From 10:45 to 12:15 I had the first years of the BTEC Music Practice course at Strode College. I did a bit of prep the night before regarding the talk with my parents as they were both teachers and my Dad used to teach students of the same age. He said college students (from his experience) are usually uninterested and quite vacant – but he was a physics teacher which is basically hard maths so that might just be why (his words). My Mum told me I was brilliant, and I can do anything I want, and I still believe her. I met Dan Shaw in the reception are and was in a good mood because I didn’t have to pay for parking as I remembered the secret parking hot spot that people still haven’t found all these years later. Dan even offered to buy me a cup of tea, so I was then in an even better mood, though there was no sugar available. Dan Shaw is the course leader, and he was the course leader 9 years ago when I was a student at the same college on the same course. He hadn’t changed at all. He mentioned his grey hair and I mentioned my receding hairline so we laughed (and I cried on my inside) and he gave me a quick tour. We quickly chatted about what I was going to be talking about with the class again and before I knew it the class had arrived. They we’re a quiet bunch, maybe 14 of them. Dan did the register and then handed over to me. I introduced myself and Dan asked me what my job was, which I said was interesting and I’d cover that in the second part of the talk – the students seemed intrigued. I started by asking them their thoughts on the word ‘Authentic’ – what might be the etymology and what does it mean etc. It was at this point I realised my dad might be right though. But some late stragglers entered, bringing the student count up by 4. They apologised and it turns out that these late students were the chatty ones in class. I started then by asking if authenticity was important to them as consumers of music and also as musicians. Most agreed it was important, which was great as I could crush their ideologies with my verbal karate chops of philosophy and cynicism. I emphasised that this was a discussion, and I didn’t want to talk at them for the whole session which some of them responded to, I said they can challenge me in regards to the topic because I want to encourage critical thinking. The discussion went well overall, and they all eventually piped in with opinions and thoughts, there was a student (one of the more confident talkers) that insisted he was still authentic at the end of the talk. He said his clothes choices and music choices are completely authentic to him, so I asked him why he wore the same outfit as me as we were matching with a grey plain jumper, blue chinos, white socks and white trainers with a black stripe on. It was taken well, and he said his mind was blown. I threw quotes from Redhead, Taylor and Pickering about authenticity at them and helped them come up with ways to critically analyse them, causing them to contradict themselves and question everything (no students cried, though). I then asked if it was possible to be authentic and then let the philosophical cat out of the box to really mess with them (Schrödinger joke). I used Lacan’s Dialect of Recognition and Infinity of Reflection theories to help explain the idea of the self, consciousness and analysing your self. I was worried about this because it’s not something that these students had been exposed to on this course, so I made sure they understood to the best of my ability. Though I was confident because I managed to make my dad understand the night before. I also used some Satre and Allen Moore’s theories on authenticity, focusing on why we are the way we are because we build our personas around the way people perceive us. The students responded well and a discussion developed within the class, and they started critically analysing each other’s opinions and thoughts. The discussion came to an end and they collectively agreed that their minds had been blown, I explained that the purpose was to not just introduce them to these specific ideas and discussions around philosophy and authenticity, but to help then critically analyse texts and quotes. I finished by asking them the same questions I started with – Is authenticity important to you as a consumer of music and is it important to you as a musician. The all said no and I asked why and they said because I said it wasn’t and then I told them I find authenticity important and they got confused and I laughed at them. We then started the discussion about post college life and working in the industry (I’ll get to that in a mo) In the afternoon I delivered the same lecture to the senior year of the course, they were overall less chatty class, but the ones who did chat were very chatty. The session ran very similarly, though they posed more questions throughout the discussion. The main difference between the two classes, was that when the second years slowly started to realise that there wasn’t a black or white answer in regards to authenticity being important or achievable they got a little defensive, confrontational and even a bit angry. They were expecting an answer, and I said that everyone’s answer could be different. Dan Shaw loved seeing them struggle and question themselves, it was a good day. Dan had asked me to talk about working in the industry and higher education when I visited, so I made the second part of my talks about that. It was more of a Q&A situation, and I feel that because both classes got comfortable with me over the course of the authenticity talk they would be more open and confident about asking questions in regards to the industry. One of the biggest slaps in the face when I was in Uni was when someone told me that there is no real 9-5 in the industry, unless you go into education or work for a big label. That’s a very broad brush stroke, but the meaning makes sense – so I tried to deliver that message and help them understand that they’re (most likely) not going to walk into a cushty job. I was delicate in not crushing their dreams, so I asked them what jobs they wanted, and then asked if they could apply for that job, or is it a freelance kind of gig. I also asked what success means to them, where do they see themselves in x years. I explained that when I was in their class, if I could see where I would be right now I wouldn’t consider myself successful – I wanted to be the next John Mayer straight out of education. And there is nothing wrong with that, but you need to think about how to get there (I currently consider myself successful, and not just because I no longer want to be John Mayer). I was explaining about how on my way to being the next John Mayer I needed to pay rent. And it was a cool discussion about all of that really. I had 4 tips planned to tell them about working in the industry, I went into a little detail with each. The first tip being ‘start now’, the second being ‘learn about tax’, third ‘be organised’ and fourth ‘it’s who you know’. I explained that in 10 years of being freelance, every single job I have every had is because I knew someone, not because I applied for it. They were amazed and asked if I’d ever applied for jobs and I said not for industry jobs – I did for bar work and stuff through uni and in early career. But I do apply for funding – which started another discussion. The students had a module on working in the industry, so they were particularly interested in what I had to say about it and questions came in thick and fast. I think the main point that resonated with them (other than claiming equipment off your tax bill) was that post uni I wanted to compose music for film/tv, although I do get paid to do that every now and then, I also have various other jobs to help contribute. They seemed baffled by the idea that you will possibly have to do other bits of work to help you on your way to being what it is you want. I think it clicked with them though. I was wary of ‘crushing their dreams’ so I was delicate in my approach and I kept reminding myself that I would have loved for someone to have told me this at their age. Overall I consider it a really nice day and a successful one. I’ve asked Dan for some feedback and I’m hoping to get some feedback from the students too. The plan is to take the feedback and maybe find some other colleges that would benefit from my experience. Dan said the industry talk fit in so well with a module that they’d consider it again the next year – I can assume that it would be valuable for other college courses with similar modules. Having only ever worked with students at primary schools, I was a bit worried of how I’d be with college students. But I really enjoyed it, my main concern was they’d be bored and misbehave and see me more as a ‘teacher’ that they could be naughty – but it was great fun. Maybe it was just a nice class, but I’d like to think that it was more to do with me and my ability to guide the conversations – especially when it came to the second years when they got a bit angry at not having an answer, I could use my knowledge on the subject and a little humour to bring it all back. So, don’t stop, never give up, hold your head high to reach the top. Feedback from Dan Shaw -
David prepared two in-depth discussion workshops with excellent visual and audio examples to around 40 students across two year groups on a Level three extended diploma in music and production. Subjects included authenticity in performance, philosophical aspects to creativity and practical career-based aspects to working and developing a role in the music industry. David's honest and useful personal anecdotes and examples were very useful illustrations for the students and they found the philosophical depth to the discussion both challenging and stimulating in their feedback to me. Both groups engaged well verbally and responded to David's discussions very actively.
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