Apfelstadt, H. (2015). Artists or Smartists?

Canadian Music Educator / Musicien

Educateur Au Canada, 56(4), 35-37.

In her article, Apfelstadt proposes that there are two types of musicians: artists and
smartists. She describes the artists as people who play the right notes in the right rhythm, with
good technique and a sense of musicianship, while the smartist does all that and also brings a
theoretical and historical, or contextual, knowledge to the performance, deepening the
experience for himself or herself, as well as for the audience.
Apfelstadt says that in most music programs haste to learn music, the deeper
understanding that goes with it often gets pushed to the side. She uses her article as a way to
inform teachers about the difference between creating artists or smartists, and provides them
with strategies to incorporate into their lessons in hopes of creating smartists.
Three of her big areas were text, time and place, and musical concepts. Text refers to
looking into the words, and often the hidden messages that give the piece character. Time and
place also has a large significance because one can bring in the historical aspect of the music.
What was happening in history at the time? How did those people feel? How does that change
anything in the piece? These are all crucial questions essential to understanding the piece. Every
song was written for a purpose, and as musicians we should know the purpose of the pieces we
choose to learn and perform. Musical concepts was the last section of her article. Here she
discussed that its not only about recognizing dynamics and doing them, but knowing how those
elements add to the piece.
I found the text portion of the article highly relatable. I have sung many songs in choir
before where the text was in another language, but if anyone asked me to tell them what any of
them meant or what the text was saying, I would not be able to answer. In my attempt to learn the
difficult music and get the proper pronunciations in time, I never paused to sit down and spend
time to learn what the song was about. I believe that this is the difference that Apfelstadt was
writing about. I was an artist because I could learn the music and perform it correctly, but I
wasnt a smartist because I didnt take it that extra step further.
I can see why this is important. A musician needs to form a connection with the piece
they are performing, and have a purpose to perform it. If I perform a piece where I dont even
know what Im singing, the emotional connection is not there. Im just singing words off a piece
of paper that have no meaning to me. Learning not only the words, but also the message of the
piece would allow me to form that emotional connection that truly makes it a performance.
Apfelstadts article leaves the reader thinking about her concept of artists and smartists,
the difference being an average musician, to a musician who truly understands the piece they are

playing. After reading this, I will now be much more aware of which part I am, strive to be the
smartist, and encourage others to do so as well.