Why go to school for music?
Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, and Billie Holiday did not go to college to study music, so why should anyone?
It is the time of year when high school music students are contemplating their futures and perhaps college music students are doubting their own paths. Maybe alumni are dreading loan payback that will start in a few months from now. I even think of this often - what is the value of a degree in music?
This is a post that I put on social media this week: Someone asked me today why they should go to music school since school isn’t necessary to be a musician. My answer is that school provides a depth of understanding that one cannot get easily — to be surrounded by other musicians doing what you do, other musicians doing things completely different than what you do, hearing and being exposed to music from other genres or other cultures, learning the history and context of music, hearing new instrumentations and exploring well thought and well played music. There is deep value in these experiences.
I have put some more thought into this and got some really great comments from friends and even former teachers. Here are even more things that a student gains in music school:
-Mentor(s)
The ability to connect one-on-one and face-to-face with a professional artist that can give you specific training for what you aspire to do.
-Community
A place to perform and other people to perform for and perform with in ensembles. Music does not happen in solitude and a community is very important. Some business people would call this “networking” but in the arts it goes even further. The community are your friends and the community serves to help motivate you to achieve even greater things. As a student, a small arts community celebrates your triumphs, gently and kinds lets you know when you are messing up, and gives you a space to try and sometimes fail.
-Connections with others — musical, personal, professional
There cannot be enough said about a student surrounding themself with people who have the same goals and aspirations.
-Demonstrates an ability to follow through
My grandfather, Dr. Shedd from the US Department of Education with a PhD in Education, always told me about “stick-to-it-ness” and he was right. There are so many people who have a passing desire to do something but taking four years (or more) to focus on something speaks volumes. It demonstrates that a person has patience and follow through.
-Allows student the time to practice the craft
These years in college give the student time to practice. This is the time to woodshed with no distractions from the outside world!
Reflecting on my own experiences, my time in undergrad (West Virginia University!) was meaningful because I practiced my primary instrument (saxophone) and got myself to an acceptable level of musicianship. I was introduced to a variety of music from contemporary Classical to West African drumming and this had a tremendous impact on my ears. I spent the time in my master’s degree (NEC) focusing on listening more and listening better, taking courses with brilliant professors and classmates, and defining more clear artistic goals for myself. My biggest takeaways from my Classical Performance DMA (BU) were refining my instrumental technique and how to practice efficiently—three full classical recitals within five months of time—and better understanding of the music, composition, and intention of artists such as Beethoven, Ives, Stravinsky, and Berio. (Specifically, I am most intrigued by how Luciano Berio defined musical virtuosity and love how it applies to jazz music…)