Two Reason Why The Concept of the Soloist is Dead or Dying and How It's Your Turn To Excel

No, you are not an island. You are not alone, adrift at sea hoping for a passing boat to spare some company. The musician's path is all about who you know, but more importantly, having the skills to meet the people in the know. In podcast episode four with Liam Smith, we chatted about what it means to be a musician, and the big take away is that no matter what your reason is for pursuing music, it is never just about yourself, because despite the myth of the soloist, the purpose of doing music is all about the people that you play with and model yourself after.

The First Reason: The Myth of the Soloist

The soloist is a rare creature. Born from the near mythical combination of elements such as dedication, artistry, and insanity, the soloist emerges from nothing. Historically, the soloist was the musician prized for his or her extraordinary skill, often mistaken for talent.

The concept of talent is where this myth begins. I have yet to meet a person born of talent; a person born with a natural gift for music. I have met a great number of musicians that people would call talented, but under careful investigation there is really only one element that sets this person apart as a gifted individual. That element is time. A focused time dedicated to studying their craft, either by guided hand, or self interest.

To be able to dedicate oneself to mastering musical skills, one needs to put a great deal of time into speaking the language of music. To gain the skills necessary to become a soloist, one would have to sacrifice a great deal of socialization, and sometimes self care to free up the hours needed to develop and hone a skill.

The word talent, in my opinion, was invented and used as a tool for exclusivity. If you are told that you do not have the natural talent needed to pursue your passions, you do not pour the time into developing your skills. I do not see the evolutionary advantage of being amazing at playing the viola. In actuality, the argument can be made that so much must be sacrificed to be able to put the time into becoming a master of the viola that it is counter evolutionary. If you replace the definition of talent from natural ability, to that of possessing the drive and guidance to master a set of skills, we can start opening the doors to the exclusive club that is music.

So the myth of the soloist needs to be debunked in our society. Anyone with drive and passion has the capacity for developing the heightened skills once associated with the soloist. To understand that to be a skilled musician simply takes time, dedication, inspiration and passion the exclusive club known as the soloist no longer can sustainably exist.

The Second Reason: The Old Ways Have Given Way

With the advent of the Internet, small communities have become part of a global network. The soloist came to be at a time where in small communities, there were only a handful of individuals with the passion and dedication to become hyper skilled. This created the big fish in the small pond syndrome. Not everyone had that spark, the inspiration, the dedication, or the financial ability to support a life dedicated to practice. Soloists often came from the upper middle to elite class of people that could support the lifestyle. Of course we have heard the Cinderella stories of some musicians coming from extreme poverty and being elevated in status due to their talent, but I have been hard pressed to find a true Cinderella story. Prince charming isn't coming to impart a musical gift to lift you out of your situation. Only dedication to the skill will do that.

As we advanced from the feudal states to the more industrialized people states, the ponds grew into lakes, and there were more big fish to contend with. This drove the innovation forward with music and composition. Musical works were pushed to extreme limits, which drove the musicians to compete with increased standards and expectations. 

We are now in one of the most exciting times the world has ever seen. Technology has expanded these lakes into the global ocean. Everyone with a computer and a webcam can publish their works on free media channels. Networking tools like Facebook, Twitter and recently a music social media site called DownToJam are doing wonders at bridging the distance gap and exposing musicians to all the big fish.

I believe that it is this exposure to other musicians that creates the development of musical skill. A person with the drive, dedication, inspiration and time to dedicate to studying music can access a near infinite amount of models to success. This brings us to the main point.

It is the inspiration of other musicians, dedicated to their craft, that create the drive, inspiration and passion needed to join the ranks. It is from your exposure to other amazing people that you learn you can be outstanding and innovative. 

For the Skim Readers Out There

1. There is no such thing as talent - only dedication, passion and drive to hone your skill.
2. All small fish wish to be big fish - and when the pond is an ocean, you have ample examples of big fish to model your success off of. 

The Take Away

Don't be shy. Don't hide your skills from the world. Don't lock yourself in the woodshed and practice until your fingers bleed, that’s the old way. Find as many forms of inspiration that you can using the tools available to you through technology. Develop your passion. Find guidance. Spend your hard earned time on being the best, by following the footsteps of giants. Music is for everyone!

The Talented Soloist Is Dead - They Died To Make Way For You

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The Art of Magical Teaching In Three Simple Steps

He had them with the beat he played on the whiteboard. Sixty-five students crammed into a music class for a special presentation and workshop on music composition, and from the moment he walked in the room, they were 100% his. The presenter, Dave Clark, an eccentric drummer and band leader from the city of Toronto knew how to engage magically. 

