I recently presented a paper at the 2016 International Society for Music Education (ISME) in Glasgow Scotland, entitled “GOING PRO:
Lessons from Successful Graduates of Popular Music Programs”. It was a report of what some of the clearly “successful” graduates are doing and what they think was relevant, important and not-so-important to their successes, via their popular music education experiences. In the post-paper discourse, the very first question up, from some snarky, American doctoral candidate, utterly stumped me: “There are many perspectives of what success is, Professor Smith, how would you define it?”
… suddenly caught with my pants down, I hazarded a ham-handed response along the lines of “Success is operating in the black, and enjoying the process of how you got there”.
Thus inspired, I decided to ask some really “successful” people, on a scale from poor to smart to rich to just plain happy. Once free from the concept that winning 1st place on Idol, or a Grammy, an Emmy, or an Oscar isn’t the only definition of real success, the whole thing becomes much more sophisticated, and discussion-worthy.
For instance, Kenny Gorelick (aka Kenny G), who, at 50 million dollars, is considered to be the most successful instrumental artist of all time, in monetary terms. However, he just told me that success to him was seeing Improvement. “I practice 3 hours a day when I’m home, and as I see improvement I feel successful.” Not one word mentioned of a bottom line.
In contrast, one of my former students here in L.A., who is very creative, active and happy, says: Success is “insatiable hunger, it is unending growth. It is knowing our potential and our worth while working everyday to reach towards them” Danny Schnair
Vasillis Lazauros a young Greek bassist in London told me: “Success comes when you feel happy and proud of yourself from what you do, whether that is just playing the blues in a pub with your mates or playing at the O2 Arena with a big pop singer. When you manage to catch that feeling and you feel like a 15 year old kid again having the goose-bumps from a song that you heard, that for me is just amazing. “
Another 20-something Londoner, Matt Lott, told me
‘Success to me is the realization that you have put your all into something, no matter the outcome. It’s both the fuel and the reward, the thing that can drive us or destroy us. Success is feeling positive about your path in life’.
And from a piano teacher in Agrigento, Sicily, Barbara Catania: “The secret of genuine success, taught to students, consists of a seemingly simple but very rigorous formula: personal talent, hard study, purity of emotion, humility, constant quest for beauty, which is universal truth and courage. The closer you get to this latter, in fact, the more you absolutely get the peace of mind, peace of spirit, peace of soul: that’s the final sign that you’ve worked so hard in that right path. If you are brave enough to believe what you are doing, also the others inevitably will believe in that, because the path of an artist is, after all, a life’s journey as an individual.
From Andrew Gower, the Principal of Morley College, London, on building successful teams: “It is important to firstly gain a collective trust amongst the group by having a sense of common endeavour – understanding the ‘big idea’ that’s at play – the creative concept, the strategy, group objective, and then to populate and structure the collective space we’re working in with agreed terminology and potential working methods, and to agree that in all that we’ll pursue together we need to take a few risks. As Peter Gabriel said of Kate Bush: ‘Creativity comes from the freedom to fail, and a freedom to fail comes from experimentation and that’s what gives something its individuality.”
Success-through-achievement and monetary gain is feverishly marketed to young musicians from a massive variety of sources, including our own academic system. A successful movie means a successful box office… So, whatever it is we discuss with our students in a more nuanced way about success, as put forth from the opinions above, we will have to compete with a huge dream machine, marketing and selling rather more glamorous things than we present in our classroom. Use this guide to become a master in marketing. For fans or aspirants of American idol, the Grammys, The Emmys, The Britts, or Oscars, the definition of success may consist of getting to the top of some gladiatorial, media-fed experience.
So, what I have learned is that perhaps my modest original thought about success being “operating in the black and being happy with how I got there” is indeed my best response. It is all a rather personal, subjective affair, and it is hard to make a living at, and hard to stay happy while in the midst of it all, so for me, ticking those two boxes represents success.
Richard Smith is a tenured, full professor at the USC Thornton School of Music. As a recording artist he has 13 discs released as a leader or co-leader, and performs his teaching/performing residencies around the World.