Ok, folks, I’m gonna need your input on this one.
I’ve been thinking about the direction of the podcast lately, and I’ve come to a few conclusions, and I’m going to put them down on paper here. First, the episodes I’ve done so far (as infrequent as they’ve been) have a few problems with them.
- Appeal. First, let me be clear: I don’t have any issues with my listeners, who have always been extremely sympathetic and kind. But I’ve never been completely clear about who I’m making the podcast for, and I think its quality and clarity have suffered because of that. As far as I can tell from feedback (though I’m probably wrong about this), outside of people I know personally, I have precisely two listeners. I think, as does Benjamin Zander in this excellent video I blogged about before, that classical music is for everybody, and I really want to spread the word, rather than just being one more show for the established classical-heads.
- Quality. Some of the episodes I’ve been very happy with. Others really not so, and I can only apologise for that. On the Rite of Spring episode, for example, my voice was wrecked, and I was tired too, and improvising without really knowing what my point was, which made the cast extremely boring to listen to. I don’t really think that’s acceptable, given that an awful lot of classical podcasts and radio shows out there already (a) appeal only to people who already listen to classical music, and (b) are pretty insanely dull for people who don’t. I don’t want to be a part of that.
- Output. Not to put too fine a point on it, my output has been piss-poor. Again, were I my boss, I’d be fired by now, and it’s little wonder that I have so few listeners if I can only struggle to put out one episode every couple of months. Yes, I’ve been busy, but I’ve also been lazy, and I don’t want to continue with that in the future.
But:
- As regards appeal, I’m not really that interested in only talking about the basics. I’m not a musicologist at heart, but I do like to get a little way under the skin of the music I’m talking about.
- I’m also sure not only that is classical music for everybody, but all classical music is for everybody. For the sake of audience figures, many outputs of classical music only play the established classics, and (like so much in music education) seem to assume that music history stops in about 1915. This is absurd – there is a wealth of newer music out there, which can be as meaningful as the established stuff to people who open their minds to it. I’ve often found that people who don’t like “classical” music love the stuff from the twentieth century or later, once they’re exposed to it. The fact that they’re not exposed to it is due to several things, but ranked high among them is the fact that classical stations (or any stations) in general just don’t bother promoting it.
So:
What I’m thinking of is this: I have found that I’m able to send out a weekly show, approximately every week, but rather than sending out a single show on a weekly basis, I’ll be doing two, alternating every week, as follows:
- Classical Introductions, version 2: This will be a show for absolute beginners. It will cover the basics of classical music, without getting into anything too deeply. Likely it’ll start off with profiles of the major eras of music history, and the stand-out composers, and the fundamental parts of music, that is, what to listen for.
- Classical Explorations: This will be a show more like the one I’m doing at the moment, where I examine a single piece of music at greater length (again, without getting too deep, but more so than Introductions). It will be for people who have some experience of the basics of classical music, and who want to learn more. I think I’ll also use this show once in a while to talk more generally about the lives of composers and the evolution of different forms of music, like the symphony and so on.
To avoid confusion, I’ll be taking down the episodes of Classical Introductions I’ve done so far, but of course I’ll be re-doing those episodes anyways. The focus, of course, will stay on public domain/creative commons/otherwise free music which can be easily found.
Whatever happens probably won’t happen until July at the earliest. I’m going to be scripting and recording for this month, so that I can build up a store of episodes and hopefully not fall quite so far behind myself.
But, if you have any feedback, tips or pointers, now is the time. The email address is at the end of every show, or you can just leave a comment below.
Thanks again to all my listeners. See you soon.
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