musicteachers911

What we would change about teaching music....

2012-02-01T04:14:00.000-08:00

I asked a few music teaching friends to write down what the biggest challenges to their music teaching are.

Here is a smattering of the results.

feel free to add yours in the "Comments" section below.

Andrea Wilborn

Administrators who want a good and strong music education department, but have no clue how to achieve it.
Grade level teachers who want their class to perform something special for a program, but expect the music teacher to do all the work. (when you only see that class once a week for 45 minutes)
Parents who bring their child to school for an after school program, then leaves.
Parents who pick up their children late all the time. (30 minutes to 1 hour)
Hearing a child say, they can't practice at home because someone is looking at TV and they don't want to hear that noise.
Students who think that choir consist of singing nothing but songs they hear on the radio or their CD's.

Ernie

Being constantly referred to as an "extra curricular" subject when we know we are of extreme curricular importance to many if not most kids.

Administrators who equate the "size" of a school's band or orchestra or choir with how "good" the program is - as in: "we have a great band program, we have over a 100 kids in the marching band".

Getting music budgets cut, staffing cut, larger classes, less time for general music, etc. because we are "just" the music program, then being expected to provide the "entertainment" for sports, parent events, seasonal celebrations and concerts, etc. as if we were the most valued program at the school - i.e. when they need us to show off their good programs they hold us up but then cut our resources so we can no longer do the job well.

Cutting the "feeder" system for a band or orchestra or choir (e.g. eliminating elementary grade programs) then getting pressured because the high school program eventually suffers, and we music teachers get the blame.

Being relegated to holding general music classes on the stage behind a curtain while gym classes are making loud noises on the other side of the curtain (especially frequent in our older buildings).

Having really talented students be pulled from a solid music program experience because he/she is not talented in a "core" subject and has to take extra courses in order to pass those tests - i.e. take something away that a kid does really well and loves because he/she doesn't do well in another area - like a punishment.

Marina Salsbury

Students who don't practice their music

Students who miss lessons and don't inform teachers until the last minute

When students run out of necessary materials such as reeds, cleaning supplies, drumsticks, etc.

Not having adequate funding for legitimate resources such as working music stands, batons, etc.

Not having an outlet for exemplary students to showcase their talent (local honors bands, other teachers willing to teach private lessons)

Having to photocopy sheet music instead of buying them

Having ambitious students missing class because of class time constraints/sports events/etc.

Students who don't know how to get in tune with others/tune their own instruments

Overbearing parents who have to control their children's musical development

Close-minded students who are only interested in playing one form of music (pop, jazz, etc.)

Michelle

1. Students asking if it's OK if they don't play in class that day so that they can do homework for another class. Really?!? Do they play their violins in English or algebra? No way!

2. Students not putting instruments and music away proplery and then wondering why they can't find stuff the following day. Makes you wonder what their bedrooms at home look like.

3. The influx of students who aren't passing standardized tests for whatever reason: this is becoming hard to maintain music programs, especially in urban districts where students often have to take remedial or "prep" classes just to pass those tests. Several of my band and orchestra students were removed from my class just so that they can be placed in an OGT prep class for an entire year, even though the test is only in March and those students cannot come back to band or orchestra after the testing week is finished.

Mark Nekoba

1. We live in a world of great technology, yet it is not available to everyone due to budget constraints. It would be nice to be in class and be able to use a lot of the new computer programs.

2. Schools facing more and more pressure to improve their test scores at the expense of electives such as music.

3. Music students are often portrayed in movies as being the nerdy kids.

4. Instructional time is needed for core subjects.

Elaina Blevins

Fund Raising
Missing uniform parts just before a performance.
Papperwork, Paperwork, did I mention paperwork!

Barbara James

Being told that you need to provide music for an event with little or no notice.

You want me to do what? Tomorrow?

Yeah, just throw something together.

Wayne Markworth

1. Parents who have "perfect children"
2. Administrators who know "all about" music
3. 7th graders

Cissy Matthews

Students losing their music.
Parents and students forgetting the dates of the concert.
Principals and teachers thinking that music has no academic worth- it's
fun time!
Funds are not set aside in the school's budget for music.

Tom Billing

1. other teachers (from other areas) and/or principals thinking that music is of third tier importance, always using band time for other things like tutoring or whatever

2. being assigned to teach a totally different band in subsequent years-making continuity a non entity

3. kids not showing up for concerts

4. kids not having materials for classes, like instruments and/or music

5. the public thinking that the arts classes are blow-off courses

6. being the first cut in budget situations

feel free to add your in the "Comments" section below.

good gigging!

Larry Marra
www.musicteachers911.com

Music Teachers National Association Foundation Fund

2012-01-24T14:06:00.000-08:00

I would like to invite all music teachers to explore the fantastic opportunities through a great organization called the Music Teachers National Association Foundation Fund.

The MTNA FOUNDATION FUND is a support program that enables music teachers to pursue continuing education opportunities, provides awards for student competitions and assists organizations in funding educational and community outreach programs.

for more information, here is their contact information.

441 Vine St., Ste. 3100, Cincinnati, OH 45202
Phone
(888) 512-5278
Website
http://www.mtnafoundation.org

You can also become a facebook fan at:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Music-Teachers-National-Association-Foundation-Fund/83300906832

good gigging!

Larry Marra
musicteachers911.com

Crowdsourcing for Aspiring Musicians

2011-12-22T03:48:00.000-08:00

By Musicteachers911 contributing writer, Marina Salsbury

A relatively new phenomenon among musicians that was born on the capabilities of high speed Internet connections is crowdsourcing. A PhD program level definition by Merriam-Webster describes the concept as, “the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers.” In other words, crowdsourcing uses the internet to scale projects at a level and efficiency never known before. The respected dictionary site also states that the first known use of the word was in 2006.

With traditional avenues of distribution steadily losing market share, an individual or band needs to expand their outreach to fans through innovative ways. In today’s tech-savvy landscape, fans have come to expect a more personal way of connecting to their favorite artists. Crowdsourcing offers a way to not only do so but also a way in which to tap into the creativity of their listeners.

The popularity of mash-ups is an example of how the idea can be effectively implemented. Bands such as Nine Inch Nails have reached out to their fans seeking these clever re-mixes. Posting stems of a song on the Internet, the band allowed listeners to download and mix to their hearts content. Some of the results were compelling, but by doing this they achieved an even more important goal. They have increased fan loyalty which translates into more sales.

A related track is posting free music. British progressive rock band Marillion garnered increased sales after posting a recent album in its entirety. Those downloading were required to watch a short video from the band plainly explaining what they were trying to accomplish. Other artists have reported exponential increases in sales after posting free music.

YouTube is another essential channel for today’s musician. Even simple videos engender a greater connection with fans when posted. There is also the distant promise of one’s video going viral. Don’t scoff; stranger things have happened.

A different type of outlet being utilized today is Kickstarter. Their website offers applicants a way to finance projects by seeking donations from interested parties. An artist submits a project through their website. They offer certain incentives such as their new album for a twenty-five dollar donation. Kickstarter then either approves the project or asks you to tweak it some more. Once online, you have a deadline (set by you) to raise the amount of funds you are seeking. By harnessing the collective ability of the internet to finance large-scale projects, Kickstarter has helped many aspiring musicians self-produce and distribute their music.

Crowdsourcing is just the tip of the iceberg in outreach to fans. Other Internet avenues such as Facebook and ReverbNation are also excellent avenues to pursue. If an artist or band uses all of these to make the fans their most important resource, they will find their popularity on the increase.

Plan B?

2011-12-12T04:47:00.000-08:00

Last night, I was to play piano with an 18 piece swing band for a local Christian radio shows remote broadcast at a local attraction, The Christmas farm. Every year this farm displays over one million lights depicting the life of Christ. The venue is truly spectacular.

The show was started at 4 pm. We were recording two broadcasts, one at 5 and one at 7 (with a short rehearsal for bumper music in between).

The first show started off great. Then, the clock struck 5:30, the time when the light displays are to be illuminated. That is when everything got very dark!

Needless to say, one million Christmas lights, a 32 channel PA, and 1000 watt radio transmitter tend to draw more than it's share of electrical power. I think I actually heard the transformer "POP" over the sound of all our horns.

So there we were, the live audience, a swing band, the radio show hosts all sitting in total darkness.

Then, a small Christmas moment occurred.

From the crowd, a tiny flame from a cigarette lighter startd to flicker. It was immediately followed by another lighting one of the hundreds of Christmas candles that were for sale in the Christmas store.

From the dim glow, I saw a very old church piano near the stage. I grabbed the music and winked at the band leader. He knew in an instant what I was scheming.

"The show must go on!" he said.

One by one, audience members entered the stage bearing candles. The church piano was so old that it had candle holders mounted on either side of the music tray. I couldn't help but wonder how many carols were played by candle light by church musicians before electricity became the norm.

Since the show was no longer broadcasting, the pressure was off as we were pretty much free to do whatever we felt like.

I started playing "Silent Night" as one by one, the horns entered improvising luscious harmonies. The crowd sang rather well and the moment was truly inspiring.

After about 20 minutes of traditional carols shared by audience and band alike, the power was restored. Personally, I was a little disappointed as this signaled we had to re-enter the 21st century and get back to work.

The shows continued, uninterrupted.

Afterwords, everyone was musing about how the carol sing was the best part of the evening.

My mind hearkened back to a time long ago in Bethlehem where the first Christmas miracle lay in a lowly manger lit by candles an ancient torches.

After forty plus years of performing, one thing I have learned is that there is always a "Plan B".

Luckily, last nights Plan B was the best part of all!

good gigging!

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

Be Happy, make money

2011-11-28T04:31:00.001-08:00

Be Happy, make money

It's no secret that December is the biggest money making month for professional musicians (with June weddings as a close second).

With this years holiday events abounding, I am totally booked up with great paying gigs, while many of my more talented musicians friends aren't nearly as busy.

Wonder why?

There is much more to being a professional musician than musicallity (although that is a big part).

Your overall persona is a HUGE factor when an event committee is choosing just the right form of entertainment.

1. If it's a Holiday gig, I wear FESTIVE clothing. Sometimes, it's a Santa Hat, of maybe a cheery bright red Christmas tie.

2. I arrive early at each venue THRILLED to be there! I show that I am honored to have been selected to be a part of their very special occasion. To me, every performance is a special occasion.

3. During the breaks, I mingle with the crowd and am genuinely interested in how they will be spending the holidays I really listen to them and play all requests ( even if I've already played the same songs before).

4. I am especially attentive to any kids in attendance (being an elementary teacher gives me an advantage as I can dial in on the special interests of each age group).
You would be surprised at how many children of event planners beg their folks to have me back at annual events.

5. Nobody wants a sour puss at the party!
You have an opportunity to be much more than a musician. You can be the "pied piper" leading the crowd to an evening of exciting and cherished memories.

6. Accept payment with a grateful heart and let the host know that it was the best event that you have played all year. Compliment the decor and the quality of attendees.

7. Trade their check for a bunch of your business cards. Many future gigs depend on having your contact info handy when their guests ask them about hiring you for their future events like those upcoming June wedding.

good gigging!

Larry Marra
www.musicteachers911.com

Hostile Takeover!

2011-11-14T05:13:00.001-08:00

Well, after forty plus years of playing professionally, I still encounter situations that educate, and yes, frustrate.

Case in point?

I was to play electric bass guitar in a combo hired to accompany a local college choir for their concert.

Like the good band mate that I am, I packed my bass and rather large (and quite heavy amp) to the music building auditorium. Although I am pushing sixty, I would rather strain myself for a few minutes before the performance, than suffer emotionally hearing my bass part played through an inferior, yet much lighter amp. I also owe it to the director, students and other band members to give it my best.

Then enter the guitar player with an amp the size of a two-slice toaster!

After the first selection, he reached over with his guitar cord in hand and said, "I can't hear myself over the band, mind if I plug into your amp?"

Before I could answer, he unplugged my bass from channel one, and reinserted me into the aux channel and plugged his ax where I was.

Instantly, the bass tone tanked, and my instrument was speaking softer than his guitar was before the switch.

But wait...............

it gets worse!

The next song was a slow ballad in which the guitarist played some really sour clunkers!

The director, horns and rest of the rhythm section glared at me as the offending tonal onslaught was coming from my amp set-up. (For those who don't play guitar or bass, the lowest notes of the guitar overlap the highest notes of the bass. Therefore, if the chord chart calls for a G chord in the first inversion (G/B), the guitar is actually playing a third lower than the bass note).

result?

A muddy gloppy sludge of low tones a major third apart trying to be produced by the same speaker.

So what to do?

Do I suffer in silence and keep a brave face as the everyone grimaces at me?

Do I start a nasty input fight on stage which takes the focus from those college students who have worked hard all semester for this night?

What would you have done?

write me at:

larry @musicteachers911.com

I would love your opinion on this.

Back to the story.........

So what did I do?

You'll have to wait for the next post to hear that, and the summery of your responses.

good gigging!

Larry Marra
www.musicteachers911.com

Can you hear me now?

2011-11-09T05:08:00.000-08:00

Last week, I was playing bass for a local gospel festival. I was the resident bass player for every gospel choir at the event. Some choirs had as few as five members while others had over sixty.

As the house PA system was rather small, so there was no direct box for me and I was to balance my instrument with the choirs by adjusting the volume of the bass amp onstage. The biggest problem with that scenario is that it's impossible to know if my bass is balanced with the mix from the back of the hall since I am onstage.

Solution?

