it’s truly important to always k*ll yr idols to some extent. it’s weird when you come to the point in your artistic career or whatever you wanna call it and you realize half the shit youve learned to do right was through seeing horrible mentors do it wrong.
case in point my high school music teacher taught me exactly how not to foster creativity in a young artist aspiring to get their foot in the door of higher music education
i never did well in music theory class in high school, i ironically failed AP theory one semester cuz i often skipped class to go to auditions and testing programs for music composition bachelors programs
my AP theory teacher senior year, who saw me clearly struggle with the material and their teaching style, chose to tell me not to set my sites on college music programs, in his mind if i couldn’t vibe with *his* teaching style then i couldn’t possibly succeed in a conservatory.
thank god i didn’t listen to him, he truly had no excuse for having such an outdated method of connecting with students, in class whenever he had to reference “contemporary” music it would always be fucking Billy Joel or some dumb shit
anyways, i basically ignored his advice and applied to composition and experimental music programs for weird teens like me, believe it or not there are educators out there who actually value the young experiences of DIY punk and noise kids
when i got into both Berklee and New England Conservatory, the two major local music institutions in boston that the teacher himself said he got rejected from as a high schooler, i brought the acceptance letters to class and he begrudgingly congratulated me
this four year relationship i had with this teacher in high school illustrated to me the genuine deficit of forward thinking music educators many american K-12 school systems have, even in the progressive liberal bastions of the boston suburbs.
it should be the imperative of all music educators to seek new ideas outside the classroom, and prepare themselves to actually *allow* their students to teach them something.
music classrooms must always be collaboratories, full stop. if a student is struggling, there must be a two-way street of communication. this is fucking music, allow for new techniques to convey older ideas if that’s how the student can make it happen.
do music pedagogues not see the writing on the wall? don’t they actually want people to enroll and stay interested in what they have to say?
the majority of music ed as it stands is a museum art, some of which can be super helpful. but TLDR if your high school music teacher thinks Billy Joel is contemporary popular music then you need to call the police
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