Celebrating New Zealand Music

In an often competitive and saturated industry, Ben Wilcock guides music students through the intricacies and demands of being a working musician. 

Ben teaches music theory, composition, instrumental and industry classes at Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology, joining the Institute when in 2015 when it was Waiariki. 
With a musical background spanning more than 20 years, his passion and enthusiasm for music is apparent in how he teaches and mentors his students. 

“When I teach music theory, I think of it as learning the language of music. This involves training students to become familiar with the terminology of music and developing their aural skills, with the goal of being able to read and write music. 

“Composition involves a lot of work-shopping student's ideas and moulding them into compositions.” 

When he’s not teaching a class, you’ll find Ben planning or trying to find performance opportunities for his students.

As well as teaching, Ben is still a performing musician, playing piano and keyboards for various artists, mostly in the jazz scene but also with well-known commercial New Zealand artists such as Bella Kalolo, Aaradnha and Louis baker. 

Music was a huge part of Ben’s life growing up, making it inevitable it would be part of his career.

“Both my parents are musical people. Mum sings in choirs and Dad plays saxophone. My brother is a professional guitarist in the UK. I think going to concerts in my teens had a big influence on me and really confirmed my career path. I saw Santana when I was 14 and I was sold.” 

“I left Uni with a BMus (Jazz performance) in 2001. I then joined a theatre company called Indian Ink and was the on-stage pianist in a show called The Pickle King. From 2003 to 2008 I worked as a musician in England, based in London and later in Cambridge. From 2008-2015 I was on the faculty at Te Kōki New Zealand School of Music in Wellington.”

Part of his role as a music tutor Ben has to prepare his students for the realities of a tough industry.  

“It's not just about having your music online. While that's a great way to show people who you are and what your music's about, ultimately you need to play live and build a reputation. Musicians need to be prepared to travel and to work long hours. I advise our students to get as much experience in different scenarios as possible.”

He says the biggest misconception about the music industry is that people either have it [skills and talent] or they don't. 

“I've seen people take up an instrument later in life and go on to be very successful. I think being musical is something that can be taught and developed at any age.” 
In a bid to prepare students for the industry Ben says students are given lots of opportunities on stage to develop their repertoire and build confidence. 

“If they have a large enough repertoire and experience on stage, then they can have confidence to know how to earn a living in the industry. Also, being aware of how to deal with the financial side of things is important. We try to show our students the wide range of careers within the music industry which hopefully helps them diversify in order to survive in the industry.” 

Music students at Toi Ohomai can expect to learn a wide range of skills from performance to composition and production. 

“The content we teach is designed to broaden their scope of the music industry. They should expect to gain experience in different musical situations, such as playing a variety of genres in bands or working in a studio recording with an engineer.” 

Ben loves seeing what his students have produced and achieved by the end of the year. From rehearsals to concerts, or from the first idea of a song to a fully produced track ready to be distributed. 

“The highlights are always the songs which students compose, record, and distribute. some students have recorded entire albums while studying with us. Also, the concerts at big venues such as Totara St in Mt Maunganui are a real highlight.” 

May is New Zealand Music Month (NZMM) and Ben says this campaign provides a much-needed spotlight on the huge amount of original music being produced in Aotearoa. 

“The music industry is so competitive and saturated, while it's easier these days to produce and upload your songs to Spotify, YouTube etc It's still hard to cut through and be noticed. So NZMM is a good opportunity to get publicity.” 

He encourages people to support NZMM by going to local concerts and gigs and actively listening to NZ music.