I gave the sound engineer for the vocals my cell phone number and asked him to to text me at the beginning of each group to let me know if the bass was overpowering or inaudible.

I then placed my phone on my music stand. Within 30 seconds of the first numbers, my phone would vibrate and display the text instructing me to turn up or down.

It worked like a dream.

Good gigging!

Larry Marra
www.musicteachers911.com

Music Teacher Power!

2011-11-02T05:00:00.000-07:00

Music Teachers,

Ever feel helpless about the conditions in your neighborhood or workplace?

Fear not!

This Tuesday, November 8th, is the perfect opportunity to find your inner Teacher Power!

VOTE!

By making informed selections at the ballot box, you decide your state and local representatives and which agenda they promote.

Cut taxes or social programs?

Big business or labor?

Educational funding increases or cuts.

November 12 is Veteran's Day. Many in our armed forces made the ultimate sacrifice to insure your right vote. Please respect them and exercise your civic duty by casting your vote.

Good Gigging!

Larry Marra
www.musicteachers911.com

College Musicians

2011-10-14T11:29:00.000-07:00

(by musicteachers911 featured writer, Marina Salsbury)

College Musicians

One of the most common stereotypes among budding musicians is that of the starving artist, and nowhere is this stereotype more true than in college. Many college musicians find it a challenge to balance their music, college courses, family, and work, all while trying to maintain a social life and pay their bills. Juggling all these elements can become difficult, but it's very possible for college musicians to keep up with it all.  One of the biggest obstacles for college musicians are the costs involved with playing music. Professional instruments can reach into the thousands of dollars, traveling to and from gigs can be a heavy financial burden, and to top it all off most college musicians don't get paid much. The truth is many college musicians end up playing bars and coffeehouses, and these gigs typically pay either a percentage of the door or might just pay in free drinks. It's not until performers have built up a name for themselves that they can begin to expect to make any kind of real money, and this could take years to achieve. As a result, many college musicians end up taking part-time jobs on the side to help fund their ambitions.  

College musicians also have to try to balance a social life with their aspirations, which can be difficult at times. Between practicing, performing, and writing music, a college musician may not have time to hang out with friends or go out. Thankfully, musicians often form friendships through their music, either with fans or with other performers, and so music becomes a social network unto itself. On the other hand, musicians who make these connections may still need to form and maintain friendships outside of tightly knit musical circles.

  However, the biggest challenge most college musicians face is trying to keep up with their studies. All too often, a student musician may develop dreams of quitting school and becoming a superstar, leading to lessened attention in classes, slipping grades, or worse, dropping out of college altogether. Musicians faced with this problem need to remember they can still continue to follow their musical dreams while remaining in college, and that completing their studies could prove crucially important in the long run. It can be difficult to strike a balance between believing in your dream and living in the real world, but by finishing their degrees musicians stand better chances of succeeding in the future, whether in music or in another discipline. 

So what's a musician to do in college? The short answer: get grit. There's no easy fix, and no way around the fact that being a serious musician and a college student at the same time is just tough. If you're going to make it work, you have to buckle down and focus on what's important to you.

Knowing your priorities is key. On the broader level, if you've decided to keep up commitments to college and music, there's still some wiggle room in how much you put into each. It's a lot easier, for instance, to just keep up with practicing music while you're in college and maybe perform casually. Remember that you've got a finite amount of time and energy to go around, and that college is going to take a fair portion. Balancing what you spread out between your musical, social, and personal lives means thinking hard about how much each means to you.

If performing seriously really is your passion, recognize and accept the impact it'll have on other aspects of your college life. Know that equipment and performance expenses will mean finding part-time work until gig earnings at least let you break even. Know that practices and concerts will mean less time to hang out and party, at least with some friends. Know that playing late-night lounges and clubs may mean heading back to campus to sleep in front of the door of your first class in the morning to make sure you'll be on time.

If you can face all this and still know you're up for it, then you've got the resolution to do what it takes. If you find yourself cringing, that's OK. It just means you still need to spend some time getting your priorities straight.
 College is supposed to be a time of learning and growth, and being a musician certainly affords those opportunities through meeting new people, performing in public, and learning about yourself through music and performance. By taking the time to really think about what's important right now, as well as what will be important later on, college musicians should be able to find ways to still pursue their dreams without forfeiting education.

Good giging!

Larry Marra
www.musicteachers911.com

Top Ten reasons how Steve Jobs accomplishments have changed Music Education.

2011-10-12T19:29:00.000-07:00

I know that many of you mourn the passing of Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computers.

I would like to take just a moment to reflect on how his contributions to music education have affected Music Education over the last 30 years.

Here's what teaching music was like for me in 1976 (before computers).

1. I would write and arrange music by hand with an ink pen on staff paper.

2. I taught general music with chalk and record player.

3. I would have to wind the metronome before checking tempos

4. I created letters on a manual typewriter and used white-out instead of the delete key.

5. I carried a pocket calendar from the bank and a miniature golf pencil around for scheduling.

6. I carried dimes for making phone calls when I wasn't at home.

7. My class room had one electrical outlet for my entire music program.

8. I recorded my concerts via cassette tape

9. I carried a city map in my car's glove compartment.

10. There was enough money in the school budget so music teachers were continually hired , not let go.

good gigging!

Larry Marra
www.musicteachers911.com

Eric Loy, guitoonist

2011-09-30T07:25:00.000-07:00

While hosting the local GUITARFEST event in our area, I was chatting backstage with Eric Loy, one of the performers,. It turns out that he is also a talented cartoonist. (I prefer guitoonist). After successfully attaining his permission to post these, I hope that you enjoy some of his latest creations....

good gigging,

Larry Marra
www.musicteachers911.com

Know when to hold 'em

2011-09-06T13:02:00.000-07:00

Anyone old enough to remember the lyrics to the Kenny Roger's song, "The Gambler" will know the phrase, "know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em". This is pretty sage advise when dealing with a student who has lost interest in playing an instrument.

Despite your love of music, it's important to realize that not everyone shares your enthusiasm for performance art. Some people march to a different drummer. (pardon the pun).

Case in point.........

I developed an interest in playing a band instrument in the fourth grade after seeing the local high school band perform at my elementary school. Unfortunately, the only instrument my folks could afford was the clarinet my mother played 15 years earlier in the University of Dayton Marching Band that resided under her bed. The pads were as old and hard as a jalopy tire!

After three weeks of squeaking and squawking, my teacher (the same HS band director) wisely advided me to quit.

Being only eight years old, I emotionally recovered as soon as football season arrived.

The I started junior high........

I must have suffered from ADHD decades before the condition became a popular diagnosis, because my grades were horrible and I found myself in the principal's office for fighting on more than several occasions. Upon one unscheduled visit to the office, the same band director that started me on clarinet wandered into the office.

"fighting again?" he quipped. "Yup" I replied.

Then he uttered a phrase which changed my life.....

"Do you want to hit something that doesn't hit back? "

I left the office under his "custody" and started a very successful journey as the school's bass drummer. I must admit that; during a fews rough days, I broke more than my share of head and mallets. Miraculously though, he didn't seem to mind. My grades improved and the office visits for fighting disappeared.

Eventually, I ended up becoming a band director with a unique perspective on knowing when to hold em and when to fold em.

My advice? Don't force a student to keep playing an instrument if they have totally lost interest. If they are destined to be a musician later on, trust me, they will find you. There is an old Buddhist saying that goes, "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear"".

Many parents are trying to live their thwarted dreams of becoming a successful musician vicariously through their children when their kids resonate more with sports, dance, or visual arts.

After a heartfelt discussion with a student, learn when to hold 'em and when to fold em when advising the parents on the future of music lessons.

As for me, if I had been forced to continue making horrendous sounds on my mom's beat-up clarinet, I am certain that a successful career in music education have never been my destiny.

Because of my own past, I tend to guide self -motivated students rather than encourage parents to force music students to "stick" with an instrument in which they have clearly have lost interest.

Just be ready to embrace those same students when they return with renewed interest!

Good gigging!

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

Free WEBCAST at WWW.BANDDIRECTOR.COM

2011-08-25T12:11:00.000-07:00

Written by author, composer, and music educator, Dr. Scott Watson

On August 16, 2011, banddirector.com broadcast a live webcast with author, composer, and music educator, Dr. Scott Watson, in which he discussed his new book, Using Technology to Unlock Musical Creativity (from Oxford University Press). Watson was joined by fellow Alfred composer/band director, Chris Bernotas.

Watson’s book begins, “It has never been easier or more fun for your students to compose, improvise, arrange, and produce music-related projects. Why?” Watson’s book-length answer to this question is described by reviewer Chad Criswell at MusicEdMagic.com (August 2011) as, "a wealth of information, lesson plans, and innovative ideas intended to get music teachers thinking of new and creative ways to use the technology they have at their disposal to increase the creative opportunities that they provide to their students…Scott Watson's innovative spirit and forward thinking attitude toward the use of technology in music education is refreshing and inspiring."

Although the book is aimed at all music educators and has lots of great information and ideas for general and elective music, Watson and Bernotas also discuss many topics of special interest to instrumental music teachers, including: great methods and reasons for digital audio recording in music education, free Web-based music apps (such as Noteflight), creativity-based music learning, using wikis, composer/artist video-conferencing, and more.

Dr. Scott Watson

www.scottwatsonmusic.com

Technology Can Augment a Music Education, But it Cannot Replace a Good Teacher

2011-08-17T11:31:00.000-07:00

Replace a Good Teacher

by featured guest writer: Natalie Hunter

Studying music can become a lifelong passion for many people. It fosters intellectual curiosity, stimulates creativity and teaches discipline. Music is also an excellent means through which to make connections with others. Studying music can be a lifelong endeavor, whether it is study of a particular instrument or composition. In the past, this was often done in small groups or one-on-one with an experienced teacher. However, with the advent of modern technologies, more and more aspiring musicians are using technology to teach themselves by listening to CDs or even going to online school. But can people really learn music well without a good teacher?

As an example, a person who has always longed to study piano might research many different ways in which they can indulge their interest. They might find books that describe piano technique at the library. Online, they can find tutorials and watch other people play on YouTube. There are even In the videos an instructor is depicted demonstrating and explaining certain ideas and techniques. Diagrams and close-ups may be used to further illustrate various concepts and methods. Usually the student is encouraged to play along and practice diligently in between lessons. The student can progress through the lessons at their own pace, coming back for more complex lessons or replaying previous lessons when necessary.

As the new piano student reads their library book and listens to the recordings of an artist it is entirely possible that their understanding and appreciation of the piano as an instrument will grow. They will also begin to recognize the many years of dedication required to become a proficient pianist. Likewise, as they progress through a series of introductory online piano lessons they may find themselves able to pick out simple melodies on the keyboard. Their knowledge and skills are undoubtedly growing. Yet is this enough?

For some people it is. The mildly curious piano student may discover that further study of the instrument simply is not of interest to them or they may be satisfied with the casual dabbling they have already accomplished. Others will find that their appetite has only been whetted by their previous experiences and they are eager for more. They could seek out more books, recordings, and websites, but they may also have begun to recognize the shortcomings inherent in such methods. In short, reading and listening and studying casually online can only take the student so far. To develop artistry and a deep appreciation for music, formal training is necessary.

Formal training does not have to mean that the student will attend a conservatory or study music diligently on a daily basis. It can still be a fun pastime that the student does not intend to pursue professionally. However, hiring a professional music teacher takes the student beyond the rudimentary knowledge they can gain through books and various forms of technology. The one on one interaction between a teacher and pupil provides the necessary depth of knowledge required to become an accomplished musician. With a qualified teacher to guide them the novice student can develop good habits to last a lifetime.

When music students decide to acquire their training solely through the use of technology or other means without the guidance of a teacher, they must assess the value of the technology or other mode of delivery on their own. The website or book may encourage poor technique that will be difficult to unlearn. For many casual students this is not necessarily detrimental and may not harm their enjoyment of music. But others may find that bad habits make it difficult for them to progress in the way they would like. Teachers can guide these students past these roadblocks so they can realize their dreams. Also, most music education technology is not interactive enough to allow students to seek answers to individualized questions, but a music teacher is always able to clarify the finer points.

Technology is not a detriment to music education. In fact, many innovations like the Internet and various types of data storage can help students practice their technique. However, technology used for music education should be utilized judiciously and sources should be examined critically before being accepted. It is only through the guidance of a well qualified music educator that students can truly begin to master technique and artistry, furthering their skills and deepening their appreciation for the art form.

Introducing AMP, The National ASSOCIATION of MUSIC PARENTS

2011-08-16T08:07:00.000-07:00

This post submission by: Scott Mccormick

Introducing AMP, The National ASSOCIATION of MUSIC PARENTS who’s mission is to build a grassroots national movement that brings together ALL STAKEHOLDERS of Music Education to defend the interests of our students and ensure that music and the arts remain an integral discipline within the core education system in America.

Led by Scott McCormick, the former President and CEO of both Music for All and Bands of America, AMP will serve as a powerful voice to amplify the difference that music and the other arts provide in the total development of our young people and on society by building the most comprehensive, robust, social networking music parent website on the internet.

Why do we need AMP? “The one thing that I have learned during my career is that none of our programs are safe forever. While we may believe that the budget concerns couldn’t possibly affect us, just when we get comfortable, they do affect us and by then, if we are not prepared, it could be too late,” Scott McCormick. Teachers are over committed and stressed, often times, one of the areas that falls off is good communication with those who can help the most - the parents.

AMP is targeting parents of beginning music students, existing parent organizations, newly formed parent organizations, as well as any concerned citizen who believes the facts about what music does for the young person.

