#student mentality

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The leadership team at LJC Business Partners is proud to recognize Clayton in the May Leadership Spotlight! Clay has displayed an incredible student mentality. 

At Dynamic, Inc., we focus on a student mentality. The more you are willing to learn, the more likely you are to succeed!

(for reference, when i say student, i am referring mainly to high schoolers[although this may apply to middle school or younger as well], not music majors or uni students, but of course i'm sure this happens at many ages, i've just noticed it's more common among my peer group ^^)

what exactly is "student mentality"? as the name suggests, it's something that i've noticed very heavily among younger/high school and middle school student classical musicians, as i've matured as musician and had the opportunity to connect with other musicians outside of my peer group.

to me, i feel in love with music because of the way it can move someone, by making them absolutely ecstatic one moment and bringing them to tears the next. but i've noticed among my peers that playing with emotion and passion is not exactly something that's very influenced. there's almost like a ranking system based of who can play the most insanely fast runs in 2932049832908402th position or who can play all those intense etudes at 3294230498230 bpm or something like that. and if you can't do that, then you aren't a good musician, and you don't deserve to be respected.

now, don't get me wrong- good technique is VERY important. those super fast runs and extreme etudes exist for a reason, and it is not a bad thing at all to be able to play those well! in fact, if you can slay those insanely high positions, that's awesome! 4 for you glen coco, you go glen coco. but is that all there is to music? absolutely not.

your worth as a musician is not defined by being able to play insanely difficult repertoire or being in a higher chair. and unfortunately, that's really not the case when it comes to the community among student musicians. ironically, classical music can be very uptight and not very accepting among our younger generation as well. it's become like this giant competition. obviously, there's nothing wrong with a lil competition, in fact- a little bit can be great! but once it gets to the point that i've seen VERY OFTEN among my peers, where being better than everyone is the only thing that matters in music, and everyone's forgotten exactly what music is about, that's when it needs to stop. it's like you are only respected and taken seriously if you're in a higher chair and can play all these flashy things, and if not- it doesn't matter how hard to try, how much you love what you do, and it doesn't matter how much passion you play with, you are not a good musician and you do not deserve respect.

because of this kind of thinking, i've seen so many of my friends completely give up and fall out of love with music, no matter how passionate they were in the past. and that's something that shouldn't happen to anyone. so to all those student musicians, or really anyone in this situation, just remember that this mentality is not the truth. it doesn't matter if you aren't playing insanely hard rep, or you aren't first chair, or you aren't in that high level orchestra/band/etc, if you are passionate, if you try, and most importantly- if you love what you do, you are still a good musician, and you still deserve respect. your worth as a musician is not defined by your rep, your chair, your ensembles, a competition/audition/performance, etc. you are so much more than what others make you out to be.

I really don’t give a shit about you.

#lawofvibration A photo posted by Sam Caban Dot Com (@samcabandotcom) on May 21, 2016 at 11:48am PDT I hate to say it but the more I see people who PRETEND they want help the more I want to watch your asses burn. Not so much because I WANT TO… BUT BECAUSE YOU WANT TO. There’s nothing like listening to someone bitch and complain about their problems with tears in their eyes ONLY to see them get…