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

[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.