Another Money Quote from Lileks (Music Edition)

As Thursdays have become 14-hour teaching days again, I'll rarely have time to write a blog post of substance on this day of the week. But my favorite blogger, James Lileks, comes through again today with this gem from the part of this morning's Bleat where he's talking about piano lessons:

I kick myself for not being harder, but I’ve never thought you should take piano so you can learn piano. You should take piano so you get a feel for music from the production side, as a participant, not an onlooker.

Beautiful. We music teachers have to keep an arsenal of profound statements around to battle with those who would try to diminish our programs because they (falsely, IMHO) claim that music is not a "basic" subject. And the above is a nice, fresh angle on the subject, and a nice departure from the usual "music makes you smarter" idea.