He got me too, the day I first saw him on stage. He wasn’t even performing, he was just introducing the group of musicians stepping on to the stage. It was the first time I heard the whisper yell announcement. “Sunday, Sunday, Sunday… the day to tie your socks in a knot!” All done in a mismatched leisure suit from the seventies, a necklace made from a lime juice container, and a pair of unlaced Sorel winter boots.  

No smoke and mirrors were used at all. The kids were all standing around chatting when he entered the room. Saying nothing he took a pair of drum sticks out of his pocket, and starting with the class telephone, he started playing an intricate, and improvised, drum solo on every inanimate object he could find that was not an instrument. From that moment on the students couldn’t do anything that was more foolish, so they were safe to let their creative self out of its cage. 

Engagement is a Performance

You’re standing in the middle of a rock concert with hundreds of other people and just when the singer hits a specific note a cannon full of tissue paper maple leaves are cannoned out over the audience. You, like the rest of the audience, are singing along at the top of your lungs, with no care in the world if the person beside you can hear you. Engagement!

You have wandered into a street performance of a juggler, who has gathered up a fairly large crowd around him. Your curiosity peaks as you peer over the crowd to see the performer getting onto a skateboard, which is on a table, which is balancing on a juice can. The juggler than lights three bowling pins on fire and starts spinning them while staying completely balanced. The crowd is dead silent, and you, once just standing as an outsider, are now 100% involved in what the death defying stunt. Engagement!

You’ve been ask to attend a meeting for work on how to engage your students and the presenter stands in front of the class with a really well put together slide show and some great notes that they are about to read from. You get a text message. The text message wins. 

Your students will succeed only through engagement. What does it take? Being well prepared? No! Absolutely not! It takes passion. Plain and simple. 

If you plan on being a teacher of a performing art, you better not be sitting there beside your student asking them to run drill after drill. Fighting the urge to nod off as your student plays another scale, but this time in three octave runs in CONTRARY MOTION! Your student sees you once a week, and what they get is a subdued drill based music lesson. I’m not saying that you need to shoot off some fireworks with every single lesson, but come on, I’m yawning thinking of some of the lessons I have seen.

Three Ways To Make Every Lesson Exciting Without Using Smoke and Mirrors

I’m not going to suggest you put on an old thrift shop suit and dance a jig while juggling chainsaws during your lessons, but there are three easy ways that you will be able to make your lessons WAY more engaging. 

1. Start with Something Fun

“How was your week?” “Did you find anything challenging with your practice” How’s your dog doing, he didn’t run away again did he?” If you are starting your lessons with a calm adult conversation, you are that teacher that is setting up their well planned powerpoint presentation getting ready to put your audience to sleep with. Just like when you're writing a new song… start with the hook! If you take five minutes to prepare every lesson you can easily come up with a way to get your student hooked before you start that very important communication and assessment. 

2. Make Boring Things Fun

Drills and repetition are important elements in getting new musical skills under the fingers, but using language like “I bet you can’t do that twice as fast… BLINDFOLDED!” will completely reframe those boring old drills. Watch how kids talk to each other, they are always making the boring tasks into little challenges, races, or death defying stunts. They are the masters of turning any activity into an imaginative adventure. Change your language and meet them where they are.

3. Move Around and Have Some Fun!

Even if you have to do your slideshow presentation, remember that if you were in the audience, by slide 5 your butt is taking a rather uncomfortable nap! Classical piano takes a great deal of sitting and patience, but at the same time, learning a new rhythm can be turned into a dancing game. A new melody contour can be taught by acting out the movement of the notes. Dynamics can be taught be sneaking around the room and when you flip over the forte card you turn on the elephant stomps. Getting up and moving around is one of the best ways to get the blood flowing again after a twenty minute skill and drill session. Once that blood is flowing, the fun level has been increased drastically!

The Takeaway

Magic is really a special power, and the best teachers know how to wield that power to increase the fun level exponentially. We don’t say that we operate music, or work at music. We say we play music. If we are to play, harness the power of magic, put on a show and enhance every aspect of their musical experience and you'll reach those hard to encourage students. 

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Building A Listening List Into Your Teaching Practice

On Listening

Practice is a point of contention for all musicians, but there is no denying the fact that the only path to success in any field is the focused time put into honing your craft through it. Some approach it as a hard science, focused skills and drills over time in equals increased skills out. Others look at it as an art, by sitting down and immersing yourself in the culture of music you will get better in time. There is one aspect to practice that holds true for these two polar extreme views of practice, and that’s time. 

