Charles Elliot, president of Harvard University, first advocated for the elective system in higher education over a century ago and institutions across the country soon imported the distinctions between core courses, major courses, and electives. Music in higher education grew alongside the propagation of the elective system and these categories are common to almost all contemporary degrees in music.
The core curriculum in higher music education encompasses music theory, music history, and ear training. Because courses outside of music are often prescribed by larger institutional or state authorities and compose much of the core curriculum, deeper disciplinary focus is provided in major courses, where students distinguish between musical specialties such as performance, composition, and music education. Electives allow faculty and administrators to experiment, adding new subjects more easily than altering degree plans and requirements. Historically, this meant that instruction in contemporary fields was introduced into music curricula through elective courses. Popular music and the many associated skills commonly ascribed to contemporary pop musicians; recording and production, music business and management, and songwriting, to name a few; have often been confined to the elective realm of study. Now is the time to reimagine these curricular relationships for the digital age. Clear to scholars, faculty, and students alike, is the reality that all musicians need training in these “popular music” skills, including those that intersect with activism both within and outside of the music industry.
We should advocate for a new core curriculum composed of entrepreneurship, technology, and advocacy.
Since the digital revolution, musicians have relied upon their entrepreneurial skills more deeply than ever before. The industry has seen stunning and inspiring success stories in this regard; however, music students need training in entrepreneurial skills and logics in order to be successful in their chosen fields. Musicians are accustomed to valuing virtuosity in the form of instrumental or vocal skill. The virtuosity of the 21st century musician is also in entrepreneurship: creativity in producing ideas and connecting with the marketplace.
The pandemic forced a rapidly digitizing music industry to recast itself in virtual form and we should not expect it to ever return to its previous incarnation. Where technological skills in prior generations could be considered secondary or tertiary abilities, today’s musicians and tomorrow’s music students will conduct many aspects of their careers digitally. Their experiences in music creation, music promotion, music connections, and music education will all have significant virtual components. Music students need to practice technology as their primary instrument, and it must be infused into every aspect of teaching and learning. This demand on musicians’ skill sets reaches beyond music technology as musicians need skills in basic computer programming, data analytics, and audio science to keep up with the current music business and stay well-positioned for success. Check This Out to know about how to manage all the accounting tasks easily.
Renewed calls for action on social justice issues during 2020 have forced the music industry to look inward and initiate programs aimed at a more equitable music business, and musicians across the world are stepping up to play their role in advocating for a more just future. Higher music education should embrace and nurture this advocacy through instruction in music policy, globalization, and the role of music in promoting equity. In so doing, we can provide music students with the tools to advocate on every level and empower citizen-leadership within our discipline. It is through advocacy that musicians challenge our industry, though advocacy that we champion the value of music for society, and through advocacy that musicians turn their extraordinary art and platform into extraordinary change.
Musicians will always need instruction in the theory and craft of music making, but in 2021, they also need their training to match our collective moment. It is incumbent upon higher music education to include entrepreneurship, technology, and advocacy in all music degrees. Nothing elective about it.
Jake Hertzog is a multi-genre award-winning guitarist, composer, songwriter and educator currently serving as the Jazz Area Coordinator at the University of Arkansas. http://www.jakehertzog.com