Noah's Notes: Musings of a 16-year-old musician (no.2)

The most streamed song on Spotify, Shape of You, has four chords. So does the second, and the third. It is no surprise, then, that such pieces are not staple in instrumental lessons aimed at developing a student's high-level musical abilities. Instead, quite understandably, we often resort to Western classical music.

It lacks social media advertising campaigns, novelty, or indeed coolness, but classical music is nonetheless often deemed indispensable towards ‘proper’ cultivation, as indeed Miles Davis might attest. It is thus likely that some students play classical music in their lessons not out of preference, but of necessity. For many, it barely goes beyond that. Indeed, most music students that I know derive little or no joy from classical music in their lessons. That the tackling of such an issue would improve their abilities is self-evident.

It was Davis again who accused the majority of classical musicians of being robotic. It does not help in the countering of that accusation that some refuse to listen to any of the stuff they're playing inside of paying hours, outside of them. I am not suggesting a kind of anti-pop puritanism; merely the need for a tangible love in any half-good performance, and so the importance of natural conduct in fostering it.

So, who is to blame? As I mentioned, there is the certain impediment of profit; corporate investment in cultivating an active following is hardly going to be allocated towards artists in the public domain. There is of course government investment in cultivating a classical music following, but the lack of results is evidence of its ineffectuality (about which I could indeed produce many a written piece).

Anything that is 250 years old is naturally going to lack novelty or calibration to the present fashions (despite the cringey insistence of some through the constant repetition of the phrase ‘classical is cool’). What is needed is a development of a genuine affinity – a love and understanding of classical music, which defies coolness and the like, and instead relies on deep rooted, sincere feeling. That is not exactly an easy task, which is perhaps why so many have failed at it, or instead diverted efforts towards the passing of exams with distinction.

So far, I have argued that most students do not naturally like classical music, that the only reason that they indulge in it is for the purpose of study, and that if they did it out of want rather than need, the quality of playing would increase substantially. Unfortunately, I have also left the question of how to change this ostensibly unanswered. I plan to resolve this next month.

Self-portrait by Noah