The Most Beautiful of All Revolutions

Why music education doesn’t need complaining, but the courage to try something new

By the mid-2010s, I had a growing sense that something had changed in how music was being taught in schools, and especially in how it was part of life at home.

It seemed to me that there was already less singing and music-making in schools, and that music no longer held the place at home it had when I was a kid in the 1990s.

Of course, there were and still are teachers, parents, friends and grandparents who keep encouraging their own children and grandchildren, and their students, to make music, and who do a wonderful job of it. But across the board, I became quite certain over the years that the decline was obvious. And this unfortunate trend has only picked up speed since then.

At the same time, I was becoming convinced, also in the mid-2010s, that I didn’t want to keep up my career as a solo percussionist into old age. For me, at least, that story felt fully told.

I had premiered 40 percussion concertos, had been on the road almost constantly since I was 15, had seen and experienced all the great concert halls, orchestras and conductors, and simply felt mentally worn out. I was done.

But thanks in part to my work as a professor of percussion at the Mozarteum University Salzburg, I was developing a growing interest in how we teach music, and instrumental lessons in particular. Pretty soon, I found myself asking: What does high-quality, effective and genuinely enjoyable instrumental teaching look like?

My conviction grew that this was where I wanted to put my energy in the future. The question was how to take on a project of this scale, one that is a challenge all over the world. For that, I needed a partner: people who shared the curiosity to try something new and who were willing to walk this road with me, setbacks, detours and all.

My letter to Red Bull at the end of 2020 is well known by now. I’ve talked in interviews about how quickly and easily we got into conversation. You’re lucky if you have partners and allies like that.

Why is music so important for everyone’s development, and especially for our children?

It’s the best tonic in the world for body and mind. Music develops our senses and sharpens our social skills: listening, responding, tuning in to one another. Nothing is better than finding that shared human harmony together in an ensemble, a band or an orchestra, built on rhythm, harmony and melody.

That’s the famous state of flow. It’s a healthy drug, and you keep wanting more.

Mental and motor development is hugely important for our kids. Right now I’m teaching a few six- and seven-year-olds as part of our Musikum Salzburg Teacher Tools program, and it’s fascinating to watch how quickly their motor skills and coordination develop within just a few weeks, and how the neural connections between the two halves of the brain get denser thanks to music.

For hobby musicians later in life, it’s the ideal foundation for mental and coordination workouts. Everything you need for first-rate mental and physical fitness training is in a few minutes of music a day.

Music can bring out the very best in us. It can quite simply make us better people and help us grow as humane beings.

It can make us more attuned to others, let us hear the subtle undertones in words and feelings, boost our concentration and creativity, and drive the synapses in our brains to peak performance. In short: music makes us better people!

And that’s exactly why I’m devoting myself to this mission with everything I’ve got. The big goal is to bring something new and positive to music education, which is somewhat in crisis right now.

Playing concerts and making people happy in a sold-out concert hall was wonderful, and still is. But there, you’re preaching to the converted and meeting like-minded people.

If we can spark a small worldwide revolution in how music is taught and in how people experience music, learn an instrument or play together, it will set off a small human revolution. The most beautiful of all revolutions.

Over the past five years, people have repeatedly asked me why I gave up my concert career and went all in on MyGroove. “Everything was going so well for you as a soloist,” they say. Yes, it was.

But the desire for a fresh start, for a meaningful challenge, with no safety net and no chance of dabbling in anything else on the side, was far stronger.

Right now, we’re seeing budget pressures mounting in many countries, and music education and instrumental teaching are among the areas being cut. Teaching positions are being eliminated, public funding for music schools is being scaled back, and the profession of instrumental music teacher is becoming less attractive.

Our approach, though, is a positive, forward-looking one. And it’s important to stress that we want to work together with music schools and their teachers to take an entirely new, open and globally unique path.

We’re doing this through the app, through our many hands-on projects such as workshops, concerts, band sessions and app challenges, and through the new MyGroove Teacher Tool. Soon, it will enable teachers all over the world to teach their students easily and flexibly, using content that is methodically and didactically perfectly prepared.

So what will music education look like in the future?

My vision is of flexible, highly motivated and, just as importantly, well-paid teachers who use the possibilities of digital technology to offer perfectly tailored lessons to students of all ages.

Alongside that, an app that makes practicing fun for students, with exercises that feel playful and motivating.

Teachers who can put their own content into the app and benefit from the collective intelligence of music teachers around the world.

And live band projects in big stadiums for hobby musicians of all ages, playing on stage alongside their favorite stars. Plus in-person and online workshops, jam sessions, challenges, and the closest possible connection with music teachers in regular schools.

None of this is rocket science, and we at MyGroove are determined to keep following this path.

But it takes like-minded people. It takes institutions and organizations that take pride in innovation made in Austria and Europe rather than seeing it as a threat. It takes open minds and open hearts among those who teach, a willingness to embrace what’s new. It takes enthusiasm and passion for going the extra mile, for taking the next steps, and, as John F. Kennedy once put it, for being “New Frontiers.”

Sadly, we have far too little of that New Frontiers spirit in Austria and Europe. The naysayers, the people unwilling to go the extra mile and put in the hard work for a bigger goal, are the majority right now. So in music education, whether we’re music school teachers or university professors, elementary school teachers or leaders at music institutions, we should spend less time asking what bad news is coming next and more time asking: What can I contribute to a worldwide momentum for music education?

At MyGroove, we’re working on exactly that with all our passion and hard work. And to quote Winston Churchill: “We shall never surrender.” Anyone who wants to join us is warmly invited to help shape this positive step forward.

P.S. And because, a few weeks ago, I suddenly felt the urge to find out whether I’ve still got it on the drums, there will be a rather unusual revival of The Percussive Planet in Salzburg on December 8, with all my colleagues from the past 20 years. With wind players, percussionists, a rhythm section and my students, the past will become the present. Stay tuned!