Take a trip up to Wisconsin University, and you will hear live music coming from all directions. Full bands will appear out of nowhere and rock a three-song set on the sidewalk, then scamper away with snare drum, guitars and amps in hand to pick another spot to set up.
Walk down State Street, which is the equivalent of the Village on steroids, and you will hear buskers, or street performers, on every block singing their hearts out to passers-by who might not think they're any good. If you're lucky, you might even catch a show from the guy who stands on his head while playing guitar and smoking a cigarette.
This is an everyday scene at Wisconsin University, and these musicians don't do it for the two dimes thrown into their guitar cases by every 10th person who stops to watch them perform - they do it because they are encouraged to.
Wisconsin University, unlike Ball State University, has had a long history of public performance, and it is widely encouraged by the school in all forms. I've been at Ball State for four years, and I have yet to see anyone who can play guitar while standing on his head or anyone who feels truly comfortable playing guitar on the sidewalk, for that matter.
The Ball State School of Music is a nationally ranked and highly respected school that instructs more than 500 undergraduate music majors and minors, but you would never guess it by walking down McKinley Avenue.
A musician has to have more than talent to break out a guitar and play in front of the Atrium; a musician has to have the confidence and the guts to perform where students aren't used to seeing performers.
I would like to see how critical students on this campus would be of a "bad performer" playing by the Atrium fountain. Would they get up and leave? Tell the artist to stop playing? Would they boo?
In any case, that performer probably wouldn't be compelled to play in front of the Atrium again or even worse, in front of people again. Could you imagine a whole band setting up in front of the Atrium with no prior notice? Would they even make it through the first song? If they did, would anybody clap?
Ball State needs to be more supportive of public performance. There are more than 500 students on this campus who have chosen music as their desired professions, and the majority of them stay tucked away in small practice rooms and state-of-the-art recording studios, never to be seen in the public eye.
Recitals and concerts in John R. Emens Auditorium and Pruis Hall +â-¡- where musicians get the chance to get up in front of a crowd and perform the one song they have been practicing for months and have played a trillion times - just don't compare to a good old fashioned jam session out on the sidewalk.
No one ever seems to have much to say about the music scene at Ball State - because there isn't much of one. And it's going to stay that way unless the university does something to encourage public performance around campus.
I'm not talking about letting bands play in the Tally at 9 p.m. on Sundays. I'm talking about bands competing for their audience on either side of McKinley Avenue at 2 p.m. on a Wednesday.
Oh, and by the way... While Cardinals can sing, badgers are better at the jazz flute.
Write to Tim at tjsukits@bsu.edu
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
