Klarinet Archive - Posting 000620.txt from 1997/06

From: Jacqueline Eastwood <eastwooj@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Musicianship
Date: Fri, 27 Jun 1997 16:59:34 -0400

On Thu, 26 Jun 1997, Neil Leupold wrote:

> The typical core curriculum at a conservatory of music involves several
> key areas of musicianship, the categories of which might be instructive
> to you in terms of determining how to improve yourself as a musician.
> Those categories are:
>
> (1) Music theory
> (2) Music history
> (3) Aural skills
> (4) Piano skills
> (5) Performance skills
>
> Depending on the school, earning an undergraduate degree can involve
> between 4 and 8 semesters of course work in each of these areas. Any
> advanced musician will tell you that the most vital talent to hone
> is that of good listening skills. I've not known many people who actually
> enjoyed their aural skills courses while getting their degrees, but
> the ability to discern pitches and intervals and hear melodic/harmonic
> structures by ear is probably the most valuable musical asset any performing
> musician can possess.
<CUT>
>
> There's a very good reason that these core areas are drilled into
> undergraduate music students. It's a miniature version of the
> mission statement behind liberal arts colleges. Conservatories
> wish to turn out well-rounded musicians, who possess the integrated
> knowledge and skills which enable them to draw on related musical
> concepts and experience. The interrelationships between a good
> ear, knowledge of music theory and music history, in addition to
> the basic idea of knowing how to play your instrument, are all
> brought to bear upon any performance you might give, be it in a
> classroom as an educator, or on stage in an orchestra hall. Thus,
> improving yourself in any one of these specific areas is also an
> act of improving yourself as a musician in general.
>
> Neil
>
>
I wholeheartedly agree with Neil. For me, hindsight is 20/20: when I was
an undergraduate, and even a master's student, I just "went along with the
program" of history, theory, keyboard skills, etc. I became more aware of
the relevance of these seemingly unrelated areas to my performance
abilities when I was a doctoral student, and now that I'm REALLY old, it
all makes sense!

But on the other hand, I LOVED my ear training classes as an undergraduate
at Northwestern. I had never experienced anything like it before, and now
having seen and heard about other schools' curriculum, I think we had one
of the best aural skills programs in the country. It's been 12-13 years,
but I can still sing many of the interval exercises we worked on, and can
sight-sing in bass clef (I was a tenor because I didn't want to hurt
myself).

Rock on, Neil!

Jacqueline Eastwood
University of Arizona/Arizona Opera Orchestra
eastwooj@-----.edu