The world of classical music has no shortage of contradictions. You can have more than one soloist. The English horn isn’t English – and it isn’t a horn. And musical notations called accidentals are entirely intentional.
One common contradiction in the classical music industry is that many professionals trained in the art of performance end up performing very minimally (if at all) because they enter the profession of a music teacher.
On top of this, they end up learning about teaching largely on the job, in stark contrast to the countless hours of training, practice and refinement most music degrees prescribe.
This is a result of market forces. There are very few full-time classical music performing jobs, but there are tens of thousands of pre-tertiary students who apply for extra-curricular music examinations every year. The role of music teacher has quite a bit of job security. Elite music teachers in Malaysia earn upwards of RM300 an hour, and one superstar teacher in Singapore earns the same figure – in Singapore dollars.
The odd misalignment of music performance versus music teaching filters down to a similar misalignment in young students: they embark on a journey because they hear someone performing but end up in a system which has them learn three exam pieces a year, which they perform for one solitary examiner, who isn’t allowed even to clap for them.
The all-too-easy target here is the examination boards, which is a misunderstanding of their role, which is simply to provide one component of the learning process and to help music teachers align their teaching to international standards. No examination board would claim to be the reason one decides to learn music – just that their presence may help in the journey.
What begins as an artistic activity can become a certification-chasing one. The chances are that you, the reader, know more people who own a violin or piano than people who continue to play a violin or piano. And, musicians who endeavour to keep up with performance often find that it is far easier to fill one’s teaching schedule than it is to fill a concert hall. Very few musicians you see on a concert stage make much revenue from that experience unless you see governmental backing or perhaps an oil company.
Yet it is the best musicians – and arguably the better teachers – who keep performing. Part of the reason for this is that they perform to retain their stature in the industry as demonstrations of skill, which people perceive as an ability to lead others to similar success. Another reason may be that they have the financial capability to find the time to include performance alongside their teaching. But for the most part, it is for the art itself – not just the creation of beautiful sounds, but the live concert atmosphere, the connection to other musicians, and the experience of being a storyteller through notes and chords.
This needs to be supported in order to change a landscape of people who take up music until some certification benchmark like a Grade 8, and then never play the instrument again – this seems a strange way for us to be investing time and financial resources, for students, parents and even the teachers. It may be a financially sustainable industry, but there is a misalignment of training and outcomes that indicates potential for growth.
Tertiary institutions would be wise to prepare their students for a life in teaching, and within this how to better incorporate an appreciation of concerts in tandem with instrumental lessons. Parents need to be partners with their music teachers in this mission, which, given time and guidance, will also lead to better marks in the examinations. Examination boards are already evolving: Trinity College London provides the option for the teacher to perform duos with a student for an examination, the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music is tapping on young musicians to compose new pieces for their music exams, and both support other entities that lead to performances.
We need to renew, reset, rejuvenate, and rediscover the idea of the muse in music – the creative spirit and imagination that becomes valuable no matter what career one chooses. New Zealand is a model for this, with many music teachers who remain active in performance. In addition to these career musicians, New Zealand has orchestras composed exclusively of lawyers and doctors, those stereotypically prized professions of Asian cultures, and one of my favourite pianists is now practising rural medicine in a small corner of that country… while still practising the piano. This is the best time to be kiasu: we can do that too.
By Dr Andrew Filmer, Associate Professor of Music, School of Arts, Sunway University
