CGC 015 : DIY University

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In this article I will share with you 10 steps to build your very own DIY university education in music. There are really 10 basic ingredients in the university system, but each of them can be replicated in your own life without going to university.

DIY University: Introduction

There are so many people who are incredibly dedicated to the classical guitar. It’s not their professional career. Nor have they studied at a professional institution perhaps. But there’s no real difference between them or me or anyone else really. In fact, they’re often more dedicated than a lot of people that might go through the standard institutional process.

So I’d like to talk about university programs. What they contain, what kind of things you learn, and how you go about it. And then how you might go about incorporating some of these things into your own life, without a university.

To start, I’d like to share a quote from the movie Good Will Hunting. Not “How do you like them apples,” which everyone quotes. The quote I like is when Matt Damon’s character is talking to the smug master’s student and says, “You could have gotten the same education for a few dollars in late fees from your local library.” And I believe in that! I believe in self-teaching. I consider myself an autodidact, although I’ve had an extensive education in music through the university system. But I have taught myself photography, to a professional level; videography; audio recording; web design, which I did professionally for five years; and also business. Those skills I’ve taught myself over the last five or six years are equivalent to a well-rounded liberal arts degree, if not more potent with the addition of real life experience. So, whether you have that piece of paper or not, you can still build a skillset that is incredibly useful.

My University Background

Below I’ve gathered ten points that outline the core ingredients of a music degree at a university — whether that be an undergraduate or master’s degree. To give some background, I did an undergrad in Australia. Then an exchange year in England. I worked as a research assistant in Australia where I actually benchmarked degree programs all over the world. (The university at the time was trying to restructure its courses. So I was able to gain a lot of insight into how the university process works.) Through the application process I applied to places in Europe and the United States and had to know the requirements of each program. And I went through those university programs up through graduate school. So I think I’m talking from a strong place of experience.

The 10 Ingredients of a University Music Education

1. Private Lessons

The first thing most people associate with a music university degree is one-to-one lessons. And more often than not you go to a university because there’s a particular teacher you want to study with.

Most semesters consist of about three-and-a-half months. This means you’ll receive around 15 private lessons of an hour long each. That’s 30 lessons each year across two semesters. Now, those lessons are invaluable. You get a progression and a steady interaction with a master teacher. However, these are just private lessons. So you could very easily approach the same teacher or teachers individually to learn from them. Even thirty lessons at high prices that some teachers charge will be cheaper than university tuition. Let’s say it’s only $100 per lesson, you’re only paying $3,000 for those lessons. Much cheaper than tuition at a music conservatory or university.

And there really is no difference in that process, except for the fact that you might be following a set path with certain requirements at university. The additional requirements might include exams and a recital or two.

2. Exams and Recitals

What does a recital consist of? You perform for people and that performance is a representation and culmination of your efforts up to that point. It’s also usually in a formal environment. It’s very challenging to get to the point where you can perform in front of an audience. I recently just worked with two gentlemen, both of whom have full-time jobs, and each worked toward performances, and they did it! They’re dedicated amateurs who overcame the challenge and it was incredibly rewarding. That is very within reach.

You could book a hall and invite friends to put on your own recitals. Master’s programs only ask you to put on one recital. Music students actually don’t receive that much opportunity to perform. They have to put in their own individual effort. My first year I didn’t have to perform a recital. So I organized my own solo recital and a chamber recital. You can do a university degree and learn nothing. But that’s recitals: often you’ll do a small one after the first year and a bigger one at the end of the second year.

The third year universities often ask you to do a special project, and that might be a concerto. But not with an orchestra. This would be with a piano player who plays what’s called a piano reduction of the orchestra part. But you could replicate this as an individual. You could work with a pianist toward a performance.

There are typically exams at university as well at the end of the first semester. This is usually a technical exam where you have to perform technical work — scales, arpeggios, etc. What that boils down to, though, for the student is setting a goal. If you want to set a goal for yourself, there’s nothing to stop you. Setting goals is incredibly powerful.