I believe that both camps have value, and depending on the type of musician you are training and what their goals are, having a balance of both camps in varying degrees will produce quality musicianship. A valuable aspect to music education that is often overlooked, in the 30-60 minute private instruction, is building a repertoire of listening. Factoring listening into daily practice, I argue, needs to be increased in all music programs. Here are a couple of ways that incorporating a basic listening journal can help your students.

1. Critically listening to music builds the musical vocabulary:When students spend time listening to songs they are able to start building their musical vocabulary. Carefully selected songs allow students to hear the tasks that they are working at artfully executed. Then through careful and critical reflection on that listening list, they will begin to start using the language needed to communicate their musical choices, not only in their performances, but in their skill building exercises. By being able to articulate why they are working on a skill building exercise, by tying it to an example of that skill being used in an artful way, students will continue to be inspired to put the time into that exercise. Sometimes we lose site of why we are doing an activity, but if the teacher carefully selects some songs to put on a listening list, a student will always have a clear picture of the objective goal they are trying to reach.
2. Co-creation of the listening list gives the student ownership: 
   When a teacher and a student explore songs together to create the listening list, students will be building the skills necessary to hear certain elements in songs, and in turn build the vocabulary to express those elements through their music. For the teacher, it gives them some insight into the musical taste of their students. This helps the teacher assess what songs will be an inspiring piece to listen to, so that when they assign listening lists, they will be assigning inspiring songs that match the students’ taste. Not only does it help the teacher design the listening portion of the daily practice, but will also help grow the teacher’s awareness of what repertoire will be inspiring to practice.

How do you set up a successful listening list and the activities around it?

By just having a journal that students write down their thoughts and personal reflections based on some songs that you have chosen together, you are not really reaping the benefits of critical examination. Examining several factors for each song is important to building knowledge through focused listening. I’ll make available a sample downloadable listening chart in the assessment package that I am building with the help of some other great music educators.

Moving forward, its important to first understand why we are listening to the song. In your lessons, you’ll be working on a number of tasks that lead to a certain objective that builds towards a big picture goal. Your listening list should incorporate all three levels. So in the first level, we are looking at how the task or exercise that you are exploring relates to the song, and where to find it. If there is a specific lick, melody, or idea that you are trying to lift out of a song, put down the time markings so that the student knows where extra focus is needed. In the reflection you can ask critical questions that ask about specific theoretical ideas that the student is working on expanding. What key is this song in? What is the time signature of the song? How is the artist modulating through a set of keys? What is the main chord progression of this specific section of the song? Whatever you may ask, it should directly relate to the task that you are working on. If you are asking questions based on the main objectives or big picture goal, make sure that your questions are related. 

Music is never done outside of the confines of culture. Knowing this, asking the student to do some research about the song, lyrical breakdowns, historical contexts, the biography of the artist and so on, helps the student understand why the song exists. These forms of questioning build a deeper understanding of the elements of music as they exist in certain contexts. Whether you are listening to a romantic piano sonata or a top 40’s hit, there is an important lesson to learn from the cultural context of the song. Helping your students break it down, by giving them resources to finding the research necessary to reflect on these questions, will help them build the cultural language behind the creative choices they make in their music. 

How much time you should you focus on listening?

I suggest that the listening expectations be set by you and your student together. The great thing is, everybody enjoys listening to music so this is an easy way to get into the flow state. Set up two types of listening exercises, focused reflection, and the background listening party. Ask the student to just include the songs on their list into their daily playlists. Students are using streaming services like rdio.com, songza.com, spotify.com, and grooveshark.com, that all allow for playlists to be saved. Encourage them to include the new songs in their playlists. 

Outside of the random listening parties, there should be at least one song a day where the student spends some time with the focus questions to critically listen to their songs. Some students will be able to do one ore more songs a day, others will really only be able to do one song a week. When you know your student and what priorities they place on practicing, you’ll be able to create the expectations that work for the student. You do not want to assign more than what the student is able to do because you’ll create a state of frustration, but at the same time, not challenging the student enough will create a state of boredom which will render your assignments useless. 

The Take Away

Whether you are training a concert pianist or a campfire guitar player, listening to music relevant to the skills you are building should be a key component in your educational planning. A well planned listening list will help build the oral language component of the study of music. A complete understanding of your student will help you build that list, and at the same time help you understand your student. With more understanding, you’ll be better able to bring your students through their tasks, their objectives and their big picture goals.

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