In the growing global marketplace, students will need to excel in both math and science to compete internationally as engineers, scientists, physicians, and creative entrepreneurs. Yet, in an assessment by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 15-year-olds in the U.S. placed 25th out of 30 countries in math performance and 21st in science performance. Why is it that the top three countries (Korea, Finland and China) in each category of math and science performance each have a requirement of Music and other arts in their curriculums in order to graduate from high school and much of America does not?

AMP strives to provide parents with excellent and timely resources to support their child’s musical endeavors. There is a repository of information to immerse themselves in and share with others the valuable impact music is making in their child’s life. As a member, they will be able to view impactful videos, learn useful advocacy techniques, read thought provoking, poignant and hilarious blogs, pore over critical music facts, ask and answer questions, participate in webinars and conferences, view and download all documents in the resource section, and receive discounts on store purchases. They will also be able to network with like minded parents from organizations across the country.

Additionally for the parent who has a new 4th, 5th or 6th grade beginner at home or about to, there is so much information they need to know, which in most cases they are not hearing. This site and organization is for them. Parents need to know the power they hold in the education system of their children. In our public and private schools, it is the taxpayer or tuition payer who ultimately gets to make the decisions about their child’s education system. We elect the school board who hires the superintendents and down the line. When you trace back where the power lies, it lies with us the taxpayer. They need to know what an incredible difference participation in music and the other arts, all the way through their child’s high school years, will provide them in their later years. Just ask one of the Fortune 1000 CEO’s in the corporate world what music did for them. 73%, nearly 3 out of 4 of them were involved in their school music programs.

AMP is also teaming with teachers, music manufacturers and retailers who understand the value and support the cause. We are proud to announce that Music and Arts, the nations largest chain of school music stores, along with Yamaha and Vandoren have joined us as Charter Sponsors. Additionally a number of like minded businesses are in the pipeline to join us soon.

Visit us at www.AMParents.org to witness this exciting launch and join as a member to support the cause. Spread the word amongst your influence group, like us on facebook, and watch this movement as it catches on across the country!

Top 40 Music related Job Sites!

2011-08-11T12:11:00.000-07:00

From Heather Clark, featured writer for onlinemusicdegree.com:

Be sure to check out her website at:

http://onlinemusicdegree.com/2011/top-40-job-sites-for-music-educators

If you are a music educator who is seeking a job, you can find music-specific job sites, music careers listed in larger job sites such as Monster, and music jobs listed by state. Music educator jobs often hide under the label of “director” or “administrator,” and voice and instrument teacher jobs abound across the nation. This list of the top 40 job sites for music educators lists all those jobs and other possibilities.

Music-Specific Job Sites

American Music Therapy Association: Use this site to learn more about education and music for students who need this work as therapy. Jobs are reserved for AMTA members.
Careers in Music: This is complete list of music jobs that includes alternate titles, descriptions and salary information. There are also links to get detailed information for each job.
Church Music Jobs: Most of these jobs consist of directorships and worship leaders, both which involve educational practices in voice and in instruments.
Creative Jobs Central: Music jobs at this site often focus on performers; however, some music educator and administration jobs are listed here as well.
Entertainment Careers: While this site does not focus specifically on music education jobs, they are listed here…along with many other jobs in the music industry.
Jobs in Music: Take a swing at searching for any musical job possible across the U.S. with this search engine.
Media Web Source Music Careers List and Music Job Openings: Scroll down this page to find the list of music educator jobs.
MENC Career Center: The National Association for Music Education, among the world’s largest arts education organizations, offers a way for music teachers to find jobs.
Music Jobs: This site carries all types of music jobs, including teachers, instructors and educators.
Music Jobs and Employers/Services Database: Musicians Page offers a database filled with jobs across the country. Some jobs are educational, some are focused on performance-related positions.

My Music Job: This site breaks down the music jobs and employment by over 40 different categories that cover the entire music industry.
Rhinegold Publishing: This UK publishing company focuses on music publications, and offers music teaching job searches as a bonus.
TakeLessons Music Teacher Jobs: TakeLessons is accepting applications for teachers to provide music and voice instruction to our TakeLessons students in cities across the U.S.
The College Music Society: This link leads to the career development initiative provided by this organization. CMS members are welcome to use these services.

State-Specific Music Education Job Sites

CTReap Music Teachers: Part of a larger Reap site, this page offers jobs to music educators across the state of Connecticut.
IMEA Job Bank: This page showcases music positions currently open in ths State of Iowa.
Iowa Music Education Job Openings: These openings are compiled from www.iareap.net, www.iowaeducationjobs.com, and www.desmoinesregister.com.
Music Education Job Opportunities: These music education job opportunities are located in California.
NJ.com Music Teacher Jobs: This site allows music educators to find jobs by category, by location and by company.

Ohio Music Education Association: This search engine leads to music education jobs within Ohio.
Rhode Island Music Teacher Jobs: Flipdog offers jobs by state and by profession. This page focuses on music education throughout Rhode Island.
Texas Music Educators Association: TMEA is an organization of over 10,000 school music educators dedicated to promoting excellence in music education.
USReap Music Teachers: This site provides services to public schools across Missouri.

Larger Job Site Opportunities

Careerbuilder Music Education: View job as varied as music therapy to media marketing under the “music education” search at this site.
Employment Crossing Music Teacher Jobs: This site offers a few jobs for music educators from across the country.
Find Music Educator Jobs: These listings are from across the nation, and are offered by AOL Jobs.
Glassdoor Music Director Jobs: As with any large job site, you can use the search engine to find other music education jobs here.
HigherEd Jobs Music: This site is for music jobs in colleges across the nation. Search by date posted, institution, location, priority, job title and category.
Job-Hunt Music Teacher Jobs: Use the search engine to refine or expand these job listings. The jobs are from across the nation.

JobRapido Voice Teacher Jobs: Like other large job sites, you can refine your search for jobs across the nation by job and location.
Jobs for Sports Fans: Don’t let the title throw you off. This page includes jobs for band and vocal music instructors, voice teachers and more.
JuJu Elementary Music Teacher Jobs: Although this search is for elementary music teachers, you can use the search engine to find other positions within the music field.
Monster Music Educator Jobs: Find a variety of music education jobs at this large job site. You can refine your search by job, skills and location.
Music Jobs in Arts, Entertainment & Gaming: This broad title include specific jobs as music directors, producers and editors at the JobSearch site.
Simply Hired Voice Teacher: Although this page points specifically to voice teachers nationwide, you can expand or narrow that search by job and location at this site.
Teacher Job Bank: You can find teaching jobs and other education employment opportunities at this site. This page specifically looks at music teaching jobs.
Teachers.Net: This page provides various searches for teaching positions, including those educated in music instruction.
The Chronicle of Higher Education Jobs: Search for jobs in music education located in colleges and universities throughout the country.
The Education Job Music Teacher Jobs: The Education Job is the international job board listing jobs in the education and training industry, and offers music teacher jobs by state.
Top USA Jobs Music Teacher: The jobs listed here are from across the country. Use the search engine to narrow or broaden your search.

A Sticher in Time

2011-07-22T11:40:00.000-07:00

I just found an amazing free music educational resource for your mobile device.

Introducing Sticher!

Sticher is a free app available from the iTunes store, and both the blackbery and Android Market app store.

The amazing feature about this app is that it enables you to listen to thousands of podcasts and radio shows on your mobile device or satellite radio without having to download the mp3 file. This saves valuable memory space allowing your mobile device to function more quickly.

Sticher and Pandora radio are my first two apps on my Android Thunderbolt.

I love keeping up with the latest music educational trends while waiting in line at the store, bank, or dreaded post office.

I am also happy to announce that the musicteachers911 podcast is now available on sticher and is the #1 music education show on their search engine!

Long Live Sticher!!!!

Good gigging,

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

Know Your Audience

2011-06-15T11:40:00.000-07:00

Before you can have a conversation with someone, it helps to know a little about them first. Being aware of their like s and dislikes will make your visit a much more enjoyable experience for both of you. The same is true of communicating your music to your listening audience.

You wouldn't normally discuss rap music to a nursing home resident any more than you would the Big Band era to teenage rappers. The topic is mostly foreign to them and your reaction from them would generally be less than positive. The same is true of your song choices, dress, pace, and overall demeanor when performing at different venues for various audiences. A little homework prior to your performance to familiarize your self with your crowd will benefit everyone involved and could tip the scales in your favor when deciding if your get a call back for a repeat engagement.

Make sure to "read the crowd"while you are playing to see if they are enjoying themselves. Are they listening or talking, texting or net surfing their phones? When did they respond to you and when were you "tuned out"?

If you are playing challenging music, you might not have the opportunity to gage the crowd. This is when video recording yourself, making sure the audience is in the camera's vision, will really pay off afterwards.

Meaningful conversations involving listening and reading body language as well.

Good Gigging!

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

True colors

2011-05-26T14:16:00.000-07:00

When performing in an ensemble. It is very important that everyone not only is balanced with regards to dynamics, but also with the amount of playing blending with the group. Here is how I grew to understand my relative role as a session musician in various ensembles...

Have you ever looked at a collection of fine paintings and really studied how the artist used a single color? Let's study the possible use of yellow for example. The amount of yellow the artist selected is dependent on the subject of the painting. A desert sunset would use much more yellow than an seascape would.

The same is true of how much and how loudly you play in a particular song. When I am playing in a big band setting, I understand that the focus of the composition is the horns. I treat them as if they were the vocalists and play more aggressively using more keys to thicken the texture and carry the harmony during the solo sections, but barely playing at all (softly and use open chords) during the tutti sections. With a ballad using a vocalist, I play much more supportively as the role of the horns are to quietly support our intimate combo feel.

Smearing lots of your tone color on every song with no concern for balancing the other colors of your ensemble makes for a very boring collection of tone paintings.

By concentrating on the overall quality of the tone colors and textures with respect to the changing nuances of the music, you will be on your way to creating your own masterpieces in no time.

good gigging!

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

Spring Cleaning

2011-05-04T04:23:00.001-07:00

With the ending of another school year, May is the perfect time to get your students to help with the annual Spring cleaning of the music rooms. Have a few go through your ensemble library and check for any torn or marked up parts and make sure that they are in their proper alphabetical order. I have a cabinet with a separate drawer for brass, woodwind, strings, and percussion parts and tools that must be reorganized now that the pressure of contests and concerts are over. Excel spreadsheets are made and must be checked-off to insure all the music books and equipment are accounted for. Empty all the shelves and pull everything away from the walls to get those dust-bunnies that grow while we are in those "teaching moments". With the dismal economy still looming over our school budgets, many districts have cut back the custodial staff to the bones, making anything more than emptying waste cans a luxury.

Getting the students involved in making the music rooms bright, shiny, and attractive will give them a sense of pride and ownership for your program. You will feel more like coming to work as well.

good teaching!

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

Don't forget to shift gears

2011-04-19T05:03:00.000-07:00

With this being the beginning of Holy Week, I would like to address this post to all the musicians and music directors who are also employed as worship music directors for a local church.

Most church chancel choirs and praise band members are composed of adult volunteers who generously donate their time and energy to enhance the worship experience.

Make sure that you "switch gears" and not approach your directing as you would a professional band or classroom environment. The habit of demanding perfection from HS or dance bands os a hard one to curb and is much easier said than done.

I am lucky as I have a sound engineer (named John) who helps me "keep it real" during our church rehearsals.

When I get too caught up in the rehearsal moment and focus my concern on the music and not the overall experience for the musicians, I can tend to be a little blunt and impatient. This is especially true during the insane worship schedule during Holy Week. When this starts to happen, John gives me a certain "look" that conveys the subliminal message, "Relax Larry, these are just volunteers that don't have to be here, or take this". I am very grateful of this and usually stop the rehearsal and lighten up with a little mood altering pleasant banter with the members.

I wish you and your church ensembles many blessed worship experiences this week but caution you to remember that the musicians, as well as the music performances, are the reason that you are there.

good gigging!

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

As the State, so goes the Nation

2011-04-09T03:52:00.000-07:00

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services has directed counties to prepare a Rapid Response Plan to help displaced teachers cope with job loss and find new employment. Hardest hit will be the fine arts.

The Ohio Education Association — representing 130,000 unionized school employees — predicts a dire scenario.

An analysis by the OEA estimates 10,860 Ohio education jobs could be eliminated in fiscal year 2012, based on Gov. John Kasich’s proposed budget, the loss of stimulus funding and phase-out of state tax reimbursements.

write makes right!

2011-04-08T03:16:00.000-07:00

Have you ever called up a tune during a rehearsal or performance and counted off the wrong tempo? Have you ever forgotten a certain keyboard or guitar effect setting? Well, I have many times until I accepted that; even the weakest pencil trumps the strongest memory. I now keep a journal of tempos, styles and tone/effect setting for every song in each of my ensembles repertoire. I also download the virtual document onto my smart phone so that I can glance at my notes prior to counting off the next song. If the tempo is one that I don't use regularly, I have an app on my smartphone that is a metronome.

It's better to take a second and check your notes and tempos than take a few minutes to perform an entire song incorrectly.

good gigging!

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

Let them eat cake? NOT!!!

2011-03-24T13:56:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, while preparing the Church sanctuary for our Lenten contemporary Christian Praise and Worship Service, our praise team was invited to partake in an impromptu 40th wedding anniversary celebration beforehand. The parlor was filled with the aroma of a delicious sheet cake.

Our drummer, a young 20-something, decided to enjoy the few pieces of said cake containing hundreds of extra calories of processed white sugar with his extra-large black coffee minutes before the service.

