Music Lessons that Last a Lifetime: Dani Schuck
To continue with our Music Lessons that Last a Lifetime series, our Social Media and Marketing Manager, Jennie Hirsch, sat down with her good friend Dani to document their experience in music. Music has been a part of Dani’s life for around 15 years in several different and interesting ways. Keep reading to learn how music impacted their life and the different directions they decided to go in with music by their side.
Jennie: Hello, my name is Jennie. I am here with my good friend Dani. Hello, Dani! Do you want to say who you are and what you do?
Dani: I’m Dani! Right now I’m a barista, but I also play music. I’ve been doing music for like 15 or so years, started out playing saxophone. Switched to drums in middle school, and then the rest is history. I play drums, guitar, sing, record, produce, all that stuff with my band, Sunfields. It’s a bunch of people I went to high school with. I went to school for Music Production.
How it all Started
Jennie: So tell me a little bit about your background in music from where you started up until now.
Dani: I grew up in a sort of musical family. My parents didn’t particularly play any instruments, but they liked to sing. My sister was a big inspiration for me because she was like the “go-getter”. She did pretty much everything music that you can do. So that was a big inspiration for me. I did concert band in elementary school and middle school. And then once I got to high school, I started doing jazz band, marching band. I also did like orchestral type stuff. Yeah, so I started out just like listening to music, but really got a passion for it once I started focusing on what it is I wanted to do, and drums ended up being that thing.
Key Takeaway: start your music journey by listening to music and trying out different things
Picking Your Poison
Jennie: What got you into music? Was it your family or, like, how did you settle on the drums specifically?
Dani: Actually, I just remembered this, but my brothers and I would always play Beatles Rock Band. My first exposure to playing drums was because of my brothers. My one brother really wanted to sing, and my other brother really wanted to play guitar, and so I was just left with the drums. And then that kind of got me into the whole concept of moving your body the way that you do for drums. But yeah, that video game is actually what got me into playing drums.
Key Takeaway: let the wind take you where you need to go.
The Long Term Side Effects of Music
Jennie: Playing music since you were young, how has that shaped your life outside of just like a regular school environment that a kid would usually be in?
Dani: I would say, one of the biggest factors is it kind of forces you to use your brain in different ways. Because academically, obviously, it’s important to be learning stuff from like textbooks and curriculums that teachers give out, but I think a lot of where I find a lot of purpose in life and in the things that I do is by doing creative stuff. And for that to be encouraged in a structured way was really helpful because it kind of helps you develop discipline, work ethic, figure out how to get better, and how to practice in an efficient way. So there are lots of different factors of that, but I think just overall it’s really important for people to have a release outside of the stuff that everyone else is doing. Like finding something that you’re interested in that also pushes you to be better.
Key Takeaway: music helps your brain develop and function in different ways, especially when it’s something you love.
A Music Major
Jennie: What has your education in music been like?
Dani: Like I said before, I did band stuff throughout middle, or elementary school, middle school, and high school. High school was when I really started digging into it. So I did marching band, indoor percussion, jazz band, symphony orchestra, concert band, percussion ensemble, and personal stuff outside of that. And then I was really kind of torn at the end of high school about what I wanted to do in terms of college. I was thinking I would do music education for the longest time, but I kind of felt like that would be a little too much like following in my sister’s footsteps. I decided to do music production, so I went to Millersville for a four year program, just undergrad. And the way that the program works there is the formal title is music, business, and technology, and so it’s kind of just focusing on all three of those aspects of the music industry. So you’re both focusing on the music aspect (getting better at your own instrument), the business side (music, law, copyright, all that stuff), and then technology (navigating how to record, how to release stuff, all the distribution of that). I ended up taking more of a commercial route after high school.
Key Takeaway: Music doesn’t have to look like one thing. It can turn into whatever you make of it.
Not a Novice in Music, but a Novice in Music Lessons
Jennie: You said before that you had to take lessons as part of the program, right? Was that interesting after already having so much knowledge?
Dani: Yes, it was particularly interesting because it was actually my first time taking one-on-one lessons, but I had been self-taught up till that point and I had been playing drums for probably 7 or 8 years at that point. To be doing the same thing but be working towards different goals in a way that’s more structured was really interesting. It definitely gave me a lot more motivation and direction in terms of like how to get better. But yeah, that was that was a very interesting experience and my instructor, his name’s Palmer. He’s a great guy. We had a great relationship when I was taking lessons from him too, and I think that was huge. It felt comfortable and it was just easy. There were times when we would be scheduled for a lesson, and I would be like going through my own thing emotionally or situationally, and we would just talk about it. So in that sense, I feel like the humanity of like having one-on-one interactions with somebody that is structured to be your mentor was really helpful. It was basically like therapy, but drum lessons.
Key Takeaway: Creating a comfortable atmosphere for music lessons is essential in helping students play to the best of their abilities, and one-on-one lessons are a great choice for everyone.
Checking Off Boxes
Jennie: What is a moment in your life of being a musician that you are proud of?
Dani: It was last winter. My band Sunfields was the live band for our other high school friend, Avi. She did a show at a venue in Philly called the Yuki Club. It was definitely a highlight musically and also just in general of life because it felt like so much had culminated to that point. I mean, we put a lot of practice in, obviously. But the turnout for that show was nuts. We had hundreds of people in the crowd. That was on my bucket list of venues that in some dream world, if I could play a certain place, that was on the list. To know that I have the capacity to check off one of those places and then I can do that for others is super inspiring to me.
Key Takeaway: Follow your dreams. If you’re passionate about music, pursue it.
Music Forever
Jennie: You went to school for music, and you are in a band now, but do you see yourself in the future having a long, full career in music?
Dani: I think a shared feeling with a lot of musicians is that you kind of have to make ends meet through doing stuff that’s not music. At least to start. Artists don’t get famous out of nowhere. Typically it takes a lot of work and a lot of time. I would like to think that it’s something that I could at least do partially for the rest of my life. I mean, I taught lessons after college, which was a great experience because I was teaching people from ages 5 to 62. It was like a really cool, really, really cool experience because while teaching other people how to play the drums, I was also teaching myself a lot of interesting things. Teaching a five year old and a 62 year old: not the same concept. You have to do that two very different ways. One of the gratifying things of doing career in music is the satisfaction or fulfillment of putting that passion in someone else. To see someone become interested in the same thing that you are interested in is awesome.
Key Takeaway: it’s fulfilling to teach, which is something we agree with at BTB.
Inspire the Youth
Jennie: Because of that experience, what would you say to someone who’s thinking about picking up an instrument or they’re thinking about taking lessons?
Dani: Anyone can do it. That has always been my motto when people have talked with me about like, “oh, I wish I could play the drums.” or like, “wow, you’re so good.” or like, “I could never do that.” My answer is almost always: Yes, you can. It takes a lot of work, a lot of time, a lot of commitment, and a lot of sacrifice, but still there’s not a single person that can’t do music. Yeah. Some people have like a bend towards a certain instrument or a certain way of thinking with music, but no one is an exception to the fact that you can do it.
Key Takeaway: “Anyone can cook” – Auguste Gusteau, Ratatouille
Dani’s story is truly inspiring to us, and we hope that it inspires you to pick up an instrument with the knowledge that music is for everyone and anyone. Thanks for tuning in, we’ll catch you next week.
As an institution that is a beat above the rest, Breaking the Barrier School of Music provides quality music lessons in a family atmosphere to students of all ages and skillsets. For more articles like these or information on this school, visit https://btbschoolofmusic.com/
