My Music Mentors
December 19th, 2010
Mentoring plays a substantial role for us whose professions revolve around the arts and other related industries. Those who went to college can identify a person or two who acted as their mentor during their college years.
I’ve had several music mentors (my primary art form), and they typically fall into one of two categories: those who taught me the art of making music, and those who gave me possibilities to grow in music.
I have a number of mentors that taught me music four of which gave me private piano lessons when I was 9 up until I was a sophomore in college. Each mentor helped me become what I am now, but there is one mentor that stood out among rest. While three of my music mentors concentrated mainly on method and expression, my instructor through high school acknowledged my gift in songwriting, and being a songwriter herself, tailored my training to include theory and contemporary songwriting, as well as classical instruction. She did not merely put me in a system instead she helped me develop into an artist.
I had personal instruction under 2 composition professors while I was in college taking up composition as my major and like my four previous mentors one of the two stood out. He discovered my weak points and strong points as a songwriter and he provided me with a challenge that will help me grow. He wasn’t just a teacher, but also a private coach, willing to work with my human side, my attitude problems and my meltdowns in the process.
On the other hand, I also encountered mentors who never taught me something but instead they gave acknowledgement to my talent and gave me the opportunity to use it and improve it. I spent a lot of time in church music surroundings as a young man, and several of the musical and spiritual frontrunners in those settings gave me access to musical instruments and recording equipment, let me play on the music team (even as a youth), allowed me room to make shortcomings, and even found me other areas to play. They were more than cheerleaders to me, they were the people responsible for laying the corner stone of my success.
In thinking back again on my music mentors, 2 things stand out. First off, those mentors that really affected me were the individuals who took interest in me, as a musician and as a being. Second – looking back at my growth, I believe my mentors played more of a role in my education than my collegiate studies..Even though my teachers and mentors are in the college setting, their personal interest in me helped me develop into a better musician than homework and classes.. College helped but my music mentors made the difference in my growth.
Categories: Music and Gadget
