The old anecdote, those who can’t, teach, has been bandied around in music for quite a bit.
The question I have however is, “can’t do what?”
Teaching music requires a depth of knowledge. Another crucial skill of any music teacher, especially those in emerging areas such as Caribbean music, is the ability to TRANSLATE musical language into spoken language.
This part is quite difficult.
To demonstrate this difficulty check this clip from Sly and Robbie as they attempt to explain what they do.
What Sly and Robbie lack here is not intelligence but instead the ability to translate the language of sound into the language of language. So while they are brilliant musicians and obviously highly intelligent, the ability to put what they do into ways people can understand is not something that comes easy. *
So remember all and sundry that because a guy is a genius musician it does not make him a genius teacher. Also music teachers remember your task is a difficult one and never feel inferior because you never graced the big stage. We are all needed to keep #musicaLive.
*What could of happened instead is these guys communicating through playing and others trying to copy them; similar to how oral cultures pass on their knowledge orally/aurally.
stefanwalcott.com 
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