Final Exam - Posted on 2014-06-02 by Jin Huang

This is unbelievable. From Dec 2nd, 2013, my first interview with Lionel, also the first time that I’ve been in a recording studio, to May 30, 2014, my final lesson, I’ve finished the program in exactly half a year’s time. Everything was quite organized, so I didn't lose any time even though we stopped for the Christmas ice storm for one week and spent another two weeks waiting for my Pro Tools. 6 month, one chapter one lesson, sessions coming up frequently, summarizing my notes, writing blogs, searching for equipment and mixing my songs, etc… that’s how I spend the 6 months. Looking back through the whole journey, it has definitely made a great difference.

Date of Session: May 30, 2014

Time in: 10:00

Time out: 11:30

Lesson 20: Final Exam

Nice weather today, feeling pretty relaxed, I took my final exam. It was not quite a long lesson, and I didn’t know the result till afternoon. Lionel was kidding me on my grades, which was fun, and the result was pretty good; even though not perfect, at least I had a pretty happy day. Yeah, a pretty pretty pretty day today! I asked Lionel a couple of questions after the exam as usual, and saw Lionel started to build some new furniture on his own too. This is the best way to make things suit you, Lionel said, and I was amazed that he has built such a great studio with his hands. Yeah, sometimes money is the case, but what I do treasure is the courage and knowledge behind; Trench is undoubtedly the place for me to study.

That’s pretty much the final lesson, but what I really want to talk about here in this final lesson blog is my general impression about the whole program. The program works as a triangle — the Recording Connection is the organizer, Lionel is the mentor, and I’m the student / apprentice / intern / … or whatever, the dream chaser. I appreciate it how simple the procedure is — if all the three sides of the triangle are happy with each other, then deal. Nobody is asking you for an additional $3000 dollars only because you are an international student. It’s Not fair! I believe it is the power of the connections that make it work not only in the US, where liberty is allowed, but also, even people like me, I can be lucky enough to be a part of it; that’s why I treasure it so much. What’s more, it is the power of music that connects all these people together, making them willing and being passionate about sharing what they know about the truth of music production to those juniors who are eager, but never succeeded in finding a way that works, to learn about what they truly love.

There are a couple of things happening in the course that are against the traditional education; however, it’s the revolution. I love philosophy, and it is not the kind of philosophy that people normally would think; it’s my philosophy. My philosophy tells me that I should treasure every moment of my life to do the things that worth my love to do; my philosophy tells me that education is all about making people better then before and letting people know how to make themselves better when they are standing alone; my philosophy tells me that I don’t want to know how ugly those things are in the actual world but how to build the perfection in my heart with my own hands. So look, I’m doing what I love, becoming a better me, and now I know how to achieve it; then the next step in the advanced program is, obviously, to achieve it. Things are just this simple.

The best thing that is really revolutionary is that the RC is a school without campus, and you are the only student learning from real practice, not to mention the interactive Ebook and video tutorials that allow you to learn with fun, with real people doing the same thing around you, and the student advisor and career advisor that help you with problems online. That is the idea of education. People are amazed how those ancient technologies and skills are lost as the history goes. Why? Because that’s the problem of education, people fail to survive the knowledge completely. What do I mean by completely? Just like a machine, if some part of the component is lost, the entire machine will not be able to work. If people just get an idea of the knowledge but don't know how exactly it works, they are just keeping a broken machine without the core component to make it work; then there is no soul. This leads to another question — how do people achieve the ‘complete understanding’? Through one-on-one. 

One-on-one means focus; one-on-one means specification; one-on-one means independence; one-on-one means customization; on-one-one means freedom; one-on-one means more care. I deeply appreciate that Lionel is really teaching me with what education exactly is, and even beyond. I’m not the guy who asks a lot of questions at school, and in fact, never. However, things change here. I have endless questions to ask Lionel for each class from my studies and my session experiences. That’s because these are the things that I want to know, that I’m serious about; also, I can absolutely trust the answers that Lionel gives me because they are based on decades of experience from real practice. In that sense, my lesson is mostly depending on what I’m eager to learn, then of course I can make sure that I get a complete understanding of how things work in principle.

I can still clearly remember the first time that I had my interview with Lionel. It was the first time I met Lionel, the first time I step into a recording studio. I said it was a luxury for me, it was something that I could never dream of, but it became true, just like how I am here in Toronto — it was a luxury, but it came true, as I’m following the directions of my own philosophy. Lionel is always that patient, professional and interesting to work with. I remember by the end of my first interview with Lionel, I said, ‘hope this would be the day that changes my life.’ and it was. I’m feeling a huge sigh of relief escaping from the high tuition fee, meaningless troubles and unfairness, whereas making the music I love and doing the thing that worths my time and efforts. 

Finally, I’d say, if you say Pro Tools is the industry standard of music production, what I’ve experienced in the past six months is definitely the standard of education, and I would say the same for future. See you in my next blog.