CORE VALUES - Creative Competence and Confidence

I wanted to thread this year’s blog with our Core Values and reveal what they each mean to me. Ultimately, our Core Values are what keep us in business and set us apart from every other music studio. When developing our Core Values, I wanted to make sure people know we focus on both the product AND the people. We don’t just teach music lessons so people can learn how to play or sing. While that is a worthy goal in and of itself, it lacks a fundamental element of artistry: humanity. I know plenty of people who play excellently, who can pick up almost any piece of music and play it without mistake. I don’t know very many people who can immediately play that piece with an element of humanity and heartfelt empathy. Art is meant to provoke emotion in us, but how can it do so without the artist's humanity showing through? So while we have goals for the music, we also have goals for the musician.

Our third Core Value is Creative Competence and Confidence. One would think that competence and confidence go hand in hand. It turns out they don’t go together nearly as frequently as they should. We have plenty of confidence in our world that isn’t backed by competence, and those of us who are competent don’t often express it confidently. What would happen if our friends, neighbors, coworkers, teachers, government officials, and the like, all expressed themselves competently and confidently? What would happen if we came up with creative solutions for our issues by looking at patterns and data? This outcome is what we’re looking to promote at Ascend Music Studios. 

Music is so much more than a skill. It carries more than just joy. It carries pattern recognition, emotional expression, discipline, creativity, improvisation (which extends beyond soloing), and leadership. The list doesn’t stop here. The ability to wield music is the ability to affect soul after soul, body after body, mind after mind. We hold this great power with great responsibility and expect our students to do the same. We know there’s exceptional power to the music we listen to; there’s even more to the music we create. Why wouldn’t we expect competence from our musicians? Why wouldn’t we expect our students to bear the responsibility of competent creativity, and not just confidence?