<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><BR><DIV><DIV>On Nov 5, 2007, at 5:47 PM, David M. Porritt wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><P class="MsoNormal"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; ">“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.”</SPAN><O:P style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; "></O:P></P><P class="MsoNormal"><O:P style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; "> </SPAN></O:P></P><P class="MsoNormal"><SPAN style="color:blue; color: rgb(0, 0, 255); font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255); font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; ">I hope that’s not indicative of the music program there at USC. If it is, then I see your point.</SPAN><O:P style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255); font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; "></O:P></SPAN></P><P class="MsoNormal"><SPAN style="color:blue; color: rgb(0, 0, 255); font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; "><O:P style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255); font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255); font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; "> </SPAN></O:P></SPAN></P></SPAN></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><DIV>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.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>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.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Jeff</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR><BR><DIV> <SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><DIV>Jeff Tanner, RPT</DIV><DIV>University of South Carolina</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN> </DIV><BR></BODY></HTML>