The Music Major

This video arrived via the Trombone-L. Special thanks to Dave Johansen for a painfully good laugh.

Satire exposes those things that we may ignore but know to be true. It puts a big, bright light on them, and says "sad, true, needs serious fixing."

Unfortunately, a lot of this video is very close to reality, and reality needs reality-checking.

In a market where thousands of musicians are produced and released into the workforce each year (really, thousands on thousands ... we could estimate thousands of trombonists yearly!), students and teachers have taken on a huge responsibility to themselves, the economy, and society. The market will only accept musicians who balance the width and depth of their skills. Teachers and educational organizations therefore have a serious burden to (1) tell students the truth about their preparation and skills and (2) prepare those students as widely and thoroughly as possible. Students in turn are required to (1) trust their educators and (2) invest themselves as thoroughly and widely as possible.

Only the most balanced and thorough students will excel. The rest will just survive.

I am thankful for my broad background of study - many theory, history, composition, arranging, conducting, speaking, writing, typing, performance, and other classes. These are all required subjects for musicians. The most prepared person wins. Often, it's not the best or most technically proficient trombonist that gets a job. Instead, it goes first to a person that will reliably show up. Ability to do the job, social acceptability, and musicianship come next. Trombone-specific ability are a far third.

If I had to rank myself in the international trombone performance community, I would not rank. It is a big world, and I am most definitely not the best trombonist I know. On the other hand, I do many things well, and I do many things that others flat out cannot do behind the horn or otherwise. I try to keep my skills well-rounded. That is what keeps me unique and marketable.

I am always wary of those who think themselves 'the best' in a community. It may be that the finest performer in a community needs to go play in another community. Staying home risks stagnation.

Ah, poor music student. Your education exists to open doors. Poor teacher, we must tell the students the truth, whether students like it or not, and even if they fail the academic system. There are many, many doors in the room. Leaders must not let the next generation of musicians ignore so many other doors (writing, typing, communicating, theory, history) in the pursuit of the performance door.

Keep practicing, keep studying. Do not stop.
If you're going through hell ... keep going! (Churchill)