Musicians Have to be Superior
Dear Sarah,
As a musician you must be better than any other. You must play better, speak better, and write better. You must show the world that musicians have taken up a worthy career path. That we do not just play our instruments all day without a care in the world, that we are not good at anything else. You must show that musicians are superior in every way. As a Music Education student you must show that you can play with beautiful technique and you can write and speak with that same facility. You must be twice as perfect as every other education student. You must be able to write more technically perfect than any English student. You must do these things to be taken seriously in this world.
-Your Music Faculty
Throughout my undergraduate career I was told that musicians and artists have to work harder than anyone else to be taken seriously. My written work for my music classes was always graded harsher for content, form, craft and convention than any other class I took outside of the School of Music. My professors spent more time talking to us about grammar conventions than I'd ever imagined, more than I'd had in middle school or high school to be certain. These music papers were the best I had ever written, and the most criticized. I think I only ever got an 'A' on one of them. I worked so hard on that paper and felt so accomplished when I got my grade. When I put half of the effort into other papers for my education or gen ed classes I always got responses such as "A+ GREAT PAPER!" or "Wow! Great ideas!".
I believe those music classes and the exceptionally high standards placed on me helped me to become a better writer. I was not simply told that I was a musician and no one expected me to be able to write well. I rose to their challenge. I believe it is important for all teacher to set a high, yet not impossible, expectation and students will reach or exceed it.
As a musician you must be better than any other. You must play better, speak better, and write better. You must show the world that musicians have taken up a worthy career path. That we do not just play our instruments all day without a care in the world, that we are not good at anything else. You must show that musicians are superior in every way. As a Music Education student you must show that you can play with beautiful technique and you can write and speak with that same facility. You must be twice as perfect as every other education student. You must be able to write more technically perfect than any English student. You must do these things to be taken seriously in this world.
-Your Music Faculty
Throughout my undergraduate career I was told that musicians and artists have to work harder than anyone else to be taken seriously. My written work for my music classes was always graded harsher for content, form, craft and convention than any other class I took outside of the School of Music. My professors spent more time talking to us about grammar conventions than I'd ever imagined, more than I'd had in middle school or high school to be certain. These music papers were the best I had ever written, and the most criticized. I think I only ever got an 'A' on one of them. I worked so hard on that paper and felt so accomplished when I got my grade. When I put half of the effort into other papers for my education or gen ed classes I always got responses such as "A+ GREAT PAPER!" or "Wow! Great ideas!".
I believe those music classes and the exceptionally high standards placed on me helped me to become a better writer. I was not simply told that I was a musician and no one expected me to be able to write well. I rose to their challenge. I believe it is important for all teacher to set a high, yet not impossible, expectation and students will reach or exceed it.