I want to rekindle the love of music!

August 2, 2009 12:25 PM

I liked piano at first, but under the stress of preparing a huge portfolio for college, it's quickly replaced by resentment and boredom. More inside.

How do I rekindle my joy of music? I'm willing to try anything. Here are more details as to why I'm in a slump:

-Frustration is my main source of my procrastination. I ABSOLUTELY DESPISE MEMORIZING. It takes up 80% of the time and effort that goes into learning a piece, and I JUST HATE IT. I would memorize a few measures, then quickly forget it as I move onto the next. I have to memorize away from the piano because I tend to depend heavily on muscle memory, which in turn leads to a very public humiliation.

-Playing other people's music is not satisfying enough especially after all the stress and work put into memorizing them. I want to get into music composition, but I'm not sure if I'm up for an unstable life and an inconsistent income.

-Goal. I lack one. Teaching is inevitable these days for piano, but I don't really want to sit in my house doing the same thing everyday.

So should I forget about music conservatories because I find playing other people's music unsatisfying, memorizing them too difficult and frustrating, and don't want to end up teaching? And what about composing music? I'd like to enroll in some classes for this, but don't know where to start as a high school student in the L.A. area.

posted by Yasuo to media & arts (7 comments total)

So should I forget about music conservatories because I find playing other people's music unsatisfying, memorizing them too difficult and frustrating, and don't want to end up teaching? And what about composing music? I'd like to enroll in some classes for this, but don't know where to start as a high school student in the L.A. area.

I chose a non-music career in part because I was concerned about those same things. I love my legal career, don't get me wrong. But I see my successful musician friends and I am envious - even of the ones who are teaching or playing other people's compositions in orchestras. At least they're playing music and getting paid to do it. And they can do the fulfilling music stuff on the side just like I do. The difference is, they play music all day for money and then go home and play music for fun, whereas I litigate all day for money and then go home and play music for fun, and they get way more respect as musicians than I do (which they have earned, obviously). There are worse fates than teaching music. The friend of mine with the most stable job in this economy is a music professor at a major university. And no matter what things about his job he doesn't like (and I'm sure there are some), he has been able to spend his life becoming one of the best pianists on earth. How awesome is that?

As far as composition classes, I took some in high school that were offered as part of a pilot program at my school. Since that option is likely not available to you, I would recommend looking into taking university classes on an ad hoc basis now, before you start college. There are lots of great programs in LA, and it will introduce you to the methodologies, the professors, the programs, and what being a music student in college is really like.
posted by The World Famous at 12:42 PM on August 2

What resonated for me is your comment:

Goal. I lack one.

I had to choose between music and engineering and chose engineering because of this. More precisely, I didn't love the works that you have to play. The stuff that resonated with me is not and was not the stuff that you have to play in order to have an audience / be part of an orchestra. Therefore I played what I liked, for fun.

Thirty years from where you are I must say my choice worked out for me.

There isn't any reason you cannot compose, or learn composition, just because you do not want to immerse yourself in (e.g.) Beethoven, Brahms and Berlioz. Consider, for example, Walter Piston. Apart from the fact he started out as a mechanical engineer :) he invented his own career and wrote four books on music theory that were still widely used when I was a student.
posted by jet_silver at 1:00 PM on August 2 [1 favorite]

There's no reason you can't study music at a university or even a liberal arts college (Oberlin comes to mind as a great example of the latter). You could even major in something else and study music as an minor or even as the odd elective when you feel like it. Or, in the event that you feel your love and motivation rekindled by your studies, you could always change your major back to music.
I think that sometimes, especially as a young person with a plan laid out for you, it can feel like you have to follow the plan to the letter (conservatory and a life orbiting around music in your case) or abandon it wholesale. There's no reason you can't do music a little bit--and only to the degree that it pleases you--while you find something else you really want to focus your life on.
It's hard to tell in the whirlwind of ramping up for college--and especially with a competitive, time-consuming subject like music--whether you're frustrated with the whirlwind or with the subject. Good luck. And remember that there's no right answer; do what you need to do to find out what you want from this life.
posted by willpie at 1:21 PM on August 2

The real reason musicians (especially those who play instruments with a large solo repertoire, like the piano) memorize is the same as why historians read history, or lawyers read law, or doctors read medicine: it gives you a starting place and a fluid beginning whenever you must sit down with a new audience, or a new colleague. Ultimately, the music you "know" from memorization is what you have when you are called upon to play in many spontaneous social and professional settings, including auditions. Music you've memorized becomes your basis for quoting melodies and harmonies in situations where you're called upon to improvise, and it can help you call a predictable response from an audience.

