English Baccalaureate!

Well the English Baccalaureate has been unveiled and it looks like we are  going back (as the abbreviated version Bac suggests) to something similar to the old O level and this was after the discussion of abolishing the A level.

This could be just a rant on my part but I want to focus on the long term aspect of education and what they focus is for this reorganisation is attempting to create or correct.

The idea of a race to the bottom created by the examination boards maybe a good point however I see pupils working much harder in the schools than I ever remember doing whilst I was at school and maybe this is why I am so good at playing guitar because I had time to practice!  My concern in all of this is why become educated? What is it that we are striving for? If the answer to this is to get a job then I would argue that the jobs market is changing so fast with jobs disappearing or morphing into something else with new disciplines appearing in areas that two or three years ago did not exist how can you prepare? If the idea is to broaden the mind and to learn to use your brain power in a focus yet flexible way then the education system has lost its direction and the ‘new’ examinations will also fail dismally.

Teachers in schools work harder than many other professions putting in extra hours unpaid as a normal part of the regime and as for the head of Ofsted to make the comment that teachers should go the extra mile probably makes most teachers so angry that they would like to take Mr Wilshaw and shove the Ofsted reports where the sun does not shine and maybe make that go the extra foot.

I have never involved myself teaching in the classroom for one very good reason it’s a thankless task and more about box ticking than teaching but I see enough of it and I know enough teachers to know the score.

What is the answer to this question? Well children are clever enough to do well whatever the system and if they are encouraged to have an open mind and become passionate about learning they will be able to outperform their contemporaries who may be far more privileged than they. Flexibility of mind is the answer, keep learning and to paraphrase Winston Churchill “Never stop learning, never, never stop learning”.

Vic

 

www.vichyland.com

 

Play in a band for three days with the experts and detress!

www.bluescampuk.co.uk

 

 

 

All you need is love

All you need is love

Over the last few weeks I have been going on about the need to be business like in the way that you approach business but this time I am going to readdress the balance and as with everything this outlook has to have its opposite.

So as the day needs the night I need to introduce to the equation of making a living from music that element of love. If you love what you do you can get anywhere because something that requires as much practise and hard work as music needs the devotion of love to get you through.

Watching the Olympics recently you could see this was the unspoken element that made these athletes great, the love of the sport and the willingness to sacrifice time and effort and to experience pain to get to the very top.

As with most things this idea is a metaphor for other aspects of life that you must love what you do to make things happen, it seems to be a given; so let us look at the element of love in this context.

I think that it is safe to say that love distorts reality making you think that the thing that you are in love with is the most beautiful and important thing in the world, in fact it is safer to say that all other objects move into the background and sometimes vanish in this state. Love is a form of hypnotic trance and in that state you can suspend the rules of reality and make things happen because you believe that you can.

An example in the case of music is the group of musicians who believe that their music is the most powerful or beautiful thing around and that they are the ONLY band worth listening to. If they looked at the statistics they would know they do not stand a cat’s chance in hell of getting anywhere but that logic fortunately slips into the mists of the trance.

Someone who believes in (and are obsessed with) an idea can develop a multi-billion dollar business with no formal training, they make a Microsoft, an Apple, a Virgin or a Google and when these things happen they confound the experts. This happened with Rock and Roll and Punk where the conceived wisdom was kicked out of the window by the passion and in the case of the former  lust for the music.

So go back and find what it is that made you fall in love with the instrument and compare this to other times of falling in love. Go into those memories and ‘double the feeling’ then bring them into your present and project them into your future visions.

Go out and spread the LUURV.  

 

Vic

Making money from music.

Making money from music.
There are so many musical people who have great skills but with no idea how to monetise them. This is simply because the tools required for making money have nothing to do with music but all to do with business.
So let's strip it down; money in, money out, the more money in than out and you have an earner the other way round you don't. Next point, why is somebody interested in you? Well the short answer is they don't UNLESS you have something they want.
The oldest profession as the saying goes is prostitution and there it is, someone has something that someone desires and is willing to pay for. So take these ideas and apply them to your business and ask yourself, ‘Are your musical skills something that someone desires?’ If not can you make it something they desire?
In the way that music education seems to be pushed today is an academic, cold, intellectual path but I think that the reason for learning a musical instrument is visceral, passionate and full of driven desire to do something, if not you will not keep people practising. Players would fall by the wayside as things get difficult or other distractions get in the way unless they have the desire, you must tune into their dreams and aspirations if you are trying to teach and make money.
Another trick that teaching musicians miss is that to achieve something pupils  need more than lessons, they need equipment, the band needs coaching, people need managing in other words there is a bigger market beckoning you to be involved with in order for people to realise their dreams.
I have made a living from music for well over thirty years and I was originally told it was not possible and a crazy idea, also I had no formal college education as there was little available at the time. I learnt my trade from experience in the ‘University of Life’ so for you anything is possible.
In a nutshell the drivers for success in music are the same as any other business; it is about desire and supply and demand. Keep it simple and think like a business person not a hobbyist and then when you want to be an artist do not think like a business person!
 
Vic
 

Vic Hyland runs Bluescampuk which offers you the chance to play in a band, jamming with the pros and learn to songwrite all within the three day course.
Vic also teaches both in Kent and Sussex and over Skype for more details contact Vic or visit www.vichyland.com

Taking Guitar Exams - Do they help you?

