I believe that people are natively creative and original: taking lessons should increase your originality rather then blunt it. (After all, there is only one you!)
Quality music instruction promotes understanding, practical skill, creativity, thinking on your own and fully expressing yourself. The more freely you express your ideas, concepts and feelings the more original you will be. Anything that inhibits your personal expression can blunt your creativity, therefore ruin your originality.
In my twenty-eight years of teaching I have found that students who had little success with music lessons probably experienced one or more of the following:
- Had to learn things they didn’t want to know such as advanced jazz scales when they wanted to play rock,
- Were given lessons that didn’t relate to their goals,
- Were given bits and pieces of information instead of tying everything together into a whole picture,
- Were shown instrument techniques that were either too hard or too easy,
- Weren’t given the skills, information or musicianship that the student really wanted and needed,
- Were given the wrong songs to play (or no songs),
- Was taught to read when they didn’t want to,
- Wasn’t taught to read when they wanted or needed to,
- Was given false information that didn’t get a result, and
had mechanical things to do without musical application (i.e., learned scales but not how to use them for songwriting or improvising). - And of course… if the person didn’t practice enough in relation to his or her goals success would be limited. (This can often be the main culprit!)
I am fortunate to have a diverse background to pull information from and relate things to. I’ve studied at universities and played gigs in ghettos, have played Mozart, Bach and Beethoven with symphony orchestras, shared the stage with a few jazz greats, as well as playing rock, blues and funk in garage-bands. Along the way I’ve studied with great teachers (and a few lousy ones), learned from books, copied licks from records and attended classes with wise old professors.
Music lessons should be fun, effective and personal.
These are the key points to a student’s goal attainment, whether professionally, for fun or for the development of personal style and originality. When these points are addressed, abilities expand, practical skills are developed and originality blooms. If these four points aren’t addressed you might not get better with lessons and your ability to create your own style of original music could be diminished.
- The willingness and ability of the teacher to work with the individual student before him without being rote,
- The willingness and ability of the student to “be a student” and honestly strive to get the most out of what he is being instructed in without having the attitude of “already knowing it all,”
- The workability of the teaching method itself, and
- The instructor’s ability to instruct.
Can music lessons ruin your originality? Not when they are right on the mark! Good music lessons should let you take your originality into a screaming affluence of creative ability and production.
Marty B.
(818) 242-7551
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