Saint Denson
Pro
Black People need to get back into traditional music again. I cringe when i think of all of the Charlie Parkers and Art Tatums that have slipped through the cracks in the black community because they were deprived of private music instruction. And yes i know there's still tons of black instrumentalist out there but learning in the church and learning via Classical/Jazz instruction are two totally different things.
I personally feel music training should be prerequisite for every black child. At this point in my life I would rather see a brotha or sista playing the crap out of a Rachmaninoff etude or Phineas Newborn's Oleo instead of them trying to bust a rap.
First lets look at this from a business standpoint. Music is a field alot of black people seek out professionally therefor shouldn't we focus dominating all aspects of this field. Black people are the greatest musicians in the world so i'm tired of black artists running around with white session musicians, i'm tired of Mike Dean being praised for hacking his way through a guitar solo on a couple of Kanye songs. I love Anderson Paak but fact that he has two latino's in his band slightly annoys me.
We should be trying our damnest to keep these people out of our music not employing them to do something that black people are far more capable of doing. This is why acts like Snarky Puppy are an utter pain in the ass it's nothing more than audio gentrification. The thing is we can easily stop this.
Black people have a infinite amount of talent and nothing is out of our reach so why not nurture these gifts especially in our children while they're still young. Black youth are the ones who should take the mantle of black musical expression, not a bunch of non black imports.
Now to the cognitive benefits music has. Learning an instrument especially via Classical or Jazz instruction has been proven to have incredible positive impact on overall brain function.
increased memory, better hand-eye coordination, more neuroplasticity are all things said to occur as a result of playing music. The benefits of learning music seem to be endless and they carry over to other fields so even those who don't seek a career in music greatly benefit from properly learning an instrument. All these things considered you start to see clearly why many Asian parents insist that there children take up Classical music when they're only 5 yrs old.
I personally think black people should follow suit. We've heard about the "Achievement Gap" between black students and others. Perhaps a solution to this was right in front of our faces the whole time. We'll be essentially using one of our most noted strengths to help us excel. Perhaps what i'm saying is somewhat lofty but i'm thinking in terms of black exceptionalism and dominance over every facet of society, not simply being "Good Enough". We're way better than just good enough
Quite frankly i want to see black people (kids & adults) winning piano competitions, scoring films as well as excelling in academia, business, literature, film and teaching those skills to the next generation of black kids.
I personally feel music training should be prerequisite for every black child. At this point in my life I would rather see a brotha or sista playing the crap out of a Rachmaninoff etude or Phineas Newborn's Oleo instead of them trying to bust a rap.
First lets look at this from a business standpoint. Music is a field alot of black people seek out professionally therefor shouldn't we focus dominating all aspects of this field. Black people are the greatest musicians in the world so i'm tired of black artists running around with white session musicians, i'm tired of Mike Dean being praised for hacking his way through a guitar solo on a couple of Kanye songs. I love Anderson Paak but fact that he has two latino's in his band slightly annoys me.
We should be trying our damnest to keep these people out of our music not employing them to do something that black people are far more capable of doing. This is why acts like Snarky Puppy are an utter pain in the ass it's nothing more than audio gentrification. The thing is we can easily stop this.
Black people have a infinite amount of talent and nothing is out of our reach so why not nurture these gifts especially in our children while they're still young. Black youth are the ones who should take the mantle of black musical expression, not a bunch of non black imports.
Now to the cognitive benefits music has. Learning an instrument especially via Classical or Jazz instruction has been proven to have incredible positive impact on overall brain function.
increased memory, better hand-eye coordination, more neuroplasticity are all things said to occur as a result of playing music. The benefits of learning music seem to be endless and they carry over to other fields so even those who don't seek a career in music greatly benefit from properly learning an instrument. All these things considered you start to see clearly why many Asian parents insist that there children take up Classical music when they're only 5 yrs old.
I personally think black people should follow suit. We've heard about the "Achievement Gap" between black students and others. Perhaps a solution to this was right in front of our faces the whole time. We'll be essentially using one of our most noted strengths to help us excel. Perhaps what i'm saying is somewhat lofty but i'm thinking in terms of black exceptionalism and dominance over every facet of society, not simply being "Good Enough". We're way better than just good enough
Quite frankly i want to see black people (kids & adults) winning piano competitions, scoring films as well as excelling in academia, business, literature, film and teaching those skills to the next generation of black kids.
