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kehaulani
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 Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2024 8:45 am Post subject: Excellent thoughts on formal/informal music training |
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Anne Kathrin Dern is a German film composer, now living/working in Hollywood, who is both formally trained and self-taught and has some excellent observations on the subject.
The topic comes up from time-to-time, so I thought it may be of some readers' interest. Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGtrq9Qnx6I&ab_channel=Anne-KathrinDern
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abontrumpet
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| Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2024 11:24 am Post subject: Re: Excellent thoughts on formal/informal music training |
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| kehaulani wrote: | | Anne Kathrin Dern is a German film composer, now living/working in Hollywood, who is both formally trained and self-taught and has some excellent observations on the subject. |
I'll be needlessly picky and say that you are self-taught until you're formally trained, then you are "formally-trained." Every formally-trained musician is also self-taught, an inherent quality of learning.
But, yes, she does have a good debate on a gamut of topics. Many musicians should consider non-traditional paths if playing/composing is their goal. Getting private lessons from "the best" is going to be significantly cheaper than paying full tuition at any university. You can do that indefinitely and enter the ranks of the pros if you play/compose well enough. But nobody is becoming a pro just on youtube alone, you need to get formal lessons to drastically shortcut the learning process.
An academic institution provides a major network for you to plug into. Music, unless you're going to win an audition outright, is highly reliant on "who you know." Is it a coincidence that she went to school in California and now composes for Hollywood? Would she have had the same path had she stayed in Europe? I'd venture to say no to both, but we can't know for sure. There are benefits to an institution, however, those benefits are only fully realized if you also have the skills/ability to capitalize on that resource. |
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kehaulani
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| Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2024 1:20 pm Post subject: |
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Alright - she has had academic and non. academic training, and self-discovery, which gives her experience and a good perspective of the topic.
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stuartissimo
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| Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2024 12:02 am Post subject: |
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I like that video, for one reason specifically, and that’s because it encourages creativity. The small Barbossa meme clip really sums it up well. Formal training is a (very useful) tool to create music, but whatever music is created shouldn’t be limited by it.
One of my compositions got reviewed by a professional once, and they mentioned that some of the chord changes I made (going up and down seconds) was going against many conventions. Yet the way I’d written it, they felt it made a lot of sense (biggest compliment I ever got). Doesn’t mean I’d be against learning more about music theory though, and I do take every bit of criticism (especially from professional musicians/composers) about my work very seriously. If nothing else, knowing the theory can speed up the composition process (doing everything by ear and listening back takes a LOT of time).
I see a lot of people (mostly hobby musicians) not even willing to try things because they feel they’re not ‘professional enough’ (read: knowledgeable). To those people, the mere existence of ‘formal knowledge’ is gatekeeping their creativity, which is a shame imho. A video like this might just convince a few of them to start their own process (and maybe pick up some formal training along the way).
The video may be stating the obvious a bit though, but if the gist is that both ‘formal training’ and ‘personal experimentation’ have their uses and place, then I’d wholeheartedly agree.
EDIT: Thank for sharing that video, I’ve spent some time watching some her other videos on composing and they’re quite insightful…another tool for the kit ☺️.
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kehaulani
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| Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2024 9:20 am Post subject: |
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| stuartissimo wrote: | | I see a lot of people (mostly hobby musicians) not even willing to try things because they feel they’re not ‘professional enough’ (read: knowledgeable). To those people, the mere existence of ‘formal knowledge’ is gatekeeping their creativity, which is a shame imho. |
And the irony to that is many, if not most, formally educated people don't feel that exclusiveness at all - at least in music. To be sure, there are snobby elitists, but many formally trained people just put knowledge-acquiring in context.
Although there are legions of people fitting this category, a prominent example is George Martin, "The Fifth Beetle". He graduated in music from Guildhall School of Music and Drama and worked extensively contributing a mass of ideas, both orthodox and unorthodox, to the Beetles' recorded music. I doubt that Martin waved his credentials around the studio in front on Paul McCartney or John Lennon.
The point being, for professionals, it's how you produce, and it would be a pity for any "hobbyists" to self-restrain their expression as a result of being inhibited because of a lack of formal education.
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