How much music education do you possess

Sherman Willden · From: Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA

Just wondering.
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Sherman L. Willden
It is easy to play the steel guitar. Playing so that the audience finds it pleasing is the difficult act.

Ben Elder · From: La Crescenta, California, USA

The usual 50s/60s elementary (wonder what the 80s/90s/-aughts kids make of "usual") school mix, plus a semester in seventh grade.

Wasn't nearly enough.
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"Gopher, Everett?"

Rick Winfield · From: Pickin' beneath the Palmettos

I'm self taught. No formal training. Taught myself to read and write music, but don't use it as much as I use my ears. Studied books, magazines, and listened to anything I could.
I can't squeeze into the above choice categories.
Rick

Billy Tonnesen · From: R.I.P., Buena Park, California

Another category for us Old Timers would be the Steel Guitar private schools i.e. Oahu, NIOMA, etc.
It was not real Academic instruction but we did learn many of the basics in reading and playing music. We learned to play together in our periodic Concerts aimed at showing our Parents our progress. These schools mainly wanted you to be ableto play tunes as soon as possible to keep your interest and continue taking lessons. Some of the great players over the years started out in these Schools. They had door to door Salesmen encouraging parents to sign up their Kids at an early age. There were also a lot of Accordian schools doing the same thing,

Mike Perlowin · From: Los Angeles CA

I was a music major in college, but I dropped out when one of the professors (Someone with a Ph.D no less) proclaimed with great authority that the Beatles did not possess any musical talent.

According to her, talents musicians only played classical music, or sang opera. The mere fact that they worked in a different genre proved that they were talentless hacks.

This was back in the 60s, right around the time of the "Help" movie. I understand things have changed in the world of academia since then. I hope that's true.
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Please visit my web site and Soundcloud page and listen to the music posted there.
http://www.mikeperlowin.com http://soundcloud.com/mike-perlowin

Alan Brookes · From: Brummy living in Southern California

I can't vote because none apply. I learned music at Grammar School (in England that's the upper stream schools 11-19 yr. olds). I never went to high school. At University it wasn't one of my subjects. Since then I've studied the subject as a hobby. I don't think that sitting reading books on musical theory for hours upon end constitutes picking it up on the fly.

The choices of answers assumes that one either learns the subject academically or picks up bits of information willy-nilly. Other than classical musicians, I doubt many steel guitarists studied the subject at college. For instance, someone who was tutored for years by Jerry Byrd would have to list himself as picking it up on the fly.....

Leonard G. Robertson · From: Ozark, Mo. USA

I attended country 1 room school about 3 yrs. where we learned to sing shape notes from a baptist hymnal (Heavenly Highlyways) vice using the words. Notes (do re me etc.) were easily recognized on sight without factoring in lines & spaces. After singing the bass notes I soon realized how to change chords accordingly on rythmn guitar. We beat time using hand movements.

John Swindle · From: Oregon, USA

Okay, Alan, now that you've invoked Jerry Byrd, it's obvious that this poll needs another choice of answer - "learned at the feet of a master".

Papa Joe Pollick · From: Swanton, Ohio

My mother taught me to read time and key signatures.The rest I learned on a need to know basis.Theory is still pretty much a mystery.

Mike Neer · From: NJ

Self-taught, but as a kid I was always intrigued with the mysteries of music, so I studied as much as I could from books, magazines, etc. and tied it all together with the music I listened to until it all made sense. Eventually, I got into Jazz and all its complexities and I started writing horn charts and doing transcriptions and things like that. But those first few years of trying to learn to play guitar on my own was like living in the dark ages. But when it clicked, man, the explosion was like a supernova.

Had some guitar lessons with my favorite players as an adult, and that really humbled me a lot.

I consider myself to be a lifelong student of music and that will never change.
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Larry Rafferty · From: Ballston Spa, NY

I find this to be an interesting topic, however NONE of the above choices seems to apply.

I took 2 years of piano lessons from a very strict concert pianist. It was one hour per day practice and one hour per day written tests and music theory. I then took 5 years of accordion lessons from a professional accordionist. I took pedal steel guitar lessons from one of the best PSG players in my area...often for 5 to 6 hours per weekly session. None of the choices offered says anything about private instruction.

Even tho I can read and write music, play by ear or by reading tab, I feel the best thing that ever advanced my music was 33 years of playing in dance bands.

