TeledyN

I'd first posted this as a comment on another site, then thought, in my aging curmudgeonistic belligerence, that I'd share it more widely because it does sum up a big chunk of my musicianship philosophy; comments welcome. The story begins when, in a forum post, a music teacher asks

"Anybody out there looking for music lessons? Or know of anybody who's looking for music lessons?"

and in response someone adds that they are losing students, even good promising students, that they have upgraded their studio, added all sorts of perks and enhancements and yet, "people seem to not care that you offer an enriched learning experience."

Well ... here's the thing: People don't KNOW you offer an enriched learning experience; after now 60 years of being told that music is "just sound" sadly most people in our culture have no direct experience of music at all, and will proudly say,when asked what they play, that they 'play' the radio. They've been sold a lie and even more sadly, we musicians re-inforce that lie every time we hold out a CD as if it was even important. So you can advertise until the cows come home, no one is going to call.

Time was, parents had direct experience of music. These would be the children of the 'tween-war era, those who lived through WWII, every last one of them had heard a real choir, a real organist in their church, they had heard brass bands up close, and their dancehall was a purely acoustic experience of the sonic laser of the Big Band. Most, at least most in the urban areas, had also experienced a full-scale symphony orchestra although in the era since the collapse of Edwardian aristocracy, that experience was, by 1945, rarer and rarer, progressively replaced by the National Radio systems, and by those Infernal Machines, the phonograph. So these parents knew about music, and even the protestants saw value in giving every child possible the opportunity to get in on the musicianship game. It didn't matter if you were poor as churchmice, even the Gershwins and the Blounts could justify the expense; it was a matter of survival.

Today we haven't many parents alive who can remember a world pre-phonograph, precious few remember pre-MTV. Their experience of music is of a commodity that is shrink-wrapped and dazzling, created by mythic heros in the halls of great Olympus, the domain of the gods themselves. Mere mortals do not aspire to challenge the gods of the music industry, they can only pay their tithes and feel priviledged to be allowed to listen in for a fee.

where have all the students gone?

The first order of business, imho, is to correct the misperception that music is only sound, and to earnestly move to ensure that every child has had DIRECT and emmersive experience of music before the age of 8.

That means no P.A.'s. That means no CDs. That means no electric pianos, no stacks of marshall amps, no 'sound' systems, only the direct brain to body to space to body to brain transmission of musical experience.

And dig: they think it is worthless, so they aren't going to pay a dime for it -- your concerts only preach to the dwindling choir -- if we truly believe music is worth anything, the burden of the proof is ours, it is then left to us to SHOW them what it is worth.

This is why I joined a community band, and this is why I always vote 'YES' when there is even a hint of a potential to play in front of people out where they are, in parks, in parades, on the street, in the shopping malls ...

One concert in the park is worth 10 in the hall. We have to get out there and demonstrate, play not for bucks or sales or awards or acclaim, but play because, very literally, civilization itself depends on our performance. We must rage against the dying of the light, show 'em what we got. If the kids see what you do as the thing they need for their own evolution, you can bet they will line up to learn how its done. But they have to experience it for themselves, they have to feel what it is, they have to SEE the goods,and for that to happen, we have to SHOW the goods.

Or we can sit on our backsides and complain as civilization slides farther and farther into commercialized primitivisms.

Art is not a mirror to reflect the world, but a hammer with which to shape it! (Vladimir Mayakovsky)

 

If everyone paid a penny every time they played a song on their computers without buying a single song, the record industry would be in far better shape than it is now. More listening doesn’t need to mean less money, even if it means less purchasing. But for some reason, that model is seen as “eating our young,” when compared to the pay-per download model, which is essentially the electronic version of buying an unbundled CD, cassette, or 8-track tape — all formats that have become considerably less attractive to most people as they increasingly listen on connected devices, if they listen at all.

Ha! Now ... where have you heard that particular price-point before? Seems I'm now only about 8 years ahead of Wired, I'd better watch myself. But back at that pretty penny, here is the truth the plastic disk vendors will not accept: the vast majority of people will listen to the vast majority of music only once at best they might keep it in regular play for a week or two until they grasp the lack of timelessness in it, and they, swoosh off it goes to the Cornfield, stuffed out in the la-la land of never to return until a nostalgic mood takes them. Piles of it, huge great mounds of it.

This is especially true today with all the totally well-meaning mp3 vending machines for the 'indie' artists, but dig, nearly no one wants to buy your mp3 for a buck and even ten for a dollar is pushing it. But ... if it was like radio-on-demand, pick a swath of catalog and pay so little you couldn't possibly exhaust your account, well then it makes sense to do a little sight-seeing.

This is the reason for the great success of the free MP3 as a loss-leading advert for your sound, as a calling card (business cards cost money to design and print too), clear illustrations of what you'd be like if they hired you for the service you provide. The trouble is, only those who can afford to front that kind of money will be in the position to sustain giving things away, and that makes it difficult for the newcomers. However, you up that to an almost invisible penny or two a play and who cares if they snatch the download for their ipod because you know they'll be bored soon enough and back tomorrow for a dozen more, maybe even from the same band if they dig it!