Point being, this blog not only has been underutilized, but it also doesn't really have any focus or point. And I really like that.
So instead of writing about anything that could possibly relate to my experience on YouTube as a content creator like all prior posts, I instead want to take time away from working on the numerous projects I'm working on as a college student to complain about an archaic method of music instruction that has resulted in my complete disinterest in music performance.
That may sound like a real thesis, but I promise I'll try and keep things fairly concise. That way I won't waste too much time and can start working on the actual 20-page thesis that I need to do.
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The Story
I started playing piano at the age of 5, and had weekly lessons with an incredibly friendly, caring, and all-around lovely instructor, and she taught me almost everything I know, all the way from J. Bastien's Piano Basics to L.V. Beethoven's Sonata Pathetique, all three movements. I was always pretty flexible with what music I played because, up until high school, I never really listened to music recreationally. There were other students of hers that fell in love with certain styles and, while my teacher was not at all proficient with Elton John, she let her students go in the direction their musical journey took them, which I find particularly respectable.
At times, she and I disagreed on how certain parts of a song should be performed. The Beethoven piece I mentioned earlier was a particular source of debate, as I felt the first movement should have been played far faster than she believed it should. I wasn't really much of a fighter back then, so I always went with her suggestion, although there was always some discussion on those topics, which helped me learn.
Now I'm a junior in college finishing up a music minor, and what once were minor sources of debate have since come to the forefront. I go into my piano lesson, my teacher tells me that these notes and rhythms are wrong, and then I leave. There's very little musical discussion because the teacher argues that no musical discussion can happen until the notes and rhythms are right. Because of this single-track, binary approach to music performance, any aspect of actually enjoying the instrument is all but lost.
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Wrong Doesn't Exist
The problem described above doesn't bother most music students because they somehow manage to enjoy their particular instrument in spite of the rigorous tedium and right/wrong approach. There are a lot of possible reasons why this is the case, and I'm sure it depends on the particular student. Before I continue I have to acknowledge that I am outside the norm in my complaints.
I was originally going to bring up specific examples and try to debunk why the mistakes I made weren't actually mistakes, but not only is that incredibly pretentious and a waste of time, but it's also incredibly closed-minded and basically serves to dismantle my own point: that point being that any set of notes or chords is right. The only time something is wrong is when the performer themselves decides that something is wrong.
The only argument I have ever gotten as to why something is wrong in a piece of music is because my performance of it contradicts what is written on the page. But why should the page in any way affect my interpretation of a particular work? The page should serve as a guideline for what a performer should play. It should not be the defining factor in the quality of a performance.
The only time a song is really by Mozart is when Mozart himself sits at the piano and plays his sonatina or whatever, in the same way that the only time a song is really by The Beatles is when you pop in Sgt. Pepper's and listen to The Beatles' performance. If I perform a song that's by Mozart, then that's essentially my cover of that song; it's my version of the song. By that logic, if I play a C sharp instead of a C natural and I the performer don't think it sounds bad, then that's part of my version of this piece and should not be rejected unless I myself reject it.
This extends even further when talking about dynamics (volume, essentially) and articulation (how hard or soft a key is hit, essentially). One of the most ridiculous examples of this came when I performed a song whose title translates to "Important Event" and my teacher complained that my performance was too loud. If an event is important, then I'm going to play the piece loudly because it's a big deal. That's my interpretation of what the title means. Other people could argue that important means that the piece should sound more reserved in tone, maybe majestic or something. That's fine, but that's not my interpretation on my coverage of this piece. Remember, the only time the piece is actually by Schumann (in this case) is when Schumann himself sits at the piano and plays the piece himself.
Let me support my point with some evidence! Here's a really awesome Johnny Cash song called "Folsom Prison Blues":
And here's a cover of that song by Hungarian groove metal band Ektomorf:
Let's list the differences between these two versions!
- The tempo remains consistent throughout the Johnny Cash version, where Zoli Farkas (singer of Ektomorf) sings the first in a slower tempo, sacrificing the groove to bring some more emotion to the performance.
- After the opening verse, the Ektomorf version is generally faster.
- There's no electric guitar at all in the Ektomorf version.
- The two singers sing completely different melodic lines with completely different rhythms. If you were to put the notes these guys were singing on a staff, they'd almost never line up.
- The Ektomorf version is in a completely different key.
- There's some cool static in the opening of the Ektomorf version.
- Cash uses a clean vocal singing style, while Farkas uses a more gritty, rough tone.
- Farkas struggles to pronounce some of the English words (ex. "that's what's tortures")
- The drum performance is completely different.
There are plenty more differences than these, but does that make the Ektomorf version wrong? Not at all! Even the misspoken words are not wrong because Zoli Farkas didn't consider them to be wrong in recording. If anything, the misspoken words speaks to his heritage and the fact that English isn't his first language. It adds a new sort of heart to the performance that wasn't there in the Cash version. I also personally prefer the rougher vocal tone, the full-acoustic sound, and the slower, more heartfelt opening verse.
All things considered, I consider the Ektomorf performance to be superior to the Johnny Cash recording, and I say this with the knowledge that almost every single note and rhythm is completely different from the original.
Wrong doesn't exist.
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Conclusion
I didn't tell the full story earlier about my experience at college, as this current instructor of mine is actually the second I've had at this school. The first is... dead.
That's a whole other story onto itself but, to slightly divert from the original topic, I never really appreciated the incredible teacher I had before he was gone. He gave me incredibly difficult pieces with the knowledge that I would never once play exactly what was written on the page, but he didn't care because he knew that in that experience I was learning and I was enjoying myself.
I'm no music major, and I have no intention of ever going into music performance professionally. Therefore, even if I make mistakes that I truly consider to be mistakes, I have very little desire to repair those errors in favor of simply enjoying the song and my crappy performance for what it is. Some of my favorite things to do on the piano with western classical music include playing Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" at 180bpm (about 3x faster than what is indicated on the page) and playing through Debussy's "Golliwog's Cakewalk" with random tempo and style changes throughout. Outside of the classical sphere, I enjoy playing random ragtime riffs, following along to the chord progressions of songs I listen to regularly, and playing through the synth part of "Simple Things" by Zero 7 while attempting (and largely failing) to improvise a melody with my right hand. Undertaking the challenge of complex piano pieces was equally as thrilling as the challenge of playing through a classical piece I know in a different style or improvising a melody to that Zero 7 chord progression. I think my instructor last year understood that mentality, which is why, during my last lesson, he warned me about the other instructors in the college and how they approach things differently.
Now, instead of doing the things I enjoy, I'm playing "third-grade-level music" (current instructor's quote, not mine) and am being chastised for not matching the page perfectly. To be frank, I'm pretty tired of it. It saddens me that an instrument I once loved playing has been reduced to such tedium, and it depresses me that my enjoyment in playing said instrument is almost entirely lost.
I've refrained from saying the names of any of my instructors. I do this out of respect, because at the end of the day I don't blame the instructor for what happened to me. Rather, I blame the system that props up this archaic musical mindset. It's a mindset which stomps on all potential creativity and individuality in favor of worshipping a bunch of European white guys who, in the grand scheme of things, have had very little historical influence on the state of music as we know it today.
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