My Music Mentors
For the majority of of us in the arts and related sectors, mentoring plays a huge part in the learning process. Even those who pursue a college education will usually mention some mentor as a key to their growth.
I was under a number of music mentors, there are those who helped me understand the art of creating music and there are those who provided me the opportunity to polish my craft.
I have a number of mentors that taught me music four of which gave me private piano lessons when I was 9 up until I was a sophomore in college. Each mentor helped me turn out to be what I am now, but there is one mentor that stood out among others. While three of my music mentors concentrated mainly on method and expression, my instructor through high school recognized my gift in songwriting, and being a songwriter herself, tailored my training to include theory and contemporary songwriting, as well as classical training. She did not merely put me in a system instead she helped me develop into an artist.
As a composition major in college, I also had personal instruction with two composition teachers - and again, one of the two stood out as a mentor in music. He took notice of my strengths and weaknesses as a songwriter, and challenged me in particular ways to help me develop. He is more of a coach than a teacher and he is willing to work with every aspect of my humanity not only as a composer but as a person as well.
There were also some mentors along the way who did not really teach me music, but recognized the gift and made room for it. As a young man of music I invested most of my time in the church and the individuals in the choir allowed me to use the musical and recording instruments which gave me room to hone my skills and learn from my shortcomings. They were more than cheerleaders to me, they were the people responsible for laying the foundation of my success.
In thinking back on my music mentors, 2 realizations stand out. First of all, concerning the mentors themselves - the ones who affected me most were the ones who took a personal interest in me and in my development, both as a musician and as a person. Second, I realized that in the course of my growth as a musician, I learned more from my mentors than my college education..Even though a few of my teachers and mentors were in the college scenario, it was the personal attention that helped me develop in music, far more than the classes, homework or tests. College was helpful in my development, but my music mentors were pivotal in my development.


November 24th, 2010 - 07:58
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