What resulted was as surprising to him as it was to us......

He was so hyped up on sugar and caffeine, that every tempo was blazing fast. The first song even included a surprise drum solo that I don't think our drummer had any control over. After the first chorus, a flurry of sound erupted from his drum set so overpowering, that everybody else just stopped and watched him solo for around two and a half minutes.

Lesson?

Be careful what you eat and drink prior to any musical performances. Moderation is the key.

good gigging!

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

musicteachers911 blog featured on TeachStreet.com

2011-03-15T07:58:00.000-07:00

TeachStreet's Featured Blogger Program checked out your blog and believe that you have some awesome content, so we’ve decided to feature your work!

TeachStreet is a high traffic online marketplace for local and online classes across hundreds of subjects, including teaching music. Students who search for classes related to the subject you blog about will also see the blog posts that is featured.

Your posts will be included in the TeachStreet Articles Index in a way very similar to alltop.com. Furthermore, we’re working to help our 600+ featured bloggers connect with each other to exchange knowledge and information as well as for link exchange and guest blogging opportunities.

Cheers,

Kenji Crosland

Sad but true....

2011-03-11T05:24:00.000-08:00

Cartoonist, Mike Peters, commentary on Ohio's collective bargaining.

When in doubt, don't.....

2011-03-09T08:30:00.000-08:00

In the middle 60s. I got a call from a very well established recording studio to lay down a guitar track for a local artist. As I sat in the booth and listened to the song with the previously recorded tracks, I made a rather startling discovery...

I sincerely felt that the song didn't need a guitar track.

After the first playback had finished, the engineer asked me, "Well?"

(Dilemma? You betcha, as the studio was paying me $80/hr to play which, in the 60s, was SERIOUS money!)

I had always heard from my Great Aunt Mary to tell the truth and never be afraid of the outcome.

"This song needs a guitar like the Mona Lisa needs a mustache" was my first utterance.

The engineer thanked me and sent me home without pay.

The next part really surprised me...

I was the first guitarist called on every studio session!

I can only imagine that the reason is that the engineer knew that I was more concerned with the quality of the finished song than my paycheck.

(I made thousands from our long standing association)

This past Sunday, I had to hire a substitute drummer for our church's praise band. This individual came highly recommended and did a wonderful interpretation on all the fast contemporary Christian numbers. When it came time for the slow worship piece, however, it was a totally different story......

Honestly, the tune didn't need any drums at all, or at most, a few quiet cymbal rolls. What ins-sued was an onslaught of the slowest driving rock pattern I had ever heard!

Not only was this totally inappropriate for worship music, the drummer never looked at me even once to check if I, the musical director approved of his interpretation. Thank heavens that the sound engineer for the service was on top of this and turned the drums almost off in the main speakers.

RULE #1 Never under appreciate your sound engineer!

I didn't want to attract any more attention to the drummer than he was already getting, so I just finished the song as if his playing was exactly what I had asked for.

When in doubt, don't..... is my best advice if you are playing an unfamiliar piece. Your band mates won't let the overall quality of the song suffer. Feel free to jump in when you are confident that your playing will benefit, rather than detract, from the overall musicality of the performance.

Good Gigging!

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

Music and Arts Enthusiasts Award Winners Announced

2011-02-10T02:14:00.000-08:00

2011 Music and Arts Enthusiasts Award Winners Announced

This years 2011 Music and Arts Enthusiasts Award Winners for Music Education are:

Music Teachers 911
Music Education Magic
Music is Not for Insects
Music Matters Blog
Music Teacher's Helper
Music, Education, and Technology: MusTech.Net!
MusicEdMajor.net
Free Jazz Blog

Congratulations to all the winners and be sure to bookmark these valuable online music ed. resources.

Good Gigging!

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

musicteachers911 is a Music & Arts Enthusiasts award finalist!

2011-01-24T14:55:00.000-08:00

This couldn't have happened without all you loyal followers and fantastic guests that have contributed to the musicteachers911 blog and podcast.

I humbly thank you all!

Hi Larry,

eCollegeFinder, an established online education resource representing over 120 accredited online institutions, would like to congratulate you. Musicteachers911 has been selected by our review staff as a finalist for eCollegeFinder’s Top Music & Arts Enthusiasts award.

The Music & Arts Enthusiasts award recognizes the websites we feel best promote the voice of music and arts in culture and education.

Free online tuner saves the day

2011-01-20T03:03:00.000-08:00

Free online tuner saves the day!

It's rare that I perform at a venue with an ensemble that doesn't include a keyboard, but this happened last Saturday. I was hired to play guitar for a wedding with a violin and cello. I grabbed my case that had my portable chromatic tuner thinking that everything would be fine. Well.......It wasn't.

When I finally set up and let my guitar get accustom to the climate of the venue. I realized that my chromatic tuner batteries had died. (I should have checked it before I left, but that's for another blog post).

I grabbed my Macbook and did a frantic search for free online tuners. I selected the first entry and was very impressed at the ease and simplicity of a web 2.0 online interactive app at a site called, GET-TUNED.COM.

The tuner is located at:

http://www.get-tuned.com/instruments.php

Just click the string on the guitar graphic and listen. It's really as easy as that.

Other instrument tuners can be chosen from this site such as: Balalaika Banjo Bass Guitar Cello

Dulcimer Harmonica Mandolin Ukulele Violin and Viola.

I let the other musicians use this site to tune and they loved it.

Good Gigging!

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

You've Got Mail!

2011-01-02T16:20:00.000-08:00

I love to attend concerts presented by area bands, choirs, and orchestras. Last night was no exception. These events also keep me painfully aware of some basic housekeeping tasks.

Here is one case in point:

As the conductor of a local handbell choir was about to start their ensembles first song, an all-too-familiar tone rang through the concert hall...

"YOU"VE GOT MAIL!"

Listed below are a few basic items I mention before any of my concerts begin.

1. Warmly welcome the audience

2. Mention and thank any sponsors or benefactors. (Personally recognize them if they are seated in the audience).

3. Point out the location of all exits in case of emergency

4. Point out the location of rest rooms

5. Ask for all cell phones be turned off or placed on vibrate.

6. mention your policy on video or flash photography.

Good Gigging!

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

Data Tree of ensemble members.

2010-12-16T03:59:00.000-08:00

Last week, I was to play for large Christmas concert and nativity musical at a local church. The event was supposed to start at 7PM.

At 5:30, just 90 minutes before the show, I started getting several calls, texts, and emails from other band members alerting me that the event was just cancelled due to an oncoming snow storm.

I was glad to get so many notices rather than not having any word requiring driving several miles through deep snow only to find myself alone in an empty church parking lot.

Make sure that, at your first rehearsal, you pass around a "Contact info" tablet so everyone has access to the other ensemble members data. Have them include their phone, email and address (in case someone has car trouble and needs a ride)

You never know when a rehearsal or performance will be changed, postponed, or cancelled at the last minute due to such situations as inclement weather conditions.

good gigging!

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

Silence is Golden

2010-12-01T11:09:00.000-08:00

Silence is Golden

OK, this tip should be obvious to seasoned players, but sometime it bears repeating for the newbies.

NEVER WARM UP ON STAGE!

Warm up somewhere the audience can't here you. When you are tuned and ready to perform, enter the stage silently and wait for the conductor to cue the first selection.

The stage should be where the audience hears the first note of the ensemble during the entrance of the first number. They did not come to hear you run through scales or difficult passages.

nuh said?

good gigging,

Larry Marra

musicteachers911.com

Two quick and easy performance tips

2010-11-16T16:54:00.000-08:00

I just got an email message from a musicteachers911 podcast listener. It said,

"What advice do you have for guitarist that; after 10 years, has finally hit a playing plateau?"

(I replied,)

Join a band in which you are by far the worst player. This will force you to "up your game" faster than anything else I know.

Within minutes I had his response. "not interested in joining any bands. What else you got?"

OK, now I start pushing my chair back away from the laptop.

(this is going to require a little thought)........

After a few pensive moments, I write,

"Video record yourself as often as possible. Then review it with very critical eyes and ears.

You will be your harshest critic. When you are happy with what you see and hear, chances are that your audience will be too."

His reply?

I will certainly give it a try.

Good Gigging!

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

Announcing Joytunes, a new application for recorder instruction

2010-10-20T10:19:00.000-07:00

JoyTunes: A Music Teacher’s Best Friend

JoyTunes merges proven methodology with cutting-edge technology to take children’s musical education to a whole new level.

Tel Aviv, Israel – October 20, 2010 – Ever had trouble getting your students to practice? Then how about making it fun! JoyTunes is an interactive educational game that’s changing the way educators are introducing their students to the world of music. By bringing hi-tech innovation to musical education, JoyTunes teaches the skills of playing an instrument through the medium of a fun computer game. Click here to play the JoyTunes demo!

How does it work? JoyTunes’ patent-pending technology enables its users to control the game by p p laying a live musical instrument. The recorder is just the first in a series that will feature various i nstruments. It was chosen as the perfect introduction to music because it’s simple, easy-to-use and an ideal instrument on which to acquire music fundamentals.

Each game level is a musical exercise designed to develop crucial musical skills like tone production, tone stability, finger technique, basic ear training and more. Combined with an exciting original soundtrack, the game’s unique methodology has been shown to motivate children to practice and immensely shorten the learning process of playing an instrument. And in the classroom, teachers can use the game’s free, downloadable sheet music for their own lessons. Click here to see JoyTunes in action!

Whether used in the classroom or at home, JoyTunes’ virtual environment transforms children’s education into a different kind of learning experience – the kind where practice becomes playtime and musical skills are naturally acquired. Research shows that children learn best when their minds are active and engaged, which is why JoyTunes works so effectively: level of improvement is directly correlated with motivation to beat the game. The more children want to play a cool computer game, the more they’ll practice and improve their skills between lessons – not because they have to, but because they want to. JoyTunes has indeed taken music education and amped up a crucial element: fun! Click here to watch the official JoyTunes video on YouTube.

Developed by Experts

This patent-pending game was created by a talented team of recorder teachers, signal analysis experts, software developers, graphic designers, psychologists and world-renowned musicians. These creative experts from each field were brought together in order to unlock the sponge-like quality of a child’s brain in a fun and engaging way, while keeping in mind the needs of music educators in the classroom..

Top musicians and recorder artists like Prof. Karel Van Steenhoven (University of Karlsruhe, Germany; member of Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet), Prof. Michael Melzer (Vice President of Academic Affairs, Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance; recorder artist) and Susanne Fröhlich (University of Arts, Berlin; recorder artist) are already enthusiastic supporters of this new innovation in music and recorder education.

Innovative Technology

When you play JoyTunes, its software analyzes your recorder’s sounds to manipulate objects in the game. The analyzing engine also identifies common mistakes to provide you with real-time performance feedback. It does all that without any special hardware or connections, and better yet, background noise, low-quality instruments and inexpensive soundcards and microphones are no match for JoyTunes – it will work just fine with a five-dollar microphone or recorder. JoyTunes’ novel technology, which overcomes poor conditions and provides comprehensive feedback by recognizing several features coming out of the instrument, is patent-pending. And despite the technical complexity of the game, JoyTunes is web-based and simple to play, with no special download or installation needed.

Product Awards

JoyTunes was recently announced the winner of this fall's prestigious Parents' Choice Award for Software. According to one Parents’ Choice review, “We were impressed by how much and how well the game encouraged our testers to practice, and by how much they learned... steady practice with the program's fundamentals may bring much-welcomed harmony to your family room.”

JoyTunes was also selected by MassChallenge as a top-26 finalist for the Most Innovative Startup of 2010. Having drawn 446 applicants from 26 countries, this is the largest startup competition in the world. It recognizes high-impact startups with big ideas that can change the world. If JoyTunes is declared a winner by the prestigious panel of judges, the company will receive a $50,000 to $100,000 award to help develop its novel approach to musical education.

How to Order & Technical Requirements

Two purchase options are available: a single-user license, wherein the game will be delivered by e-mail; and a gift pack, which includes a game CD, recorder and microphone. Gift packs are shipped within 14 working days, free of charge.

In order to play JoyTunes, you will need: a regular soprano recorder (found in any music store), a computer with a microphone and speakers (external or built-in), a Windows or Mac operating system, Internet connectivity, minimum 512 MB of RAM and a 64 MB video card (128 MB is preferred).

About JoyTunes

JoyTunes was established in 2009 with the goal of revolutionizing musical interaction through instrument-activated computer games. The methods of this unique approach to education are sure to catch on in other subjects, paving the way for a new set of educational tools for the children of tomorrow.

For more information, please visit joytunes.com and follow JoyTunes on Facebook and Twitter!

Because teaching music is our goal and we see you, the music educators of the blogosphere, as our partners in this pursuit, we are offering you and your readers a 20% discount on the wonderful experience of JoyTunes! To obtain a discount code, please phone or e-mail the media contact below.

As a registered teacher, not only will you receive a free evaluation copy of the software, but you’ll also receive inside information and free access to resources like sheet-music downloads for you and your students! And don’t worry, registration is free.

Media Contact:

	Avihu Sha'altiel
	Blonde 2.0 \| Community & AccountManager
	Tel: +972-3-677-1133
	Facebook: facebook.com/avihush Twitter: @avihush
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Ping is the Thing!!

2010-10-05T06:20:00.000-07:00

iTunes has just created a new social network for music lovers embedded into it's store called PING.

With PING, you can follow your favorite artists and friends and even find new music.

