I’ve repeated these lines thousands of times: Where are you from? (…) What school do you go to? (…) What’s your major? (…) Whenever entering a new program with eager college age students these types of questions tend to pop up. However, as soon as I am on the receiving end and answer the question “What’s your major?” with “I’m a Piano Performance Major”, I usually get one of three responses: 1. Oh, that’s so cool, must be so fun! 2. Wow, that must be such a lot of work but so rewarding. 3. They stare at me and run away. Okay, maybe just a variation of answer one and two. Unfortunately, there is an understanding that music is cool (duh, which is true), fun (true!), and most importantly doesn’t require too much time(cough cough). However, I think that especially University’s underestimation of the time and dedication required to create true artistry is something that needs to be addressed.
As I’ve grown as a musician, I’ve realized that it takes an intense dedication of time to accomplish the goals on the way to a professional career. Setting aside effort, everything in the industry simply requires a lot of time because there are such great complexities. For example, when learning a new piece of music, the biggest time commitment is the process of truly integrating the music with the soul. First as a musician, I must look at the score and see what the composer wrote, and then attempt to feel what the composer was feeling. This communication between the performer and the composer can take months and sometimes years to fully connect. Yah, this sounds a little crazy…I know. Maybe it is a form of craziness, but this is the best way for me to explain a big component of this true artistry.
In college, finding this “intense dedication of time” is very difficult with the enticement of joining clubs, Greek Life, friend circles, special events and speakers, challenging course work, and enjoying hobbies. During my first years of college, many great friends and I tried everything we could do to find some ways to enjoy and create a balance in life. The problem occurs when my friends or I only have two or three hours available each day to focus on creating the music or art- that’s simply not enough time to create true gold.
Now here in Vienna, we just finished the German Intensive which is supposed to be the most difficult part of the semester before all classes commence on September 17th. However, for the musicians, this was amazingly difficult. From attempting to keep up with three hours of German, three hours of homework, practicing four or more hours a day, additional meetings, and seeing the city and concerts, all the hours in the day were filled with purpose as well as a little less sleep. This sounds amazing a great, but when I found only about two or three hours to practice most the days, something inside me felt uneasy because I knew I needed more time.
In the end of the day though, the college schooling system is not ideal for musicians. They are in ways that I can only back from personal experience, not allowing creativity to push forward. Probably ninety percent of what musicians will learn comes from their time and dedication to craft and creation. There is a fine lining to this sentence though, and that’s that education is very important for a musician learning about the world as well as different issues. The problem is when schools regulate what this education looks like and what we should learn. As a musician we choose to go through the system to get the degree and learn something from the program. However, in the end of the day our number one priority must be on creation and then surviving the rest. This mindset must take charge in the name artistry.
Thoughts with David 