Sarah’s Blog
Hi, I’m Sarah. I absolved the preperatory course ‘Filmscoring and Production’ at Musicube Academy and now I am a second year student of Composition for Film and Theatre. In this blog I’m gonna share my personal experience as a student at ArtEZ in Arnhem.
Any questions: sarahs_blog@yahoo.com
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Last week I already had my second Swap Day this year. But what is that?
In the first year as well as in the second year you have three so-called swap days during your studies at ArtEZ. During these days you have the opportunity to choose from a group of subjects and teachers. There are subjects like songwriting, singing lessons or other instruments. It also happens that there are subjects like improvisation or similar, if a teacher specializes in it.
To choose a certain subject you don’t necessarily have to play the instrument. You can use your time as you like. Especially for us film musicians, this can be very interesting if you don’t know your way around some instruments yet, but want to compose for them.
However, you can also use the lesson to play together with the teacher. It doesn’t matter if it’s with the same instrument or a different one. Sometimes a view from another angle on your own instrument is very helpful and can help you in your own process.
For example, I used the Swap Days last year to get to know teachers. Since I was already sure that I wanted to choose voice at some point in my study career, I had the opportunity to try out different teachers beforehand so that I could then choose the one that best suited me.
Since I am a person who likes to learn new instruments, I also used the Swap Days to try out different instruments such as violin, drums or saxophone, although I don’t own a saxophone so I brought a chalumeau (mouthpiece of a clarinet and the body of a flute). But the teachers here are very flexible and adapt to the student and their needs.
Also, the requirement to teach at ArtEZ is to be part-time in the music industry yourself, so you can get first-hand information and tips from a musician’s life. This may not be as relevant to the film music industry because there are no subjects related to film music, but you can always learn something from experiences in other fields.
For example, I had a very exciting lesson with a drum teacher who talked a lot about the value of music and marketing in general. This again has a very big meaning no matter in which musical field you are.
I also always find it exciting to hear what path the teachers have taken as musicians themselves and really get a personal insight into what it means to make a living from music.
The Swap Days are really full of opportunities, but as with everything in this degree, it takes self-initiative to get the most out of it. I still have one last swap day to go and I’m excited to see what kind of instrument I can rediscover then 🙂
All the best,
Sarah