K-Pop singers & classical musicians 
have more in common than what you think.


My name is Marianne Dumas, I'm a French cellist always looking for inspiration and new ways to learn. I was trained in France and in the USA.  This post is dedicated to one of my former student who introduced me to K-pop. She was clear from her first cello lesson: "I don't like Mozart, Bach and Beethoven , I like K-pop!" 

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Today, during my lunch break Netflix suggested me to watch "Blackpink: light up the sky" and I thought, why not! As I watched the documentary,I noticed that what Lisa, Jisoo, Rosé and Jennie went through during their training was similar to what many classical musicians, singers and dancer experience in order to achieve their artistic goal. So here I am, uniting two words that some people see as opposite. 

Leaving home early to study abroad

Like Lisa and Rosé, many classical musicians move abroad in order to follow their dream and choose the best training school.
Intensive training and practicing often lead us to move abroad, drop out of school or choose homeschooling. When I was studying in the USA many of my friends had arrived in the US as teenagers. 

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Intensive training

Countless hours of training and practicing.


 Repetition, repetition repetition

To absorbe all the technique and the tools they need for the next 10 years" 

TEDDY

Practice in the week-ends. No holidays. When you decide to become a performer, everyday is practice day.

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The hard life of competition

Being judged regularly, seeing the elimination of your friends. 
Staying in the competition. Being humble and keep learning.

 Being told that I am not good at stuff face to face.
Jennie

 Waiting is the hardest part.
 Lisa

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The quartet

 We just clicked 

 Lisa

Finding your group. When you play chamber music there are people with who you just click. It is not only about how good they are or how good you must feel like you are a part of the puzzle. Each member has a role and it is natural.

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The Magic of the stage and the public

Wanting to give your best. Feeling so much alive...

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Pain - injuries

Your body is your stradivarius no matter if you play an instrument, or if you are a dancer, singer, or any other activity where you need high perfeormance. When your training becomes so intense you have to listen to your body and be extremely careful in order to prevent injuries but also overuse syndrom...

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Giving up "normal life"

"I can't, I have to practice" is what we say the most during our training. You sometimes wish you could be like the cool kids and go to the movies, do nothing for a day, travel and go on holidays but no, you have to practice, stay focus.

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Having people who support you

Because you will have times of doubt. For those moments when you think it is too much and you can't do it you will need to hear comforting voices from people who believe in you and know that this is just a moment of doubt.

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Becoming a marketing product 
but staying true to yourself and others

Nowadays artists become products. This is a new era in culture. But what if we make the best of it? Thanks to social media and internet we can discover and follow people who inspire us. Yes it might be more difficult to get yourself outhere because let's be honnest, social media takes a lot of time and it is fulll of other artists trying to get noticed. Either you have the money to have someone who manages our image and deal with promoting yourself, or you might end up spending a lot of time writing #hashtags sharing and liking others and that time is taken from you own practice and artistic project. And then, what do you share...? Be true to yourself.

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Not giving up on your dream

When you see someone succeeding, you only see the top part of the iceberg. 
Until you reach your goal you will face doubt, pain, anger. You will need to be disciplined, patient, humble, face frustration and resilient. But I too believe that If you believe you can, and you are willing to go through rough times, your dream will come true.

 All those training years was worth it!
Jennie

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Marianne Dumas




#classicalmusicindustry #kpop #musicians #blackpink #practicepracticepractice


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