The urban conundrum - So many Music Classes, So Few Musicians!

If you live in a metro city, there is a good chance that you must be dwelling in a high rise apartment complex. There is also a good chance that said apartment complex would have a plethora of 'extra-curricular' activity classes being organized, with music & dance being one of the most popular among them.

If you've been with me so far, humor me a little more. Have you noticed how many children so enthusiastically enroll in all of these "hobby" classes? If you're a parent reading this, there's a good chance your own child is enrolled in one (or many) of them.

But why is it that there is hardly any truly skilled individual (Say, painter/musician/dancer/singer etc) of repute being produced out of these cities?

If one looks at all the participants at national level talent shows, it is very rare that someone hails from a big city. Most of them are starry eyed small-towners with a fire their belly to make their mark. At this juncture, a sweeping generalisation may seem very convenient. But let's delve a bit deeper and analyse the situation. 

The paradigm shift in raising children: 21st century parenting is a totally different ball game and shares absolutely no similarity with the parenting styles of the past (recent or distant). Today, most urban families are nuclear and its the one set of parents that are juggling their jobs, managing the household, managing children, their education, keeping them entertained, taking care of everyone's health, etc. etc. As of March 2020, an additional set of challenges that have piled onto them, in the form of this global pandemic. The level of stress combined with the complete lack of immediate support is just unprecedented. There used to be an old saying, "It takes a village to raise a child". In the modern urban setting, this is nothing more than a sick joke, especially when one barely knows their own neighbours (GUILTY! My immediate neighbors moved in a couple of months back and thanks to the pandemic we barely see each other and I do not even know their names). This leaves the parents with no room at all for self care. 

Under such trying circumstances, these hobby classes are viewed more and more as some sort of a respite for both parents as well as the children, to break out of the daily grind. At this point there seems to be zero expectation from anyone to be able to learn something new OR master the skill that the class intends to teach. Instead the hope and expectation is to be engaged somewhere for a bit so that the family can actually catch a breather.

The catch-22 of presenting options: In continuation of my previous point, many parents enrol their children in a plethora of extra curricular activities, under the pretext of exposing this children to all possible options. This, unfortunately, is not the case. In reality, most children getting 'over-engaged' and start losing interest in almost all the activities that they are enrolled in. More often than not, they quickly settle into merely going through the motions, without paying too much attention to the details or nuances of the skill that they've set out to learn in the first place. The fundamental principle of mastering a skill by repetition, has been forgotten!

There are numerous research papers talking about the importance of idle time, some thing that the children of today don't have and as a matter of fact, completely incapable of handling. Most of them are over stimulated due to constantly looking at a computer or a smartphone screen. So, many parents assume, if they get their kid enrolled into many different classes, they will spend less time on the screen and will also learn something. Unfortunately, that never happens because the over engaged kid is completely disinterested.

Lack of commitment to excel: There is a definitely lack of commitment on the part of the child as well as the parent of the child. Many people simply refuse to register the fact that any skill can be mastered by only one word - PRACTICE. And not just practice but "consistent" practice. That is the only mantra. There really is no other secret here. Kids who enrol into these activities (especially music lessons) do not have the drive to practice their lessons rigorously. In fact, kids just on't understand the importance of doing a correct and consistent practice. On really cannot blame them here because well, they are KIDS. They need to be gradually brought into a routine where they will practice their lesson on a daily basis. Once this habit kicks in, not only will they become very comfortable with the lesson itself, slowly they'll start experiencing their own improvement at the nuances of that particular skill.

That said, I also want to emphasise the fact that getting someone to practice a new skill on a daily basis is not an easy task. It is going to be an uphill task. One of the reasons is that in the initial days of practice, since the knowledge itself is very limited, the practice sessions may come across as tedious & boring. But this tedium is an important aspect of effectively learning & mastering the skillset.

Time Management: This is a big one and also one of my favourite topics. If you find yourself, saying you don't really have time to practice, hold that thought right there and look at your smartphone. Most smartphones today come equipped with an inbuilt application that tracks your screen usage patterns. On iOS devices it is known as ScreenTime and can be found here (Settings > Screen Time) and on android devices there's an app called Wellbeing, that can be found here. These apps will show you exactly how you're using your smartphone (which most of the times is - aimless scrolling of social feeds 😁). And BAM! Just like that you'll find the time that you've so strongly believed that you didn't have. Try analysing your usage for one week and I can assure you that the insights will STARTLE you! Once you see your chunk of the day that is being wasted, carve out a small chunk and use it to practice. Let that be your commitment to self-improvement.

This post started out as an inquiry into why are we not able to produce quality musicians but the topics that I have touched upon can be seamlessly applied to everyday life as well. I'll be waiting to hear your thoughts in the comments section. If there a personal victory that you'd like to share, even better.

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