For more info, go to:

http://www.apple.com/itunes/ping

Larry Marra

If you already are using iTunes, just open the itunes app, and click "PING" in the menu on the left.

Good Gigging!

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

Wavepad free audio editor app.

2010-09-24T10:37:00.000-07:00

Ever have an audio file that was in the wrong key for your band or choir to rehearse? Ever wish you could slow down the practice audio files without having it interfere with the sound quality?

Here is a totally free audio app called, Wavepad, that will do the task in just one click.

Wavepad is a feature rich sound editor for Windows and Macintosh platforms. You can record from audio inputs, like a microphone or a record player, import and edit sound files. It is good for making mixes, or digitizing vinyl.

The range of options in WavePad basic - there is a commercial "Masters" version - is impressive. You can add effects, fades, split tracks, merge tracks, and much more. Performing all of these tasks is easy, and easy to undo if you make a mistake. It's certainly user friendly, and the fact you can import more or less any sound file format makes it incredibly accessible for anyone (there's no need to mess around with file conversion).

As well as importing from your hard drive, you can also import directly from CD, and there's a tool to burn whatever you want. There is a tone generator, and even a text to speech generator, so you can express yourself with a robotic voice.

There are tabs at the bottom of the edit window for you to move easily between open files, a zoom tool so it's easy to highlight exactly the part you want when editing, and the highlighting itself is really intuitive, allowing you to apply effects with precision.

The one function I think WavePad is missing is a BPM analyzer - although this is sometimes unreliable in other programs, it's a nice feature to have.

For anyone that wants to mess around with their sound files - WavePad is a great and lightweight program to use.

Languages:

English

WavePad supports the following formats:

WAV, MP3, VOX, GSM, RM, AU, AIF, FLAC, OGG

You can obtain a free download at:

http://wavepad.en.softonic.com

Good gigging!

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

Pick a card

2010-09-22T04:16:00.000-07:00

Here is a very inexpensive way to get new contacts for music gigs.

Have catchy business cards printed up with the band's name, a brief description of the music venues that your ensemble can perform, along with all contact info.

Pass them out to all the members of your group.

Your ability to spread the word about your group has just increased exponentially!

Office Depot, Staples, or Kinko's can print 1000 business cards for about $15. This is a small investment considering that you have enabled every member of your group to promote you ensemble to possible club owners, event locations, and even private affairs that you would have never known about.

You can even print them from your own home computer printer for the small cost of card stock paper!

I always put five business cards in every new contract I send out so the current employer will have access to your contact info and pass then to others looking for good music.

Another way is to make your ensemble a contact in your blackberry or other smart phone that you can text to people and add to their phone directory. This way they can search for a keyword such as band or choir in their phone to quickly find you.

Good Gigging!

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

What are you sight reading?

2010-09-10T08:48:00.000-07:00

I was directing the first rehearsal of a brand new swing band last night. I am the only professional musician, but all the players are quite accomplished on their instruments. The purpose of this ensemble isn't to make money, but to perform philanthropic concerts for hospitals and nursing homes. and to promote the love of swing band music.

Since we had never played any of the charts before, everyone in the band was sight reading. After a few minutes into the first number, I felt compelled to stop them and ask the band an important question.

What are you sight reading?

One brave soul raised his hand and said, "I am sight reading the notes, what else?"

I replied, "I'm glad you asked. I am sight reading the notes, dynamics, key and meter changes, repeats, and articulations."

The band got very quiet.

I continued, "What makes a difference between a good band and a great band is attention to detail. A band that plays the everything same tempo and dynamic level is a very boring band.

I understand that reading all the markings around the notes will take a little time and effort, but it will be well worth it.'

So the next time someone gives you a piece of music to read, read the entire page and not just the notes.

Your audience will thank you in the long run.

Good Gigging!

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

Top 40 podcasts for teachers

2010-09-02T12:12:00.000-07:00

Hello,

I recently compiled a list of the Top 40 podcasts for teachers, and I
just wanted to let you know that musicteachers911 made the list!

It is published online at
http://www.onlinedegrees.org/top-40-podcasts-for-teachers/

Thanks so much, and if you think your audience would find useful
information in the list or on the site, please feel free to share the
link. The blog is just starting up, so we always appreciate a linkback
as we're trying to increase readership.

Thanks again, and have a great day!

Maria

100 Free Resources for Teaching Yourself Guitar

2010-09-02T12:06:00.000-07:00

“Novice to Slash: 100 Free Resources for Teaching Yourself Guitar”

http://www.onlinecolleges.org/novice-to-slash-100-free-resources-for-teaching-yourself-guitar/

Blinded by the light

2010-08-24T05:05:00.001-07:00

While performing at an outdoor venue on a cloudless day with a swing band last evening, the band leader placed our stands directly facing the setting Sun. As soon as I sat down to arrange the first few numbers on the music rack, I realized that I wasn't going to be able to read the scores. A quick trip to the car for a baseball cap (embroidered with "musicteachers911") fixed the problem.

As soon as I returned, the entire rhythm section asked if I had extra caps as they were facing (pun intended) the same problematic situation. Another minute later and they were all outfitted with caps as well.

Since I drive a convertible, I usually keep a few caps in the car for the Summer. After last night, I decided to keep some caps in the car for the entire year.

good gigging!

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

The "List"

2010-08-12T09:25:00.000-07:00

I was playing piano in a swing band for our local library's 200th anniversary. The band leader passed out a set list with the order of songs and chart numbers. I quickly arranged my charts in the performance order. Since the piano parts are several pages longer than the horn parts, I felt very confident that the gig would go well since I wouldn't have to be rummaging around the piano library case to find the next song.

Just before the fifth song, the bass player asked what number was next. I told him," 703 "Route 66". Then, the drummer told us that the leader just signaled to skip it (as it was a vocal number and our vocalist wasn't here yet).

Since the piano sits in front of the band leader, I never noticed that the leader was holding up a different chart than the list had. The bass player and I scrambled for the new number and came in just in time.

lesson learned,

just because a band leader passes out a set list doesn't mean that he will follow it.

good gigging!

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

Get the point?

2010-07-24T15:16:00.000-07:00

This Tuesdays Praise Team rehearsal hit a bit of a snag.

We decided, in the interest of time, not to set up the entire PA for our Tuesday rehearsals. The drummer uses a Roland V-drum electronic drum set and pulled out a small amp to broadcast his instrument's sound to the singers and the rest of the band.

We were learning, "Mighty to Save" by Laura Story. It is about an 80 BPM song and has a catchy little snare drum street beat rhythm instead of a full drum set beat pattern.

Well, after asking the drummer four times to turn down and blend with the band so I could hear the singers, I noticed that his amp was in front of him and facing us!

I rose form the piano bench, turned the amp around so the back was facing the band and the speakers were facing the drummer.

Problem solved. The drummer was now balancing with the band in a way that the band could hear each other and he could hear himself.

Sometimes, a balance problem is as simple as relocating where the instrument's sound is pointing.

good gigging!

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

I can see clearly now

2010-07-12T04:13:00.001-07:00

Having just finished an outdoor festival performance with a locally popular swing band for July 4th, I'd like to provide you with a tip about keeping the printed charts securely on the music rack.

I went to my local hardware store and purchased a sheet of clear plexiglass the same dimensions as the music stand. I place this directly over the charts so the wind doesn't blow the music away. While the other musicians were wrestling with clothespins and having the wind fold the music over so they couldn't read it, I was playing undisturbed, safe in the knowledge that my music was staying right where I wanted it.

Good Gigging!

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

What's in a name?

2010-06-26T05:21:00.000-07:00

After the annual contemporary Christian music festival I was helping to present, I noticed some very expensive musical instruments were left behind in the worship center. I checked the cases, but couldn't locate any names or contact information to assist me in returning these items.

Directors, make it a priority to check all of your musicians equipment to make sure that they are properly marked with return information. This is especially important if the students are using school or church equipment.

When I am performing, my business cards are taped on every piece of equipment that leaves my house, When I play piano, this includes, power cords, hand carts, music stand, connecting cables, cases, sustain pedal, and keyboard stand.

I sent a mass emailing to all the director describing the lost instruments, but, as yet, haven't had a single reply.

So what's in a name? It simply means the piece of mind that your music equipment will be returned in a timely manner.

good gigging!

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

Be sure to subscribe to the iTunes podcast, musicteachers911 for more helpful tips.

Annual Instrument Check-up

2010-06-08T04:58:00.001-07:00

This tip I learned from my HS Band Director. Before the first day of school I would take an afternoon to completely inspect, maintenance, and repair all the instruments in my ensembles. I would check every valve, side key, slide, finger pad, and tuning peg. I used to give the brass a bath, blow dry, and oil change. The strings got a fresh coat of lemon and linseed oil and wax. Every woodwind side key and pad was tested and repaired. Later that night, I would do the same with every instrument that I used for my personal performances with various ensembles. Being on stage, away from home, is no time to find out that an instrument isn't functioning properly.

The Marines have a saying, "Take care of your weapon, and it will take care of you". I feel that this could also apply to your instrument of choice as well.

Good Gigging!

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

bounced check!

2010-05-09T03:37:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, I had a performance accompanying a rather popular local vocal band. The lead singer, Trent, has a very edgy rocker voice and was coming to the event from another performance earlier in the day.

One of the other singers was being helpful and grabbed Trent's microphone to assist the sound tech with the mic check.

Minutes before the concert, the sound tech's mother tripped and fell entering the concert hall. He rushed her to the hospital (she is OK) and we were left with no sound man.

Trent arrived as we were being announced onstage. He grabbed the mic and started singing with the group.

He was about twice as loud as everyone else!

Why?

The other vocalist checked the mic by holding it about ten inches away from her mouth and specking normally.

Trent puts the mic less than an inch away from his and give his voice all the punch of a seasoned prizefighter in his prime!

So, he was sticking waaaaaaay out in front of the other performers.

He didn't seem to notice as his monitor usually has him out in front anyway. With no one to adjust the sound from the board, we were all frantically trying to get his attention.

Now Trent is a rather intense fellow, so he was in his own world. I had to jump off the keyboard during the guitar solo, run down the aisle, adjust his levels and return to the piano in about 16 measures. (I didn't make it)

lesson?

Have only the person who is actually performing on a specific mic do the sound check for it.

Otherwise, you'll have a bounced check when you try to cash your gig money!

good gigging!

Larry

Heads up!

2010-05-03T04:57:00.001-07:00

Directors.

Here's a simple fix to increase the effectiveness of your rehearsals.

Send a "heads up" email to all the members in advance stating the agenda for the next rehearsal.

Some key points to include would be:

1. the order of the songs to be rehearsed. This will let the members know what to practice ahead of time, and put the music in rehearsal order.

2. Upcoming gig info including the date, time, location (including the address for those with GPS capability), concert dress, song order, parking info, and any set up instructions.

3. Contact info for the other members in case they wish to set up a sectional on their own beforehand.

4. End with your complete contact info in case they have additional question you can answer beforehand.

Remember, the more information you can impart prior to the rehearsal, the less time you will need to take away from rehearsing.

Less talk, more music makes for a great rehearsal.

good gigging!

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

rough gig!

2010-04-07T05:03:00.001-07:00

Last night I was playing piano with the an 18 piece Swing Band for a local dance. The stage was very small, so the band leader decided to put the trumpets, trombones, bass and drums on the stage. The saxes and I were placed on the floor in front of the stage. I was placed to the left of the stage. THIS WAS THE WORST SET-UP EVER! I didn't hear (or see) anyone on the stage. I couldn't hear the chart numbers being called. And the brass told me at the break that they couldn't hear anyone down front.

RULE #1. Always set up so that the entire group can hear and see each other. If there is not enough room on the stage for your entire ensemble, the set the entire group on the floor. .

'nough said

Larry Marra

musicteachers911.com

Let Go of the Ball!

2010-03-29T04:43:00.000-07:00

Let Go of the Ball!

Sometimes, directors and band leaders can get so comfortable with leading a group, that they never allow another band member to experience the thrill of leading an ensemble. I would often select one of the members to direct, while I grabbed in instrument or stood in the vocal ensemble. There are many benefits to adopting this in your rehearsal routine.

This gives your members a 'first hand" taste of what it's like to be the director. This might inspire a musician to explore the possibility of becoming a director someday. It also gives them a chance to see that directing a group isn't as easy is it may seem.

What it will do for you is to get a member's perspective on what they are actually seeing when they are watching you.

Another benefit to allowing someone else to lead your ensemble is that it will afford you to walk around the room or concert hall and actually hear what the audience will be hearing to adjust the musical balance.

good gigging!

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

quick fix for a tight sound.

2010-02-25T11:17:00.000-08:00

Today I was asked to conduct the University of Dayton swing band.

Due to this deep Ohio snow, several members were absent. Many of the horn chairs were empty. The members sat in their usual seat and we began to rehearse.

Not a minute went my when I just HAD to stop them.

You aren't playing together!

(Then I got an idea)

"Everybody, pick up your music and slide towards the middle chairs" Then, I had the drummer get up from the extreme left of the stage and bring a maraca right in the middle of the horns.

At once, the band played together as one sound.

Then I remembered last December at the Officer's Club, when I had to play piano with am 18 piece big band on the tiniest stage you have ever seen. To make matters worse, (or better) I was playing a nine foot grand piano that took almost half the available space!

The result?

The band never sounded tighter! The horns literally had there arms overlapping each other, but boy, was it worth it!

so, next time your group isn't playing musically together, put them closer together.

good gigging!