From the age of 12 to 17 I was going to school and also working 6 nights a week in a band. Then after 5 years of active duty for Uncle Sam I went on to play over 2500 club gigs.

I am now retired and spend nearly every day
learning new things in music...and practicing the old...which never gets old.

The more I learn about music, the more I realize I've still got a lot to learn. Theory has some importance, but practice makes perfect.
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Mullen D-10 8x5; Sho-Bud Super Pro D10 8x6; PedalMaster 5 Star SD-10 3x5; Dekley D-10 8x4;
Sho-Bud S-10 3x1; Fender Lap/Floor Steel; Peavey Power Slide; Supro Lap Steel; Peavey Nashville 400;
pair of Peavey Vegas 400's; Peavey NV112; Webb 614E with matching extension cabinet; Fender Twin Reverb and 3 cats.

They laughed when I sat down to play, cause' somebody pulled my chair away...

Dave Boothroyd · From: Staffordshire Moorlands

Like Roger, I studied music for the first two years of my Secondary Education at an English Grammar School. There were two of us who always vied for the position at the top of the class. My friend and rival (another Roger) went on to be Organist and Director of Music at one of England's most beautiful ancient cathedrals.
I decided to study Languages instead after an accident set me back to the beginning in my Cello playing.
I took up guitar at sixteen and was very casual about practicing so never became particularly good. It was enough to use it for teaching music lessons in Junior School. But I was interested in the Tech stuff, and worked the Desk for many bands- almost from before the days when live desks were invented!
I learned most of the academic stuff, both about Music and Audio Tech when I was asked to teach it.
I don't believe in being a teacher who is only one page ahead in the textbook. I need to be at least one educational level higher. So when I was teaching at level three, I made sure I had read and understood everything on a Degree level reading list, and when I was teaching undergrads, I needed to be at postgrad level myself.
So, yes, I picked it up on the fly. But I can talk as an equal to conventionally educated people.
It had led to the odd phenomenon that the Students who have left my course with degrees, are, on paper, better qualified that the man who taught them all they know!
Cheers
Dave
(In a strong Yorkshire accent)
"Aye sither, when I were a lad there wer none o'this Music Technological stuff to be studyin'"

Johan Jansen · From: Europe

never enough Smile

JJ

Jason Hull · Posted 24 Jan 2010 4:27 am **education**

I played ukelele in grede school, guitar in middle school, and was self-taught until college, where I majored in classical guitar. I played a number of instruments professionally, including acoustic and electric guitars, banjo, mandolin, oud, cumbus, and anything else with strings that I could pluck. I took sitar lessons for a while; I love the sound but hate to play it! Too uncomfortable to sit with! I started playing lap steel when I developed carpal tunnel syndrome and standard guitar became difficult. I'm a total naif on the pedal steel, but I've got this great resource, so I'm excited!

Rick Winfield · From: Pickin' beneath the Palmettos

I'm not sure what tihs means: naif
but, if it means unsatisfied with your playing,(pedal steel), I too am a "naif", but....
IMHO:
once it's in your head,(music understanding) your fingers will follow with practice, and more practice
rick

Roual Ranes · From: Atlanta, Texas, USA

I had band in Jr. High and High School with some in college. I learned more of how it works from the people I ran into while trying to play without any written music. I too, had one of those music teachers that said if it wasn't classical or opera it wasn't music. I always wanted to know who the judge was.

Bob Hickish · From: Port Ludlow, Washington, USA, R.I.P.

Larry Jamieson · From: Walton, NY USA

My dad was a school music teacher and band director, so there were always instruments around for me to play with. I started guitar at about 9 or 10 and baritone horn lessons at school. I also learned string bass starting in 7th grade and played in the high school orchestra.
In 1974 I moved to Oklahoma and attended the Hank Thompson School of Country Music at Claremore Jr. College. I received private pedal steel lessons there from Gene Craine, a monster player and a good teacher.
I also had a great theory teacher at the school, Ken Downing, a Tulsa area jazz musician.
Probably what has helped most is playing with bands over the years. That experience will help you learn to hear chord changes coming, keep up with other musicians in an ensemble setting, and develop a sense of musicianship.
I do have an associates degree in Country Music, That and $1.50 will get me a cup of coffee in most places...
Larry J.

