From being a young child with multiple older siblings and parents involved in a variety of music programs and instruments, I also naturally pursued the field of music starting in elementary school. This single decision has greatly impacted the course of my life, and has allowed me to meet many different people with similar interests regarding music, both peers and instructors alike. I have recently been able to contact a very experienced instructor to give their own ideas, perspectives, and insight on the topic. A new instructor at Etiwanda High School, Travien Sears, had been affiliated with the art for nearly 20 years, having both performed and composed songs. While performing and producing music are very different paths within the field, Travien has had a lot of experience in both. In response to the question of “Which path do you prefer?”, he stated that, while both are very enjoyable, the spread of inspiration that he has experienced when teaching other people has been much more fulfilling. In addition to asking about his personal experiences, I also asked him about common misconceptions that many people would not typically know of. The most significant misconception in his perspective is the belief that being a good performer also makes them a good educator. In his own words, he stated that “[he has] found that the student that struggles the most and works hard to find strategies to break down that set of 16th note triplets at 187 BPM (just music slander) is ultimately able to teach music to the wide array of students” that he instructs as a music educator. In short, the ability to fully comprehend different ideas in music is much more important when teaching others, and merely being able to play notes is not deep enough.
In addition to his ideas and experiences through music, Travien also gave his thoughts regarding the field as a whole. When asked the question, “What is one thing that you could change about the music field in its entirety?”, his response was to remove the “toxic and cruel” people that exist. While many people (including me, originally) would not immediately think of this as a response, his statement goes to show the reality of the career and how there are still unfavorable conditions that exist, just as any other career path, despite the lack of attention that is brought onto it. Although there are people who exist that damage the reputation of music production, a different response from Travien shows a contrasting idea regarding the inspirational effects of other members. He stated that the most inspiring part of his experiences is how good other people are, and how he sees them as more competent than he is himself. He stated that he is “in awe every day on social media at a new venture with a new musician, and seeing their lives become so filled with love through music.” Despite his already-impressive amount of time he has spent pursuing music, the ability to look up to other people and admire the proficiencies of other people is still extremely captivating and inspiring. Being able to find a new life story of a new person nearly every single day has made him enjoy existing within the field of music as much as performing it himself.
For closing ideas and questions, he provided his reflections of his past decisions and continued to give new and interesting information, both encompassing his emotions on the significance of music in his life and providing advice to other people, musicians or otherwise. When asked about the most enjoyable part of teaching and writing music, he stated that the first time hearing a piece played produces a wide variety of thoughts in a very raw form. He also directly said that hearing a final draft of a piece is not nearly as exhilarating as the original occasion. Hearing a piece of work, especially one of personal sentiment, for the first time brings out emotions in a pure way in his perspective, even though most people would expect a more polished version to be more popular. A different question that he responded to in regards to his career path was “Would you change any past decisions with your current knowledge?”, to which he responded “No.” He additionally gave the very impactful statement of “Everything I’ve done, I’ve done for a reason, and I have to live up to that reason.” This powerful statement can also be applied to other paths in life aside from music, and does an extremely effective job of showing his love for the field of music. The final statement that he gave included advice for people considering a similar path is that it is extremely rewarding if it is something that a person really enjoys doing, and that passion is the most important part. Travien’s accomplishments and experiences within the field of music have shown the immense impact that it has had in his life, and also expands to show how it can impact others’ lives as well, including my own and any other person involved with music. He showed how his passion led him through life, and included a very expansive and influential closing line for any person in any field to interpret: “There’s always someone around who can do the job just as good, if not better than you - the difference between you and them, absolutely, without a doubt, has to be the passion. If we don’t have passion for what we do, there is essentially no point in continuing because we are taking away from that artwork’s beauty.”
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