So I thought I’d talk today about the role of music in my life and how
music education has changed it for the better. About five years ago, I
was entering my junior year of high school. That year I was involved in
so many activities that sleep was just another calendar entry. I was
busy; busy trying to figure out who I was and who I wanted to surround
myself with. If there is one thing that I realized by this point in my
school career, it was that high school had “crowds.” I had always been
in the intelligent student crowd, where the majority of conversation
surrounded when the next elite university application was coming due.
And there was not a single music student among us. This disassociation
between intelligence and musical talent gave me a completely misguided
view on the music industry. Musicians, I had always been taught, were
lazy, idealistic dreamers that spent their time between doing drugs and
mindlessly strumming riffs on their guitars.
In my junior year I had a small group of friends that was outside of the AP and Honors crew, a group that I always spent time with when I was sick of worrying about school and proving myself. One day I was introduced to a friend of theirs who told me he was in to DJ’ing. I started to ask questions and I learned that music production and mixing on this medium was highly technical and required a great deal of education and practice. The first thing that stuck out to me though was that he was an honor student! We talked more and I ended up spending the next two years practicing and developing my skills as a music producer to the point where I now perform on a regular basis. Probably the most amazing thing that I learned was that education did have a positive impact on my ability to pursue my musical hobbies. I had spent so long trying to subdue my passion for music because I thought it conflicted with studies. But now, if we fast forward to my career so far, I have spent three summers working in the music industry professionally, including getting my first gig through a friend that DJ’ed professionally during college.
This started to get me thinking about the role of education once again. Education means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. The one thing that seems to ring true across all situations is that education has opened doors. In my experience, these doors were not always academic and professional, but rather social and spiritual. Being in college gives you the chance to meet people from a myriad of different backgrounds. It allows you find fulfillment in something. I found that in music. But it didn’t come from my music classes, or my technology courses. It came from the students I met and the places I visited. Perhaps education is not for learning, but rather to adjust to find your calling? What do you think? Are students that make studying the priority of their education really wasting the cultural melting pot they are being exposed to?
In my junior year I had a small group of friends that was outside of the AP and Honors crew, a group that I always spent time with when I was sick of worrying about school and proving myself. One day I was introduced to a friend of theirs who told me he was in to DJ’ing. I started to ask questions and I learned that music production and mixing on this medium was highly technical and required a great deal of education and practice. The first thing that stuck out to me though was that he was an honor student! We talked more and I ended up spending the next two years practicing and developing my skills as a music producer to the point where I now perform on a regular basis. Probably the most amazing thing that I learned was that education did have a positive impact on my ability to pursue my musical hobbies. I had spent so long trying to subdue my passion for music because I thought it conflicted with studies. But now, if we fast forward to my career so far, I have spent three summers working in the music industry professionally, including getting my first gig through a friend that DJ’ed professionally during college.
This started to get me thinking about the role of education once again. Education means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. The one thing that seems to ring true across all situations is that education has opened doors. In my experience, these doors were not always academic and professional, but rather social and spiritual. Being in college gives you the chance to meet people from a myriad of different backgrounds. It allows you find fulfillment in something. I found that in music. But it didn’t come from my music classes, or my technology courses. It came from the students I met and the places I visited. Perhaps education is not for learning, but rather to adjust to find your calling? What do you think? Are students that make studying the priority of their education really wasting the cultural melting pot they are being exposed to?
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