What I Learned At Music School (Besides Music)

There's more to music than just music.

One of the biggest debates among people who went to music school is whether or not music school is a waste of time and money. Personally, I got a lot out of my time there, but I think the reason it's such a contentious issue is that different people want it to be different things. But whether or not it's good, I think there's a lot to be learned from hearing people's stories, so I thought I'd share a bit about my music school experience and some of the things I learned while I was there.

Huge thanks to our Elephant of the Month Club members:

Susan Jones
Jill Jones
Duck
Howard Levine
Ron Jones
Brian Etheredge
Khristofor Saraga
Len Lanphar
Ken Arnold
Elaine Pratt
William (Bill) Boston
Chris Prentice
Jack Carlson
Christopher Lucas
Andrew Beals
Dov Zazkis
Hendrik Payer
Thomas Morley
Jacob Helwig
Davis Sprague
Alex Knauth
Braum Meakes
Hendrik Stüwe
Dan Bonelli
Kevin Boyce
Allyson
Scott Howarth
Luke
Kevin Wilamowski
Symmetry
Nicholas Lennox
Kelly Christoffersen
רועי סיני
Dhruv Monga
Jake Fisher
Ken Jones
Obadiah Wright
Carlos Kobalent

And thanks as well to Henry Reich, Gabi Ghita, Owen Campbell-Moore, Gene Lushtak, Eugene Bulkin, Logan Jones, Oliver, Anna Work, Adam Neely, nico, Rick Lees, Dave Mayer, Paul Quine, CodenaCrow, Nikolay Semyonov, Arnas, Caroline Simpson, Michael Alan Dorman, Favrion The Man, Dmitry Jemerov, Michael McCormick, Blake Boyd, Luke Rihn, Charles Gaskell, Ian Seymour, Trevor Sullivan, Tom Evans, Elliot Jay O'Neill, Max Wanderman, Chris Borland, JH, David Conrad, Alex Atanasyan, Elliot Burke, Tim S., Elias Simon, Chris Chapin, Lamadesbois, Jerry D. Brown, Ohad Lutzky, Jake Lizzio, James A. Thornton, Todd Davidson, Brian Dinger, Stefan Strohmaier, Shadow Kat, Adam Wurstmann, Kelsey Freese, Angela Flierman, Richard T. Anderson, Peter Leventis, Kevin Johnson, Ryan, Matthew Kallend, Rodrigo "rrc2soft" Roman, Jeremy Zolner, Patrick Callier, Danny, Francois LaPlante, Volker Wegert, Joshua Gleitze, Britt Ratliff, ml cohen, Darzzr, Aaron Epstein, Blake White, Chris Connett, Charles Hill, Alexey Fedotov, Joshua La Macchia, Alex Keeny, Valentin Lupachev, John Bejarano, Kenneth Kousen, James, h2g2guy, W. Dennis Sorrell, Melvin Martis, Niko Albertus, Luke Wever, Gary Butterfield, Professor Elliot, Jozef Paffen, Steve Brand, Rene Miklas, Connor Shannon, max thomas, Jamie Price, Red Uncle, Roming 22, Doug Nottingham, Andrew Engel, Nicholas Wolf, Peter Brinkmann, Robert Beach, ZagOnEm, Tuna, Hexa Midine, Mathew Wolak, Naomi Ostriker, Alex Mole, T, Lincoln Mendell, Vincent Engler, Sam Rezek, Matt McKegg, Beth Martyn, Lucas Augusto, Caitlin Olsen, Kaisai Morihito, NoticeMK, Anna, Evan Satinsky, James Little, RaptorCat, Jigglypuffer, leftaroundabout ., Jens Schäfer, Mikely Whiplash, room34, Austin Amberg, Betsy, Stephen Jones, Tonya Custis, Dave Shapiro, Jacopo Cascioli, Francisco Rodrigues, Elizabeth, Michael Tsuk, CoryC, Rafael Martinez Salas, Walther, David Van der Linden, Doug Lantz, ThoraSTooth, Robert McIntosh, Brandon Legawiec, Brx, Graeme Lewis, Jake Sand, Kayla Sparks, Max Glass, Jim Hayes, Evgeni Kunev, Alon Kellner, Özgür Kesim, Rob Hardy, Aditya Baradwaj, Matt Ivaliotes, Yuval Filmus, Jasmine Fellows, Richard Goldberg, Patrick Chieppe, Eric Stark, Jon Prudhomme, David Haughn, Gordon Dell, Juan Madrigal, Byron DeLaBarre, Matty Crocker, anemamata, Brian Miller, Lee-orr Orbach, Eric Plume, Kevin Pierce, Jon Hancock, Caleb Meyer, Mark Henning, Jason Peterson, Peggy Youell, EJ Hambleton, Jos Mulder, Daryl Banttari, J.T. Vandenbree, John Carter, Conor Stuart Roe, David Taylor, Dragix PL, Cereus, Marcus Radloff, Wayne Robinson, Gabriel Totusek, Gary Evesson, Kottolett, Brian Stephens, Dylan Vidas, Nicolas Gort Freitas, SecretKittehs, Mnemosyne Music, AkselA, John Castle, Philip Miller, Sam Plotkin, Sean Thompson, David MacDonald, Jeremiah Coleman, Matty Tamer, Nellie Speirs Baron, Charles R., Josh, William Yates, Carlos Silva, The Gig Farmer, Sam, Hunter Embry, DialMForManning, Wayne Weil, Spicy656, Michael Wehling, and darkmage! Your support helps make 12tone even better!

Also, thanks to Jareth Arnold for proofreading the script to make sure this all makes sense hopefully!