Music education and child development

2010-02-16T05:04:00.000-08:00

There are many positive health benefits for children to be actively involved in learning and playing music. In a recent major study from the U.S. Department of Education involving more than 25,000 secondary school students, researchers found that students who report consistent high levels of involvement in instrumental music over the middle and high school years show "significantly higher levels of mathematics proficiency by grade 12, regardless of students' socioeconomic status.

Music education also makes for better academic achievement in the area of science, as well as enhancing spatial intelligence. Numerous studies consistently state that involvement in an organized music program can be a compelling solution to teen violence. Medical research has discovered that music and language are processed in the same area of the brain. Children who develop playing an instrument often times have a greater language capacity to work out peaceful differences with their peers.

Music Education Online recently reports that: “students with coursework/experience in music performance and music appreciation scored higher on the SAT: students in music performance scored 57 points higher on the verbal and 41 points higher on the math, and students in music appreciation scored 63 points higher on verbal and 44 points higher on the math, than did students with no arts participation.”

So if you are looking for a fun way to improve you child’s academic and social skills, their school’s local music program is a great place to start.

How loud is loud?

2010-01-20T12:54:00.001-08:00

Every ask yourself, "How loud is loud"?

The volume level for a passage marked, "Forte" depends on many factors. If the passage is the melody, I tend to play louder than if my passage is a supporting harmonic note or descant. Moving parts tend to be emphasized over the other parts to maintain the interest of the listener no matter what the arranger marked on the page. My "loud is louder if the ensemble is larger, the room is larger, the hall is crowded, the background level of the ambient noise is noticeable.

Case in point:

I was directing a local college jazz band last week. I was rehearsing the chart, "My Funny Valentine". One passage was a solo flugelhorn playing the melody over six saxophones playing a half-note harmonic background. The melody was in the lower range of the flugelhorn and was meant to be played breathy and smokey. The saxes really covered it up.

When I advised the saxes to lighten up, they informed me that their passage was marked forte. I informed them that the arranger had no idea what the size or skill level of the players would be and that the dynamic marking was his best estimate at a god overall balance. The chart is a "rough draft" of the finished performance with the director being the real-time editor for the best interpretation.

bottom line?

Constantly adjust your volume level to match what is happening musically around you. The composer or arranger isn't in the room with you to mark the proper volume of a passage to be played in that room with that ensemble.

So, How loud is loud?

It depends!

Good Gigging

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

Be sure to subscribe to the musicteachers podcast free from the iTunes store.

Get out of the Way!!

2010-01-20T05:19:00.000-08:00

Today, I would like to challenge you to consider a fresh new perspective on how your music is created.

When a band or choir is improvising a song, they create an ever-evolving "real-time" energy that takes on a musical life of it's own. The way in which voices and instruments "discuss" and "dialogue" using various tone colors can become extremely intricate and , all too often, very busy.

Today, I would like to invite you to become more aware of your role in these "musical conversations".

Are you hogging the stage by overplaying? Are you allowing the other instruments to "have their say"? Remember that a conversation involves listening as much as speaking. Even if you are playing a solo, are you taking time to breathe and create effective pauses between your phrasings?

One glaring mistake I see with new musicians is that they tend to overplay as much as possible.

They either run over someone else's musical contribution, or emote such a flurry of notes during their own solos, that each individual note loses it's effectiveness.

Consider this the next time you are "sitting in" with a band or vocal ensemble". Will the entire stage go suddenly silent if you just stop playing to get out of their way? I seriously doubt it. Take time to listen so that your voice will enhance and not distract the overall message of the song.

Lately I have been making puzzles with my five year old daughter. Occasionally, I see her trying to force a puzzle piece into a space in which it was not designed. No amount of pressure will make the complete picture" unless each piece is placed where it was created. Make sure your music piece is competed with every voice being the right size and shape to make the finished product pleasing to the ear.

In kindergarten we are taught to to: listen when others are speaking.

This is good advice onstage as well as the classroom.

Tonight I am performing the piano in with a 10 piece jazz band which also includes a very accomplished guitarist. My goal is to enhance and uplift the other musicians so that the overall sound is the right texture and complexity. Since the guitar and piano have very similar roles the in band, I will encourage the guitarist to work with me to ebb and flow the rhythm duties in a conversation way.

Let's hope the guitarist learned this in Kindergarten as well.

Good Gigging!

Larry Marra

musicteachers911.com

A musical New Year's resolution

2010-01-02T03:20:00.000-08:00

Good news about Singing

What if you could find a medical treatment that could enhance your feeling of well-being, reduce your pain, prolong your life, have no adverse side effects, yet is absolutely free? You’ll be happy to know that this miracle treatment does exist. It’s called singing.

The very act of singing lowers heart rate, decreases blood pressure, and reduces stress. One medical reason is that singing seems to block many neural pathways in which pain travels.

If you are self conscience about the quality of your voice, there is always the shower (or car) you can use as you very own private concert hall. Another viable solution is to join a choral group. This would not only involve all the the health benefits of singing, but also provide many emotional benefits such as belonging to a social network of caring and supportive people. There are many wonderful church and community choral groups around this area always looking for new members. Many studies have shown that belonging to a vocal choral group will result in fewer medical visits, better overall vision, and a need for less medication. Repetitive church songs often provide the same spiritual benefits as intense meditational prayer.

Learning how to sing under a skilled director will also increase brain function and stimulate many new neural pathways thus improving mental acuity. Some doctors even feel that this would be an excellent tool to lesson the gradual effects of dementia and Alzheimer's Disease.

Lastly, singing in a group will increase lung capacity, help relieve asthma symptoms, improve posture, and enhance confidence. So, the next time your favorite song comes on the radio, or you hear of a group that is looking for new recruits, how about doing something for your body mind and Spirit. SING! With this being the start of another year, it is a great time to make singing a part of your New Year's resolution.

Ten minutes till SHOW-TIME!

2009-12-14T04:49:00.000-08:00

I have a quick, "ten minute 'till show-time" routine that I thought might be of interest for those of you who are directing or performing on stage.

1. Do I need to visit the restroom?

2. Is my cell phone on vibrate?

3. Is my music in order?

4. Are all the repeats, key and meter changes highlighted?

5. Can I see the director?

If you are directing, this might be a good idea to remind your performers of these.

good gigging!

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

(Be sure to listen to podcast, musicteachers911, available free from the iTunes store)

It was all the keyboard's deFAULT!

2009-12-03T05:44:00.000-08:00

Last night, I went to a local jazz club to hear a friend play with his nine piece combo. I was also hoping that I could even get in a little swing dancing.

I had barely got through the door when I was warmly greeted by him and the band. OK, maybe a little TOO warmly. Seems that the pianist never showed up, and they were hoping that I would sit in with them on a keyboard that was kept at the club.

Since I was there anyway and genuinely love playing with good bands, I agreed. I had never heard of the brand or model of the keyboard, so I turned the volume down and touched a key.

Yup, sounds like a piano to me. Show time!

Everything was going smoothly for about the first 20 minutes. Then something happened.

I am not sure how, but I guess I must have been watching the music more than the keys. I am guessing that I overshot the keys and unintentionally touched a control button on the programming pad. All of the sudden, the keyboard sounded very strange. The best way to describe it is to say that it sounded like the background track of an old science fiction movie!

OK, we're in the middle of a song, I have a solo coming up in about 30 seconds and I need to get this puppy back to sounding like a piano ASAP!

Luckily, this was not my first rodeo. Years of experience has taught me that most keyboards default to a piano sound when they are first turned on. I frantically looked for a power button and pressed it twice.

After about three seconds, it was back to the default piano setting just in time for the piano solo.

Even though it was my fault, it was the keyboard's default that save me.

good gigging!

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

Got a minute?

2009-11-23T04:53:00.000-08:00

This post is so bizarre, I still can't believe it even as I am writing.....

Yesterday, I was to play piano with an eight piece band for a live Christian Radio Show at our local Shopping Center. We were instructed by the band leader to arrive and be ready for a 30 minute rehearsal at 4 PM since we go "live" at 4:30.

I arrived at 3:50 with my keyboard. I play this show every month, so I was very confident that the radio engineer would get me up and running in about 2 minutes. (He did) Thank Heavens for qualified sound guys!

The bass player wasn't there at 4. I programed the keyboard to spilt keys. This makes the lower keys sound like an electric bass and the upper keys sound like a piano. Rehearsal went very nicely, and the bumper and spot music sounded great. The vocal soloist was very pleased. The sound guy boosted my bass EQ, so that the bass keys sounded nice and full.

When doing radio and TV, one eye is always on the music and director, the other is on the Radio Producer. When the producer holds up 10 fingers, it means that the show is going "live" in 10 minutes. Five fingers mean five minutes left, etc.

After the producer held up the "One minute until "live" signal, the bass player walks in! He plugs in, turns to me, and asks, "What did I miss?"

There is absolutely no way that I can tell him every cut and vamp for an hour show in less than a minute. I told him that I would do my best to walk him through the show. I de-selected the split keyboard function to make the entire keyboard a piano tone again.

The producer points to the show host and the director counts us off. It only took one note to discover that the bass guitar was horribly OUT OF TUNE! He also had the wrong song up. For the next hour, despite my coaching, I don't think he played a single line correctly.

Normally, I don't play the lower keys when a bass player is there. But extreme cases call for extreme measures. The special guest vocalist this month is a friend, so I decided to drown out the bass part and make sure that he had a good background in which to sing.

When the show was over, the drummer leaned over to me and said, "Nice Save". The director was also very pleased with the show. He never questioned why the piano was playing the lower keys with and bass player there. He also never asked me how the bass player did, so I didn't volunteer any observations concerning the bass parts.

As I started to pack up, the bass player turns to me and asks, "so when do we get paid?"

I smiled and said, "You'll have to take that up with the director".

good gigging!

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

Lights, camera, mixer mania!

2009-10-19T06:15:00.000-07:00

Lights, camera, mixer mania!

While performing at a church as their musical guest Sunday morning,

our gospel group learned at the last minute that our sound engineer wasn't going to be there.

The music minister kindly offered the services of their light and video person to fill in on our 24 channel soundboard.

What seemed like a good idea at the time suddenly turned horribly wrong.

Here are the gruesome details...

Light and video people are used to constantly

changing the settings on the light board to keep the visual interest of the listeners.

They know that keeping a certain light setting on the stage too long can get boring quickly.

A good light technician will gradually change stage light settings about every three seconds.

(When I was playing larger venues, We also included a fog machine and flash pots.)

A sound technician does just the opposite. If the group is well balanced, the best thing to do is to

leave the board well enough alone. Adjusting the sound quality too often will distract from the song

and finally become annoying.

As you might have guessed, the performance was wrought with ear-splitting hums and squeals of feedback

constantly throughout the show.

Solos weren't heard, and lyrics were buried under backing instruments.

Solution?

1. Check with everyone the night before and make sure they can be there.

2. Sit out the first number and balance the sound myself as close as possible.

Then try and balance my instrument as best I can.

if you want something done right?

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

Don't shoot the wounded!!!

2009-09-14T11:53:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows that every music ensemble has it's share of strong and weak players. Even the best players can make mistakes now and again. Todays tip will focus on what to do when one of our band-mates make a mistake.

Here is a quick scenario....

I was playing in the house band for a local radio show. All the musicians were accomplished and the guest vocalist heads our local college music department, so is very polished at his craft. We were handed a chart for one of his feature songs moments before the show was to go on the air live. The horn charts had printed part music, but no lyrics. I was playing the piano from a piano/vocal score.

Then.......... it happened.....................

The vocalist forgot to sing the chorus every time it came around. He just kept singing one verse after another.

Since I had the score in front of me, I chose to follow the vocalist and skip the choruses as well. The horns kept playing the chart as written. This means that they were playing the chorus horn lines over the vocalists verses. The bass player knew something was wrong and started playing by ear to follow the vocalist as well.

So, the score is, two rhythm instruments and vocalist against four horns with the drummer tapping a steady beat from the sidelines. No one stopped playing. Let me tell you, it made for some pretty interesting counterpoint!

When the horns ran out of measures, the vocalist sang a tag ending and conducted the rhythm section to a pretty nice finish. The studio audience enjoyed it.

After the show, the vocalist approached me and asked what happened. I simply showed him his sheet music, and he knew immediately what he had done. He apologized to the band, but we just figured that it was all in a days work.

So, when a band-mate makes a mistake, don't stare and point out to the audience who's fault it is. Just keep plugging along as if it is all part of the show.

I had lunch with the bandleader a few days later. (He is one of the horn players). We discussed in great detail this incident. He informed me that I was in the wrong by following the vocalist and not sticking to the chart. His premise is that the vocalist would have heard how wrong his lead line was, and it would jar his memory to sing the chorus.

So who was right?

Well, for this show, I will have to say that he was.

Why? Because it is his band and he is the one signing my paycheck.

What will I do if this ever happens again? If it is with the same band, I will stick to the chart and do whatever the director wants me to do.

If this happens while I am playing with another band? I must say that I will do exactly what I had done. My role as accompanist is to make the vocalist look good and not tip the audience off that he/she made a mistake.

So remember, when a band-mate makes a mistake, do not focus any attention on it as the audience might not have noticed. Just keep playing and encouraging everyone to play at the top of their game.

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

Drum Dynamics tip

2009-09-08T04:48:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, while playing our local county fair, I learned about a neat little product that is a must for all working drummers. It is a hybrid drumstick made by Pro-Mark called "rods". I was on the piano and heard the drummer balanced with the rest of the band without being isolated in a plexiglass drum cage. He was using a new type of stick called, RODS.

