PEDAGOGY
PEDAGOGY
8 SPCCAA
The “amateur” option
It is usually at this point in my career talk that I also throw in a few anecdotes about personal friends who “jumped ship” from
the profession of music to others in search of greener financial pastures. I do not judge, neither should anyone, those who choose
material substance (or simply put, stability) over the arts. It is a matter of priority in life, and a decision that everyone is both
entitled to, and must ultimately make. Before committing to the music profession, you must be sure that there is absolutely
nothing else you either want to do, or can do, to make a living.
While you may find life without playing music unbearable and unimaginable, doing it to make money is a different matter. Music
is something you can pursue very seriously as an amateur; and being an amateur does not necessarily mean you aren’t as good as
professional musicians or don’t enjoy it as much as they do. It only means that you do it out of love and don’t depend on it to pay
bills. In fact, the pleasure I derive from playing with amateurs is often many times greater and purer.
Journalist Alan Rusbridger dedicated a year of his life to mastering the invincible Chopin’s First Ballade on the piano while
keeping his daytime job as the editor of
The Guardian
. This fascinating journey, as told in his book,
Play It Again: An Amateur
Against the Impossible
, provides both inspiration and reassurance that music enriches the lives of “non-professionals” no less
wonderfully and magically.
If you have talents and interests in other fields in addition to your inclination towards music, I recommend you to explore those
other areas with the same diligence and research, or consider the option of pursuing a double degree. If, in the end, it is another
discipline you decide to pursue, you can still choose a school or a city where there is greater exposure to music and access to a
good teacher. This just gives you a more diverse range of skills.
By this point, students are normally as drained as they are awe-struck by my seeming pessimism and apparent deterrence that
arises from such thorough research.
“So, you still want to be a musician?”
If you can look me in the eye and say “yes” with determination, then I am truly happy for you. “Good!” I would say, “because I
have yet to speak of the intangible return.”
I do consider myself extremely lucky to be doing what I love for a living, and as creativity expert Ken Robinson would say, I have
found my element, “where natural talent meets personal passion”. Why should I be denying such pleasure to those who come to
seek my advice?
For what other professions…
• allow you to dedicate yourself to something so amazing, which can describe the indescribable?
• give you both the privilege and responsibility to safeguard some of mankind’s greatest masterpieces by the likes of Mozart,
Beethoven and Brahms?
• bring you such immense gratification while working that, at times, you don’t want it to end?
• empower you to make a stranger’s day brighter without the need for words?
• help you discover more pleasure each time you repeat the exact same work?
• take you to different places and cultures where you can still communicate, in the deepest sense of the word?
• make it a norm to get together with your colleagues and work overtime for fun?
• reach so deep inside you that you could shed tears of joy and sorrow at the same time without knowing why?
• use the verb “play” to describe your work?
I am grateful to be a musician (and to be a teacher, too, for that matter). So, knowing what you now know, do you still want to be
a musician?
