Music: Pursuing the Horizon

By Chuck Anderson

Music: Pursuing the Horizon is a book about the inner life of the musician. It provides guidance, inspiration and a fascinating glimpse into the world of musical development.

How many times have the following types of questions and problems concerned you? Do I have enough talent to succeed in music? Why don't I progress faster? Why do I avoid practice? Do I need a teacher? How can I overcome depressions about my playing? What are my goals? Can I play well if I only play part time? Why does "everybody" object to music as a career? Am I selling out if I play commercial music?

Music: Pursuing the Horizon answers all these questions and many others with solid, practical advice. It can be read over and over and always remains interesting and informative.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Jul 13, 2016
• ISBN: 9781483444734

Chuck Anderson

For many years as a church pastor, Chuck Anderson read the daily obituaries to make sure he had not lost any sheep during the night. As he read, he found himself laughing out loud at the funny names of real people who had lived with such interesting names. Soon he began to collect these names, and the idea for this book was born. Next, Chuck sought out the talents of Randy Evert and illustrator Jack Lindstrom to help us see what these people might look like. We believe that this is the first book of funny names that actually illustrates the interesting people.

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ANDERSON

Copyright © 2016 Chuck Anderson.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of both publisher and author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-4472-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-4473-4 (e)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 07/06/2016

Table of Contents

Introduction

The Student

On Practice

Progress in Music

Student-Performer Dichotomy

The Four Factors of Students and Performers

The Student: Mind-Hands-Ear-Soul

The Player: Soul-Ear-Hands-Mind

Practical Abstracts in Music

Talent

Feelings of Depression

Motivation

Freedom and Discipline

Compromise or Adjustment

Directions

Goals in Music

Parental and Social Resistance

Sample number of engagements classified by type

The Politics of Music

Determine a Direction

Music as a Profession

The Artist in the World

Material vs. Artistic Sense

Pursuit of Education

Master Apprentice Relationship

Teacher Student Relationship

The Alternative to Master Apprentice Relationship

Pursuing Music Without a Teacher

Further Thoughts

Balance

Professional Musician

Non Professional Musician

Musicians and Money

Musicians and the Internet

Making Music for Life

25 Selected Blogs

Marketing in Music

Careers in Music

Bebop and Fingering

Fingering Key

Develop Your Own Uniqueness

Does Jazz Blues Exist?

Entertainment as a Career

Friendship and Bands

Future of Jazz

Guitar Players and Playing Fast

Guitar Players’ Issues

Jam Bands

Letting Go

Music as a Business

Performance and Teaching

Picking

Promotion in the Music Industry

Teaching Career

Reading vs. Sight Reading

The Diversity of Music

The Three Words

The Value of Formal Music Study

Guitar Fingering and Creativity

Tribute to Al Stauffer

Wes Montgomery and Pat Martino

Whatever Happened to the Music Business

Conclusion

About the Author

Introduction

The pursuit of music has always evoked peculiar responses in those who touch it. It is the intent of this work to open up and clarify areas long confused by myths, ignorance, skepticism, and prejudice.

The material is intended to provide much needed support for musicians at all levels of accomplishment. It should also be of assistance to anyone struggling to understand the musical aspirations of others. Though this book deals specifically with music, I feel that it will be helpful to anyone involved in the pursuit of a worthwhile personal goal.

Music favors neither male nor female. It is a universal and genderless art of communication. Though the field has been historically dominated by men, there is nothing about music that inherently favors male as opposed to female excellence. Music is a human art, a testimonial to those who would communicate through sound.

Throughout this book, I have used the words he and him. This has been done for simplicity and consistency only and does not represent a bias of male vs. female. At every point, the intention of the material is to be universal in its references.

The Student

On Practice

Practice is that inevitable dues-paying time that everyone must invest to pursue music. In the self-study approach, the most difficult aspect of practice is the organization of musical and technical principles. Too often the player works in circles not really progressing, not knowing what to practice.

