My son is going to have a look at it in a couple of weeks--any students/grads with opinions?
Thanks,
Tom
Musicians Institute, Hollywood
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- KVRian
- 1112 posts since 17 Jul, 2003 from Kauai, HI
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- KVRian
- 1283 posts since 13 Nov, 2004
Where do you live? How old?SaviorNeeded wrote:My son is going to have a look at it in a couple of weeks--any students/grads with opinions?
Thanks,
Tom
When I went, the neighborhood was bad. If it's in the same location (right behind the scientology building) off of the strip, it has to be worse.
The education is ok, but allot of people are there to party and not to become "serious". I don't want to sway you from going there, but just keep that in mind.
I kinda wish I had gone to berkley in boston, I think for me it would have been a more serious education.
Just my two pesos.......
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- KVRian
- 637 posts since 5 Sep, 2001 from Hollywood, Ca. one block East of the Jack in the Box
I hated it when I went. (Which was, admittedly 20 years ago).
The school bugged me with it's focus on "Music as math" and jazz fusion...
...and the staff were dorks. World class musos, but dorks, none the less...more concerned with technique than musical personality...or personal personality, for that matter...or decent haircuts and hygeine.
I saw some of the most amazing players there, but it was like:"Wow. How amazing can a guy be, and still be completely boring?"
Paradoxically, it was three of these players who convinced me to leave...
1.) Tommy Tedesco, becuase he had so much personality and no-bullshit musical smarts, neither of which were in the curriculum...
2). Steve Vai, who was, again, great and full of personality. He made it a point to be different and develop style and, well, musical personality in addition to chops. (His later sellout hit me particularly hard...)He also had an undercurrent of:"Technique is just a means to an end, and many of the best players have no real musical technique background. This is just the path I took. Be who you are". I took that as a direct message...
3). Jeff Berlin, because, when I went into the office to get a partial refund, (I only lasted six weeks), he was on the phone, and just gave me the papers like he couldn't care less.
...I swear, if he would have said one convincing thing, I might have stayed...but, he was, you know, busy.
Now, from what I've heard, the school has really changed with the times and is much better, actually catering to students differing tastes better, which is important, otherwise you get kids like me who wanted to rock being alienated by lots of jazz and fusion wonks.
Their facilities are much better now, too, enclosing everything from auditoriums to their own club to practice rooms and state of the art recording gear.
My main piece of advice would be that if this is coming straight from highschool, have him take some time off first, and if possible, travel some.
I went 6 months after graduating highschool, and was still carrying my basic distrust/animosity of organised learning due to twelve continuous forced years of study and many, many bad teachers...so the last thing I wanted to see was more techers using mathematics and rote learning to dehumanize and take the fun out of what should have been a fun learning expierience.
...on the bright side, however, L.A. is a lot of fun.
-S.
The school bugged me with it's focus on "Music as math" and jazz fusion...
...and the staff were dorks. World class musos, but dorks, none the less...more concerned with technique than musical personality...or personal personality, for that matter...or decent haircuts and hygeine.
I saw some of the most amazing players there, but it was like:"Wow. How amazing can a guy be, and still be completely boring?"
Paradoxically, it was three of these players who convinced me to leave...
1.) Tommy Tedesco, becuase he had so much personality and no-bullshit musical smarts, neither of which were in the curriculum...
2). Steve Vai, who was, again, great and full of personality. He made it a point to be different and develop style and, well, musical personality in addition to chops. (His later sellout hit me particularly hard...)He also had an undercurrent of:"Technique is just a means to an end, and many of the best players have no real musical technique background. This is just the path I took. Be who you are". I took that as a direct message...
3). Jeff Berlin, because, when I went into the office to get a partial refund, (I only lasted six weeks), he was on the phone, and just gave me the papers like he couldn't care less.
...I swear, if he would have said one convincing thing, I might have stayed...but, he was, you know, busy.
Now, from what I've heard, the school has really changed with the times and is much better, actually catering to students differing tastes better, which is important, otherwise you get kids like me who wanted to rock being alienated by lots of jazz and fusion wonks.
Their facilities are much better now, too, enclosing everything from auditoriums to their own club to practice rooms and state of the art recording gear.
My main piece of advice would be that if this is coming straight from highschool, have him take some time off first, and if possible, travel some.
I went 6 months after graduating highschool, and was still carrying my basic distrust/animosity of organised learning due to twelve continuous forced years of study and many, many bad teachers...so the last thing I wanted to see was more techers using mathematics and rote learning to dehumanize and take the fun out of what should have been a fun learning expierience.
...on the bright side, however, L.A. is a lot of fun.
-S.
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 1112 posts since 17 Jul, 2003 from Kauai, HI
Thanks, eyeknow666.
My #1 son lives in Hollywood Hills, studying film and video production; #2 son (the one in question)is the drummer of the family and would live with #1, who attends LACC. Unbelievably, both these guys are pretty cool and I think will survive the experience. Both are from Hawaii, btw, but have spent lot of time in California.
It was the educational aspect I was curious about; I want to be sure it's worth the effort and bux.
Tom
My #1 son lives in Hollywood Hills, studying film and video production; #2 son (the one in question)is the drummer of the family and would live with #1, who attends LACC. Unbelievably, both these guys are pretty cool and I think will survive the experience. Both are from Hawaii, btw, but have spent lot of time in California.
It was the educational aspect I was curious about; I want to be sure it's worth the effort and bux.
Tom
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 1112 posts since 17 Jul, 2003 from Kauai, HI
Thanks Sleek Month--nice to hear from you, btw; I haven't seen you post much lately.
I just got handed the course catalog an hour ago, so I'm a know-nothing at this point...it does look pretty upper crust. I haven't asked my son why this school, so I don't know what else he has in mind.
He is a year out of high school and knows it has to be the mainland for awhile if he wants to acheive any success. The kid is a hardworker and has always shown a lot of discipline at drumming--my opinion, he could do well with the right breaks.
Anyway, thanks for your input!
Tom
I just got handed the course catalog an hour ago, so I'm a know-nothing at this point...it does look pretty upper crust. I haven't asked my son why this school, so I don't know what else he has in mind.
He is a year out of high school and knows it has to be the mainland for awhile if he wants to acheive any success. The kid is a hardworker and has always shown a lot of discipline at drumming--my opinion, he could do well with the right breaks.
Anyway, thanks for your input!
Tom
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- KVRian
- 637 posts since 5 Sep, 2001 from Hollywood, Ca. one block East of the Jack in the Box
Ah, I go through periods of actually having a life where I post less frequently...but I always come back. It's cyclical...Thanks Sleek Month--nice to hear from you, btw; I haven't seen you post much lately.
What I had in mind was: I wanna play music, I wanna make the folks happy by going to school, and I wanna move to L.A.I haven't asked my son why this school, so I don't know what else he has in mind.
GIT fit all of the specs...
Very punny.The kid is a hardworker and has always shown a lot of discipline at drumming--my opinion, he could do well with the right breaks.
It's good he's already got family out here and a place to stay. I moved out without knowing anyone at all. It can be very disorienting, though fun. It took me a long time to get acclimated...
Plus, I'll keep an eye on 'im. I have lots of friends who are amongst the tragically young. (I'm seeing a 26 year old, and a lot of the people she knows are young musician-types).
-S.
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 1112 posts since 17 Jul, 2003 from Kauai, HI
Tom
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 1112 posts since 17 Jul, 2003 from Kauai, HI
PS--I drove past that Jack in the Box lst September and thought about you!
Tom
Tom