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Private lessons

  • Writer: Amanda Riddell
    Amanda Riddell
  • Nov 2, 2024
  • 1 min read

Because of the primacy of academic music in the modern arts and culture ecosystem, something that my generation doesn't really do is take private lessons with composers or musicians that they admire (but who aren't tenured). I haven't really done that, but I got some good pointers from Rupert Grobben about the whole festival music thing, ragtime and songwriting. Gary's a strong influence too, but he's more of a really good listener than a musician. Was going to study with Don via APRA, but they turned me down cos I didn't know him. I've been saying for years that the Asian girls who lionise me should take private lessons; I'm not saying that they should necessarily be with me, but with somebody that knows a lot about voice writing and counterpoint. Plus I've got the guitar skills ... honestly, though, I'm not the greatest teacher ever. I started young, so a lot of my music is intuitive.

 
 
 

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1 Comment

Amanda Riddell
Amanda Riddell
Nov 01, 2024

One of my main beefs with academic music is that it gives people the impression that all they have to do is reach the next step via 'meritocratic' testing (that is still biased)*, and then everything will be provided for them. They don't have to do much of the hard yakka of maintaining relationships with people, as they're living in a coddled bubble. In the real world, it's entirely possible to write a great piece and then have people ignore you!🤣


*We don't have those audition screens that orchestras use to create 'blind' auditions as composers: our names are on the sheet music!!

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