As the countdown inevitably starts for the upcoming school year, and I turn my attention in a more focused manner towards CMAS, I have been considering how to continue not just the evolution of the program into an even more effective recording and production label, but also my role in that evolution.
One of the things that I am doing for next year is to try to play the role of producer more than just teacher. It's fairly easy to say that, but the educational system sometimes makes that tougher than I would prefer. More on that another time...
Another change that I want to initiate is to try to reenforce more directly several of the key tenants or philosophies that have guiding me as I created, advance (I hope) and facilitate the program just generally.
This is a bit tricky in some ways as I don't want to overstep my role, but at the same time I would like to also give the CMAS students more opportunities to be open to greater creative possibilities. So, for now, while not then end-all-be-all solution, I have decided to post a number of key, let's call them "Maxwellisms" in the room to help reenforce the concepts.
I also thought I might comment here on them as well. I have no idea of any of my students read this blog, but figure it's worth getting the information out, even only for my own sense of what it means. Anyway....
"Arrogance is the enemy." This has actually been posted in the main CMAS room for some years. In fact as you walk in it is positioned on the wall in such a way that despite all the other posters and things up it should be one of the first, if not the first, things a person sees when entering.
This one can be tough. While helping to give students guidance on their own creative process it is very necessary to let their egos take hold a bit. Ego matters. It's important to the process. Otherwise no one would ever get on stage, or present a recording, or even explore an idea they came up with.
But arrogance is something different. Something musically dangerous. It blinds one to advancing musical ideas. It can cheapen the impact of those ideas. And, perhaps, worse of all, it limits the opportunities to explore even greater musical possibilities with others, be they through collaboration or just in reaching an audience.
For a student in CMAS, it might be their unwillingness to follow the creative process honestly - taking short cuts rather than doing the heavy lifting. Or it might mean refusing to really be part of the behind the scenes work for their own show - making the excuse that someone else can do it (even if better than they) when the truth is they really just don't want to take the responsibility. There are countless others examples, but you get the idea.
The point is that while we all need ego to do our jobs, when it turns to arrogance things never work out. If you are difficult to work with on any level - even if you are well intentioned - there will come a point where no matter how talented you are, people will stop coming to you.
Arrogance is not just the enemy of those around you. It's the enemy of yourself. It's the enemy of all things creative.
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