Finding a Voice amongst the Shouting by Chris Quinlan 11.12.2000 Hey there! How you doin' ..... this month I'd like to raise the issue of the ratio of musicians wanting tertiary music education versus the number of positions available to them. How does a young student handle the tattslotto-like odds of being one of three hundred plus musicians auditioning for a TAFE music course with only twenty-five positions available? Or being the one, maybe two drummers they pick from fifty plus auditioners for the VCA. Let's go back in time to late November of any given year ...... a few hundred VCE music students display their chops to a table of Tafe teachers hoping like hell THEIR version of Latham's solo#8 or Parker's "Ornithology" will do the trick and get them into the course that will send them onto the student gravy train of a two year course making them more connected, more hip and more "qualified". What does the young student need to do to prepare for this? Well, essentially, we have to prepare way before Year 12 VCE or HSC (depending on what state your in) For many students, Year 12 music craft is a "trial by fire" experience; many students who have "knocked about" on their instrument for a year or two are faced with the task of learning Charlie Parker Jazz Standards or Advanced Funk Studies on Drums with perhaps only a year or two experience on their instrument, barely being able to read, let alone interpret jazz classics on guitar or understand linear funk grooves on drums. Nearly all instrumental teachers working in secondary schools have their own hair-wrenching account of trying to teach year 12 music students ridiculously difficult pieces of music beyond the students capabilities and in a short amount of time; This pressured deadline too often resulting in a half-baked performance by a disheartened student, often leading to the student losing interest in their instrument. As well as this also being an unfair reflection on the teacher. How can this be prevented? Well, most teachers would tell you that Forewarned is to be Forearmed. Many schools adopt a policy of allowing any student to enter VCE Music craft if they have "some" experience on their instrument. This often results in disaster; Talking to fellow instrumental teachers whilst researching this article, one in particular had been placed in a position of trying to teach "Ornithology" to a guitar student who had only been playing guitar six months with no reading skills whatsoever. This situation can only be described as ridiculous. For a parallel example: Every secondary school has year 12 subjects that require Maths at a certain level as a pre-requisite, why not the same pre-requisite for year 12 music? Pieces required for a year 12 performance are approximately equal to an ANZCA grade five-six examination certificate; (ANZCA = Australian and New Zealand Cultural Arts Ltd. a non-profit organisation) If schools introduced these examinations (starting at preliminary/grade one) to music students at Year 7, by the time year 12 comes around, the students should be taking things in their stride. Schools (and private teachers) adopting these music examinations also go a long way to answering the question of "accountability" in instrumental music programmes. Their students would be far more well-equipped to handle the rigours of Year 12 music and therefore a much better musician would be auditioning for the tertiary course on offer. ANZCA itself has its own diploma criteria, one in which you can work on in your own time with your teacher; there are no "musical cattle- calls", you study the required pieces for the grade you are sitting then enrol for an examination when you are ready; given that Grade Five/Six are approximately equivalent to year 12 music craft standard, Grade Seven would be equivalent to First Year Tertiary, Grade Eight Second Year then Associate Performer Diploma (A.Dip.A) being the "Graduating" Year. As well as this, ANZCA also has a further "Licentiate" Diploma (L.Dip.A) and finally a "Fellowship" Diploma (F.Dip.A) which is essentially a ninety minute solo recital. For the serious student, there IS "life after the audition" ... recently in a report dealing with the cost of child care on TV's "A Current Affair"; there was a quote by a child psychologist talking of children being "POISONED BY ELITISM" ..... One only has to look at the number of young musicians auditioning for so few positions at tertiary music institutions around Australia to know that our economic rationalist educational dogma breeds an "US AND THEM" mentality amongst our young musicians of the future. If there are only one maybe two drummers accepted into the VCA from over fifty hopefuls at year 2000's end ... who crys for the poor soul who came third? Why is it even a competition? Everyone's own Originality is an Artform within itself. Why is every Artform eventually subverted into an Industry? As one of my own students was told when he auditioned at the VCA, "Most of the applicants here already have degrees" ..... what a thing to say to a young hopeful during his audition! ..... and where does this leave the kids? Do we have to get into the big PAPER CHASE and the "HAVES" get more elite while the "HAVE-NOTS" are left to ... ? What's the answer? My answer twenty-five years ago was to buy a book .... then learn to read ..... I figured that this was the best way to eventually write your own book. For more information regarding; The Australian and New Zealand Cultural Arts Ltd Modern Examination Syllabus and Diplomas write: Po Box 70 Greensborough Vic 3088 phone: 03-9434-7640