place for discussion of music schools

I attended one of these back in the late 70's and it was very beneficial.

Duquesne 2010 Guitar and Bass workshop

Started in 1986 by Joe Negri, Bill Purse, Mark Koch, Tom Kikta, John Maione and Jim Farquar, the Guitar and Bass Workshop aims to help students become more familiar with the guitar programs at Duquesne University. The workshop also provides an opportunity for any guitar enthusiast to learn more through working with guitar department faculty and famous guitar icons.

Having grown from a first year enrollment of 20, the workshops now attract 100-150 students each summer. Thirty percent of the students who are admitted to the University guitar program are already familiar with the department and its faculty because of their participation in this workshop.

http://www.duq.edu/music/summer/guitar/index.cfm

Me personally,

I'm considering my options with this one:

http://berkleevalencia.org/en/ opening on 2012.

My worries being I'll be 31 by then, and will I be able to beat the hordes of people coming to it as it opens...
Also, there's no news on them teaching performance yet... although I'm VERY interested in composition lately...

Maybe a "normal" school here in Madrid will do the trick... who knows?...

I was a jazz guitar major at a university from 94-96.

I would say I learned a lot, but at the same time I'd also say I learned nothing.

It's funny because, I did improve as a musician. I was a teenager...17 when I was accepted.

Basically I did learn a lot about music. Harmony, theory, solfege...that sort of thing. And it helped.

You know, they were trying to help me get a career in the music business. Reading was a top priority. Developing virtuoso technique on the guitar was not a top priority.

So, I learned to read well and follow charts, but I was more into learning who I am as a musician. What do I think? What do I have to say? Can I say anything? Can I speak? Who am I? I need the tools to find out who I am on the instrument.

So, I learned a lot about music, most definitely.

But, I didn't learn. Hard to explain my thoughts on it I guess. I would not recommend college level music major for most people for various reasons all of which I did not touch upon here.

PB may be able to give greater insight into music schools as he studied at some fairly prestigious ones.

That is it exactly.

LSU, they don't even have a guitar major...not classical or jazz! They are very uptight and pretentious in their music department. It's all a bunch of purists.

I went to Southeastern Louisiana University where you could major in classical or jazz guitar. I studied under a guy named Hank Mackie who is a tremendously respected bebop style player around here, however, he just made me read out of the Berklee book, which is fine, and he corrected my picking technique, which was horrid at the time, but he never showed me how to really improv or anything.

The avant garde composer David Behrman once told me I would never make it in Louisiana and that I should come to New York...for the exact same reasons PB just mentioned...you MUST be in a COMMUNITY of musicians that are exchanging IDEAS with each other and forming a SCENE around themselves where they PLAY.

Of course, this does exist here in Louisiana, but mostly with regards to blues and dixieland style jazz and definitely NOT anything remotely experimental.

I should have listened to you Mr. Behrman!!!! But I was 17 at the time and New York was a scary place!

PB is 100% spot on with his comments. You can learn theory and harmony ANYWHERE.

Pebber your advice is priceless at Duquesne we had to go to clubs to sit in but that is limited, one of the reasons I went to Berklee was to get with more musicians and the experience was much better than the education. I actually left Berklee because I was ticked that they made me start over even after having two years of theory and ear training already. I still went back and played with people and had tons of friends on Hemingway, I lived on Beacon which was about 10 blocks away, much better to live in a roach motel on Hemingway than to be out of the scene, you basically have to sleep with your axe though ...

Nothing else will get you shedding as much as when there are 100s of other people that could be taking your spot in a cool ensemble, or when you get invited to jam with amazing players - you want to be ready! Youtube is a game changer but the live gig with the eye contact, trading 4s and basic adrenaline rush is still worth any kind of sacrifice you have to make.

Anyway another stealth tactic is to just move to the area and hang around meeting people and crashing jam sessions. There are tons of players that do this ( mostly good ones ) so it doesn't hurt to make friends with someone who is in demand in order to get your foot in the door. The lobby at Berklee is like being at a halloween party for musicians!

Rob

This is great information!! I would be happy to live back in Chino where I was 20 min away from lessons again! I thought about going to the local college by me....just to get the gears moving again. Where that would take me....who knows...but at least its better than sitting here in the desert playing to a bunch of rocks and lizards! Kinda fun...:)

No college has what Master has given us!!!!

"The Pebber Brown School Of Advanced Noodling"

P.B.S.A.N

What ever happened to the self educated man?

Just a thought. That really seems to be lost today in our (American) society.

Your right...

First self education ....gone
Second.....school education...gone....
Now people just drop out wander around and end up at WalMart eating and drinking leaving wrapers everywhere then only pay for a pack of gum.

but for me...I need that push!

Well...maybe a shove!

one reason why I think there are so many musicians in the software business is because of the self education skills learned, anyone with a computer and some drive can find ways to make themselves useful, having connections helps too ...

Good point Rob.

It's kind of like, back at the dawn of man...people learned certain skills through years of trial and error. They passed down what they learned. The next guy took the ball and ran. More trial and error. Then he passed the ball to someone else.

You got sick, you went and saw the shaman or healer. You wanted to learn how to hunt and gather, you visited the hunter. You wanted to learn how to make horseshoes, you visited the blacksmith.

Nowadays, everyone is a frickin expert.

"Schools" make things much worse it seems because they continuously hire the so-called experts to just continue the vicious cycle.

Music is the same.

yeah and try finding "real" information in a forum .... hehe