[CAUT] CAUT credential vs. academic program?

[reggaepass at aol.com]

 Israel, David, Jeff, et. al.,


 
Yea, nature vs. nurture.   I came into this world
musical and years of training have have only honed that, not squelched
it.  (My wife is also very musical, and just watch out for our
children!) 

Since I have a couple of music degrees, I am delighted to know that they may officially be in the plus column towards a CAUT credential/program.  On the other hand, I am weak on math and could not scale a piano.  I should learn how, and probably will as a result of whatever we come up with for the CAUT credential/program.  Neither the math nor the music degree will make me a better at tuning, regulating, etc. per se, yet they are pluses for different reasons.  As I have said before, I have found the value of my own years studying music vis a vis working in a conservatory environment is understanding the language (which one can get on one's own) but, moreover, having a high degree of empathy for what the the students and faculty are experiencing as performers and composers in a school setting.   Is that worth years and years of time and ten of thousands of dollars in and of itself?  Probably not.  Does it help?  You bet. 

Just last weekend there was a very controversial musical production--and this is in the context of an avant guard school.  It was interesting how many students and faculty sought my opinion.  They know I have one, can articulate it, and have little to fear (politically) from speaking my mind.  Again, being in that position does not make me a better turner of tuning pins, but it DOES integrate me much further into the community and garners me more of that most intangible yet sought after of commodities: respect.  On a good day, I imagine that helps others in our musical community regard more highly what I do with pianos.   

Alan Eder


 

-----Original Message-----
From: Israel Stein <custos3 at comcast.net>
To: caut at ptg.org
Sent: Tue, 6 Nov 2007 8:58 pm
Subject: [CAUT]  CAUT credential vs. academic program?











At 07:26 PM 11/6/2007, caut-request at ptg.org wrote:


Subject: Re: [CAUT] CAUT
credential vs. academic program?

Message: 2


Jeff:

 

I guess this is where we’ll have to agree to disagree.  If what you
say is true, our educational systems have been putting one over on the
public very well, and for a long time.  I, personally, don’t think
that’s really the case.

 

dp

 

David M. Porritt, RPT

dporritt at smu.edu


David,


This is just another variation on the "nature vs. nurture"
debate that only the most simple-minded take an extreme position on. The
world is full of very talented "musical" hamburger flippers,
taxi drivers, hospital orderlies, bicycle messengers and - well - piano
"tooners" who don't have the patience or the discipline or -
frankly - the maturity to work their way through the formal training and
the discipline that would give them the musical vocabulary and the
technique to fully develop their talent, who never let their talent come
under the influence of other creative and well-trained talents so that it
talent can bloom - because they think that their talent is enough. These
are called "underachievers" and tend to throw stones at the
educational system they apparently did not know how to take advantage
of... Then, of course, there are the talentless "tools" without
a talented bone in their body who dutifully plod their way through
conservatories and music departments for no reason but - perhaps - to
make the institutions financially sustainable. So what? Rarely does
anyone make it in music without either formal training - or someone with
formal training behind them fixing the screw-ups... It's possible, it
happens - but very rarely - that someone can make it on raw talent
alone.


So stick to your guns, David


Israel Stein 





 

From: Jeff Tanner
[
mailto:jtanner at mozart.sc.edu] 

Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2007 1:41 PM

To: Porritt, David; College and University Technicians

Subject: Re: [CAUT] CAUT credential vs. academic program?

 

 

On Nov 5, 2007, at 5:47 PM, David M. Porritt wrote:




“Someone who holds a music degree has merely demonstrated that they can
absorb material long enough to regurgitate it on an exam, and that they
have shown some degree of incremental improvement in musical ability over
a 2 or 4 year period, that they have attended a certain number of
performances per term and have been present and accounted for in at least
one performing ensemble each term.  It has not made them musical if
they were not already.”

 

I hope that’s not indicative of the music program there at USC.  If
it is, then I see your point.

 

That's all any degree program is.  Where the difference lies is in
the natural talents of the student, and that isn't planted by any degree
program -- it is planted at birth.  I don't care who the instructors
are, what kind of resources the institution has or what kind of
reputation it has.  You cannot turn a non-musical person into a
musical one by sending him/her to college, and one who is born with music
inside them will always have it whether they pursue a music degree
program or not.

 

True musicality cannot be taught.  Only technique can be
taught.  And if any music background helps a piano technician, it
would be musicality - not technique.

 

Jeff



 


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