Questionnaire Responses: Question 2

Has your relationship with music changed since you became a music student at university? If so, how?

Well I'm technically not a "music student" in the sence that I am not regestered with the music faculty, but i still consider myself to be a student of music. Music guides me and helps me to learn about myself, other poeple, and the world. I guess that since I came to university, i finally realized that music is a teacher. So if music is a teacher, the i am a student of music.

Yes, university has brought me a greater respect for music. It has renewed my interest in an art that is constantly changing. There is always something new and exciting in music.

It's become more personal and related to experience. But I've also matured in that I don't immediately go to music when I need an escape or an outlet. I appreciate it much more when it isn't altered by the meaning I attach to it.

University forced me to increase my level performance and professionalism, but my relation ship has not changed

Yes, it has. In high school, different teachers had different opinions, but the commonality was technique, and sticking to the "proper" way of performing. At university, it's much more about the sound created, and letting the perfectionism fall a bit. And I'm not a music major.

Music has become more of a duty, an obligation. It has become the sole bringer of stress. Which makes me laugh - because, what is music therapy?

i appreciate it less because of the amount of theory and studying we do. it was better raw.

Oddly not really. I thought when all my time became devoted to music that some deeper connection would form but it hasn't. I guess the connection was already pretty deep. What has changed is my relationship with musicians. Being around so many people that share the same love for such a beautiful art form every day is exhilarating. I don't think any other program has such a sense of community and mutual passion. It's amazing to be a part of it.

I felt that university tried to take my music away from me. There were days when I came home and felt like the school was trying to take away a part of me. It took me what felt like a long time to realize just how hard I would have to hold on to my music if I wanted to study it here. My relationship with music often feels like a secret. The times when I break the rules of what kind of musician I am expected to be are the times when my music feels most real and sounds most beautiful.

Yes: I need it more and more, but fight with it all the time. I'm scared to admit how important it has become to me.

Yes. I feel the emotions in it stronger now. Every song is a story that I am not just telling- I am experiencing it every time.

I am troubled by the artificial performing and listening that usually happens everywhere in this Faculty (even in myself). However, periodically I am astounded by the depth that can be found. My relationship with music used to be one way, but now I see that it must exist on a spectrum between the artificial and deep.

Yes. We're on a rollercoaster, music and I. Sometimes we're up and in love with each other. Other times, it's the last thing I want to be around, it becomes a chore.

My relationship has changed to appreciate the intricacies of music, understand various points of view on music, and to simply enjoy what I'm hearing and performing.

I have come to a greater appreciation of music since coming to university. I loved music before, but now I understand it a bit more, and a lot less at the same time.

Yes, I went from "being good at it" to hating every second of it, to loving it again. Now, I can't see myself not having it in my life everyday. When I don't play, I feel lost.

Yes, both in good ways and bad. Good: Getting advice and criticism on how I play my instrument helps me become a better musician. Bad: Having to sit through useless classes... and learn things that I will never remember once the course is finished.

Yes. Sometimes I *think* I want to quit and go into office work.

I discovered that music is more about creation and destruction than about interpretation.

If it hasn't, then you don't know music very well. Today it is this, but tomorrow it will be that. A relationship with music grows together or apart like people do. If it doesn't, is your music really alive?

Yes. I have grown to love it more and have rediscovered my ambition for music. I also definitely take it more seriously now than I did before.

someone turned up the dial on the interaction, but the relationship has stayed the same.

Yes. It became something i did instead of being a part of who i am. I found the relationship between the music i made with my instrument and what i was learning in my academic courses very disconnected. Music became a complicated matter, an academic venture. I felt as if everything I was trying to convey with my music was overshadowed by the things i was being taught that I struggled to find meaning in.

Playing now causes me pain. I persevere anyway, but the aching in my body makes it hard sometimes. I wish it would stop so that I could just play. When talking to people other than musicians, I find that I no longer have anything to say. My outlook on life is 100% determined by how well my lesson goes each week. Music is the cause of virtually all of the stress in my life; it is also the cure.

When I was in elementary and secondary school, I was always the best at music. It was the only thing I was ever 'the best' at, so that made it cool. I also realized I love to perform in front of people. It only took the grade 8 musical to realize that. Coming to university I became the lowest of the low in this music world and my relationship with music became one of battling to conquer it. I was determined not to fail or give up, like so many of my peers. I think I still am very passionate about music, but as they always say, when it's your work, it's never fun in the same way anymore.

Yes, I have become much more connected to it, it is more necessary to me and I have a deeper appreciation and gratitude for being involved with it

It has intensifies for i now hear it but i also understand its structure, as well as being as submerged as i have been i have been awakened to an even wider spectrum.

yes, to a certain degree. I have a greater understanding of music, and music plays a much larger role in my life on a day-to-day basis. I experience stronger feelings towards music, both positive and negative. These feelings that music provokes include happiness, joy, satisfaction, and contentment, but also (and perhaps more frequently) frustration, incompetency, uncertainty, anxiety, and sadness. I also play less frequently for my own pleasure and joy, for after I have completed my required music-making, i have little energy for anything else.