Posted by mental... on September 04, 2003 at 13:33:36:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Becoming a professional posted by r. a. on September 04, 2003 at 13:12:15:
...images against craftsmen? I don't know about that, but what I was getting at are the people who have spent their whole lives in practice rooms, didn't care about their grades, and now have major performing gigs...but they have serious relationship problems, make butt-loads of money but have their telephone turned off because they can't find the phone bill and thus pay it, wear brown shoes with a tuxedo, often have BO, and can hardly spell the simplest of words or form a coherent written sentence. Musical savants, life-skill idiots. I happen to know three people off the top of my head who fit in this category, and I'll bet there are many more. That's why I believe that living a full and varied life (read: going to a school where you are expected to write well, know math, and study a variety of sublects) makes people a better musician in general, and much better prepared for the realities of life itself. There's no reason that a person cannot practice sufficiently in undergraduate school to begin to compete in the professional audition world, and at the same time become a well-rounded person.