"Music....And Unrelated Thoughts"

A couple weeks ago, my sister-in-law Nancy asked me a couple of fairly simple questions. The first was "How do you know so much about music?". And the other was "How do you encourage a kid who likes music to pursue his/her interest in music?".

The first is one I get asked a lot so you'd figure I'd have an answer all worked up and ready to go, wouldn't you? Yeah, so would I. But of course, I don't. And really it's a more complicated question than it seems.

How do architects know about architecture? How do teachers know about teaching? How do doctors know how to remove your spleen? The obvious answer to those questions is all these people know these things because they study them. And more than likely they chose to study these subjects in the first place because of their interest in and aptitude for them.

So how did I learn about music? I read books about it. I listened to the radio. I bought records. I read liner notes. I read magazines. I hung around other people who knew about music and learned what they knew. I went to concerts. I learned to play a few instruments along the way. I never actually studied music in school but I spent most of my free time outside of school surrounded by it. And in a lot of ways, I still do.

As to why I remember trivial bits of musical information (Elvis Costello's real name is Declan MacManus, David Bowie's first instrument was the saxophone, Carole King's first band was formed in Brooklyn and was called the Co-Sines, John Prine used to be a mail carrier in Chicago, etc. etc. ad nauseam) and somehow manage to forget just about everything else is something I can't really explain. It's just the way my brain works, or doesn't work, I guess.

The more interesting sub-question for me is why are certain people interested in certain things and not others? What draws one kid to music and another to medicine? Or one to social work and another to landscape design?

As for Nancy's second question, I think that one is pretty easy. If you have a kid who shows an interest in music (or whatever) you don't necessarily have to sign them up for expensive advanced level training, or get them an internship at a lab when they're 6 years old or any of those other things that people seem to do nowadays. Kids come by their interests fairly organically and they don't seem to waste a lot of time wondering "Can I make a living by learning about…X? Where will this get me 5 years from now?" And so on.

There's plenty of time for those questions later in life.

All a kid really needs is to know that we all have unique gifts and abilities and aptitudes. And these things should be nourished, and celebrated, and encouraged in each of us and by each of us.
All this reminds me of a kid I went to Junior High with named Jay Thompson. He was kind of an odd kid, if you know what I mean. He was a daydreamer, and his socks didn't usually match, and mainly he just wasn't very good at conforming to the expectations of the 13 year olds he was surrounded by. Where other boys were interested in sports, he was interested in cartoons. Not watching them, I mean, but actually drawing them.

He had this whole character and cartoon developed called "Lil' Joe". And he used to sit in class and draw out these little sketches and sort of mimic the character voices and in retrospect I have to say that he was really, really talented even if he was completely unable to focus on anything else going on around him.

In one particular class, the teacher (one of those embittered old guys who should have retired a hundred years ago kinda teachers) noticed that Jay was drawing cartoons in class …again…instead of listening to his gripping lecture on long division. So he snatched Jay's drawings out of his hand, and proceeded to read them in front of the class making an extra effort to mock Jay's work and let everyone know just how silly and pointless he thought "Lil' Joe" was.

Now granted, kids are supposed to pay attention in class, but that aside…I hope I'm not being overdramatic when I say I really think that teacher did the greatest injustice to a young, fragile mind/ego that can be done.

Instead of recognizing Jay's unique gift, he mocked it. Instead of acknowledging that Jay probably wasn't going to be a math whiz, he chose to pick apart the thing that was most important to him.

I don't know where Jay Thompson is, but my hope is that he figured out that his particular gift was equally as important as long division and that he's a famous cartoonist somewhere in the world and he's hired to hire a team of math experts to count all his piles of money. That would be my version of justice.

And this part is really just an opinion, but I think it's part of our human responsibility to offer those gifts and abilities up to the rest of the world. No matter how small or large the stage. Everyone is unique. Everyone is important. Everyone has something to offer. And if we don't share those things, what good are they?

If your kid wants to sing, help him learn to sing. If your kid wants to be a veterinarian, encourage her interest in animals. If your kid is great at balancing a checkbook, have him/her call me. Immediately.

Most of all, I think kids just want us to recognize what it is that's unique and important about each of them. And that we support their interests, regardless of what shape they may take. And hopefully, everything else just takes care of itself, you know?

Thanks for taking the time to read this. And thanks for the questions, Nancy. They're important ones.