Mentoring plays a substantial role for us whose careers revolve around the arts and other related industries. Those who went to college can name a person or two who acted as their mentor during their college years. 

I’ve had several music mentors (my primary art form), and they typically fall into one of two categories: those who taught me the art of making music, and those who gave me possibilities to grow in music. 

Amongst those who taught me music, I had four private piano instructors between age 9 and my sophomore year of college. Each mentor helped me turn out to be what I am now, but there is one mentor that stood out among others. While 3 of my music mentors concentrated mainly on method and expression, my instructor through high school acknowledged my gift in songwriting, and being a songwriter herself, tailored my training to include theory and contemporary songwriting, as well as classical training. She did not simply put me in a system instead she helped me develop into an artist. 

I had personal instruction under 2 composition professors while I was in college taking up composition as my major and like my 4 previous mentors 1 of the two stood out. He discovered my weak points and strong points as a songwriter and he provided me with a task that will help me grow. He is more of a coach than a teacher and he is willing to work with every aspect of my humanity not only as a composer but as a human as well. 

There were also some mentors along the way who didn’t really teach me music, but acknowledged the gift and made room for it. As a young man of music I spent most of my time in the church and the people in the choir allowed me to use the musical and recording instruments which gave me room to hone my skills and learn from my shortcomings. They were more than cheerleaders to me, they were the people accountable for laying the corner stone of my success. 

There are 2 things I seem to remember when I think about my music mentors. First of all, concerning the mentors themselves – the ones who touched me most were the ones who took a private interest in me and in my development, both as a musician and as a person. Second – looking back at my development, I believe my mentors played more of a role in my training than my college studies..Despite the fact that my teachers and mentors are in the college environment, their personal interest in me helped me develop into a better musician than homework and classes.. College played a role but my music mentors made the variation in my development.