from Thomas K. Just, Instructor

Welcome, and thank you for visiting! I am an instrumentalist, vocalist, and composer, dedicated to integrating musical training within lifelong learning for youth and adults. I studied music theory and composition as an undergraduate at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN, and at the University of Chicago at the graduate level. I have taught middle school and high school instrumental music and mathematics for the Wayzata, Orono, and Minnetonka school districts, and have many years experience as a private music teacher.

My earliest interest in music and my first professional experience couldn’t be more disparate. When I was 7 years old, the television station that ran reruns weekday afternoons regularly ran ads for various Elvis Presley mail-order albums. One ad, for the live album, “Elvis: As Recorded at Madison Square Garden”, caught my attention for some reason, and I had to have it. My mother was an accomplished classical vocalist, and had sent me, my brother, and sister to piano lessons. She wasn’t particularly impressed with my newfound fascination with the “King”, and she would gently discourage me whenever I asked if we could order the album, but every time the ad ran, I’d start begging again. Finally, she relented. When the album finally arrived after several weeks, it had a quarter-sized chunk broken off the edge of the disc, which happened to interfere with the first part of my favorite tune, ‘Hound Dog’. So I’d put the album on my toy Fisher Price record player, and bounce the needle arm in the air with my finger whenever the broken part of the album would come around every two seconds, so I could enjoy it in its entirety.

I liked to make noise, screaming and squalling just for the fun of it. When I was 8, my mom noticed I could squall pretty high, and tested my range at the piano, which, if I recall, turned out to be the G two and a half octaves above middle C. In addition to being thrilled with my Elvis album, I was influenced by what my mom listened to, which was 100% classical music, operas, and oratorios. She had an album, the opera ‘Amahl and the Night Visitors’, the lead role of which was for a +/- 12-year-old boy. Inspired by Elvis, I thought the idea of a kid being the star of the show was impelling concept. I started listening to it all afternoon, every day, and within a couple weeks I had it memorized. This led to a large church in a wealthy suburb west of Chicago putting on a production of it around me. Thankfully I was way too young to be able to let it go to my head. I was 9 at the time, and made $100, which at the time seemed like a rather nice prize. Shortly after that, the Lyric Opera of Chicago announced choral auditions for the world premiere of Krzysztof Penderecki’s opera, which the company had commissioned in celebration of the U.S. bicentennial - although it ended up being delayed a couple years. For horror movie fans, Krzysztof Penderecki’s you may have heard music within the soundtrack of Stanley Kubrick’s film, “The Shining”, starring Jack Nicholson. I had a great music teacher in 5th grade, and she drove me to downtown Chicago to audition. I ended up getting in. There were many months of rehearsals, and 7-8 performances. My pay was around $7 for each performance - I recall taking away a total of $56.

I played cello in school through middle school, and in 7th grade, after years of hinting at it, I convinced my parents to get me an electric guitar. Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall, part 2” was popular at the time, and I was committed to learning David Gilmour’s solo to it note-for-note. I didn’t have much of a sense of discipline yet, however, and after learning the solo, I gave up on lessons after a year or two Then, in high school, the last day of my sophomore year, a friend of my brother, whose name was John, was cleaning out his locker, and in his “junk” pile was a cassette of the first Van Halen album. A couple friends of mine had played the album for me in middle school - specifically the Eddie Van Halen guitar solo “Eruption”. At the time, it didn’t really appeal to me, but by high school, I was familiar with a number of VH tunes, so I asked John if he was throwing the cassette away, and could I have it. I started playing the record constantly, and in short order, learning “Eruption” note-for-noteon the guitar became my next conquest. I read several interviews with Eddie Van Halen, in which he talked about playing the guitar 24/7 when he was growing up. First thing in the morning -> last thing at night - while eating, watching tv, going to the bathroom, etc. I then dawned on me: “I’M going to play guitar 24/7 and then I’LL play like that!”. It worked! That lead to two very different paths in my life - progressive rock guitar, and classical composing. The reality is that, from a theoretical standpoint, they fit together quite nicely - it is the cultural factors that make them seem entirely unalike.

There is tremendous overlap between the development of classical, jazz, and progressive rock music in the latter half of the 20th century. For example, the wild orchestral swells in The Beatles’ “A Day in the Life” from 1967 can be traced to Penderecki’s 1961 landmark work “Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima”. Likewise, many of the advances in audio recording technology in the last 60-70 years have their roots in jazz and rock. Legendary jazz guitarist Les Paul is credited with being the first to develop the technology of multitrack recording. Much of technology involved in the modern recording of classical music was developed within the popular music industry.

I love all of it - whether it’s Penderecki and Bartok, or Van Halen and Frank Zappa. What makes me able to teach a wide array of instruments in a variety of genres is having knowledge of the theoretical underpinnings common to all of them. When I teach instrumental and vocal music, “music” is first, and “instrumental” and “vocal” are secondary. Noam Chomsky said the purpose of education is to learn to educate oneself. This is my aim in teaching.