3. Ensemble Music

From what I’ve experienced, guitarists who are not in university programs would either play solo or if they ventured into the ensemble world they would play with another guitarists. But in university ensemble experience is required every semester. And you’re forced to play with other musicians, like singers. And working with a singer can be a great learning experience — where singers have to take breaths, while guitarists don’t. So here’s an idea: seek out another musician and ask to work with them. Propose to work on a piece for a few weeks and see how it goes. Or you could schedule a coaching session with a private teacher, but as a duo.

4. Exposure to Other Music

Music schools and universities often have chamber music concerts that you are required to attend as part of your degree program. And some music students are reluctant to go to these. But these are invaluable. It’s amazing what you can learn from watching others learn. So go out and see some concerts that are not guitar music. Go and meet them, talk to them about the music — you’re going to learn so much.

5. History

Now we’re getting into areas of the university that can be really beneficial. Learning about history is practical. If you learned a stylistic trait of Mozart, for instance. And then years later you come across a guitar arrangement of a Mozart piece, like the Turkish March. So from music history I know that in Austria the Turks attacked Vienna. So you can make that association with this famous piece of music to a military march. It helps ground the music and also gives you a general appreciation of music. If you know the diametric opposition of Brahms and Wagner, the two schools of progressive and conservative music at the time, you might enjoy the music more. How do you do it on your own? Get a library card. The whole series of the Cambridge Companion to Music, for instance (of which I was an editor for the volume on Schoenberg). A great book to begin is “The Rest Is Noise” by Alex Ross.

6. Theory and Aural Analysis

Theory classes at music school are quite structured and progressive. In the university one of the first things you’ll do is take a placement exam (usually in history and theory). Some will thus begin from the most rudimentary theory courses and others will pass out of these and move to others. But just like with history, you can learn a lot of these things progressively on your own from books. You could also arrange to take theory courses with AMEB in Australia or Trinity Guildhall and the Royal College of Music in London.

You also have to do aural, ear, training at university. And there are many apps now for your phone that can help you learn to develop your ear.

7. Social Network

The social element of university is a beautiful part of going to music school. You work with peers and you build a network of colleagues for the future. If you want to incorporate this sort of social element into your musical life outside of university you can go to guitar societies. For instance, if you expose yourself to other music (#4 above) and network with people at the concert you can build up a social network in your community. Festivals and summer schools, often organized by guitar societies, can help you meet like-minded people that you’ll bump into again and again.

8. Accountability

Another great aspect of university is accountability. You’re not guaranteed to pay your $40,000 a year and pass and you’re often reminded that you can fail. Even if it’s a bit negative, this provides a great layer of accountability! Plus you’re reminded of the forward momentum of your colleagues that can push you to keep going forward as well. So there are multiple layers of accountability at university.

On our own it can be easy to set goals without any accountability. Think about losing weight. We set goals to lose weight, but we didn’t tell anyone and without that accountability we end up giving up. But you could setup conference calls with other musicians or with your duo partner. Or even just booking a space to perform a recital — that provides a lot of accountability to know you have to be ready.

9. Extra-curricular Activities

Having additional connections with clubs, groups, teams, and so on, can really help you learn. Playing football (the real kind, sorry Americans) really kept me sane during my time at university. You can take inspiration from so many different sorts of things. Take soccer, while going through training for soccer you can think of exercises that work or coaching that motivates you, and then you can use that for your ensemble playing or your practice.

10. The Diploma

Without a university, it’s true, you can’t get the piece of paper at the end. But … that piece of paper will do nothing for you professionally. That piece of paper is symbolic of all the work you went through, yes, and as a symbol it does have meaning. It does give you some credibility, some authority and might help you get a job. It might get your foot through your door to a potential adjunct position at a university. On a slightly more cynical level it means you can play ball: you can jump through all the hoops that are put in front of you and you can work in a structured, orderly fashion. So of course there is value in the diploma. However, in reality, that piece of paper is not a golden ticket.

If you want to create your own diploma, you could. The piece of paper is only a symbol. It’s what you get out of the experience that leads up to it that really matters.

***

And you can do all of this on your own. A university education can be of great value. But all of these core components can be easily substituted for. You don’t have to enroll. I’m glad I went through the university and I would do it all over again if I had to make that decision. But if you want to do it on your own: you can do it, your very own DIY University.

Many of the aspects above are also things you will find within CGC Academy, our online school for classical guitar. Please go here to learn more and join CGC Academy.