The Lesson Music Teachers Avoid...

I have found that a very large majority of music teachers (and music schools) have lost sight of one of the most important qualities of a great musician. To become a truly great musician, you need more than notes, rhythms, dynamics; more than music theory, harmony, form, timbre; you need emotion. In the quest to establish music as a well-respected form of education and a viable career option, we have lost sight of what made those notes and rhythms into music in the first place. We have focused so much on our desire to be taken seriously that we have lost our sense of musicianship.

A quote from Daniel Levitin's This Is Your Brain On Music:

"I recently asked the dean at one of the top music schools in Noth America...'At what point in the curriculum is emotion and expressivity taught?' Her answer was that they aren't taught. 'There is so much to cover in the approved curriculum', she explained, 'repertoire, ensemble, and solo training, sight singing, sight reading, music theory-- that there simply isn't time to teach expressivity."

In the ensembles I have been in this semester, I have noticed a lot of this negativity floating around. There always seems to be someone with a disgruntled look on his/her face, saying "we are going flat!" or, something similar. Before you know it, every person in the group feels downtrodden and discouraged, and the ensemble sounds even worse than before. It's not till maybe 2-3 days before the concert that we start working on feeling the music, and even then, most teachers seem condense pure emotion into being a series of planned out crescendos, breath marks, and dynamics, rather than mood, expression, and atmosphere. It's not that the ensembles don't sound good-- they sound technically amazing. And it's not that the teachers are incompetent-- they are all very knowledgeable. It's that the music feels forced. It doesn't feel free and fun as music should, and I personally have never felt moved by the music I have made with these ensembles, finding myself too distracted by the technical details that are always brought up. In fact, this negative atmosphere was the cause of my complete attitude change this year that made me want to quit music for a period of time.

And another thing, I have noticed that many of the better musicians rarely, if ever just play music with their friends for fun. It seems that a lot of them are too caught up in trying to impress everyone with perfection that they can't just let loose and explore musically, and for this reason so many unoriginal musicians are created out of music school. They may be "straight-A" students, but they are boring musicians.

How to solve the problem:

Solving the problem is actually a lot easier than you would think, and a lot more enjoyable.

Ready?

To become a great musician, one who is listenable, emotional, expressive all you have to do is have fun with the music.

Of course music teachers want to be taken seriously by their peers, so many resort to the "mathematical approach" to music, rather than the musical one. This is one aspect of your music education you need to take into your own hands.

An exercise:

I created this exercise a few months ago, when I found myself discouraged and confused about why I didn't enjoy practicing anymore.

Take the most mundane aspects of your practice routine, even if just your normal warm-ups, and find a way to make them more interesting. During a simple 5-note scale exercise on piano, I decided to start beat-boxing. Immediately I felt my own style come through, and I started truly having fun. Every note wasn't perfect, but it was about 100 times more enjoyable than just practicing on its own, and sometimes you need to feel that enjoyment again. This exercise isn't about playing perfectly, it's about challenging your creative side to turn something mundane into something exciting with one simple difference. Just because it's obvious, doesn't mean it's uncreative. Don't be critical with yourself, just enjoy using your creative process. I suggest trying to incorporate this into your practice routine for at least 10-15 minutes a day.