Barking Spiders Posted September 1, 2016 Share Posted September 1, 2016 (edited) The Blues, jazz, rock n roll, punk, metal, hip hop, folk...all came into being against or independent of the establishment. Now, Berklee, Rockschool and similar types of institutions offer graded exams. Would you have wanted to pay to study bass at one of these types of places or d'ya reckon taking exams goes against the original spirit of rock n roll? Have a gander... [url="https://www.rslawards.com/music/graded-music-exams/bass"]https://www.rslaward...usic-exams/bass[/url] Edited September 1, 2016 by Barking Spiders Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ambient Posted September 1, 2016 Share Posted September 1, 2016 (edited) It depends what you want achieve I guess. I studied at ICMP in London. First of all on their Higher diploma, then I did their 3 year BMus course, graduating last year with a very respectable honours degree, I'm now doing an MMus course at Goldsmiths. There's a lot more to music than just playing whatever genre you're comfortable with. It forces you to leave your comfort zone, playing music that you've maybe never been interested in. I studied jazz, fusion, country and western, metal amongst others. You also get to do composition, arranging , writing (academic), dissertation etc, music technology. I had coffee with my old programme leader a few weeks ago, something I said to him, that he was impressed by was, studying shows you what you don't know you can do, you end up discovering a lot about yourself. I'd never written a piece of music before, just bass lines for bands. I've now got licensing contracts with 2 production music companies. Edited September 1, 2016 by ambient Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlloyd Posted September 1, 2016 Share Posted September 1, 2016 [quote name='Barking Spiders' timestamp='1472743847' post='3123852'] The Blues, jazz, rock n roll, punk, metal, hip hop, folk...all came into being against or independent of the establishment. Now, Berklee, Rockschool and similar types of institutions offer graded exams. Would you have wanted to pay to study bass at one of these types of places or d'ya reckon taking exams goes against the original spirit of rock n roll? Have a gander... [url="https://www.rslawards.com/music/graded-music-exams/bass"]https://www.rslaward...usic-exams/bass[/url] [/quote] Jazz is a bit different. The type of jazz that is taught at Berklee, New England Conservatory of Music or Leeds College of Music is very different from early Dixieland jazz. It was developed in part by people who had studied music at college... Off the top of my head, Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Ron Carter, Dave Brubeck and George Russell (who basically codified a lot of jazz theory) all studied music at college. I would have liked the opportunity to have immersed myself in studying music but I'm not sure I would pay Berklee rates to do it (you can essentially buy a house for how much it costs to get a degree there). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scalpy Posted September 2, 2016 Share Posted September 2, 2016 It's just another form of gentrification. Like dodgy areas of cities becoming a lot more expensive. What worries me is that as we can all share information so easily the next genre that is the new jazz or rock n roll won't get chance to simmer down and really stew to maximum potency. It should have been drum and bass in the 90s, that ate itself, dubstep hasn't quite crossed over, grime might have the potential but .... The industry is on such as look out for it, whatever it is, that the new Louis Armstrong, or muddy waters or Elvis, people who are steeped in their culture, art form and craft, supported by a pyramid of people who really get it, won't develop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeEvans Posted September 2, 2016 Share Posted September 2, 2016 In higher education generally, the real value has always been the time and space that a degree, masters or phd gives you to explore your own thoughts and ideas and to try and make sense of them. I guess the same would be true of a jazz course - it's not so much that you learn everything there is to know about jazz, more that it can only be beneficial to spend a year or two with your whole focus on music, surrounded by other great musicians and with no immediate pressure to make a living. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlloyd Posted September 2, 2016 Share Posted September 2, 2016 It's also, I think, a little simplistic to try to compare the situation that those in the "millennial generation" face with the situations faced by the baby boomers or the generations that came before them. Jazz musicians in the 1930s could learn their trade playing in one of the many big bands that would tour the country (US and, to an extent, UK and Europe), playing at dances and nightclubs. That isn't an option now and a college setting gives a reasonable structured alternative. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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