Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Since I have being studying music I did not have idea of the existence of organizations to
support musicians. During the lecture from the organization Musician´s Union I realized
how musicians can be affected by bad working conditions. The necessity of spreading
information about this kind of organizations is important to create awareness and help
musicians to know that we could have support and advices to have a more successful
working life. Being a musicians is not an easy task, musicians usually deal with the fact
that we do our job because we love it and there are cases where people take advantage of
it. It is difficult for musicians to establish limits in our musical jobs, especially with family
and friends, they are difficult to explain that our work costs money and it requires effort
to be done, this problem is more complex when it is related to charity events, but these
organizations help us to know what to do in that cases. Another aspect which impacted
me was something that I had never though, Musician´s Union talked about insurances for
musicians. If musicians joins Musician´s Union they get an instrument insurance, public
liability, personal accident, professional expenses and discounted professional indemnity
insurance. I knew about insurances for instruments or accidents, because musicians are
like athletes, we work with our body every day and it is good to have an insurance to
cover it, but I was not aware about the public liability insurance and it is incredible, how
musicians receive support from these organizations to guarantee the secure of every
people involved in any project which a musician with this insurance could do, it covers
damages for people, places or economic problems and the end of an event, also there are
places where musicians are not allowed to do events without public liability insurance.
From this lecture I learnt how musicians can have not knowledge about all the
responsibilities at the moment of organizing a concert or something very simple such as
teaching at home and this Organizations opened my eyes to all the aspects we should
consider before doing any action which involves people. I have come to the conclusion
that joining an organization like Musician´s Union is useful because we as musicians can
have advices about a big range of subjects which we are not frequently related to.
Music in education
Music contributes with a huge amount of benefits for human beings. Studies confirm the
positive effects of the music in our brain and our body. Musicians do not think often about
how music impact the life of every human being in the world, since we are children it is
common to have contact with music at school, but it is not true because all people are
exposed to have contact with music since we are babies. It is impossible to be alive
without listening music. Music is an essential part of our daily life, tons of actions,
moments and also identity are defined by music, and for example the hymn of each
country, the song at the elevator, or all the different songs for our favorite brands and
companies, such as McDonalds, Disney, Marvel, music is identity. Apart from all the uses
that music have, the reason why it is included in our education is because it is very
beneficial for us, especially for our brain. Physiological benefits of learning how to play
an instrument are, for the brain: it can make increase grey matter in certain areas in the
brain, the respiratory system: breath control and lung capacity, motor coordination: fine
motor skills. Cognitive benefits of learning an instrument, intelligence: formal exposure
to music in childhood is associated positively with IQ, language skills: linguistic
processing and verbal memory, numeracy: processes used daily by musicians when
decoding musical notation can create a specific cross over into numeracy, learning
difficulties: musical training for those with dyslexia can impact on linguistic phonological
and spelling skills. Also musical education allows people unwind in an environment
which promote friendship and good values, such as respect, tolerance, solidarity, etc. In
my experience, I began my musical studies at the age of six and I can say that it could not
be better, I had many opportunities to know very nice people, visit different places
(because of many concerts) and that is one of the best aspects of being a musician,
concerts are made in varied locations and travel doing what you want to do as a
professional is an opportunity which not many professions offer. I developed and
discovered my talent for music and for the other arts, because one important point is that
when people take part of an art expression they get sensitized for the other arts as well.
For me music means infinitive opportunities, opportunities to know wonderful people,
beautiful places, make people enjoy what you do and the opportunity to stimulate my
body. Musicians should be more aware about all the benefits that music brings to our life,
it could make us remember the reason why we chose being a musician.
RCS graduates
The expectations to get a job as a professional increase when the students begin at the
university, musicians aim to improve their abilities to become excellent professionals to
accomplish high quality jobs in their future. One of the principal jobs for musicians is as
a music teacher because it is a job which most of musicians can usually do without
problem and it is also possible to do as students. Students usually do teaching whilst they
are preparing at the university because it is way to earn money and get experience,
sometimes they do private classes or there occasions when a student can get a charge in
a music school or academy, nevertheless, better opportunities to work are offered when
musicians are graduated due to the time the can invest on it. During the lecture with the
students from RCS and Glasgow Create we could appreciate one of the odds of jobs
offered in Scotland by Glasgow City Council. Glasgow Create is an initiative which
promote musical education at school levels and allow professional musicians to access to
a proper job. Musicians working at Glasgow Create need to be prepared because the job
demands different skills from musical and pedagogical careers, during this job it is
required to teach an instrument and practical musicianship and conduct as well as work
with children. As musicians that probably will teach, it is a good idea to take advantage
of every opportunity that allows us to acquire different musical skills during the process.
Participating in ensembles and taking modules could add to our CV more qualities to
make us suitable for a good job. In my experience I used to think that I would not like to
teach during my career, but it changed when I had to do my internships in a music school
in Venezuela to get my Art Middle Technician degree. During the internships I could
teach guitar, practical musicianship and conduct choir rehearsals and I did not expect to
like it, however I completely enjoyed it and started to think of it as a possibility for my
future, I consider that musicians should teach because it is a way to share knowledge and
inspire people to love music.
Live Music Now
During the Music in society module we had opportunities to reflect about the wonders of
music and what is the real meaning of music for the society, how we as musician are part
of a system and what we can do to support and improve this social system. Through the
module I could learn about different organizations that offer support for musicians and
offer music to help people, as well as they allow musicians to have good jobs. This is the
case of Live Music Now, which is and organization that takes music to people who could
not probably have the opportunity to be in contact with music. The first aim of Live Music
Now is allow people to experience music because as we know, music offer a huge amount
of benefits to whom is in contact with it. Live Music Now takes music to children, young
people, people with Down´s Syndrome, older people, poor people and they purpose is to
create awareness of every people deserves to have contact with music. Music is a noble
career and although exist people who does not value the importance of music there are
people who have not been in a live concert before and organizations such as live music
now work to improve this aspect in the society and make music part of every people
equally. As musicians we should reflect on the fact that playing an instrument is a
privilege that not many people have and create cultural thinking about music is our
responsibility. We have to defined our roll in the society, let people know that music is a
profession which deserves to be paid but it can also be available for all types of publics.
It is not an easy task to make people join events of classical or jazz music rather than
fashion music, but that is why we should involve children since schools. Music can
change life but not by itself, it depends on who play the music. I have reflected about
what means being a musician and I can say that is one of the most beautiful professions,
we can help people to improve health conditions, we can inspire children to explore their
talent and transmit feeling to people just with our playing.