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You are here: Home / Lessons / Lose Your Musical Dogma – Quick Practice Tip

Lose Your Musical Dogma – Quick Practice Tip

Teacher: Vi Wickam

About Lose Your Musical Dogma – Quick Practice Tip:

[The song played at the beginning of this Quick Tip is Sunshine of Your Love by Eric Clapton. Listen to it here.]

Oh, hi! Vi Wickam here, for myTalentForge.com.

This tip is a tip that will help all of us. It helps me to keep this in mind as I practice, as I learn.

It’s really easy, as a musician, to get wrapped up in a particular ideology, or a particular style of music, and to become a “purist” about that style. To think that that style is the best style, or that style is the only style.

But it’s just not true!

All styles have value if you give them a chance. You may or may not end up liking that style, but musical dogma is not of any value.

Musical dogma- the idea that this is the right type of music and yours is the wrong type of music is total bologna. It is crap! It is not useful in the world of music.

Yes, I mostly play fiddle music, but I also play swing music and I can even play a little bit of rock n’ roll.

And if somebody comes to me with another style of music, I’m going to approach that music, if they ask me to play it with them, with an open mind and an open heart.

I’m asking you to do the same to make this world of music a better, happier, more open, inviting place.

Have an open mind to other styles of music that you may or may not have experienced before.

So that’s your Quick Tip of the Week… Enjoy music! And be open to music for music’s sake!

Have a great week, I’ll see you next time.

About Vi Wickam

Vi Wickam of Loveland, CO has been performing fiddle and writing music since before he could read. Along with his brothers and dad, The Wickam Family Band performed regularly on Blinky’s Fun Club, a nationally syndicated TV program.

Vi’s fiddling can be heard on numerous CD recordings, including two of his own. He’s played with many different bands throughout the United States, and even briefly in England.

Among his fiddling honors, Vi has won the Colorado State Championship twice, and been a finalist four times at the Grand Masters’ Fiddler Championship. He has judged fiddle contests throughout the US, and directed regional and state level fiddle contests.

Join Talent Forge to learn tunes from Vi.

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