MY PHILOSOPHY

The Learning Curve

By the time children reach 3 years of age, they typically are able to recognize approximately 1,000 words.[1] By age 5 that number increases to about 10,0001. In elementary education, kids spend ~ 3-4 hours per school day developing their vocabulary skills while studying literature, history, science, and even mathematics; that is, approximately 15-20 hours per week, just in the classroom. With 165 school days in an academic year, young students spend approximately 500-600 hours per year in a classroom developing their verbal skills. This isn’t counting time spent with homework, entertainment, and social interaction, all of which play a part in developing linguistic skills. By the end of 3rd grade, most kids have devoted nearly 2,000 hours of class time toward learning how to read and write.

Hours spent developing mathematical/analytical skills - not nearly as many; maybe 45 minutes of daily class time and 15-45 minutes per day of homework, equalling somewhere between 125-250 hours per year working on math. It is easy to see why kids often have greater frustration with math than with other subjects.

A young student taking weekly 30 minute instrumental music lessons during a ~30-week school year spends about 15 hours per year learning their instrument in a structured setting. This equivalent to the number of hours the student spends developing their linguistic skills within the first week of the school year. This makes at-home time with the instrument is essential.

Especially for students under age 10, at-home practice really needs to be supervised by an adult. The complexity of musical grammar, along with the technical challenges of playing an instrument, demand a high level of focus and analytical thinking that young kids just aren’t capable of independently. Musical expertise isn’t required from the adult; just time and attention. This entails the investment of valuable time.

The Value of Music Training

Is musical training actually necessary for intellectual and personal development? Technically, no. My father never played an instrument - never took a single lesson, was never part of an ensemble in school; nothing at all. Yet he was able to graduate from the University of Chicago medical school with honors and lead a highly productive life. He isn’t the exception, either. In fact, of the folks I grew up with that attended top universities and eventually ventured into highly successful careers, I can only think of one that was involved with music at all. What is the value of investing in musical training, then?

Each of these individuals developed productive habits early in life that they enjoyed exercising. For some, it was reading novels, playing chess, or learning how to code. For others, it was excelling in athletics, creating artwork, or engaging actively with music. I’ve never known a productive, effective adult that favors watching television above all else. Whether doing something worthwhile, or frivolous and wasteful, time is spent either way. The more an individual enjoys spending time exerting themselves, whether it is with physical activities, solving problems, or engaging their creativity and imagination, the more effective their life will be.

Musical training involves developing highly sophisticated physical, analytical, and imaginative acuity. While there are many activities that also help to develop one or more of these, I argue music training addresses all three of these as effectively as any alternative. Moreover, it serves to mitigate one of the most common fears affecting many adults: the fear of public speaking. I can’t imagine being terrified of talking in front of an audience, whether it is an audience of 20 or 2,000. Yet many adults are hampered with this fear. This alone makes learning music worthwhile!

The benefits of musical training are multifold. Dexterity - “the hands of a surgeon” is a well-known idiom; I would venture to say the hands of Itzhak Perlman and Steve Vai are at least as agile as those of a surgeon. Analytical thinking - developing even an elementary grasp of musical syntax entails having an intuitive conceptualization of set theory, combinatorics, and at the very least, operations on the base-12 numerical system. Imaginative thinking - this speaks for itself.

What it Takes

I am often asked “How long will it take for me/my son/daughter to get good?”, and “How much time do I/my son/daughter need to practice each week?”. The first question has no answer. How good is “good”? But if there is an answer, it pertains to the second question as well. My answer to the second question is “more than zero”. Zero time is the level that most students - adult and youth alike - achieve. How long does it take to advance with musical training at 30 minutes per week/15 hours per year? Forever. Progress isn’t slow at this rate - it is literally nonexistent.

The success rate for adults is actually less than it is for kids, because there is no one to ensure that the effort gets put in. For kids, about 10% develop the habit of playing their instrument regularly. Of these, maybe 10% develop this habit independently, of their own volition; for the rest it is a matter of external influence. That is, a child is ten times more likely to develop a working routine if they’re able to rely on someone to ensure it for them; put negatively, ten times less likely if they can’t rely on external influence. That makes about 1 in 100 that make visible gains within 1-3 years of training when they themselves are left with the alternative of succeeding/failing - about the same number that finish their homework and get to sleep at a reasonable time every night without any external influence.

The ultimate reward from musical training - even if all the practical benefits are set aside - is to be able to educate and entertain oneself in a highly productive way. Few things are as rewarding, educational, and fun at the same time that can be enjoyed alone, as well as with 1-2 others, or even with hundreds of people together. Painting and like fine arts are rewarding, however these are usually solitary activities. While sporting activities are fun and productive, they usually require two or more in order to be fun, and the only way to enjoy sporting activity with more than ~20 people is to watch it. Music leads in all of these areas.

I opened Studio T so that the ability to develop self-enabling life habits becomes more likely for more people.