musicprnt

Steve M wrote:

"So, my recommendation to parents ? Give your child time to develop and see where their talents may take them. Encourage your kids to play in as many situations as possible. "

I agree totally, the biggest thing we can do as parents is encourage the child, give them whatever opportunities we can, and let them find their level. We have tried to help our son but also have tried to stay out of the way as much as possible, it always disturbs us when we see young musicians (I am talking teen years) where the parents never got out of the suzuki school mode of things (talking violin here), where the parents are hovering over a 16 year old, taping every lesson,rehearsal and master class, constantly questioning the teacher and otherwise being a pain in the tail......at some point we have to let them spread their wings and find the wind (I love hoary old chestnuts like that *lol*)

"It should be evident that plenty of top musicians never attended the prestige conservatories or won major awards as a young musician... " I agree with that in principle, but I also want to caution that it depends on the type of music and so forth. I would argue that in the classical world that may not always be true, that where someone went to school can make a difference, that every musical genre has its own level. In classical, top musicians who didn't go to a prestigious conservatory usually had something in its place, usually fantastic teachers, so it is hard to tell.....

As far as the awards go, on that one I tend to agree, a lot of great musicians never entered a competition, were not members of all state, or never won one (Yo Yo Ma said he entered several competitions and finished dead last in many of them). There are some top flight pedagogues in violin who hate competitions, claiming they don't judge performance but playing to win the competitions, and I think there is a lot of truth to that myself.

In Jazz, in other forms of music, or in composition, that can be very true. I think the key is that paths are not set in stone, that there are graduates from Juilliard and NEC and such that end up, frankly, not doing a hell of alot, and people who take the odd path and make it.


'it is a long journey. Ultimately, to be a working professional simply requires that other musicians want to play with you and will hire you.'

That is so important, and it is something that is often overlooked, at least in the world my son is in. My son has several teachers, several of whom are both respected teachers and performers in the NY music world on the violin, and they both have stressed that sometimes the big programs work against the students best interests, that they promote this attitude of competition and of being elite, and then when these kids come out into the world looking for playing opportunities, they find out that they have problems getting along with other musicians because of attitude or lack of building interpersonal skills. Both of these are people who have been around more then a few years and they aren't the only ones saying this,and both of them came out of top flite programs themselves. And given the nature of music, how tough it is to make it, a kid who thinks the sun rises and sets on themselves because they won some concerto competition or because they studied with X at school Y is going to be in for a big shock. And you have to be able to really hang in there and dog it, there is simply no other way.


'Most importantly, that audiences appreciate what your doing and will pay to hear you perform." Yep, and this is a big shocker in the violin world, there are a lot of students out there who gain virtuostic technique, who enter major competitions and win them, including ones like the tchaikovsky, and then are surprised to find themselves soloing with a small regional orchestra when they expected the Berlin Philharmonic. These kids have all the chops, but lack in many cases musicality, interpretive skills or most important, stage presence, and it is a rude awakening indeed. As a super high level pedagogue said in a master class I was in recently, hearing someone play a piece of music exactly as written, the same way time and again, might win competitions but as an audience member is excruciatingly boring.

I think what I will add is not only ability, but passion. I have seen a lot of pretty damn good musical kids, who achieved a fairly high level of ability, who had near zero passion for it, who were doing it for the wrong reasons or because they thought it was some sort of road to glory, and in every case that I was able to follow through on they crashed and burned. Given how brutal music is, how competitive and wearying and drawn out and disheartening and how much effort it takes often with so little reward, if someone doesn't have passion for the music no matter the god given talent, they are going to find it really, really tough. Our son has displayed natural ability since he started playing, but if hadn't shown the passion and dedication he has, especially in recent years, I would not be encouraging him in his pursuit of music, because I think without it he would be setting himself up to fail.