Jacob Collier Gives A Music Teacher Advice & Talks About His Musical Upbringing.

Jacob Collier answers a music teachers question after his show in Seattle. He discusses learning music emotionally vs. informationally.

[@michaelsundt7195]

Hey Danilo! I'm actually the guy talking to Jacob. I forgot to have somebody record this so thank you so much for posting it!

[@Danilo8208SS]

+Michael Sundt Oh awesome man! I was actually wondering if you'd ever see this. This is a great moment to share. I'm glad you found the video.

[@mattlandonmusic]

Michael Sundt hahaha dude, I thought that was you!! I was just about to comment and say "that really looks like this guy I know named Mike...."

[@quinbob3957]

Hello Mr Sundt

[@kellerswift2186]

I found it

[@eeek143]

"Instead of trying to make it further away from them and inspiring them to get that distance, bring it closer to them, and make them realize why it's part of their life." That. Is. Perfect.

[@brandonterrill3260]

Frt, his music has shown me things that I once could never see

[@BrighamCrafts]

I can't make out everything, but here's a transcript for anyone who is having trouble hearing the video: Asker: "....from a musical perspective." Jacob: "Well, there are different stages of learning as a teenager, right. There's the part where you just need information, you're ravenous for it. So, I remember when I was that age, 15 or 16 or something, I was just like [makes ravenous noises]. So, at that age, I just asked everyone for music, and also, the internet is like, you can listen to music for free. So, I didn't think about it, I listened to everything I could find for free. And that was huge. And so when the kids want information, you want them to feel it, and you should give them as much, not just stacks of information, but play them things, and enable them to extract information. Give them sources of information, not the information itself. Does that make sense?" Asker: "It does. Actually I started to play your videos for a lot of my kids, and some of them I think it's a little bit over their heads right now, but they can like, wrap their heads around it, but I do have a kid who has perfect pitch [inaudible] play saxophone, he's playing like lead and stuff, like that kind of [inaudible] incredible ears, and he had a hard time figuring your stuff out. It was a bit of a challenge." Jacob: "Great." Asker: "'I know it's possible,' that's what he said to me. I want to start trying to use, um, do you ever watch those June Lee videos? [transcriber of Collier songs] where he like, dissects your harmony? I wanna write those with like, chorales. Cuz I mean, there's a lot of things where like, the movement is not creating jumps, it's just chromatic. I feel like, they could probably handle that." Jacob: "Yeah. I think it's so much more important to get them to, when you play the music, instead of trying to encourage them to informationalize it, just get them to talk about it. And talk about it to them. This is something that my mum used to do when she was teaching [inaudible], she used to play these people music of all kinds. From really strange classical music to amazing rock and roll, funk, African music, yeah, everything. Gospel, a cappella, folk songs. And she got them to do a bunch of emotional exercises. Things like, 'close your eyes put the pen on the paper and see where your pen takes you,' or 'write a list of ten adjectives that you think of while listening to this,' or 'draw a map of the shape of the tune, and then make Xs where you felt the most excited.' All this kind of stuff. And then they go back and listen to it again, and what they take away from that is not 'now I know what a sharp eleven does to a chord!', it's like, 'now I know how it feels to build up to the climax of that song.' And then they'll want to do it themselves, and unpack it for themselves." Asker: "So as they have that knowledge, that's the time to play around with saying, 'hey by the way, this sound that you're hearing,' and then kind of like, let them in on the information? So like, 'the sound that you always associate this with, that's a sharp eleven.'" Jacob: "Yeah. But like, that's the easier bit as a teacher. The hard bit for the teacher is the trust of the student enabling them to find it themselves. It's really important. So, some students will ask you for information, and you should give them the information when they ask for it. But be aware of the people for whom the information-- over whose head the information goes. Because it's like, a difficult thing, and I can relate to them. When I was in school and there was a subject like science, I wasn't super super engaged with, there was a point where the information started to go over my head, and I just disengaged. And that's the most important job of the teacher. Instead of trying to make it further away from them, and inspire them to get that distance, bring it closer to them, and make them realize why it's part of their life, why it should be a part of their life. So I would encourage you to, first of all, think emotionally yourself enough to articulate it to them, and then just give them this diet of exciting stuff, and then talk, and listen, and *then* describe, then say 'this is how it works,' and 'go play it for yourself, explore how this sound makes you feel in this key, or this key, or this key, cuz all the keys are different.' And then when these kids leave school, they'll be left with a yearning to listen to music and experience it, not the yearning to gather more and more knowledge. Because that's what every other teacher will do in your school, I believe that." Asker: "Wow, that's incredibly helpful" [hugs Jacob] Random person: "Can I have a hug too?" [hugs Jacob] Everyone: :3

[@IuriSigma]

Thanks!

