Big Cats! on Music and Arts Education

How did you get into making music, and how did arts education (or lack thereof) affect you and your music?

I got into making music through public school actually. In fourth grade, we had this day where the music teacher brought in all the orchestra instruments so we could choose one to play if we wanted. I don’t know why they didn’t show us band instruments, band must’ve been full or something. Anyway, I wanted to play drums, because obviously drums are cool. But my school had this weird rule where you had to have two years of piano lessons to play drums. I guess to handle rhythm and hands doing independent stuff. Which sucked, because my beats would probably be waaaaay better if I could play drums.

So, since I couldn’t play the kit, I chose the biggest orchestra instrument there was. String bass. I ended up loving it and playing all through high school. Private lessons, school orchestra, extra super nerdy youth symphony stuff, all-state. So, I was a huge orchestra nerd but it actually worked out pretty well, because I learned music. So when I started making beats, or playing in rock bands, I could apply what I already knew about theory and performance and all that to my own music. Plus, an upright bass is a pretty banging thing to have laying around when you’re making rap music. So those seventeen years of public education did me pretty well.

Arts education has had a huge impact on my life. One of my two favorite teachers ever was my high school art teacher. He is one of the main reasons that I went to college for art, and now am pursuing a career in art ed. Without art and music in high school, I would have either dropped out, been really bored, or doing drugs. (haha) How much more cliche could that sound? It’s true though. By my senior year, four out of my five classes every day were art. The other one was AP statistics which mostly involved me playing Tetris on my graphing calculator and failing to hit on the cute girl sitting next to me.

Art and music classes were where I learned a lot about myself, about how to express myself creatively, where I hung out, where I made friends. But I also learned how to work with others, how to focus creative energy, how to talk about art and music (which is something that seems completely foreign to a lot of artists and musicians), how to work with a deadline, etc. All of those things are now a part of my music, and just my life in general.

This post is part of our 60-hour blogathon in support of music development and literacy within the Twin Cities. We appreciate you visiting the site – but before you go, we ask that you consider clicking the Donors Choose banner below and giving what you can to help enrich the lives of a number of local children through music and reading. Thank you. – Culture Bully