Music in Silicon Valley By: Sukie Dakin
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Dedication I dedicate this book to my family and my teachers here at Freestyle Academy. This project taught me a lot about perseverance in the film, design, and english world, as well as pushing myself to make changes as much as I can to get to a better final product for any of the three subjects. My parents and siblings have always pushed me to push myself, to try to be better even if you don’t need to. There is always room for improvement. Similar to what my Freestyle teachers have taught me, as long as I am trying to reach my potential, try to exceed it. Always try to do better, even if it’s not something worth sticking to in my eyes. Thank you to my family and my Freestyle family for always pushing me and knowing that I am capable to surpass my what I think is my potential.
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Acknowledgements I had a lot of help in creating this project, and I first just want to acknowledge my partner Brooke for working with me even though I probably wasn’t the easiest to work with. She enlightened me with this premise for her project, and introduced me to all of our wonderful interviewees. The filming and interviewing processes of this Documentary would not have been possible without her help and input. I would also like to acknowledge other students at Freestyle, both juniors and seniors, who helped tremendously with their input on our project and spitballing ideas that I could bounce off of for creativity. Many classmates of mine also helped with my Design portion of this documentary, which I will be eternally grateful for, and it definitely would also not have been possible to complete without their help.
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03 05 09 11 Dedication
Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction
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Works Cited
Chapter Three
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Chapter One
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Preface For this unit at Freestyle, we were assigned a Documentary project with elements in all subjects I am learning; English, Design, and Film. When first exploring the idea of musical instruments and music education in general, I didn’t know how I was going to implement as the importance of my project. After meeting and talking with multiple influential teachers and musical educators who believe solely in the importance of music education, it was easy to learn the importance and visibly see the influence and impact it has made on these people. I created this book because I learned a lot on this journey of exploring something I wasn’t familiar with. I learned so much about music and it’s value, and how much it means to others, no matter what age or any defining characteristics that separates people from each other. This project made me realize my own aspirations for music education and desire to learn in the future.
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“I think people often forget how important beauty and the arts really is to everyday life.� - Kristal Barlaan, harp instructor
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Introduction I was in a frenzy of emotions when I first watched Kid Cudi’s Ted Talk. He relays an important message to those who admire him: Understand that your passion for the arts and your wishes to excel in pursuing them, are reachable, if you work hard. Throughout the video, Cudi explains his own love for the art of music, and how none of his success in the music industry would’ve ever became possible without the access and support he had growing up. I felt a connection to this Ted Talk, not only because of the inspiration it gave me, but it gave me insight on the mentality of those who believe in the importance the arts. For my project, my partner Brooke and I wanted to understand the influence that music has in the area we live in, especially to our age group. We documented the journey through the making of this Documentary Project for my film class, and the interviews I documented with various music teachers in the Bay Area. My partner and I asked various questions relating to music education in Silicon Valley, and its level of importance academically, physically, and emotionally. With the research we accumulated over several weeks, and the insight the music instructors enlightened us with, we created this book to show why music is, in fact, so important to everyday life.
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Chapter
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One 13
Meeting Robert
The first interview I assisted my partner in filming with was with Robert Miller, who has been a guitar teacher since his college days and now co-owns the California Conservatory of Music. Visiting him at the Redwood City location, my partner and I asked various questions on his own experiences as a musician in the area, and how the guitar school, with just about 350 students, has progressed since it was established. He explained that the school was born out of special circumstances. A dear friend of his, named Frank Longate, who originally ran a music teaching establishment, passed away. As his apprentices, Robert Miller and his (now) partner Christopher Mallet promised to continue on is his vision, and thus, the California Conservatory of Music was born. When we asked about accessibility to those who don’t have the same opportunities as others, Miller told us about a new project he is working on. Essentially, he plans to work with charter schools in the San Jose area by sending instructors and equipment in order to teach beginning lessons. He wants to provide scholarships for kids through the peninsula to get music lessons for those who cannot afford them. Near the end of the interview, Miller stated, “At the end of the day, it’s art, it’s supposed to be expressive and you’re supposed to enjoy it, it’s not supposed to be a stressful and rigorous academic thing.” Despite the very high-academic culture, the Bay Area still serves as a home to many musical influencers as well as the STEM-fueled community. 14
Over the past couple years, within the STEM-fueled area and beloved technological playground we call home, it seems that Silicon Valley has little-to-no room for competition when it comes to academic achievements not relating to the technological world. Not seen as having much importance or contribution to everyday life and financial stability, music programs in and outside of schools throughout the country seem not important enough to fund anymore, from a political standpoint. With these redeeming qualities, there is still much more to be said about how beneficial music is, not only to the soul, but to the brain. In an article by Cheri Lewis, a licensed doctor and counselor for mental health, she talks about the positive and beneficial attributes that music possesses on individuals, particularly in areas of brain development and memorization, especially individuals with disabilities, such as Alzheimer’s and Dementia. This idea is corroborated to a study from UC Irvine, scores of memory tests of Alzheimer’s patients improved significantly when they listened to classical music. It has been proven throughout the years and from various scientific studies that music does engage various brain functions (visual, auditory, and motor cortices) to work together as a basic structure when learning, teaching, and playing an instrument.