They are ten small dowel rods the length of a drumstick and about the diameter of a telephone cords bundled with tape. This is a great tool for the percussionist who want to playlouder than brushes but softer than regular drumsticks. This product allows the drummer to play unrestricted but keeps the volume balanced with the other instruments.

Pro Mark makes six models of various woods and materials. They are all under $20. Log on to promark.com or take a trip to your local music store. I am not sponsored by promark, but couldn't find any other manufacturers that make a similar product.

I encourage all working drummers, band directors (especially elementary directors). To check them out.

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

Make sure to subscribe to the musicteachers911 podcast available for free from the iTunes store.

top five biggest mistakes

2009-08-16T05:22:00.000-07:00

Here is the short list of the top five biggest mistakes that I have seen when performing with professional groups.

1. Do not play your instrument between songs. Practice at home.

2. Return from the breaks a little beforehand. Don't make the band leader chase you down.

3. Arrive early enough to be completely set-up and relaxed before the performance starts.

4. Assist the drummer and band leader set up and tear down their equipment. Even if you only take an extra trip with extra stands or the band library, the effort might be enough to impress the leader to call you more frequently.

5. Do not over eat (and especially over drink) at venues that provide free refreshments.

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

100 best music major online archives

2009-08-07T05:55:00.000-07:00

Here are two websites for college music majors that I have found very informative.

One is a page from www.onlinecolleges.net called 100 best online archives for music majors.

Here is the link:

http://www.onlinecolleges.net/2009/08/05/100-best-online-archives-for-music-majors

The other is from, Andy Zweibel, a very ambitious student from Miami University of Florida geared especially for music majors.

It is:

http://MusicEdMajor.net

Yours Musically,

Larry Marra
Music Educational Specialist
musicteachers911 Consulting Services
Address: 2935 Robin Road
Dayton, OH 45409

email:
larry@musicteachers911.com

website:
www.musicteachers911.com

Be sure to subscribe to the musicteachers911 music education podcast available free from iTunes. Just search the iTunes store for "musicteachers911" and click subscribe. It's free!

Blind leading the blind.

2009-08-06T15:49:00.000-07:00

Here's one that happened last night as I was sitting in at a local pub involving a trumpet, piano, bass and drums. Here is the way we were situated onstage. If you were in the house looking at the stage, from left to right, 1 trumpet, 2 piano/director, 3 me on electric bass, and 4 the drummer. This was the first time I was playing with them and I met them just as we were about to perform. The leader passed out a few fake books, so I was confident that this was going to be a good night. It didn't last long...

Early on, during the standard, "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat", I noticed that the band was playing the usual meter of 12/8, while the drummer was punching out a straight four beat pattern. It didn't take long for the tempo to wander to the point where it was all a jumbled mess.

I stopped playing, hoping that the drummer and piano/director could salvage the song to the point where I would jump back in a the head (top).

This is when I noticed that the drummer had his music stand facing away from the band! I tried to get his attention, but he wasn't listening either. He was in his own little world, unaware that he wasn't playing the same "feel" as the rest of us.

OK, so now I turn to the piano/director only to find that he has his head buried in the book so deep he doesn't see me either. Remember that I am standing next to him.

I tried to get his attention only to find that he wasn't listening either.

So now I glance at the trumpeter. He is a great musician and was very aware of the disaster happening, so he stopped playing as well. All he could do was shrug his shoulders as if to say, "Whatcha gonna Do?" The piano and drums didn't even notice when half the band dropped out!

Enough is enough, so I start yelling at everyone to stop playing. They do, and the audience is relieved. I tell them that we would now play one we actually know. They chuckle because there is no fooling them, and my comment showed a human side. Humor is great for relieving tension.

I invite the drummer to pass me his music stand, so that I could place it in line with the director so he wouldn't have to turn his head anymore to watch for cues. It would have worked to, if the piano/director was giving cues. He wasn't. I ended up watching the pianist hands to see when he was slowing down or adding a tag at the songs end. Then I would tell the drummer.

Moral? A good band consists of everyone watching and listening to each other, making sure that their part is blending with everyone else. If you can't hear every other instrument onstage, someone isn't playing properly.

Worst case scenario?

You have the bling leading the blind.

Yours Musically,

Larry Marra

larry@musicteachers911.com

www.musicteachers911.com

Be sure to subscribe to the musicteachers911 music education podcast available free from iTunes. Just search the iTunes store for "musicteachers911" and click subscribe.

I just called... to say.... you're too loud

2009-07-24T05:12:00.000-07:00

Here's a neat little techno-trick using text messaging for balance purposes.

I was playing bass for a church luncheon with the University of Dayton's Big Band. They use a conductor and student conductor. I left my small bass amp in the car as I was hoping that the church would have a better one. It turned out that the church had a very nice 16 channel PA system that they were using to drive one mic to run a short business meeting before the concert. The PA volume was set and no one assigned to run the sound.

I plugged my bass into their system and it sounded very nice. They had two large main speakers on tall stands. One was by the band and the other was 40 feet away near the back of the room. I decided to leave my amp in the car. Because of there being no sound engineer, I would have no idea if my bass would be balanced with the rest of the group.

Just before the concert, I unplugged the speaker near the audience so that the only sound source would be the speaker near the band.

During the first song in which the Faculty director was conducting, I noticed the student conductor standing near me. He was to direct two songs near the end of the concert.

I motioned him to come over as I had an idea.

I asked if he would walk over to the back of the hall and text me as to the balance of the bass with the rest of the horns. I set the phone on vibrate and placed it on the music rack so I could see the message when it arrived.

He sent me a message that the bass was 20% too loud. I adjusted the volume from the bass guitar knob down two numbers. He then texted back, "PERFECT!"

The rest of the concert went well. I felt better knowing that the bass was not overshadowing the band.

In the old days before cell phones, I would have someone in the back of the hall motion with their hands if I was too loud. This works well unless the hall is dark and there is a spotlight on me blinding me from seeing into the house.

Text messaging would elevate this problem.

Larry Marra

larry@musicteachers911.com

www.musicteachers911.com

Be sure to subscribe to the musicteachers911 music education podcast available free from iTunes. Just search the iTunes store for "musicteachers911" and click subscribe. It's free!

shocking!!

2009-07-05T18:16:00.000-07:00

I was playing the piano with a big band for a local Independence Day festival. The band was under a large tent in the street, but the audience started clearing out as the rain increased.

we were literally, high and dry. and were getting paid, so we kept on playing.

In the middle of one of the tunes, the rain shorted out the power to the stage. The band kept blowing away with the acoustic drummer, but the bass player, vocalist, and I were toast!

Since this was a street fair, the band supplied it's own PA and there was no sound engineers on this one. I quickly jumped off the stage and went to the light pole that housed the only receptacle that the entire band was using.

I tried to find an area of ground that wasn't in a puddle (plus, I was wearing rubber gym shoes) and frantically looked for a red reset button in the middle of the outlet.

Sure enough, there it was.

I crossed my fingers hoping not to get knocked down by an electrical shock, and hit the button.

Immediately, I heard the bass and vocals spring back to life. I jumped back onstage and yelled to the bass player, "NUMBER???"

He said, "Letter D in five" (measures)

I came in at letter D and the band finished the song without missing a beat.

Expect the unexpected!!

Make sure to subscribe to the iTunes podcast, musicteachers911, for more tips about music teaching and performance.

Power to the People

2009-06-20T05:14:00.000-07:00

Here's one that happened last night that's a little embarrassing. I was to play the bass with a college gospel choir outdoors at their King's Island campus for a Spring Celebration. There were several roadies and sound engineers on hand to prepare the stage as there were a dozen bands to perform throughout the day. They were only to have only 10 minutes to set up between acts.

It was an outdoor concert and the temperature was 92* in full Sun. I grabbed my bass, music and 30 foot cable and proceeded onstage with about a minute before the first song was to begin. A cable was already plugged into the amp and neatly rolled up on the top for me to plug into my bass. I did, and played a test note, but nothing sounded. I quickly switched cabled but still nothing. I check the power light and it was shining brightly. I yelled into the talk-back monitor that I had no sound and the engineers quickly descended upon me to trouble shoot the problem.

(Here's the embarrassing part)......

The amp wasn't plugged in! The Sun was shining so brightly that the power light on the amp appeared to look lit, but wasn't.

Lesson learned is to visually check to see if the black power cord is actually plugged into an outlet.

My test note sounded clearly with about 5 seconds to spare.

No time for a sound check, the director is about to start.

Standing ovation after the show.

Thanks sound team.

Power to the People!

Stop, look and listen!!!

2009-06-06T04:39:00.000-07:00

Have you ever had to sight-read a broadway show at the performance?

Last night I played the bass with the Sinclair College Show choir and sight-reading the pieces for their quarterly vocal choral performance.

The music wasn't extremely difficult, but the musical director loves to alter the form of the pieces to fit with certain skits, vamps, and written in dialogue that the choir adds in the middle of the songs.

The choir was to perform four broadway medleys. They were "Lion King", "Hairspray", "Grease", and "Guys and dolls".

The medleys segue immediately from one to the other, and the pianist had no time whatsoever to inform me about all the cuts and repeated sections that the music director had written in.

To give you an example, we were to start one medley on page 41 which then was to repeat to page three! None of these changes to the original score were penciled in to my music.

(This was going to make for an interesting evening.)

When the pianist first saw me walk in, he was aghast. "Are you actually going to sight read this entire concert????", he quipped while a look of stark panic shot across his face. "There's no way anyone could do this".

Let me interject to say that the accompanist has his masters in piano performance and is the keyboard professor for the College. He plays wonderfully and we have done other venues in the past with good results. His reaction wasn't that he doubted my ability to play the bass, or ever sight read well. He just knew that there was no way I would "mind-read" all the changes that the director interjected.

So what was I to do?

Don't panic.

(This isn't the first time for me that it's been fourth and ten with no time left on the clock)

I positioned my music stand directly behind the pianist. So I could see his music as well as mine. I elected to stand to give me a bird's-eye view of his measures as well as mine. This also gave me a good vantage point if I needed to see his hands on the keys.

The pianist was so busy that he couldn't even give me a second to point to where on the music he was playing.

Here's where those three little words that I learned in kindergarten about crossing the street comes in. "Stop, look and listen".

I would be playing along with the combo. The very instant I could tell that the Show Choir had repeated or skipped to another section, I stopped playing. The piano was playing the bass clef notes in the piano part anyway, so the music didn't suffer at all. In fact, the music suddenly took on a lighter quality to keep the audience's attention.

Then I would look at his piano score to figure out where he was playing. When I felt that a bass entrance was appropriate, I would start playing again. This way the overall harmonic structure of the band didn't suffer with the root note being wrong.

This also made the band sound more interesting as playing the bass on every beat gets a little monotonous, whereas cutting out and in occasionally keeps the listeners interest.

When I would see the word "freely" over a section, I would stop as it is very hard to play exactly when the piano plays the underlying chords. You can get very close, but not exact.

When the show was over, the pianist just sat on the piano bench shaking his head.

I asked what was wrong. He just whispered, "That was amazing".

Then, he apologized for looking so shocked when he first saw me. He said that he just felt bad for me because of what I was up against musically.

"All in a night's work" I replied.

It's easy when you....

stop, look and listen.

Larry

www.musicteachers911.com

It's the little things that count.

2009-05-25T13:45:00.000-07:00

It's the little things that count.

Last night, I was the pianist with the Hauer 18 piece big band for the Miamisburg, Ohio Veteran's Memorial Day Dance.

The band featured music from the 1940 WWII years and also included many of the Armed Forces Songs.

Since I wasn't the Band Leader, my thoughts were concerned with being a good sideman.

Thoughtful sideman will be offered work more then poor ones.

Here are some of my ideas ideas.

1. I always arrive at least 30 minutes before the downbeat to insure that my equipment is fully functional

and i am not forgetting anything. This will allow me to scramble and get anything I need and still not be late.

2. I always help the band leader with additional equipment set up.

The band leader not only has to set up and wire his own equipment, but also the band PA,

18 music racks, 18 stand lights and pass out 18 band music books. Last nights band book had over 1200 charts.

One thing I noticed was how many other sidemen would show up to the performance at the last minute

with only their instrument and nothing else. Many didn't lift a finger to assist the leader with the set up duties.

3. I always volunteer my dolly and extension cords to anyone else who might need them.

I also have my name and cell number clearly marked to make sure I get them back.

4. I am never the last one to return to the stage after a break.

5. I make sure that any charts that I pull out of the book for that last set are filed in order after that set.

5. I make myself available after the performance to assist the leader with tear-down.

6. I search the stage after every else is gone to insure that nothing is left behind.

I currently have the bass players guitar stand and will contact him so he doesn't worry about it.

7. In these troubled time, the more paying performances the better.

These tips will help to insure that you are always on the band leaders "call back" list.

Good Gigging,

Larry Marra

musicteachers911.com

The top ten in my gig bag.

2009-05-18T11:47:00.000-07:00

Here are 10 items that you might consider taking to your next gig.

1. Portable folding music rack with clothespins (in case you're outside).

2. Your own stand light (you never know how dark the stage will be).

3. extension cord. I carry a grounded, 25 foot-four outlet outdoor reel for my stand light, keyboard and amp and one left over. I also have a three t two pronged outlet adapter for older buildings.

4. An inexpensive dolly. I bought a fantastic one from welcomproducts.com called a magna cart. This dolly weights about five pounds and folds flat for transporting. It carries over 150 pounds. I added a bungee cord to keep things from shifting during transit. It cost $25 and had free shipping.