Becoming aware of this lack of progress, he begins searching for sources of information. Books, recordings, Internet, YouTube, educational videos and other musicians are the primary sources. Though these approaches are sometimes helpful, they are not flexible enough to solve specific problems for specific students. An individual can form habits from misinformation that can be detrimental to his progress for years to come.

Studying with a qualified teacher solves the organizational problems and provides a type of security for the student. Having dealt with so many self - taught players and their problems, I encourage any serious player to find a qualified and creative teacher to guide their development.

Every player is comfortable with and responds to varying programs of study but most can be helped by the right teacher. I do not deny the difficulty of finding this teacher but the effort required is worth it.

Assuming that the player is involved with a teacher on a regular study program, the following practice problems are common. The traditional school system has affected the attitude of many about learning. It has traditionally been a matter of remembering enough to assure a good grade or at least to pass the course. The larger more important sense of education tends to get lost in the pressure for marks.

Education in the long run is intended to broaden the interest and awareness of its students as well as to develop the individual’s ability to think and to reason. However, so much emphasis is placed on the specifics of a required subject that the student frequently loses sight of the long run and deeper objectives of his study. It is at varying degrees of this state that the student of education becomes a student of music.

The private music teacher and the lesson itself often become identified in the student’s mind with the traditional concept of school. The teacher becomes a rather dogmatic authority figure, the lesson becomes class and the practice material becomes homework. Of these, the last point seems to create a sense of urgency, even panic, in many students. This feeling works against a sense of freedom, flow, exploration, and joy, which should be within the study of music. Many students seem to feel that there will be terrible repercussions if every assignment is not done perfectly.

Some of these repercussions are teacher disapproval, a failing grade, being dropped from the teacher’s schedule or worse. These are among many possibilities conjured up in the student’s conscious or subconscious mind. In objective disciplines like math tables, formulas or facts of history, the task of recalling some things specific by a certain day is not unreasonable.

It is sometimes difficult to see the importance of these specifics but it is usually not an overwhelming task. However, music and the study of it is not so objective, not quite so specific. Time is needed to explore, to listen, to develop and that cannot be geared to a specific time frame. The student should look at his studies as guidelines - organizations of material to explore.

The purpose of playing the material at the lesson is not to put a student under pressure but to allow the teacher to check for problems, listen for progress and to determine the next direction for continued development.

There is a type of pressure in this situation but that is part of the education. Music by its very nature involves pressure from many directions. Audiences, conductors and time limits are only a few of them. Learning to cope with pressure in the lesson situation is the first step of coping with the performing pressure that lies ahead.

There are no demerits in the study of music, no necessity of marks and competitive grading. The student’s individual development is the only consideration. Naturally, if the student is avoiding practice consistently over long periods of time, he should re-evaluate his thoughts about pursuing music in general. However, most student problems in practicing are more commonly related to very normal conflicts of time and priorities. The student’s complaint of a lack of practice time in his schedule is common and understandable. However, this problem can be solved!

After making a serious attempt to streamline time obligations, the student needs to concentrate on the quality of his practice time. Too many aspiring players confuse the importance of concentrated, efficient study with the self-proclaimed necessity of quantity practice.

For most, quantity practice is not as beneficial as it may seem. Span of attention being what it is for most students, long periods of practice are rarely concentrated and directed toward the most important material.

Far more common is the following pattern: ten minutes of structured practice, twenty minutes of playing what has already been mastered, ten minutes of lost time, twenty minutes of emulating recordings. This schedule is most typical of those pursuing contemporary forms of music but it’s loosely equivalent for students of all forms of music.

Each student must determine a schedule and an approach to practice that suits his individual situation. Many have developed severe problems with their practice consistency because they have failed to deal with the variables of practice. These variables include the length of practice, time of day, what preceded practice, what followed practice and the rotation of the study material. Consider the effectiveness of morning versus night practice, one hour versus fifteen minute practice sessions, practicing after work or before it and practicing one, two, three or more topics per day. The student needs to develop a personal program that will lead to the greatest efficiency and progress.

Students at all levels, even the most elementary, seem to have an instinctive awareness of how much there is to learn, how far they have to go. For many, this awareness,