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Since I have arrived back into Australia, I have had the opportunity to interact more with students from a secondary and tertiary level as a teacher/tutor/mentor/guide. This takes place either at a youth orchestra setting, a tutor at music camps, or as a university teacher. Also, in the near future, I'm also supposed to host a workshop for fellow musicians, teachers, and colleagues about my particular specialisation in Early Music.

For most of my life... I've just been a performing musician (and thankfully, that still seems to be going ahead regardless...)... which means that I've never really had to be crazily introspective and analytical about what and why I've done things. To me, performing was just like playing, having fun, and screwing around... and weirdly enough, people would pay me and not get cranky. It was like the perfect scam! I get to do what I like doing... and earn a living wage from it (well, a wage.. a freelancer's wage is always a nebulous thing!).

But... now that I have started to act in more of a teaching and guidance position for the next generations... well, I've had to start to think about what it is that I do, and why I do it. From the playing of he instrument (violin/viola), through to performance, and out to what is important about Early Music and why I do that. This is the best thing that I like about teaching... the idea that you have to really discover meaning and inspire the next generation with the things that you find important.

So... after several days of talking to students at the university level. I start to think that there is perhaps too much emphasis given (in the Classical field) to the measurable things that are not really important. If a note is in tune, if something is in time.... sure, these are important... but they are only tools... technique is just a tool, but it isn't the artwork/sculpture. You need to employ the tools (which should be as good as you can make them...), to create the masterpiece.

Of course, with the focus on the tools... sometimes the "masterpiece" (performance) aspect gets lost. And this even more true in this day and age (I'm getting to be an old man...) where we are looking for that "perfect" rendition of a piece. So... we follow the instructions of the blobs on the paper to the letter... but not the spirit. And we seem to only do this in the Classical field of music... we don't do this for anything else.... (except in a way for the manufactured sugar hits of pop music). We don't do this in pub bands, jazz, folk music... EVERYTHING ELSE!

So... where did we go so so wrong?

After all, if we are just following instructions... well, computers would be much better than humans. I think that we lost a lot when musicians stopped being composers... and there was a divorce between enacting the music, and creating the instructions. If you are the composer, and you are present at the performance (as a performer)... you don't need detailed instructions... and you have the liscence to screw around with the music... but somewhere along the line, composers (and their works) have been put on a pedestal... you don't screw around with the masterworks.

Now, this isn't to say that we deface them completely... but every musical masterwork needs to be brought to life anew with each performance. Sheets of paper make no sound...

... and that means that the humans NEED to interpret... we are NOT tools of the composer, but we are the agents that bring it to life again and again. Thus, we can NOT be passive in this... in fact, choosing to be passive is a choice... just a very very terrible one! Possibly the worst one!

Anyway... after talking to quite a few students that are on the cusp of starting their professional career... I seem to get a similar sense of what is "wrong". They are scared... they are scared of making mistakes, of offending older colleagues... of getting "bad marks" in their recitals, of failing auditions by not playing in the way that is "expected".

What I have started suggesting is that... we are human, we WILL make mistakes. But if we have a performance that is engaging and interesting, one that tells and story and communicates... the audiences will forgive the mistakes (assuming that they are not too gregarious!)... but if we don't provide the entertainment (and oddly enough, sometimes we forget that music IS ENTERTAINMENT... and not "pure art")... then the audience only HAS the mistakes to remember.

Meanwhile... we can never know what an audience/panel WANTS to hear. We can't read their minds and we can't second guess them. However, even IF we did or could know what they wanted to hear... well, if it isn't the way that you WANT to play... you are not going to play convincingly... and you will either fail to do the piece justice, or more importantly, you will fail to do yourself the favour of expressing what you want to communicate.

Anyway... idle thoughts for today. I think I have several months to form some nebulous thoughts before I have to start giving workshops and lectures. Lots of notes to take... but in the end, I think it is a lot simpler than we make it. Perfect your tools, learn the material needed... but at he end... throw it out the window and play like you just don't give a crap!

I can also be found cross-posting at:
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