My Heritage Levitin Analysis

Pena 1

Mario Pena

Tcharos

Music 3A

October 20, 2016 How to Make a Musician To some people an expert musician is one who is born with the gift of talent. To others it is someone who acquires talent through constant and rigorous training. However, according to Ravi Shankar and Daniel Levitin their views on musical expertise vary greatly in their articles. In Ravi Shankar’s article “My Heritage”, Shankar declares that someone is considered a musical expert once they have gone through five years of elementary training eight hours a day,

For example in Levitin’s article, Levitin explains how putting importance towards learning music will make someone learn music easily. When she insists that, “Neurological tags associated with memories mark them for importance, and we tend to code as important things that carry with them a lot of emotion, either positive or negative. I tell my students if they want to do well on a test, they have to really care about the material as they study it” (Levitin 55). When learning something our brains categorize them as being important because when learning, our brain releases neurological tags. By learning something, Levitin is suggesting that interest towards a topic assists in learning the material. The importance put into learning an instrument is much different in the West than in India. It can be inferred that in Indian culture musicians put more importance into their craft because it is their life’s work. They spend much of their life learning from their guru and committing themselves to this lifestyle. It is quite evident that if musicians in Indian culture are not serious about learning music they would not commit their entire life to the art of music. Whereas in the Western many people who take music lessons struggle, “Owing to various factors, some people who take music lessons are less motivated to practice;

For example Shankar describes how he reminisces about the past when musicians did not have to worry about the material side of making music when he says, “There was a time when classical musicians did not have to be so much concerned with the material side of life, for their artistry was widely proclaimed and the patronage of royalty and wealthy persons provided them with all the necessities of life” (Shankar 22). All musicians had to worry about in the past was focusing on their passion for music because every other necessity of life was covered by generous patronage. Materialism has forced someone who is striving to become an expert musician to succumb to the materialistic side of life in order to live. Nowadays musicians have to worry about working to sustain themselves and their families therefore the student loses precious time that could be utilized for studying and practicing their instrument. This prevents students who are striving to become expert musicians from becoming one. Therefore materialism is a cultural aspect which has affected how a musician is built in society. Musical expertise is evidently not just about skill. For example Levitin states that, “Musical expertise has to be about more than strict technique. Music listening and enjoyment, musical memory, how engaged with musical person is are also aspects of a musical mind and a musical personality”