music………there are many many opportunities out there!! Susan