Bill McCloskey · Posted 24 Jan 2010 1:53 pm

I was in the school band from 1st grade through 5th (at a time when public schools still had substantial music programs at least in Pittsburgh where I grew up). Played trumpet and sang in the choir both at school and at church. In high school, switched to guitar and had a few lessons but was mostly self taught. Went briefly to Berklee School of Music but dropped out because I didn't think I was good enough. I learned a lot about the history of music at the liberal arts college I attended which probably exposed me to more music from every genre and culture than I've been exposed to since. I've had great teachers both in school and out of school, the best being the year I studied guitar with Dave Van Ronk

Charles Davidson · From: Phenix City Alabama, USA

Fifty plus years at Honky Tonk College. Still working on my degree. A few more years I hope to be,qualified,classified,bonafied, and most of all legitimatized. YOU BETCHA.DYK?BC.
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Hard headed, opinionated old geezer. BAMA CHARLIE. GOD BLESS AMERICA. ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVIST. SUPPORT LIVE MUSIC !

Barry Hyman · From: upstate New York, USA

I started playing music in the fifties and studied music theory in high school and college, where I was a music major. The music degree has always been financially worthless, but I use music theory every single day. Forty-five years of gigs has helped a lot, of course. But probably where I learned the most about music is from thirty years of teaching it.

An example of the usefulness of music theory for psg: I made a chart of all 180 different combinations of pedals and knee levers possible on my Williams, and what notes all twelve strings would play with each combination. This would be a useless list of meaningless letters except that I am able to scan the groups of notes and quickly see, using music theory, what chords and scales are possible with each combination. I can look at a copedant and figure out much of what it can do without ever having to hear it.

I always tell my students that humans evolved two slightly different cerebral hemispheres because two brains are better than one. The right brain can solve musical problems by listening, and the left brain can solve musical problems by using words and logic and music theory. Both are useful, and it is much harder to try to get by with just one.

But you can learn music theory anywhere -- you don't need to go to school. The music theory education my students get from lessons or from my book is easier to understand and more immediately useful than the music theory I was taught in school, which was all oriented towards the traditional classical approach. I teach the music theory that is helpful for a modern musician who wants to perform, compose, arrange, or record music with other musicians, in real bands in the real world. What I was taught was how to analyze Beethoven or compose Baroque fugues, and it took a long while to distill my music education into something that was actually useful...
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I give music lessons on several different instruments in Cambridge, NY (between Bennington, VT and Albany, NY). But my true love is pedal steel. I've been obsessed with steel since 1972; don't know anything I'd rather talk about... www.barryhyman.com

Joe Gretz · From: Washington, DC, USA

I was a music major: Double Bass, also known as the upright bass, doghouse or bull fiddle. Bass is still my "principal instrument".

I foolishly dropped out before completing my degree; but never lost my love of music, and continue learning to this day...

Joe
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Dattebayo!!!

Ernest Cawby · From: Lake City, Florida, USA, R.I.P.

High school band menber, 7 years military band 31 Dixie division band 1947 - 1954. 2 years classes at American Guitar studio, wish I knew more than I do now, working every day at it to learn more. 15 years playing in church ochs. Trombone 50 piece groupe. Very good band hadclases every week ti get better.

ernie

Tony Prior · From: Charlotte NC

Like many here none of the poll choices apply to me.

In the earliest years I was a self learner, then studied Orchestral Chords under a teacher ( Frank Falcone) in our town. Mel Bays Orchestral Chords, still relevant today. Then went over a decade with no formal study . In my late 20's I began a 6 month study with the NE Guitar guru, Link Chamberlain. That 6 month study was pivotal.

From those two early studies today's reference had been set. Knowing where chords or phrases come from and seeing redundant positions up , down and across the fretboard sure makes for a better musical adventure !

Some will say to much theory, well I call it connect the dots, but you can't connect the dots if you don't know where they are !

t
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Emmons L-II , Fender Telecasters, B-Benders , Eastman Mandolin ,
Pro Tools 12 on WIN 7 !
jobless- but not homeless- now retired 9 years

CURRENT MUSIC TRACKS AT > https://tprior2241.wixsite.com/website

Ben Jones · From: Seattle, Washington, USA

I still cant name my strings, cept the E's, those I know.

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