Monday, March 13, 2017

Fostering Early Musical Talent With Toys

By Jennifer McDonald


The music industry is not what it used to be. Headlines often despair over the erosion of revenue now that downloads are replacing CD sales, and online file sharing often eliminates the need to spend any money. Any media business is vulnerable to technology changes and consumers switching to competing forms of entertainment, but I have to wonder if music with mass appeal that could bring in big sales is even being produced. Where actually is musical talent hiding?

No more do super groups such as Led Zeppelin or the Who emerge to pack stadiums and create fans committed to buying every album. And these days, who can claim to be a part of the next generation of music talent that can inherit the popularity and profits of such creative geniuses as John Lennon or Jimi Hendrix?

When you stop and think about it, music really taps into a variety of these areas in a comprehensive way. In addition, physical characteristics are known to be influenced by early exposure to music, especially when learning an instrument. Fingers that are regularly active playing music have more nerve activity.

For students considering teaching as a career, taking a summer job as a camp counselor is a good start. It gives them a chance to learn how to interact with younger children while spending their summertime playing instruments they love and making new friends. This also gives high school students a chance to spend some independent time away from home before taking the big step of going off to college. It is also a way to help earn some college money. There are many openings as camp counselors in fine arts camps, as well as those specifically designed for marching band, orchestra, ensembles, horns, percussion and just plain music camp.

Travelling orchestras organized through band and fine arts camps seek out high school students who can play well and want to spend the summer on tour in Europe. They offer students a chance to travel and see the world while honing their musical skills and learning more about a professional career as a musician. International programs typically seek out students who have good manners, have a solid character, and are responsible and mature.

The modern world of high speed internet, microwave ovens, fast cars, and Television creates expectations of instant results that are neither realistic nor sustainable when it comes to learning a difficult instrument such as the piano. Children and sometimes parents expect overnight results. This perception of learning is based on what C. Wright Mills calls a Sociological Imagination, or what I call a shared illusion about reality, learned mainly from TV and the movies.

When I was growing up in the 1980s, I would listen to the radio or watch MTV. When I heard something I liked, then I would probably buy it at the store. As I recall, MTV pretty much stopped showing music videos in the early 1990s. As for radio, most stations these days play oldies, classic rock, and light mixes. This is a profitable formula, but how is new music going to be marketed to a mass audience unless it is presented to a mass audience? When the Beatles were exploding on to the American scene, they were on the radio.

I just shake my head when I hear executives and lawyers for the music industry complain about illegal downloads and dropping CD sales. Maybe if they looked for some fresh talent and let creative minds do what they do best, they could attract new paying consumers who would surely appreciate something new and good to listen and dance to.




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