Wallitner Weekly 24

Hello everyone!

A lot of productive things happened this past week.

Okay so I don’t have those chapters ready yet, but Its not because they’re not done. I am currently writing this at 3:39 so I am in a bit of a rush and don’t have time to dilly dally with how I am going to Link a several page PDF into this newsletter.

I have been slowly trying to merge my two favorite things. Videogames and Music. Today during my livestream I built a piano and taught a music theory lesson to my viewers from inside of a game. It wasn’t anything life changing, but it was fun to do and my viewers enjoyed seeing me do something I was passionate about outside of winning at the game. The closer I get to finding a balance between all of these plates I am juggling, the happier I feel.

I’ve got lots of plans for next week too!

Next week I promise Ill have some of my textbook for you guys to read over. Also classes are starting up again at the colleges so I am hoping to pick up some more music theory students. I also had an idea for a mini set of videos (Like 30 seconds each) Where I explain the part writing rules and the counter point rules. There are a lot of these rules and they’re usually taught in a bulky and clunky kind of way. I think it would be more beneficial to have a version where each rule was explored individually and more thoroughly.

Being a good student has ruined me, professionally.

This may come off as a bit of a hot take, but being good in school has done pretty much nothing good for me since graduating. Im not saying you should try to do well in school, but the work ethic taught in classes did nothing to help me as a freelancer.

Take English class for example, in high school you have to write these five paragraph essays, right? And then in college they go up to five or ten pages. And they give you a process to go through and they grade you on it. So first you make your outline, which could be whatever you want. Then you do your rough draft, then your edits and your final draft.

Well me being a “Good Student” Would write a rough draft, and submit it as the outline, rough draft and final. And there would be no edits because it was good enough for a passing grade. This is a terrible way to pass school. Let alone graduate magna cum laude. And its a very very common thing. I used to do it in music theory class. I would notice an error in my homework, but erasing it and redoing the whole thing wasn’t worth it so I would mark the error and turn it in anyway. My teachers started to make fun of me because I would turn in assignments with one or two wrong answers, which would be circled because I knew they were wrong. But I wouldn’t fix them because I knew id have to restart and it just wasn’t worth those extra few points.

Now again, this may come off as a hot take, but I’m not trying to say “look at me I did well in school” I had a lot of things paved for me when it came to academics. I took private lessons in several of these subjects so I had about as much help as any one person could ask for. But the system, the point grabbing, deadline reaching, system of academics has failed me. I don’t know how to turn back. I don’t know how to fix a mistake without just redoing an entire paper. or project or piece of music.

Heres a real world example. I am writing this song of hope. When I write music, I don’t really make edits. I am four minutes in to a five or six minute piece. And I dont know if I like the climax. But I already wrote it, and I wrote stuff after it. And there’s no “turn it in and get most of the points, its still an A, just not an A plus” part of this assignment. Professional life is all or nothing. At least in the music business. I didn’t learn how to edit things in school, I learned how to write rough drafts that could pass as finals.

Its VERY rare that I will write more than one version of a piece of music for this reason. I tried to write an SATB version of one of my Mens choir piece and I just couldn’t figure it out because I had to make changes and I couldn’t separate the rough draft from the final.

AND that’s not even talking about what school did to me for procrastination. If I could write a rough draft instead of a final draft, that’s time saved. Time saved means I dont have to start writing my rough draft until everyone else starts their final papers. Thats neither sustainable or smart. But that’s how I was graded. Just check the box.

I’m not particularly upset by getting good grades or anything, but I do feel a little cheated. I spent the better part of my life letting my education get in the way of learning. I have learned so much more in this year out of school than I ever did checking some box in an English class or gathering occupation credits in high school.

Its now 4:02 so my procrastination got the better of me once again, but I have learned its better to say something well and take your time than to rush and say something stupid. Or worse, say nothing at all.

I learned that a blank page, though perfect, is impossible to fix and not at all interesting. I didn’t learn any of that in school though. So I challenge you to pay attention to the bigger picture when it comes to learning. Nobody is grading me for my spelling (and it shows) or my grammar (and it shows) or anything else. You have to hold yourself accountable and learn on your own.

Unless its music related… Then you should email me.