You can be the best sight reader in the world, and the second most facile pianist from a technical standpoint, but if you sit down at a piano without sheet music in front of you, and you haven't anything memorized, you're in no better shape to communicate your interests than a kid who has never had a lesson. You can have 20 concertos of your own composition in your bag, but if you haven't memorized any of your own work, you'll miss many chances to bring it to the attention of others.

So perhaps it will help, if you think of memorizing as "putting your time in." Like scales, finger independence exercises, and playing etudes, you learn things from memorization that only really become apparent much later, when you perform. But it does help, in a musical career, to have that stock of muscle training and memory, in so many ways.

As for learning composition immediately, a person generally benefits from having a working knowledge of music theory, and at least some background in historical music appreciation, before tackling composition. Those subjects help you understand how the individual "words" and "vocabulary" of the "language" of music fit together, and how that language was created and how it evolved. That knowledge prevents you from having to re-invent the wheel in your own efforts, and to avoid thinking you've come up with something new and cool, when all you've done is to re-invent some parallel Gregorian chant from the 13th century. There is a lot of info around on the Internet, and a ton of good books on both subjects, available at your local library. But for a young person, having some discipline problems with the basics of memorization, I'd suggest taking some private theory and composition lessons, from a trained music teacher, so that you get some immediate evaluation, lesson planning, and personal feedback, that can guide you in your quest. Googling "music composition teachers in Los Angeles" brings back a number of professional teachers willing to take on individual students. Many could probably give you guidance into high school level classes or larger programs, at area schools, or other institutions.

But in the meantime, keep "woodshedding" and memorizing.
posted by paulsc at 1:41 PM on August 2 [1 favorite]

I can't offer much advice as I'm very far from musical, but I do know high school and there is such a thing as AP Music Theory. If your high school doesn't offer it, could you find an area high school that does and take it there, take it through a similar community college course, arrange to take it as an independent study? I haven't taken the class, but I know people who have and enjoyed it and it's also designed for high school students like you who are serious about music and has the AP brand name (so to speak) and final test that might mean something to a college. This could give you a solid background in music theory, give you a goal to work towards in the test and allow you to pursue this goal through a channel you're probably used to. Generally I've found that high school counselors are impressed by people who want to take harder classes and who seem self motivated; you might be able to work something out with your school.
posted by MadamM at 7:37 PM on August 2

I would suggest taking so time away from the traditional method of learning a piece, memorizing it and performing. You can always fall back into that when necessary for your classes.

Find songs you enjoy playing, if you need the sheet music get it. Theory classes can be over confusing, so don't live and die by them. Instead get to a point where you can read a lead sheet, chords in the left hand melody in the right. Learning to sing (even if no one ever hears you) is the fastest way to connect your ear to your fingers.

You'll find people are much more impressed by your ability to play something modern and something timeless.

If you're seriously interested in composition, develop a really good ear and learn technology and the recording process in school, don't take a classical approach.

Also learn to play and appreciate jazz...it is the pathway to playing anything you want. And practice everything in every key.
posted by John Presley at 9:03 PM on August 2

This is really familiar to me -- when I was a high school student I was about where you were mentally, except for me it wasn't memorization that drove me crazy, it was scales and technique exercises that I found incredibly dull. And that had a lot to do with me going into composition instead, which I found much more rewarding, but it can be frustrating in similar ways. (To be a successful composer it helps to have near-OCD levels of attention to detail when it comes to things like notation.)

Later on I rediscovered my love of piano by performing in more fun, low-pressure environments (pop, klezmer, improv, etc.), and now I'm back to performing on a semi-regular basis, gearing up to play some 20th century works for a concert this fall. I'm wondering if it's not other people's music in general that's getting you down, but the repertoire in particular that you're playing. I know from experience that learning a lot of standard rep that's been played a million times before a million times better can feel sort of fruitless. Maybe you just need to find the music you really love to play -- for me it's 20th century stuff, but for you it could be some other niche.

Incidentally, I think paulsc is (mostly) dead-on about music theory deepening your understanding and appreciation of music (though I don't think you necessarily need to know a lot of music theory to start composing).

And, something to think about... composer/performers are becoming more common and more respected these days. Specialization isn't what it used to be, and now more than ever, the more things a musician can do, the better the chance of them making a living. I won't lie, a composition career is a very hard road, but there's no reason you can't do both composition and piano.

Finally, I hesitate to do this, but if you are interested in taking composition lessons, feel free MeMail me... as a grad student in composition in the LA area, I've taught a lot of theory and piano, but composition students are more rare (and more interesting). Or, I can always refer you to one of the many other excellent composition teachers I know.

Good luck!
posted by speicus at 10:46 PM on August 2