Studying Music in SA – whats the point?

After a few years of trying my hand at other things not music, I inevitably landed up studying music. It was what I had been born to do & therefore there was no reason I study something else. Following that I became a lecturer & have since been in music education for 10 years now. I’ve always encouraged people with talent to study music. The value you gain is taking that talent to another level the same way a good sports coach would.

It’s always been to my advantage being a music teacher & being in the industry at the same time. I’m seen as a teacher who can do. The flip side of that is I have seen over the last 8 years, being in the music industry how its changing & sadly, is becoming harder & harder for musicians to make a living. In defining what a musician is, this is someone who plays a musical instrument or sings with proficiency. They have to, to some degree have mastered their craft.

Right now as the SA music industry stands, DJs are taking over to such a degree that the mindset of the average person on the street is – live music (real instrument playing the music is boring). Being an artist who performs in clubs to house music, I see the reaction to that & then I see the reaction to live music with my band…not all the time but there is a mindset out there that live = boring. 

There are many factors contributing to this. More music on radio & airwaves over the past 3 decades has become less real so people’s ears have adapted & gotten used to a specific sound. I don’t know how to change the perceptions out there but something…especially in South Africa has to be done because if we are not careful, we will become musically & culturally bankrupt!

In order to learn & master an instrument it can take decades…even a lifetime. Surely then when you see someone pouring their soul out through an instrument, you realize you are seeing something that takes skill, discapline & ultimately talent. There are DJs out there with true skill & talent, but to beat mix one song to another, in my mind doesn’t constitute as talent. Moreso, a DJ mixing songs out of key & my worst, accapellas out of key cannot be called talented. For the most part a DJ is a compiler.

Yet it is DJ’s that are for the most taking a large cut of what once would’ve been how a musician would make a living. Its all about what people want & yes, what you want are DJ’s, playing largely House & Hip-Hop.

Let me use this as an appeal to the minister of Arts & Culture & to the minister of Education to begin addressing the issue of a Country in threat of becoming culturally bankrupt.