Conservatory questions: ACT/SAT and course load

old_music_prnt
Sat, 07 Sep 2024 19:37:55 +0000

Well, as you see in the real world, there is the myth of the overnight success, the myth of the inately talented musician. That isn’t true in any kind of music (well, okay, I am going to leave out pop music, most of which is as synthetic as AI, it is mostly about technology and songwriters and engineers and producers, not the performers in many cases). People don’t see the hours of rehearsal, they don’t see the years of playing bars and whatnot to hone their craft. While the 10,000 hour rule may be problematic, the idea behind it isn’t:).

With music schools they look and say “huh, they don’t take X classes a semester, so must be easy”. They don’t see the practicing, they don’t see the time spent in lab orchestra or where they get together in ensembles to play, they don’t see so much. They don’t see the summer festivals that can be so important to a career, they don’t see all that. Or that music kids to navigate the future have to do a ton of research just trying to figure out out to get from A to B. They don’t see kids getting together and playing, that could turn into something bigger. And one thing I have figured out with music, is that the difference between the kids isn’t all that great, it is like in swimming where you win by a couple of hundredths of a second, the difference between the kids is that small. And the only way to bridge even that tiny gap is a lot of work (it is like ballet or sports).

It definitely doesn’t end when you leave school, that is for sure:)