[@metalforlife4ever]

Wow thanks a lot man!

[@Sai.b]

Thank you so much for taking your time to for this.

[@DeejayRach0]

Thank you

[@anasamin8227]

You’re a hero

[@Jan4GER]

You can't not want to hug this guy. Such an authentic beeing. Lovely person

[@franciscasnip9488]

As an aspiring music teacher, I find Jacob so inspiring! Thanks for sharing.

[@Danilo8208SS]

+Francisca Snip me too. The little bit of time I got to hear him talk really made me excited to start teaching moore

[@Marius1988Roma]

For a teacher.... hearing that Jacob learned what he knows mostly through internet for free ahahah.. (and his genious, of course) must be frustrating , but at the same time , inspiring.

[@Danilo8208SS]

+GreenTheater that's the way the modern world works. If you want information, it's out there. He did learn from people along the way though.

[@MaggaraMarine]

I don't find it frustrating at all. A teacher's job is not to be someone who has some sacred information that no one but the "chosen ones" should be allowed to hear. A teacher's job is to inspire people to become their own teachers. A teacher has succeeded in their job if their students get genuinely interested in the subject and start finding out more about it on their own. I see a teacher more as a mentor. You can't learn everything during a lesson. Lessons are just a small part of the learning process. People need to do most of the work on their own. A lesson should inspire the students to practice the things talked about on the lesson on their own. This applies to everything. You don't learn to play the guitar by just going to guitar lessons. You need to practice it on your own to get good at it. You go to lessons to learn how to practice efficiently and to make sure that you are doing everything correctly, and to get advice on how to improve your performance. It's always good to have someone else listen to your playing because their ears will pick up different things than your own ears. Sure, some more conservative teachers may get frustrated if the student decides to practice something that the teacher didn't tell them to practice. But I think teachers like that can do more harm than good. Fortunately teachers like that are pretty rare nowadays. Actually, students that are interested in the subject make the teacher's job easier, at least in a way. I think a teacher should actually encourage their students to bring their own material to the lessons. This way the teacher doesn't need to just rely on their own material. This of course also means that the teacher needs to be a lot more flexible. So you can't just be a typical "textbook teacher", only relying on what the textbook says. Just because you can use Google to find all of the information that you need doesn't make teachers useless. Actually, I would argue that it's the other way around. Today teachers have more responsibility because the internet is full of misinformation. Also, sure, you can read about theory and stuff on the internet, but (at least for most people) none of that will make sense (in a practical way) unless you know what it actually means. I think a teacher's job is also to make sense of the stuff that people read/hear about and to make sure that the students understand it correctly. Some people can do it on their own, and for those it makes no sense to take lessons because the teacher usually needs to focus on those who need help (unless we are talking about one on one lessons of course). If Jacob Collier had been my student (which is unlikely because we are pretty much the same age :) ), I would have been more than happy to tell him that my lessons are not going to be that useful to him and he should continue doing what he's doing or maybe find a teacher that gives one on one theory lessons.

[@kovidsonawane]

@@MaggaraMarine loved this thought that a teacher should inspire curiosity through lessons and set forth the student on the path of self discovery

[@TheGoosington]

another interview to the collection.

[@Danilo8208SS]

+TheGoosington yeahbi just remembered today I had a couple more videos from that night.

[@AlexanderWollheim]

A fine addition.

[@ianmoore5502]

this is a huge video for me..I always come back. Thank you.

[@emorcen]

Thanks for uploading this Danilo! I have a problem very much like you - for me, playing music is largely an intellectual process (probably due to the fact that I'm an INTP, the most brain-driven character type in the spectrum of personalities) and I always struggle with the emotional aspect of music. It was when I watched a friend of mine sing then I slowly began to grasp the emotions being spoken about when a genius like Jacob talks about music. This friend of mine lost himself every single time he sang, emoted himself physically by large gestures, jumping up and down the couch, rolling on the floor even! He didn't have great technical skills but he was so involved in the music making process that it was infectious. The other breakthrough I had was watching Tommy Emmanuel live, he was very physical and animated about his playing as well and didn't mind how he was seen; this drew his audience in and made them really care about everything he was trying to say through his guitar. Since then I've been trying to let myself go physically + mentally and not overly focus on techniques and the "correctness/perfectness" of the performances. This has enabled me to feel a lot more when I play! If you watch the greats play, their facial expressions are always loose and is an extension of their music, which I believe comes with being comfortable and relaxed with who you are and what you can or cannot do. I still lapse into bouts of emotional disconnection though which the audience is always quick to remind me about, and frankly even as an intellectual, what Jacob tries to convey in his interviews and music frequently flies over my head as well!

