Ellingtonia Music Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Ellingtonia Music - Essay Example The two principles that he applied to his life and which could guide others to achieve success were (a) willingness to learn, and (b) capacity to move with the demand of times. One, who rose from the grassroots level in life, knew the value of success and how to maintain that level, once he reached the top. His upbringing had much to do with the leadership qualities in his professional life that led him to success. John Edward Hasse writes, â€Å" Even before he acquired the nickname â€Å"Duke,† young Ellington was a natural aristocrat—in bearing, manners, taste, dress, and self-confidence. Cultivating airs and graces, and foreshadowing his future relationships with women, he even had his female cousin bow down to him as a sign of respect.†(24)To him, music was the passion and mission of life and not commission. (Meaning earning money for self-aggrandizement, forsaking the business ethics) It was a rare combination of qualities for an artist to be guided by busi ness acumen. He began taking lessons in piano at the age of seven, and by then his family friends had recognized his latent genius in music. Hasse writes, â€Å"When he was seven or eight, attending Garnet Elementary School, his mother signed him for his first formal training in music.†(26)At the age of 18, he entered the music world with a bang, and this was his first master-stroke to make an entry in the business world in relation to music. He issued the biggest advertisement in the telephone yellow pages regarding his aspirations to become a bandleader.