Re: Re: Re: Re:

[Larry Cooperman <coop@newmillguitar.com>]

On Feb 15, 2005, at 12:03 PM, Richard Zvonar wrote:

> At 9:59 AM -0800 2/15/05, Larry Cooperman wrote:
>
>> i spent 3 years smoking pot with most of my instructors for my mfa.
>
> Right. You went to CalArts?

Yes Richard.
>
>> how anyone can stand doing a dma is beyond me except for killing time.
>
> My partner would probably disagree. She worked hard to get her DMA 
> from Stanford and she did some significant research on bowing 
> practices in the transitional period between the Baroque and 
> Classical. She has subsequently published some of this work and 
> otherwise passed it along to her students and her professional 
> colleagues. I think this is a fair example of how a serious 
> scholar/performer can treat the time spent and the work done in a 
> doctoral program.

Yes, well I have to be my own person on the education thing that's why 
CalArts.  They encourage you to take charge of your edu.  I have no 
work to pass on about other people's work.
>
> I myself spent five years in a doctoral program (PhD in my case). I 
> worked hard, smoked no pot, made a lot of pieces and absorbed a lot of 
> information, and I consider it time well spent.

I wrote and performed.  I worked on research papers concerning the 
strange properties of the vibrating string and the fretting system, 
smoked a lot of pot and realized that i was born into the music thing 
so why agonize over an education.  I just tried to keep it from 
interfering with what I already did and enjoyed the work of all of the 
talented people around me.  I did what I did Richard and the 
intervention of a teacher at CalArts was to encourage growth as an 
artist.   I am no scholar on other people's work unless there is a 
particular thing that they do I want to know so I get scores or these 
days, email and ask.  Some composers will answer.
>
>> as you can maybe see i have very little respect for a comprehensive 
>> education that someone anoints you with.
>
> I don't think one can "anoint" you with a "comprehensive education" 
> though it is common practice to "bestow" a "degree" on someone who 
> follows orders for the prescribed period of time. However it is still 
> possible to earn a degree through educating one's self with the help 
> of a university.

Yes!  I am sure that your partner grabbed what she wanted.  I waited 
until I was old to go to college and just wanted to be sanitized for 
teaching all to find out that literature would have been a better 
degree for me.  My wife has this degree and I am more interested in 
what she is reading than what i am playing.  Words are clear, music is 
abstract.  Love the words though.
>
> -- 
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Richard Zvonar, PhD
> (818) 788-2202
> http://www.zvonar.com
> http://salamandersongs.com
> http://ill-wind.com
>
>
Larry Cooperman
New Millennium Guitar
http://www.newmillguitar.com