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Chapter
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Two
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Meeting Kristal Kristal Barlaan is a harp instructor in San Jose. She has two main locations she teaches at, and has been for about twelve years. As a native Californian, she talked about the Silicon Valley “culture” as it is known to the public to have a very tech savvy and academic atmosphere. She explains,
“Each region has its own culture, and the culture of the bay area is very academic and very technological, so we see a lot of parents and students looking to supplement their technology and their academics with music.” As a dedicated musician, she refers to the music as having more of an “intrinsic value” in other places aside from Silicon Valley. She further explains that she’s had to adapt to the “culture” of the bay area as well as transform her teaching strategies to translate the same intrinsic value to the more tech savvy individuals. When my partner and I questioned how she thinks more kids could be exposed to learning music, she answered, “I say the best time to teach students is preschool and elementary… It’s like a second language, so if you’re going to learn a second language, you should do it right away.” Kristal goes on to say that although it is a challenge, spreading music awareness is very important, and people often forget how important the arts and beauty are to everyday life. 18
The current political administration of our U.S. government received heaps of backlash in 2017 due to the claims of budget cutting for programs relating to the arts and music. The results from a wide-ranging national assessment comprised of nearly all public and private schools in the United States, showed that scores in music and visual arts had significantly dropped in reference to scores in past years. The reason for the decline in scores was due to lack of education in the schools to begin with. If music was a required course throughout schools in the nation, there would be more engagement between the education of arts and music and the students, therefore better scores on the assessment. The administration proposed to cut off “19 publicly funded bodies, including the National Endowment for Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS).� For many students whose only exposure to music education was provided through programs funded by the CNCS, their education was detrimentally impacted as well as the sense of community and skills built up by the music education they were formerly receiving.
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Chapter
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Three
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Meeting Christie The third and final interview that we filmed was with piano instructor Christie Skousen, at her home and her business, Peery Piano Academy. She said that she has been teaching since she was nine years old and has carried on the same traditions of younger students who help teach, and she calls them “Practical Guys”. She instructs her students to teach others to play in order to learn more about themselves and their knowledge. She taught Piano in Utah for many years prior to moving to California, and she did say that she noticed a difference in culture when it comes to education. She stated, “I think probably, as you’d expect, the kids are really busy. They’re a tad overscheduled in my opinion.” With the tech industry and it’s constant new advancements, comes a lot of competition for the next generation to come. Christie explained that with competition and the overachieving-atmosphere of Silicon Valley, the kids who usually take piano lessons are in very time consuming and high-achieving academic classes.
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The current political administration of our U.S. government received heaps of backlash in 2017 due to the claims of budget cutting for programs relating to the arts and music. The results from a wide-ranging national assessment comprised of nearly all public and private schools in the United States, showed that scores in music and visual arts had significantly dropped in reference to scores in past years. The reason for the decline in scores was due to lack of education in the schools to begin with. If music was a required course throughout schools in the nation, there would be more engagement between the education of arts and music and the students, therefore better scores on the assessment. The administration proposed to cut off “19 publicly funded bodies, including the National Endowment for Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS).� For many students whose only exposure to music education was provided through programs funded by the CNCS, their education was detrimentally impacted as well as the sense of community and skills built up by the music education they were formerly receiving.
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Works Cited Arnold, Rory. “How Music Has a Long History of Bringing People Together • Earth.com.” Earth.com, 20 June 2017, www.earth.com/news/music-bringing-people-together/. Suttie, Jill. “How Music Bonds Us Together.” Greater Good, 28 June 2016, greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/ item/how_music_bonds_us_together. Slavin, Amanda. “Uniting Through Music.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 16 July 2012, www. huffingtonpost.com/amanda-slavin/uniting-through-music_b_1521259.html. Michael. “Music - Bringing Humans Together Since 40,000 B.C.” Strymon, 10 Feb. 2016, www.strymon.net/music-bringing-humans-together-since-40000-b-c/. Harvard Health Publishing. “Music and Health - Harvard Health.” Harvard Health Blog, July 2011, www.health. harvard.edu/staying-healthy/music-and-health. Popova, Maria. “How Playing Music Benefits Your Brain More than Any Other Activity.” Brain Pickings, 24 Aug. 2016, www.brainpickings.org/2015/01/29/music-brain-ted-ed/. Savage, Dylan. “Sustainable teaching & learning lessons for life through music.” American Music Teacher, JuneJuly 2012, p. 12+. Student Resources In Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A292992130/GPS?u=mou n43602&sid=GPS&xid=1a5275c2. Accessed 19 Apr. 2018. Petress, Ken. “The importance of music education.” Education, vol. 126, no. 1, 2005, p. 112+. Opposing Viewpoints In Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A136846797/GPS?u=moun43602&sid=GPS&xid =e7172173. Accessed 19 Apr. 2018. Collins, Anita. How Playing an Instrument Benefits Your Brain. 22 July 2014, ed.ted.com/lessons/how-playingan-instrument-benefits-your-brain-anita-collins. 25
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