entrance exam

The first time I did an entrance exam was on June 7th 2004, it was a bit of a mess. A few days after the exam I wrote the following to the harmonica lists, harp-l and harpon:

I am enrolled in a private school for jazz in Amsterdam.
All through the year I have been studying hard at my solfege, music theory and improvisational skills.
Although I like the school very much I have had a yearning to go to a "real" conservatory. Partly because I feel that that is a very good place to get to know people who are seriously playing jazz, partly because of the lessons and partly because I felt that getting admitted to the conservatory as a diatonic harmonica player would be an acknowledgement of the validity of my views on how the instrument can be played.

After years of thinking about doing the entrance exam I finally decided to go ahead and do it, so I sent in my application forms for 2 different conservatories.

The first was the conservatory of The Hague. No luck there, I didn't get past the first round. The head of the jazz department felt that I wasn't a good enough improviser to do the entrance exam. Fair enough.

The other conservatory, the conservatory of Rotterdam was a different story altogether.
After sending in my application form I was called by someone from the administration. She was having trouble processing my application because "harmonica" was not something she could enter in the computer as an instrument. She asked if it was okay if she put me in the trumpet group for the entrance exam. I didn't mind as long as she told the people of the exam committee that I didn't actually play trumpet.

So the day of the exam arrived, I was more nervous than I had ever been.
The day started with the theory exam, I did okay. Good enough to be admitted, now all I had to do was play well.
After that the long wait for the practical part of the exam started.
I sat in the hallway and talked to the other people that were there to do the exam. A trumpet player from Ghana, a bass player from Thailand and a Dutch trumpet player who was enrolled in the classical department and who wanted to switch to jazz.

Finally it was my turn, I dragged my amplifier into the room.
The first thing they asked me is what I was going to do with that amplifier.
I told them I was going to play harmonica through it.
"Aha", they said, "so you play trumpet and harmonica?"
"No, I just play harmonica".
"And no trumpet?"
"no".

I explained what had happened with the form and the administration and everything was sorted out.
I passed around the lead sheets to the band and counted off.
The band was fantastic and I knew that that was really the best reason to study there, the large number of very good musicians I would get the chance to study and play with.

I did okay, no mistakes. My soloing was a little tense but I was satisfied with my performance considering the amount of pressure I was feeling.

After playing three songs I was asked to wait outside while the committee discussed my performance.
5 minutes passed and in those 5 minutes I think I came up with some 7024 reasons why they wouldn't think me good enough to study with them.

I was called back and was happy to see big smiles on the committee's faces.
They liked the way I played and told me I could be admitted.
We talked a little about some practical things like who would teach me and how that would work because they obviously didn't have anyone that played harmonica.
I explained the difference between the diatonic and chromatic harmonica and why I choose to play diatonic.
All in all they were a lot more open to the whole idea of a harmonica than I had expected.
I had expected scepticism and rolling eyes, but it turned out that that was just my harmonica player inferiority complex.

I left the building floating on air, still having trouble believing what had happened.
I had been accepted to the jazz department of one of the leading conservatories of the land.
I, a diatonic harmonica player.
Was I the first diatonic harmonica player to be accepted? In my country certainly,I don't know about others.
As I walked to meet my girlfriend who was waiting outside my eyes filled with tears.

I went back home and we celebrated, I called my mother, my sisters my friends the people I play with and was still having trouble believing what had happened.

And then the phone rang..

It was the head of the jazz department..

He had heard that I had been accepted by the committee and he had immediately discussed it with the director of the conservatory and he told me that he wouldn't have it.
There was no place for a harmonica player and it would probably have been better if I had played the exam on trumpet as I was supposed to.
I tried to explain that I in fact had never picked up a trumpet in my life, but it was too late for discussion. It was over.

I send a message to the person who was to teach me, to thank him and tell him I was sorry I wouldn't be studying with him. He mailed back to tell me he had spoken with the head but that the head in fact wouldn't allow any instruments other than the ones that were already taught there and was even trying to get rid of some of the instruments that were already there. He felt that that was a shame, but was sorry to say that nothing could be done.

So that was it. For four hours I had realised something I had long hoped to accomplish. I had been admitted to a "proper" conservatory.

I must say I bounced back quickly, I feel a sense of injustice but I know that I wasn't rejected because of the way I play but because of what I play and somehow that is not as bad as the other way around.
My ego is still intact :-)

I am now more dedicated than ever to playing and studying, so next year I am going back to school in Amsterdam without that lingering wish to go to a "proper" school and finally convinced that the only person that thinks that you shouldn't play jazz on a diatonic harmonica is me.


Tinus
http://www.tenhole.com
http://www.overblow.com
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As I say, let my children have music. Jazz-the way it has been handled in the past-stifles them so that they believe only in the trumpet, trombone, saxophone, maybe a flute now and then or a clarinet <..>. But it is not enough. I think it is time our children were raised to think they can play bassoon, oboe, English horn, French horn, lull percussion, violin, cello.

- Charles Mingus

Liner notes by Charles Mingus for the album "Let My Children Hear Music"
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