[tone]

Some additional thoughts/corrections:

1) I actually thought of, like, a bunch of other anecdotes while working on this, but I couldn't fit them all in, so if there's interest I may wind up doing a follow-up video. Let me know if you'd be into that.

2) That's it for now.

[richarddoan]

"Most hard concepts aren't actually hard, they just rely on previous knowledge. When something's confusing, it's probably not because you're incapable of understanding it. It's just that the person explaining has made some incorrect assumptions about what you already know."

[katjoe]

“Succeeding at something means failing at it for so long you’ve run out of failures”

[zombiesplat]

You realize we all want to hear you scream now.

[CC.]

"Looking back now, not becoming a teacher was the best thing to ever happen to me."

You DID become a teacher and with more students than you envisioned... Thanks for your lessons. 🙏

[someidiot]

this is probably the most relevant possible video youtube could have recommended me

[williamcfox]

Good life lessons in here for anyone. Thanks for sharing your story.

[Marklar]

If music school was just the curriculum, it wouldn't be worth it. Being around other young musicians, being able to ask pros questions, and having deadlines to motivate you are all more valuable. My best advice for new music students is to be social and ask a lot of questions.

[kiri]

"Being autistic I've never been great at tasks I didn't understand the point of" - SO relatable, and cool to hear that someone I look up to is on the spectrum like me :)

[nikibronson]

You just have no idea how perfect timing this video is for me and my life like it's so weird. I literally just met with a piano Professor on campus and he told me to at least minor music. My minor is computer science but now I'm thinking I should have minored in music but I always felt that I shouldn't go to school for music because I've been told it was a waste and that I would be throwing money away and wouldn't get a job but I love music so much. Computer science is okay but it's one of those things that I just do because I know how to do it.

Thank you so much for doing what you do this channel has helped me in ways can't even describe and continues to help me.

[michaelfitzurka]

Byrnes’s “How Music Works” helped to motivate a 59 year old music lover to take up the piano. I am now surrounded by pianos, keyboards and synths and writing my own music. Never ever stop learning and of course “keep on rockin”!

[anniehochberg]

As an autistic musician myself, it is so nice to hear this, thank you <3

[nils]

Just writing along for myself
1. Do stuff
2. It’s good not to know how bad you are
3. Find the right environment for you
4. "Hard" concepts just require previous knowledge
5. "Plan for failure while preparing for success"
6a There is no time limit on learning
6b Find a mentor
(6c "Always drop the ladder back down")
7. Some things just need to be done
8. You can’t always tell what’s important
9. Plans don’t always work out and that can be a good thing

[joshbittner]

Ah yes, I’m an alumni of “that school” and was a student in some of Coreen’s classes that you shadowed. Good memories! My main regret was letting social stuff cloud my judgement and distracting me from like, trying out more genres as a vocal student there, or just generally just make more my time there networking and getting more of my money’s worth out of it...cause woweee the cost!

yeah the for-profit bit - I originally went to “the school” for guitar but suffered a bad arm injury almost immediately that would’ve made completing the guitar school do permanent damage cause of the amount of practicing involved to graduate. I was gonna drop out, but the school wanted my money, so they let me transfer to voice despite my near total lack of prior singing experience. Sorry I sucked and you had to witness it, lmao

[SantaBJ]

The art of teaching is figuring out what your students know, how they know it, and how what you're teaching fits into this.

The art of learning is drawing connections between what you already know and what is being presented to you, and continuously reassessing what you know in light of this new information.

[MitchBoucherComposer]

I appreciate this video a lot, 12tone. I went to college with the grand expectations to be like Bach; I wanted to play organ and harpsichord, found an ensemble and choir, and hone my compositional skills. Of course, I was young and naive, and had no idea how the 'real world' worked at all. And nor did I get education which really helped me navigate the real world. I had thought that all I needed to succeed was a Bachelor's degree, and through my passion alone I'd 'make it big' as a composer. It turns out that Baroque music isn't as prominent as I had wanted it to be and this affected me a great deal. My professors, as helpful as they were and as much as I admired them, weren't sure what avenue I should take in life. It's still something I'm struggling with.

I appreciate everything you said in this video, though! thanks for sharing your story.

[Ghi]

I'm a software developer, been one for years and a constant in my life always was that when I thought I had everything figured out, turns out I started learning stuff that threw my knowledge upside down.

Always keep learning, learning starts at birth and should stop on your deathbed

[rmdodsonbills]

"Succeeding at something means failing at it long enough until you run out of failures" I love it! Of course, that requires that you learn from your failures, because if you keep making the same mistakes over and over, you'll never run out. Music school (any kind of school) is most valuable because you have people who can point out those failures and the lessons to be learned from them. I just had a social media discussion with someone who was waffling on whether to go to post-secondary education because they wanted to do something creative and figured talent and "who you know" are more important than what you know and this is kind of the point I was trying to get at. Kind of. Okay, maybe not, but related. Also, if "who you know" is important, a school is a fantastic way to starting knowing people; the instructors have been out in the world and tapping into their networks is much more efficient than building your own network and also, down the road, your classmates will be out in the world and you never know when those contacts will be important. (This networking point may be coming: I'm only at 5:33 as I write this).

[aaronclift]

"If you want to learn about music in the Boston area, there's really only one place to go: Berklee." As a music major at Tufts University, all I've got to say is: "ouch."

[skrowmedia]

Your observations about the obscurity of difficult material being related to an absence of the right building blocks is a huge truth bomb. The best teachers i ever had all led me to discover the path to the new knowledge by making and leveraging those connections.