I keep getting this repsonse...

[kenjari]

As I'm sure everyone has figured out by now, I'm a composer. Over the years, whenever I've told people this, I have frequently gotten a somewhat odd response. One of the first things non-musicians often do after I tell them I'm a composer is to reveal or even describe their own lack of musical aptitude or knowledge. "Oh, well, I can't carry a tune in a bucket". "The only thing I can play is the radio." "I was never any good at the (insert name of instrument here)." It's never resentful or negative in any way. In fact, these statements are more like disclaimers, or even confessions. I find this a little puzzling. I can't ever recall reacting in a similar way when meeting people of other professions. I don't respond to artists by immediately blurting out "I can't even draw a decent stick figure", or to programmers by admitting that I never could find sufficient patience for code. I wonder if other composers or musicians with other specialities (performance, musicology) get this response as much as I do. And I wonder if there is something in particular about music, or even about me specifically, that elicits this response. I don't really mind - it's a lot better than the people who immediately inform me that I'm not going to make much money from my chosen profession (thanks, tell me something I didn't figure out 10 years ago). It's just odd.

Comments

[hca.livejournal.com]

I think for some of us, at least, it's giving you fair warning that "you talking about your ruling passion and career" = "you talking to me in a foreign language." :) That's not to say that you shouldn't discuss it (particularly to me) but that all I can do is nod and smile.

When I say I write, a good chunk of people chime in with the kind of books they like to read. When somebody says they're in software, I can ask for specifics, explain I do software quality assurance and have designed databases, and even if we don't speak the same dialect (I'm a on-the-sidelines-of-geekiness, not a real geek) we have some similar vocabulary in said foreign language. When ladybird describes her dissertation to me, I can't intelligently respond, but I can ask curious questions, since I'm curious about medieval history.

But when jendavis77 talks about what she does all day, I must confess to the "language barrier." I don't understand mechanical engineering at all. Not even a little bit. I'm glad someone is doing it, but they're speaking a foreign language when they tell me about it. Ditto gee_tar and Monsieur Ubiquitous re astrophysics. Ditto Jason W., re art and animation. Ditto resonance, re medicine.

And when you, epiliminon (I just misspelled that, I'm sure) and foldedfish talk about composition or other aspects of music... I nod and smile, because I don't "get" it. Unlike mechanical engineer, astrophysics, animination, and medicine, I really wish I *did* get it--but when I listen to music, I listen to the lyrics, and really don't process the music at all. (And that's something I do sort of feel the need to apologize for, to a composer. Sorry. :) )

On the other hand, when you and your sister talk to each other, or to zfarcher, well now, that's the same language all right, and I enjoy listening even when I can't follow it all. :)

[anacrucis.livejournal.com]

I can't really get away with introducing myself as a composer, but when I introduce myself as a musician, or when my musical background comes up, invariably the next question is "what instrument do you play?"

Which is a little furstrating, because, yes, I play an instrument, but no, that's really not the focus of my training or interest.

[kenjari.livejournal.com]

I get this too, even after I've clearly stated that I'm a composer. It's like they don't hear that part. I find it very frustrating as well. It would be like telling someone you're an epidemiologist and then being asked "So what kind of surgeries do you perform?"

[anacrucis.livejournal.com]

what frustrates me is just the level of ignorance, and the general state of music education in this country. When I was teaching in elementry school, the classroom teacher would come in and make comments like "oh I don't know anything about this stuff" and I'm like "If I walked into your math class, I would be able to do the stuff you were teaching your kids."

I've often commented that, as the holder of an undergrad degree in music, I feel about as well-educated in music as your average european high-schooler.

[epilimnion.livejournal.com]

Yeah, music ed is in a sorry state. I too get that "what instrument do you play?" question after stating I'm a composer. Follow up questions lead me to believe it's because people are under the mistaken impression that you must compose on an instrument, and you must be composing for an instrument you play. They have no idea that it's not (necessarily) related.
back to music ed: my housemate's kids go to a private school in chestnut hill. They have music class as part of their curriculum, and one of the music teachers was instructing the students how to read music (this was junior high level). One of the kids found it difficult and his parents complained to the teacher, saying that they felt it was unnecessary for their child to be struggling over something that he didn't need to know. Would those same parents complain about their kid learning calculus, because he would never become a physicist and therefore didn't need to know such higher math?

Ugh, it's so frustrating that our culture thinks of music, and all art really, as something superfluous, something you do as hobby, and not fit for a serious career.

[kenjari.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I had to stifle an urge to punch a co-worker once when her response to being told that I was taking composition lessons was that it must be great to just get to be creative and have fun. Yeah, like doing music is nothing more than extended recess playtime.

I do have to admit to feeling slightly ambiguous about the emphasis placed on learning to read music in some school curriculums. It's a good idea in the years leading up to introduction of instrumental lessons to ensure that the kids have the necessary skills to make it an option. But I think that it is sometimes over-emphasized at the expense of other important aspects of music education, like a basic sense of music history, critical listening skills, and rudimentary music theory. And in my experience at least, there was not enough concentration on the relationship between the music notation and the sounds it represented.

[iralith.livejournal.com]

>not enough concentration on the relationship
>between the music notation and the sounds it represented

I'm a pretty good illustration of that failure, I think. Although I might just have been predisposed not to "get" theory when it finally was offered to me.