Musely: My Music Education Pipe Dream.
One for all, all for none.
Hello again, my friend [insert first name], I have been waiting for you.
Long ago, in a place not all that far away… a man (me) began a business intent on annihilating educating the masses (you people). This man (me again) had planned everything meticulously, with such superlative detail that perfection herself would have said:
“s’alright that is.”
ALAS! Twas not meant to be; the very need for money itself did steal him away from his money-making scheme, and the project was pushed into the deepest set of shelves one can imagine – irony much!
Here I will explain that man’s timeless tale and discuss the malformed, hobbling Pheonix that has sprung from Musely’s well-rounded ashes.
What is/was Musely.
The name Musely is an amalgamation of the word ‘Muse’ (relating to the Greek muses) and the suffix ‘ly’ which implies a likeness to, or having the characteristics of, a muse. Words, such as museum, music, bemused, and amused, are all etymologically connected and help encapsulate (in their own way) the concept of artistic expression as it wanders helplessly through this bewildering minefield known as creativity.
Musely was an intended online platform to span a full plethora of taught musical subjects. Subjects such as theory, instrumental tuition, film score analysis, tutor resources, and compositional development – to name a few. The idea was to build a website to host all of this content and slowly drip feed it to the public - I even taught myself how to code!
I had developed all of the branding, website page layouts, module names, social media; I had a majority of it set, and I was quite confident with the design – the design of which you may see at the top of this post. I even went so far as to create my first educational video and, in the stead of my website, I published it on Musely's YouTube channel.
When it rains it pours.
Forgive my pasty, pale, and rather ill-looking complexion, I didn’t have any fancy lighting or green screening going on; I had to make do with the room’s main light and had sellotaped a plastic bag over it as a defuser – Ghetto fix!
To put it simply, everything just fell apart. The videos took such a long time to make because of the animations, and I had no realistic chance of delivering regular content. Then my job took me away from everything and, slowly but surely, it all started to slip away.
All roads lead to Musely.
So, what now?
Well, Musely will always be a labour of love and I hope to pull it back from the deep dark well that I seem to have lowered it into – ‘it put’s the lotion on the skin!’
I’m currently doing a masters and trying (desperately) to get away from teaching children. Unfortunately, along with keeping up Hark to Tanner posts and just general music-ing, my time is stretched very thin.
A project I have been working on will bring Musely back into the light (somewhat), and hopefully help in sparing me a few more minutes in my day to have a good hard think about where I’m willing to take it. This project involves my teaching privately and also hosting workshops in some local community centres - these would cater solely to adults. I have nothing against teaching children (kinda), I just find it far more personally rewarding teaching people who actually care and practice.
These workshops are crash courses developed with the intention of teaching the fundamentals over a very short period of time. My work ethic towards teaching others is based on ‘teaching a man to fish’, and so the workshops are very intense and are predicated on the principle of self-education. I will have to see how it goes, as it has a steep learning curve for me, not from the aspect of music, but from the imparting of wisdom. I will post about this subject again in the future to alleviate your now possible quizzical interest – will he succeed? How will it go?
I have everything prepared, ready to go, and will begin my first proliferation of propaganda for Musely in the coming week...
‘X’ marks the spot.
If you’re wondering ‘where o’ where can he be?’, I will be hosting these workshops out of Manchester and Salford, UK. I have not made the leap to online lessons yet and so, if you’re interested, keep an eye out for my progression in the teaching of a few lessons here-'n'-there to full global domination. For now, if you have taken that character-defining step into the unending abyss that is learning music, I wish you a wealth of luck and hope that you continue to brighten up a world that would be so very dark without it.
Thanks again, my fellow sapiens.
Dan.
Although you make excuses for your video, I think it is a very good one, and love the animations and the bit of humour in it as well. The branding, like it also very much, somehow the little harp looks to me as an individual looking out into the far distance standing at the end of some pier; Did you had that in mind? Although I like the idea to educate in real life, on location, I certainly hope you can somehow find ways to create an online way of education. I realise it'll take more funds and time initially due to creation of good videos and material. Maybe Steemit can be a source of income to fund this?
Hello @qsounds, thank you for the kind words. I hadn't intended for the harp to look like someone looking out over a pier, but I'm happy with the interpretation. Educating on location will be my first step; I will be looking to slowly build up a portfolio of education (if you will) and maybe utilise blockchain technology to fund it - there are various education-based blockchains that I am currently looking into. A website would be the final goal, but we will see how it all goes. My main goal will be as an artist, but I see no reason why I cannot also be some form of teacher alongside my performing. Steemit may go someways as to funding it but, as it stands, it is just nice to have an audience and someway to express my progress. Thanks again, I hope that you keep reading.
What blockchains you find interesting for education purposes?
The three that I have found thus far are ODEM.IO, Blockchain.open.ac.uk, and BitDegree. But all are fairly underdeveloped and don't span into music tuition; the arts are always the last to be integrated it seems - I have lost so much work from music being 'last in, first out'.
If I do intend on developing an educational service, to a serious degree, I will put Musely on Steemit and see if it builds any traction. I would certainly have the time to blog about the foundational topics of music in order to teach those that are just starting out. I just have not the time nor the money in order to produce the standards I beleive such a project deserves.
I'll have a look into the blockchains you mentioned, never heard of any of the three, so it'll be interesting to check them out.
Yeh, I know what you like to get to with the standards you like to have. That would be awesome, and I think it is indeed also very important when bringing something to the market, it also looks good, next to all the good content of course.
Steemit is indeed a great place to bring some of your knowledge to a wider audience. And at the same time, you can earn some money with it and build some new connections.
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