Posted by MG on March 21, 2003 at 01:01:57:
In Reply to: Re: Re: theory and tuba posted by Tony Z. on March 20, 2003 at 14:36:54:
"If you got through public school and still want to be a musician, you're fine."
Good point (I shouldn't be laughing, but I am).
"I often hear students refer to academia as creatively stifling, but I often find these students are the ones who are most afraid of their creativity, or at least afraid to explore."
Well, I'd been composing for six years before I got to college, so I don't think this applies to me. In fact, I think this is what has led me to form these opinions in the first place: when I arrived at college, all of the sudden there was someone (theory professor) who seemed to have been put there specifically to tell me how wrong everything I was already doing actually was. All this talk of "finding your voice" and all they can think to do is tell me how to do it differently. A fair number of my classmates seem to have found the class to be helpful, so I can't entirely dismiss it's usefulness. On the other hand, I think there has to be a better way of achieving the same result (i.e. replacing the articulation of "rules" with simple observations). I find the current approach to be too focused on making everything conform to a given framework rather than treating each piece as a sovereign entity. I suppose the fact that I am primarily interested in twentieth century music has something to do with this view; maybe it's different for others. I could go on, but this isn't really the place to do it. I'd be curious about the results of the comparison of students who anaylze and those who don't as that would be a good gauge of how effective the system is.
I appreciate your perspective. Are you an applied teacher or do you teach in another area?