[@Danilo8208SS]

+Gary Goh that's my latest thing I'm learning. Charlie Parker said “Master your instrument, Master the music, and then forget all that bullshit and just play". I'm comfortable on my instrument enough now to improvise freely. Now I'm focused on feeling and just letting it go.

[@GarryNichols]

His comments on learning confirm my experience as a teacher and student.

[@yourstudio]

Thank you for sharing this its great advice for teachers & students

[@willmcpherson2]

He even teaches teachers how to teach!

[@DCeeMusik]

Now I want to teach music even more. JC, you're the man!

[@luisalonsoecheverria]

Jacob Collier is a being with the wisdom way beyond his years!!!

[@NayveeMan]

This is incredible!

[@albrin]

i love so much great interview

[@davidespinosa1910]

Jacob learning science :: Most people learning music (2:57)

[@JJBerthume]

Love it!!!!

[@SPAPBrocker]

Its about time we talk start talking about the emotional aspect first n hes encouraging it. Awesome!

[@Danilo8208SS]

+SPAPBrocker it's crazy to me how uninterested he seems when people ask him informational type stuff. I've noticed it in a lot of interviews.

[@hanzsantos]

I guess that that's the way of thinking he wants to encourage regarding music? Emotion over technicality?

[@BrighamCrafts]

subtitles of this would be really nice! the auto-generated ones are in spanish for some reason lol. this is really good advice tho. i'm gonna remember this next time i'm teaching music

[@ManelRuivo]

PLease subtitles!!! the audio is not clear enought! :(

[@VictorWerke]

Please If someone can put subtitles to the video I would be really grateful! Great interview!!

[@RoyceRemix]

Yes! PLEASE more bts Jacob Collier!

[@Danilo8208SS]

Royce I have one more video from him talking. I'll upload soon.

[@RoyceRemix]

Danilo8208SS - Awesome! Can't wait

[@rittikkumarjha126]

my select To you music for shinging

[@edonave]

All the keys are different? What does he mean by that?

[@Henrique3026]

Keanu Reeves on 90s.

[@SantiagoGomez-ls1op]

Como quisiera poder entender que esta diciendo, seguro es muy interesante :(

[@spacevspitch4028]

I don't know. I think the emotional part IS the easy part. It's learning how to identify what you're hearing and connect that to what you feel that takes years to master. And Jacob is so insanely talented and so much of what he knows is virtually innate that I don't think he can relate to the average person. The average person doesn't just intuit the connection between feeling-notes-instrument. It takes many years to develop all of that. Jacob just HAD it.

[@Danilo8208SS]

+KIBanshee9 I wish that were the easy part for me. I can understand and employ all the theory but I feel like I lack the same emotional connection that people like Jacob have. My playing is largely intellectual.

[@spacevspitch4028]

Danilo8208SS Certainly there's a passion there that drives your pursuit of music though? For me, I've spent the majority of my life trying to build that interface between the music that's already there in my heart and the instruments that I play. The music was already there. It's been arduous and continues to be an endless uphill battle.

[@Danilo8208SS]

KIBanshee9 of course but I don't feel the music like he describes. In my other video he talks about how every key feels different. I don't feel that. To me, it's just the same diatonic chords with a different tonic. I really believe he learned to feel the music on a different level.

[@spacevspitch4028]

Danilo8208SS I think that's just his perception of absolute pitch. Another thing that I've spent all too many years on. With a fair amount of success though, so I keep working at it.

[@Lonem]

also to create that space in your head for the emotional responses of chords to unfold I recommend Psychadelics such as LSD or Mushrooms combined with a daily meditation practice

[@spacevspitch4028]

Man, I don't know. Like, if something is your thing, you don't need anyone to make it extra exciting or accessible to you. You will naturally seek out you're own connection with it and find whatever you want to know by whatever means. If you're not into it you're not into it and no one can force that interest on you. It's like thinking having death metal christian bands is gonna make people think, "Oh they have death metal in christianity too?! I wanna become a christian now!". No, if you're not into it you're not into it.

[@esoteric6178]

I know this doesnt really matter but is there any particular reason he where T-Shirts several times too large for him ? He would look much better in something that didn't look like a night shirt.

[@hanzsantos]

I'm guessing that it's part of his philosophy in life and in music as well? Finding yourself and your sound? Being who you are? Wearing what's comfortable for you? Writing music that you yourself would find interesting and fun to listen to? Having your own personal journey in life and music? I dunno, I'm just pandering at this point, but hope you got the gist :))

[@Danialyn]

I am sure that the only hindrance he had was that he couldn't just download all of the musical information directly into his brain.

[@donfrommars4166]

I don’t care that u broke ur elbow

[@mallygeedkm]

And if he tried to introduce this into US public schools he would be crucified by common core. When I taught in schools if it wasn't related to math, reading or a concert the AP would have a fit.