One afternoon at Grateful
Dead headquarters, Music in Schools Today (MuST) had the opportunity
to meet and talk to former Grateful Dead bassist (and Board member
of MuST) Phil Lesh about his early musical days and his thoughts
on music and its importance. His contribution to music is legendary.
As you will read, Phil truly has a musical heart and spirit and
his advice for students pursuing a career is highly thought-provoking.
MuST
When did you first discover that you had an affinity for music as a career?
Phil
As a career, probably at age fourteen. But something happened that was
immeasurably important in my life at about age four. My grandmother used
to listen to the symphony broadcasts from New York on Sundays. She discovered
me one day with my ear against the radio, listening to the music. She asked me
to sit with her and listen, and that became a ritual with us. The music I heard
that first day was the Brahms First Symphony. If you know how that begins, you
understand. It was totally overwhelming. I knew that it was something that
I wanted to be involved with. When you're four years old you don't really think
like that, but I knew that it was something that was really important.
The school music programs I was involved with are really what I credit with
making me a musician. There wasn't another route unless you were a prodigy like
Steven Bishop. Either you were a prodigy and had expensive teachers and spent
your whole life doing that or you went through the school music programs.
That's why, at age fifteen, I switched schools from El Cerrito to Berkeley,
because at Berkeley they had harmony courses and at El Cerrito they didn't. I
wanted to learn about theory and compositional technique, because I wanted to
write music as well as play it. That was so important for me. It completely
widened my horizons, so much so that just that one course led to everything that
came after it at Berkeley. So, I really credit the school music programs for making
me a musician.
MuST
So you would say there is a benefit for kids to have music in schools?
Phil
I think that parents, educators and musicians really have to take matters
into their own hands. Some years ago, in 1993-94, I persuaded the guys in
the Grateful Dead to do a benefit for the Berkeley schools music program.
At that time, grades four to six had no music. I found this appalling - that
this training, which was responsible for making me a musician - wasn't there
for these kids.
And if I hadn't been able to go in that direction, I don't know what I
would have become. I might have had to get a real job. We played a benefit
and raised a large amount of money, enough to pay the salaries of the teachers
in the school district for a whole year. And then, the City of Berkeley put an
initiative on the ballot and the voters approved a bond issue to keep it going
indefinitely. So I don't know how the Berkeley Education Foundation got everybody
to vote for it, but that was the result: the voters in Berkeley, in a unique situation,
voted extra tax money for music in schools. You have to have a hands on event with
musicians who can be relied upon to give something back and do a benefit performance,
that's the starter. You have to take over yourself.
MuST
What advice would you have for a young person who wants to pursue music as a profession?
Phil
Other than practice, practice, practice, it depends on what kind of music
you are really interested in. In popular music,there's lots of people out
there who need musicians to form bands and play all types of music. Beyond
that, it's the luck of the draw.
What the Grateful Dead did was to build an audience by performing live. We were
never really known for our records. Our records were never really that good. And they
didn't sell well except, for one after we really got started. We played because we loved it.
We played for dancing and played long and loud. We did that and did it long enough so that
people started coming to hear us and then coming back to hear us again. For one thing, we
never did the same show twice.
So, the key to building an audience is not necessarily getting a record contract.
'Cause the record contract is part of a business and industry controlled by corporate interests.
You're only as good as your last hit single. Nobody buys albums any more, really, for the
single that they have heard on the radio. So, in the audience there really doesn't seem to be
any artist loyalty. That is to say, I liked this album by this artist and so when their next album
comes out I'm going to get it - whether it has a hit single or not, 'cause I liked what they did before.
That seems to have gone with the wind, so that's why it seems you're only as good as your last hit single.
In order to have any clout with the record industry, you have to bring your record sales with you and go
everywhere and play wherever you can.
I know there are a lot of bands that do that. It can be done. Classical music, if you want to be a
performer, you need to go through the schools and conservatories. If you are interested in being an
orchestral musician, for instance, aim to get into the New World Symphony in Florida with Michael Tilson
Thomas. All young people who have just come out of school come down to work with MTT. They play as well as
anybody in new music and American music. They have a little rock 'n roll soul, too, so that is one avenue,
if you are interested in orchestral music.
As far as composition is concerned, I read somewhere there are more that 10,000 composers in the
United States. I don't know how many of them get played regularly, but it can't be more than a hundred.
So, is there any sure way to get to be successful to be a composer except to write for films, jingles
in commercials on TV? You can do a lot with a home studio. There are opportunities to create, but not as
many to be heard as there could be.
MuST
What is your funniest or happiest musical memory?
Phil
We played a show one night at the Carousel Ballroom in San Francisco, which later become
the Fillmore West. It was Valentine's Day, 1968. We were glaring at each other and nobody
was playing right. We got off the stage and hated it. We thought everyone had played badly.
We listened to the tapes, and it was magnificent, and we used it on a record. It shows just
how the moment can color your perception. What it was that made us think that wasn't any good?
Who knows? It didn't have anything to do with the music. It must have had something to do with
our personalities. Or everybody was having a bad hair day. It just goes to show you never can tell.
MuST
What are your thoughts about Music in Schools Today?
Phil
In a general sense, as I have said, I truly believe music in schools
to be tremendously important. Anything to be done to support either
MuST or your local music program, or anything you can do personally
to help is invaluable, surely needed and greatly appreciated. All
Meg and Music in Schools Today has done is wonderful, and I hope
the good work will continue. Certainly, I'm willing to help wherever
I can.
