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May. 29th, 2003 10:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oakenguyMy Assistant Chair (and highly skilled jazz musician) had a pensive moment yesterday, after lunch with his friend who's touring with Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood Mac is one of the highest-paying gigs his friend has had in his life, but musically.....apparently at one point a guitarist has a one-note solo. A loooong solo. With grimaces and scowls at the strings, the whole nine yards. It's not about the music, it's about making it look fresh and fun each night, even if it's exactly the same concert they've done 3000 times before. It's about selling the performance.
And here's our Chair's pensive moment: one of our main goals is giving students all the tools they'll need to get jobs. But ain't nothing in any of our courses that would prepare our kids for Fleetwood Mac...or, to be fair, almost any of the other 50 highest-paying gigs. If we want our students to land these gigs (and do we?), how do we prepare them? And how much time do we take away from teaching them musicianship, in order to teach them how to sell themselves to a crowd?
And here's our Chair's pensive moment: one of our main goals is giving students all the tools they'll need to get jobs. But ain't nothing in any of our courses that would prepare our kids for Fleetwood Mac...or, to be fair, almost any of the other 50 highest-paying gigs. If we want our students to land these gigs (and do we?), how do we prepare them? And how much time do we take away from teaching them musicianship, in order to teach them how to sell themselves to a crowd?
