Music For Everyone: Part One by Robert Rawlins
Though music can sometimes be a professional calling, it's often much more than a career choice
A survey of 2004 high school graduates conducted by the National Research Center for College and University Admissions found that music ranked an impressive third among preferred career choices. Considering that music was one of the four essential subjects included in the medieval quadrivium, I'd say we've been holding up pretty well over the past thousand years or so. People want to learn music, and history reveals that music has long been recognized as a discipline worthy of serious study. It is clearly an integral aspect of human society and is destined to remain so.
But music is more than just a profession. Many people other than musicians harbor a deep interest in music and would like to participate in some way. In Part One of this discussion, we will consider how music differs from other professions. In Part Two, we will consider how everyone can be involved in music.
I recently received an e-mail that read, "I just opted for early retirement from my job, and now I have some free time. I always wanted to study music. Do you think it's too late for me to learn?" The answer to such a question, of course, depends on the individual's goals and expectations and will vary from case to case, but I am asked this or similar questions on frequently. It seems there are many who harbor an unfulfilled desire to study music.
Obviously, everyone cannot be a performing musician or music educator. For the most part, the educational system in the United States does an excellent job of producing an adequate number of highly trained specialists prepared for professional careers in music. Although many enter the field with some sense of trepidation, some 100,000 students are currently studying music as undergraduate college music majors.
Most of these will successfully complete their degrees and go on to rewarding careers in their chosen field. Others will find that they cannot achieve the financial return from a career in music that they desire and will go on to work in other fields, perhaps continuing to perform or teach music on a part-time basis. Few will ever regret having followed their dream.
But what of those who do not follow their dream? Suppose financial concerns, lifestyle, lack of opportunity or self-doubt cause one to choose another career and neglect the study of music entirely. Well, that's life, isn't it? You can't have your cake and eat it too. Sometimes we have to make hard choices, right?
Wrong. Not in this case. Music is so central to the human experience, so integral to society and so intertwined with an individual's cultural and personal development, no one should be denied the opportunity to participate in some way.
Music is not just a career choice. If a high school student makes a last-minute decision to major in chemical engineering instead of accounting, it is unlikely he will stifle a hidden yearning for the rest of his life. He isn't going to get excited every time he sees a ledger or get goose bumps when tax time comes around. Chances are, he'll just forget his earlier interest. Accounting may be a wonderful profession, but it's just a profession.
Music is different. You can't do everything in life, but there are some things everyone should do. No, everyone can't learn to play an orchestral instrument or compose counterpoint. But certainly everyone can learn to sing, listen attentively and appreciate the finer aspects of the vast world of music that surrounds us.
As music educators, we are proud of the job we do in preparing music majors for careers in their chosen profession. We are also cognizant of our responsibility to promote this time-honored discipline to which we have devoted our lives.
Training students for careers in music is our immediate goal, but enriching lives and encouraging involvement in music throughout the community is our mission. In the next installment of "Music for Everyone," we will examine some of the opportunities that are open to all.
Dr. Robert Rawlins is chairman of the music department at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey. His publishing credits include Jazzology: The Encyclopedia of Jazz Theory for All Musicians, a new release from Hal Leonard that he coauthored. He can be reached at rawlinsr@rowan.edu.
