I've been a musician for over half of my life -- but this blog was what finally cemented an important aspect of music: communication. Whether it is through talking, writing, or portraying a message with music itself, the "modern day musician" must be skilled at interacting in these ways -- Communication is a critical tool in being able to become a successful musician.
As I pointed out in my post about "Socialization and the Importance of Music", music is socializing force. Socialization, naturally, implies communication: since music is based on a lot of social connections, a musician must be able to interact with and establish these social connections. The blog post highlights music's ability to socialize as what makes music an important addition to life. From this, a conclusion may be drawn that because music socializes, the ability to communicate in music is also important. In the post I brought up my firsthand experience of being a music student at MSU. I said the MSU music school community is one "thriving with connections inside and out. Though all professional musicians must learn the ability of being a soloist, working with a group and coming together are much more important skills..." In order to accomplish this, the skill of communication is necessary. Like I brought up in my post about the MSU concert band, "...rehearsals are not about your ability to play as an individual, but the ability to play together as a group." This is a specific example of where working as a group is necessary, and in order to work in a group, the group must have good communication. For the MSU concert band, the conductor will often e-mail notes, a daily agenda, and recordings he likes the best and what he wants us to sound like. The members of the ensemble also must communicate on many levels, such as arranging sectionals and practice times with other sections to accomplish the musical goals outlined by the conductor. Music simultaneously establishes the importance of an ability to communicate on the inside while creating its own socializing importance on the outside. In order to create this important socializing factor, the musicians must first be able to communicate properly.
In the "reed making: learning styles" post, the importance of communication in learning is shown. Using my reed making class as an example, the post shows that, despite music being a mostly hands-on way of learning, a written way of learning can also aid in delivering a message. Originally, the reed class had not been written down into lessons. Because the the material in the class is communicated through writing, along with other modes of learning, making a reed is much easier. Without this communication, the class would have to learn simply by watching our professor make a reed and pick up what odds and ends she threw out in a lecture. In writing, the ideas are more clear. Here the communication of learning material helps the success of others.
On the opposite end, your own communication skills are just as vital to being a successful musician as they are in trying to learn a new skill with somebody else's communication assets. This is exemplified in one of my earlier posts, "Style and Delivery: writing in the music world". There were two parts to this post. The first was about a blog by David Cutler, called "the Savvy Musician". "..part of Cutler's purpose in this blog is self promotional. He advertises his book, and not only his book but himself: he uses the blog to create an image of himself to connect to people, and this may further persuade people to be interested in\buy his book". This describes how Cutler uses communication to boost his success as an author as well as his financial success. The second half of the post focuses on a scholarly article about research in music education. Liora Bresler had to communicate her ideas in an educated, scholarly way to make herself as a researcher, as well as her research, successful. How and when a musician communicates can be found in many areas on many levels, but the ability to communicate your own self and ideas may be the most crucial form of communication.
Music is based on communication. The very essence of music is to portray ideas through music. This I have known for a long time -- but music is also communication based in many other areas. One must be able to communicate ideas for the success for yourself, communicate ideas for the success of others, and communicate the ideas of others for the success of many. Success as a musician is not possible without communication, and the delivery of ideas varies from the most essential, music itself, to other genres such as writing, speaking, and so forth.
Part II. Learning About Research\Writing
I have been a musician for a very long time, but this blog has reinforced that being a musician is truly what I want to do.
This is largely in part because I enjoyed writing this blog. I picked the major I was doing as my field for the blog, and I wrote about many aspects of it. It is a banal paradox that the more you learn the less you know. This either scares people away from a field or makes them more inquisitive; it has made me more inquisitive. I am not scared of how much there is out there. I do not feel like I will never be able to accomplish all that there is. I feel more eager. I feel more in control and more focused. This blog, paired with actually going through the journey of becoming a music major at MSU, has made me thoroughly analyze my major, or what I address it as, what I want to do with my life. And I still want to do it. I still enjoy it, and at the least I am determined to accomplish what has been a long-time dream.
If I take what I wrote about above, the importance of communication in being a musician, this blog was then especially helpful in making me realize that I want to become a musician. I love communicating, and I feel as if writing this blog has strengthened those skills simultaneously. This blog, however, I had to communicate in writing. I love music and being a musician, but I am not often asked to communicate it in any other way but music. This blog made me go beyond that and really put in a lot of words just a small portion of the music world. If I go back to the paradox about "the more you learn the less you know", this blog was also effective in expanding horizons of communication so that they seem endless -- as if I have just breached the surface about what I have to communicate with and about music.
Yet another example of reassurance in being a music major is that this blog wasn't too much of a struggle. The biggest struggle was just having to sit down and create this blog, because I had the eagerness, potential, and ability to extensively look into music, question it, and become enraptured within -- this blog was a matter of letting that all out.
All in all, this blog took something I really care about and made me re-realize why. The blog made me reexamine some of what I like about music as well as discover new ways I like it. I always knew music was a powerful force in my life, but aspects of the assignment had me realizing how music can be a powerful force in the world, too.
Works Cited:
Bresler, Liora. "Teacher Knowledge in Music Education Research." jstor.org. ITHAKA 2012. Web. 9 September, 2012.
Cutler, David. The Savvy Musician Blog. David Cutler, 2012. 10 September, 2012.
Lopez, Christopher. "Top Ten Christmas Gifts for the Broke-ass Musician." miaminewtimes.com Miami New Times. 23, December 2012. Web. 10 September, 2012.
Ferguson, Kirsten. "Songs for the Soul: The Carondelet Music Center Stresses the Importance of Music Education in Nurturing Childhood Development and Building Community." Metroland: 36. Feb 07 2002. Alt-PressWatch. Web. 24 Oct. 2012 .
Fromkin, Victori. "The Development of Language in Genie: A Case of Language Acquisition Beyond the "Critical Period."." Brain and language 1.1 (1974): 81-107. PsycINFO. Web. 31 Oct. 2012.
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