Shout if you would be interested in a learning environment that prepares musicians for the real world.
This training would include but not be limited to (and not in order of importance):
Extensive chop time
Weekly masterclasses
Extensive chamber music coaching
Practical and relevant theory and historical training
Sightreading
Real world business training with emphasis on entrepreneurial skills
Daily perfomances and performance opportunities
Career resource center
Lessons with working professional musicians
Literature seminars (with instruments in hand)
Pedagogy seminars (with instruments in hand)
No degrees. No juries. No grades. Success measured by a student's success in the world.
There would be several tracks - Freelance, Private Teaching, Orchestral, Solo, Jazz, Chamber Music, General Entrepreneurial
Thoughts?
Professional training center
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miketuba
- pro musician
- Posts: 84
- Joined: Sat Mar 20, 2004 8:36 am
- Location: Denver Colorado
- Contact:
Professional training center
Michael Allen
Boulder Brass
Boulder Brass Publications
Boulder Brass
Boulder Brass Publications
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Ames0325
- bugler
- Posts: 146
- Joined: Thu Oct 07, 2004 12:30 am
- Contact:
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Mudman
- 3 valves
- Posts: 290
- Joined: Sat Mar 20, 2004 9:04 am
- Location: Mudville
I'm a big supporter of a liberal-arts education. Trade schools do not produce well-rounded, lifelong learners. While playing music all day long might be a good idea for some, it would probably produce unbalanced and uneducated citizens. Everybody needs to learn math, history, english, biology and music and how to relate to people in other fields.
Graduate programs or intensive camps are perfect for the "music only" environment.
Two related notes:
Yale does not require a dissertation for their doctorate in music. The successful candidate has to go out in the real world for a year or two and then come back for an evaluation by the faculty. If the student has made a successful carreer in music, they earn the degree.
Hampshire College in Amherst, MA does not give grades. I taught trombone as an adjunct at Hampshire, and came to the realisation that it was a place where rich kids go to screw around. Grades are necessary to ensure that there is some kind of quality control in education. (I learn the most when grades don't matter, but they are still necessary.) Grade inflation in the US is another topic . . .
An honest teacher at any school will help prepare a student for the real world.
Graduate programs or intensive camps are perfect for the "music only" environment.
Two related notes:
Yale does not require a dissertation for their doctorate in music. The successful candidate has to go out in the real world for a year or two and then come back for an evaluation by the faculty. If the student has made a successful carreer in music, they earn the degree.
Hampshire College in Amherst, MA does not give grades. I taught trombone as an adjunct at Hampshire, and came to the realisation that it was a place where rich kids go to screw around. Grades are necessary to ensure that there is some kind of quality control in education. (I learn the most when grades don't matter, but they are still necessary.) Grade inflation in the US is another topic . . .
An honest teacher at any school will help prepare a student for the real world.
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miketuba
- pro musician
- Posts: 84
- Joined: Sat Mar 20, 2004 8:36 am
- Location: Denver Colorado
- Contact:
I'm not talking about replacing a liberal arts education. In fact, I don't think most liberal arts colleges teach students enough about the world.
I'll take that a step further. I was fortunate enough to have a music history professor who, in addition to being a world class cellist, had a masters degree in world history. Every thing we learned in regard to music was tied directly to what was going on in the world at the time. This teaching had relevance and it resonated with most of us in his class. I still remember (25 years later) way too much about the Burgundian school.
In my years as a tuba professor at a liberal arts college, I was mostly dissappointed by the level of relevance of most of what was taught within the college of music (private teaching aside). The system reeks of compromise and political correctness and it is not a good way to train musicians. And it needs to be a better way to train human beings (I am a big fan of the BA degree in music and almost totally disagree with a BM in music).
And I believe that the situation is not unique.
I am talking about a training academy for:
Pre college students (high school kids looking to get a jump start on their college careers - lessons, theory, history, chamber music).
Post undergraduate - a finishing school (see my diatribe on graduate school in the archives).
Undergraduate level - mudman even suggests that this might be good for some.
I believe that there is a market for highly specialized training and that, at some point, the training of professional musicians DOES need to become vocational.
Mike
I'll take that a step further. I was fortunate enough to have a music history professor who, in addition to being a world class cellist, had a masters degree in world history. Every thing we learned in regard to music was tied directly to what was going on in the world at the time. This teaching had relevance and it resonated with most of us in his class. I still remember (25 years later) way too much about the Burgundian school.
In my years as a tuba professor at a liberal arts college, I was mostly dissappointed by the level of relevance of most of what was taught within the college of music (private teaching aside). The system reeks of compromise and political correctness and it is not a good way to train musicians. And it needs to be a better way to train human beings (I am a big fan of the BA degree in music and almost totally disagree with a BM in music).
And I believe that the situation is not unique.
I am talking about a training academy for:
Pre college students (high school kids looking to get a jump start on their college careers - lessons, theory, history, chamber music).
Post undergraduate - a finishing school (see my diatribe on graduate school in the archives).
Undergraduate level - mudman even suggests that this might be good for some.
I believe that there is a market for highly specialized training and that, at some point, the training of professional musicians DOES need to become vocational.
Mike
Michael Allen
Boulder Brass
Boulder Brass Publications
Boulder Brass
Boulder Brass Publications
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tubatooter1940
- 6 valves
- Posts: 2530
- Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2004 11:09 pm
- Location: alabama gulf coast
After my discharge from the Marine Corps,I had 36 G.I.bill payments coming for college.I tried to be an engineer but couldn't cut the math.
I asked my advisor if I should change my major to music.He asked me what job I wanted in music.I said,"I would most like to be a player,but failing that,I might teach."He said you can't teach with anything less than a doctorate in music.With a bachelorate or masters degree a teacher can be rolled from his job by the first applicant with a doctors degree.
I did 36 months of general college courses that I thought might help me be a better employee or a better parent and quit school to play music for a living.
tubatooter1940
I asked my advisor if I should change my major to music.He asked me what job I wanted in music.I said,"I would most like to be a player,but failing that,I might teach."He said you can't teach with anything less than a doctorate in music.With a bachelorate or masters degree a teacher can be rolled from his job by the first applicant with a doctors degree.
I did 36 months of general college courses that I thought might help me be a better employee or a better parent and quit school to play music for a living.
tubatooter1940