Conservatoire graduates

[pianowelsh]

Hi I am interested to know those of you who have been through college. Which aspect (s) of the training you recieved have you found most helpful in the careers you are persuing NOW?

[lostinidlewonder]

I have to say nothing in college directly helped me in my career now. Understanding the disipline and time required to study music full time was the biggest thing it gave me I guess. I find that the universities haven't really got the skills to teach you how to be a sucessful peforming musician. You might be lucky and meet a good teacher who inspires you and supports you though, but in the end you have to do the work, that in itself doesn't do anything. It is something you have to find yourself through experience I guess, when you go out and start working in the real world with your music. I never did expect university to teach me how to be a musician, i think you set yourself up for dissapointment if you do.

[mysKat]

I am glad I learnt to research in the library. That was very helpful. Learning to see what scores/editions recordings etc. are available or not.

 I also learnt to type lots of B.S. musicology papers, which was just waste of time.

I wish they had taught me to tune a piano instead. That would be so nice to be able to do that.

[pianowelsh]

actually i agree with the piano tuning bit that would be so usefull for pianists! thanks for your response!!

[pianowelsh]

So? Only two people on this forum graduated from conservatory?!? - I don't think so!!! Come on guys!

[anda]

everything i learned from my piano teacher helps me constantly - that includes piano playing, music theory, harmony, music history, counterpoint, stylistics, aesthetics, etc.

[krenske]

I have reached my unbelievable level of piano playing almost without teachers.

However, I did have to learn off someone once, in a conservatory. Fortunately, they passed on a very important bit of information: "You see, Peter, to play piano has nothing to do with playing piano. It is not about competition. It is about spirituality."

My playing is now very serious, and very spiritual.

[pianowelsh]

I like your quote krenske!! What kind of support classes did all you guys take in addition to your piano lessons and performance classes/masterclasses ?

[lostinidlewonder]

Talking about learning from teachers etc. To tell u the honest truth i am impossible to teach because i have all my own ideas and opinion on music and how my hand should move and do this or that.

I would say the most i have taken from other teachers is the disipline that they instilled. For instance, i will never forget doing all 24 Etudes from Chopin in 2 weeks. That is 2 etudes per day. That is worse than bamboo under the finger nails. But you never forget those things. I am a memoriser, but here i was forced to act in uncomfrotable grounds mixing my ability up with excessive reading. Because no way in hell could i memorise them all, it was partially memorised partiall read, partially utter crap. But i learnt the most i ever learn in my entire life about music.

Music is about sacrifice, if you really think about it, being a musician is an extremely lonely job. You sit at the instrument by yourself, you memorise/study by yourself, you do the majority of all musical work just by yourself. What a mental struggle that is just alone. To motivate yourself constantly, or just sit on ur ass and twiddle thumbs. 

When i sat day in day out studying chopin etudes i thought constantly, no way i will ever make this deadline. But i kept at it, getting even more desperate at technical keyboard stuff i had little experience with and which was slowing my pace down. But how much did it improve my reading and rate of musical absorbtion? A huge load. That made me understand, to get much better in music you have to work in uncomfortable grounds. How hard is it to do that when music is by yourself all the time? When we are by ourselves we naturally dont want to do anything hard, but we must in music if we want to get anywhere. So the most important thing i learnt aside from piano lessons and instruction was realising this fact; You have to train in uncomfortalbe grounds if you want to make changes in your music.
This fact has made me study when i totally was in no mood for it and also made me start setting a BAR PER DAY quota which i measure every night before i sleep so the next day i can start making my memorisation progress again. This bar per day is by no means an easy target, it always stretches me. For instance, today this is what it looks like:

Beethoven Op81a Das Leberwohl: Mvt1:Bars70-126 -   Mvt3:Bars81-175 (seems alot but really it isnt because of repetition in different key which makes memorisation faster)
Debussy: Childrens Corner no4:complete
Bach: Bk2 no6 Fugue (from 48P&F)complete

As well i have to do some study for student pieces and organise lesson plans for each student as well weekly. As well as housecleaning/maintenance lol.

Dont underestimate the power of writing down Bars Per Day, because you will just eat through music like anything. But dont misunderstand it as well, this of course means memorised bars, it has nothing to do with actually playing the piece at peformance level. That for me usually comes more naturally once the notes are memorised because i know from within my head what it should sound like all that is stopping me is the notes. But many times i will come across parts which trouble me and require concerntrated study even if the notes are totally memorised. Those moments get less and less the more music you absorb however. I use to be stumped all the time when i was a little kid, much more than nowadways.

I also think it is important to know lots of musicians, and get to know a few who u get along with so you can jam with them. Write in local papers for musical partners, you'll be suprised how many people will contact you back.