Over the past twenty years of teaching guitar exams and working as an examiner for the RGT in the UK I have often pondered what impact taking guitar examinations has to someone's rate of learning and can it in some way damage a player’s creative approach to playing.

I have become very sceptical in the past about examinations in other areas of education especially when children are subject to the testing torture that the education system in this country uses.

The idea that all things can be measured is moved from the world of business and the time management philosophy of Denning to the classroom as if everything is under scientific scrutiny. Well, from the world of the arts and music we have a message for you; not all things can be measured, welcome to the alternative world of the creative unconscious.

As musicians and artists we will be only too aware of the small things that happen that have profound influence on us; a small idea that literally transforms our lives and our playing. I am reminded of the pre 'enlightenment age' of revelation where something can just suddenly be known. Often in music you will simply ‘know’ what to do and within this I find a problem with the education system because the lasting memories of my education and playing literally are subtle things that are life changing and immeasurable.

So back to the world of examinations and to the experience of the years of teaching and what can be drawn from this. I recently looked at the pupils of mine that did well and in some way great or small became ‘successful’ and I can safely say that all of these took the guitar grades, not all to Grade 8 but certainly to the upper grades and the ones that never took a grade did not fare so well.

The first thing to consider is that to take the grades you need to have a mind-set that is organised and focused on a goal and is dedicated to put in the practice to achieve the standards required and that of course is also the requirement for you to achieve anything in the world of music.

Look deeper into the way that examinations affect people and you might see that a person is acquiring a particular way of thinking which is prescribed because of the context and this is not in my opinion always for the better. However the structure of examinations can give the pupil a goal and maybe this is practical nature of the discipline, the preparation and the organisation to make the journey and not its arrival.

Like many aspects of learning what you actually learn in the early stages may not be relevant as you move on, this is as true for science as it is for music with much of what you learnt pre A level being 'wrong' however the mental approach stays the same. The basic components that you used to play your early rock solos are not the ideas that you will use to play some Jazz fusion solo as you progress but what makes a good solo still remains the same, that of phrasing.

So for my pupils the ‘journey’ remains the most important aspect and grades seem to help with this however when it comes to the diplomas then I am not so sure because at this point the pupil is cutting their own way through the jungle of music armed with the tools that they have picked up along the way, so if the higher exams help with them becoming teachers then so be it but again I am not so sure.

Make sure that if you or your pupils decide not to take examinations then it is not because of laziness but you have something else that drives you on, remember there are lots of people out there playing guitar and you need to be in the top five per cent of them if you want to achieve something with your playing.

Vic

 

www.teachmusic.co.uk 

 

Taking Guitar Exams - Do they help you?

Taking Guitar Exams - Do they help you?

Over the past twenty years of teaching guitar exams and working as an examiner for the RGT in the UK I have often pondered what impact taking guitar examinations has to someone's rate of learning and can it in some way damage a player’s creative approach to playing.

I have become very sceptical in the past about examinations in other areas of education especially when children are subject to the testing torture that the education system in this country uses.

The idea that all things can be measured is moved from the world of business and the time management philosophy of Denning to the classroom as if everything is under scientific scrutiny. Well, from the world of the arts and music we have a message for you; not all things can be measured, welcome to the alternative world of the creative unconscious.

As musicians and artists we will be only too aware of the small things that happen that have profound influence on us; a small idea that literally transforms our lives and our playing. I am reminded of the pre 'enlightenment age' of revelation where something can just suddenly be known. Often in music you will simply ‘know’ what to do and within this I find a problem with the education system because the lasting memories of my education and playing literally are subtle things that are life changing and immeasurable.

So back to the world of examinations and to the experience of the years of teaching and what can be drawn from this. I recently looked at the pupils of mine that did well and in some way great or small became ‘successful’ and I can safely say that all of these took the guitar grades, not all to Grade 8 but certainly to the upper grades and the ones that never took a grade did not fare so well.

The first thing to consider is that to take the grades you need to have a mind-set that is organised and focused on a goal and is dedicated to put in the practice to achieve the standards required and that of course is also the requirement for you to achieve anything in the world of music.

Look deeper into the way that examinations affect people and you might see that a person is acquiring a particular way of thinking which is prescribed because of the context and this is not in my opinion always for the better. However the structure of examinations can give the pupil a goal and maybe this is practical nature of the discipline, the preparation and the organisation to make the journey and not its arrival.

Like many aspects of learning what you actually learn certainly in the early stages may not relevant as you move on, this is as true for science as it is for music with much of what you learnt pre A level being 'wrong' but the mental approach stays the same. The ideas that you used to play your early rock solos are not the ideas that you will use to play some Jazz fusion solo as you progress but what makes a good solo still remains the same, that of phrasing.

So for my pupils the journey remains the most important aspect and grades seem to help with this however when it comes to the diplomas then I am not so sure because at this point the pupil is cutting their own way through the jungle of music armed with the tools that they have picked up along the way, so if the higher exams help with them becoming teachers then so be it but again I am not so sure.

Make sure that if you or your pupils decide not to take examinations then it is not because of laziness but because you have something else that drives you on remember there are lots of people out there playing guitar and you need to be in the top five per cent of them if you want to achieve something with your playing.

Vic