Will Markwardt of The Absent Arch on Music and Arts Education
photo by Lauren Treece
How did you get into making music, and how did arts education (or lack thereof) affect you and your music?
Speaking personally and probably for the rest of the band, we started out of a love of the idea of making music. There were a lot of different factors over the past five years that brought us together and made us what we are now. We are a mixture of music majors and curious creators. Above all else, we’re together because we love what we do and we love playing together. Our band comes from such a diverse background (jazz trumpet player, classical violist, free drummer) that it makes for a fascinating mishmash (at least to us).
We all started music at a young age, some more intensely than others. I played piano at six and percussion from sixth grade to about eleventh. My friend and I created this mock rap group in sixth grade called Sumo Fighters. We put a lot of time and passion into making it as ridiculous as possible. Have you ever heard a beat made strictly out of sound effects from Streets of Rage 2? That is one thing I am definitely not ashamed of. Sumo Fighters later became a label that housed the Green Olive Posse which included most of my friends from grades 6-12. It culminated into about three albums and twenty or so side projects that were mostly never recorded. I think we just enjoyed coming up with names, lyrics and album art. After that some of us continued with music, some went off to war, some got married. I chose the first option. If there are any Sumo Fighter albums floating around out there, please get in touch with me. I think my friend’s mom tossed what we had left in the garbage years ago when she was cleaning his room.
Our band is kind of like the business-oriented married man: Working 40 hours a week, only to spend all of his free time working on his lawn or car. It is a labor of love and a love of labor. Music has always been such a gratifying experience for us that putting in extra hours never seems like an issue.
Most of my musical influence has come from my peers, education in its own right, however informal. I have not had as much formal music education as the rest of the guys in the band. Some have extensive training in theory, some have played in college orchestras and jazz ensembles, but the music education I had as a kid in a band (listening to records, playing music with my friends, etc.) gave me the fundamental know-how to do what I am doing now.
If you ask the rest of the band, they would not argue that their education played a invaluable role in developing their musical abilities. It seems as though formal arts education and personal discovery/peer interaction are two sides of the same shiny coin. They both offer an infinite amount of development and creativity; it just all depends on how you approach it, consume it, study it, learn from it, grow with it.
Regardless, no child should ever be denied the option of formal music education, and there needs to be significantly more effort devoted to promoting and funding public-school music programs. Without the education I received, I might not have ever picked up an instrument. I am sure the same can be said for a large percentage of other musicians.
Creative expression is something that everyone deserves the opportunity to explore. Without the opportunity, the barrier between hearing something that moves you and being able to create something that moves someone else often becomes insurmountable. We lose our abilities to tell stories, to understand our differences, to address social and political issues, to strengthen and expand our communities. That’s what music can do. And music education teaches us how.
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