5. three apples (you can never assume that there will be food available when you get there). I had an hour drive to a four hour gig once, and was pretty hungry afterwards.

6. An extra 1/4 " amplifier cord and mic (for announcements).

7. I take my gig clothes and wear jeans and a tee shirt to set up and tear down. If you are on a raised stage, make sure that your shoes are shined.

8. breath mints, water and solid deodorant.

9. a GPS, or a mapquest.com printout of the driving directions.

10. the cell number of the band leader (just in case).

I got this list the hard way. I hope that you find out how invaluable these items really are.

good gigging!

Larry

www.musicteachers911.com

location, location, location

2009-04-26T06:59:00.000-07:00

Last week, I played electric bass guitar for our local senior center with the University of Dayton Big Band. UD purchased a rather large and heavy 400 watt bass amp for me to use for this.

At rehearsals, I love how this amp cuts through the horns and give a booming feel to the overall sound of the band. However, I don't like having to lug the thing around the campus and heave it in back of my car.

For the performance last week, I decided to leave the big UD amp on campus and take a much smaller and lighter 50 watt practice amp that I bought for my keyboards. In order for the bass sound to cut through the horns, I brought my ultimate support speaker stand that extends to a height of eight feet. Having the bass amp so high enabled the bass voice to be heard over the horns even from the back of the room. Of course, I tone of the bass voice was there, but not the gutsy booming feeling that you can only get with the larger amp. The good news is that it was an absolutely beautiful day and the little amp fit in the trunk of my new goldwing motorcycle. I rode to the venue with the bass guitar strapped to my back. After a long, gray winter in Ohio, there was no way that I was going to drive a car on such a perfect Spring day.

For anyone who is thinking about getting a sound system, make sure to invest in good speaker stands so the you don't have to blast out the first few rows of people to be heard in the back.

The financial saving of not having to buy a larger and more powerful amps will pay for the stands. The additional height will make for a more overall balanced sound from anywhere in the room.

printed gig charts

2009-04-12T11:29:00.000-07:00

This week I am going to focus on printed gig charts.

First, make a copy of the master part that you are playing and file away the master. Gig books get lost, drinks spilled on them, marked up with specific gig directions etc.

Second, premark the music by taking a highlighter pen and highlight every key change, tempo change, dynamic marking, repeat, DS, coda,and every rehearsal number or letter.

Third, Tape multi page charts together so that they are all connected when placing on the music rack.

Fourth, highlight an arrow from every repeat, DS, and coda to the place in which it repeats.

Fifth, take a portable mp3 recorder to all rehearsals so that you can record the rest of the band playing this chart for later individual practice. I use a Boss micro BR digital recorder ($250) that fits in my pocket and creates mp3 files to load on my iPod for later use.

This easy tip will make every future rehearsal and gig a more pleasant experience. I learned this the hard way!

Don't forgot to check out www.musicteachers911.com and subscribe to the musicteachers911 podcast available for free on iTunes.

Hope all your gigs are successes!

Larry Marra

Don't make a rule that you aren't willing to follow.

2009-04-02T02:39:00.000-07:00

This week I am going to focus away from the professional side of performance and talk about something that I tried musically just for fun.

I heard about a great new site for meeting people of similar interests called meetup.com.

This free site is so simple to use, but such fun as it involves meeting people in your area with the same interests.

To get started, type in your zip code and search for meetup groups in your area. I found several in the Dayton OH are that looked appealing. Two that are the most fun are: Dayton Swing Dance and Dayton Folk music.

The swing dance group meets at a local club every Wednesday evening and offers free swing dance lessons to the members. The first week, I walked in to discover that the instructor is the guitarist for one of the College gospel choirs I'm in. I learned to swing danced for two hours and loved every minute of it. I have been back twice since and plan on making this a weekly event. If you are looking to find groups of nice people in which to spend a free evening or two. I highly suggest checking this out.

The other group is focused around folk music. This group mets at a coffeehouse once a month. Everyone brings a guitar and sits around the couches. Each person is given a turn to chose a favorite folk song and everyone just plays and sings along. The first night I attended, I had a nice time as I had just bough a Washburn acoustic and have only used it on one professional gig since Christmas. Since I play a lot more bass and piano than guitar, I had hoped that this group would be a way to keep up my guitar chops hot while having a nice time with other musicians in the area.

Something about the overall sound of the group bothered me though. All 18 of us were strumming the same chords on acoustic guitars. There was no musical variety from song to song. I tried fingerpicking and even playing chord inversions high on the neck for variety, but the volume of the other guitars made it hard for me to hear myself. I felt my playing was unnecessary to the group and stopped playing after about an hour.

Laster, I suggested to the group leader that I bring an electric bass and small practice amp for the next meetup. This would give the group a fuller sound and different bass lines would vary the song styles more.

She looked at me with shock and disbelief as if to say, "What!!! all electric instruments are forbidden!!" I tried to reassure her that there is electric bass and a lot of folk music. Her response was staunchly against it. I offered to let her work the volume control on the amp if she questioned my ability to balance with the rest of the group. She still didn't budge. She did offer to let me play her grandfathers fiddle. (no telling how badly in shape this is in). but I knew that it would be unplayable an no fun at all. She informed me that only acoustic folk instruments would be allowed to participate. PERIOD!

Now, as a band leader for too many years than I care to remember, I know that the director is the one in charge. If I meant what I said to my band students all these years about how they should respect and follow the director's wishes, I should do the same.

I wish you could have seen the look on her face when I told her that next time I would be bringing my banjo!

Banjo?????? A banjo is way too loud for this group and you'll drown out every guitar in the place! Is there any way to play a banjo softly?

Not really.....

(I have used a felt autoharp pick on occasion when I played "Mame" and "Hello Dolly" for a local community theatre group and it did help). Finger picking without fingerpicks is another option.

She tried everything in her power to dissuade me from bringing my banjo but still remained firm on denying my electric bass to participate.

(The truth is that my could play a lot softer on my electric bass than I can on my banjo)

The next meetup folk sing is in three weeks and I will try to post what happens.

The lesson for her on this post is post is:

Don't make a rule that you aren't willing to follow.

I will give you a hint and let you know that I have every intention of playing my banjo with a balanced volume as a courtesy to the other members. The old rule still applies:

If you can't hear the other musicians, you are to loud.

Don't forger to check out the musicteachers911 podcast available on the itunes store. It's free!

Larry Marra

wait to be asked

2009-03-16T05:08:00.001-07:00

I was just hired to play piano with an eight piece house band for a local Christian radio station's live remote at a shopping center. The special guest was a female Christian guitarist/folksinger. During the sound check, she started playing one of her songs that had very simple chord changes.

The bass player is very accomplished and started adding a very tasty bass line to her song. After a while, I started adding a light string descant as well. She stopped and told us in no uncertain terms to stop and never to play along with her. Period. She was absolutely right! We should have not played a single note unless asked. She had two parts in the show where she played her songs while I sat and listened. Afterwards, I apologized to her for playing along without being asked. It did hurt a little to be asked not to play as I felt it added to her song. The point being that it was HER song and she has total control of what instruments should be used. I had to focus on the fact that this was a job and I should play only when I am asked and leave my feelings in the car. After 40 years, I am still learning from every gig.

Don't forget that I have a music podcast on iTunes called musicteachers911. Feel free to search the iTunes store and subscribe. It's free!

Larry Marra

www.musicteachers911.com

Don't ignore your audience!

2009-03-04T04:41:00.000-08:00

Last night I was invited to attend a HS band concert and saw things that bothered me. I won't mention the school name, but hope that my written observations might help to make your next event better.

1. For God's sake, dress up! If you want your students to treat your concerts like a big deal, don't direct in your work clothes! Wear a dark suit or nice evening dress if you are female.

2. After a song is over, turn around and acknowledge the crowds applause! Do not ignore them, or seem impatient to get on with the next song as if you want the concert over as soon as possible. These parents want an opportunity to support their children. Let them.

3. If you have a soloist, treat them like a VIP. I heard a marimba soloist. He had practiced hard and deserved a little special treatment. He should not have had to wheel out his own marimba or roll it back behind the curtain when he was done. He should have just taken a bow and let a few underclassmen do this for him. Let your stars shine!

4. Take as long as you need to to tune the band. Don't be in such a hurry to start on time that the entire concert sounds bad.

5. Take a moment to tune between songs if your need to. Last night the second song sounded worse than the first because the horns had warmed and expanded during the first song and were terribly flat on the second one.

6. Don't start conducting until the hall is quiet. You have a lot of parents in the audience that came to hear their child, not a baby crying or cell conversation. Allowing a rude person to disrupt everyones enjoyment is allowing them to be in charge of the concert, not you.

7. If a song has a soloist, or a select group or section is highlighted, motion them to stand during the applause to accept a little extra gratitude for their effort.

8. Don't give your honest assessment of the concert to the director unless they specifically ask for it. Several of the other music teachers I was with encouraged me to "kindly instruct" the director after the concert on a few of the aforementioned items. I made it clear that my role this evening was an audience member and nothing else. If I was asked by the director to comment on the evening (which I wasn't), I would have started positive and sugar-coated every observation so as to uplift and encourage.

9. Videotape every performance for later critical review. I am guess that some of the items here will be made evident and will help to improve the next event

If you want to know more about successful teaching, be sure to listen to the musicteachers911 podcast available on iTunes, log on to www.musicteachers911.com or spend some time searching Chad Criswell's excellent teaching site, www.musicedmagic.com.

"The Times They are a Changing"

2009-02-24T12:30:00.000-08:00

Monday, I went to Milton-Union Schools in Southwest Ohio to give a presentation for Macmillan Publishing on their elementary music textbook series, "Spotlight on Music". This was the first time that I had an opportunity to use a smart-board.

I quickly surmised that it is basically a touch-screen monitor. The jack to plug into my Macbook is the new "female type, so an adapter for the older projectors was not needed.

Luckily, my Mac is automatically configured to handle this. The attachment cord comes included with all Macbook Pros. This is very important, listen up:

Remember to plug in the cable to the smart-board into your computer BEFORE you boot up your PC. I had to learn that one the hard way.

I had used the system preferences and configured the smart-board to run in in parallel mode. This means that the smart-board was a continuation of the right side of my laptop monitor. I had to drag the open windows to the left until they were not visible on my laptop monitor. I kept scrolling the window to the left and they eventually showed up on the smart-board. cool!

I chose to used my touchpad on the Mac and remain seated to run the powerpoint presentation. Only occasionally, did I get up and drag my finger against the screen of the smart=board to control the mouse.

The Final Word..........

I love smart-boards!

I wish I had one when I was teaching. I remember entire classes scrunched around the 14 inch monitor on the only PC in the room to watch computer demonstrations about music technology. Dylan said it best, "The Times They are a Changing".

I, for one, think that they are changing for the better.

Follow the Leader

2009-02-13T09:33:00.000-08:00

Wednesday I was asked to play the bass with a swing band for a Valentine's Day Party. I usually am the pianist for this bunch, but the bass player is in Florida for the Winter. I have played the drums with them on occasion, as pianists are easier to get that good drummers. Wel,, I guess the same it true of bass players. I walked into the club carrying my bass to the confused looks of the other band-mates. They thought that I was carrying the bass for someone else, as they had no clue that I could play.

The gig went off great except for one song which was a total train-wreck because of me.

(Yes, after all these years, I am still learning the hard way)

Here is what happened.......

The band is very established and has over 1200 charts in their books. It is such a pain tolisten to the band leader to find and get out the songs before we play. (Here's where I got lazy)......

I had the bright idea of just looking over the pianist shoulder instead of getting out the bass parts when the leader called them. Well, we had just finished playing a tune and I noticed song 217 on the piano rack. Being the nice guy I am, I told the drummer to get out song 317. The only problem was that the next song to play was 1226! The pianist hadn't put his songs in the right order. Because of this, the piano, bass, and (because of me) drummer started off playing the wrong song!

My ear cam name that mistake in one note, so I scrambled over to look at the bandleader's rack and see what the horns were playing. I ran back to the piano and drummer and shouted 1226! 1226!

About 20 measures into the song, we were all sounding like a band again.

Lesson learned?

Get the tunes out when the bandleader calls them, and then double check by glancing at the bandleader's rack just before the count-off.

In other words, follow the leader.

Yours musically,

Larry Marra of www.musicteachers911.com

Female to Female

2009-02-04T08:46:00.000-08:00

First, I would like to thank Chad Chriswell, from MusicEdMagic.com for making musicteachers911 a featured blog on his site. MusicEdMagic.com is a fantastic resource for music educators and I highly suggest that anyone affiliated with music check it out.

On Monday Jan, 26, I gave a presentation about Macmillan Publishing's Spotlight on Music, elementary music textbook series, to the fine arts staff of Tipp City Schools.

Prior to the event, I spoke with the Macmillan Ohio Sales Rep, Larry Bohannon, and asked what he needed me to do. He said to present a general overview using a Microsoft PowerPoint slideshow. He suggested that I plug my Macbook Pro into his multi-media projector via the 15 pin jack. I looked and saw that my Mac indeed had a 15 pin jack. Then, a post music-tech sick feeling deep in my soul got my attention.

I called him back and asked if he would bring the projector by to "road test" it and insure that all would go smoothly. Sure enough, his projector had a 15 prong female jack just like the 15 prong female jack on my Mac. Both the projector and PC had 15 holes but no pins for the other unit! A quick trip to Staples and $12 later we were in business. The presentation went off without a hitch.

The lesson here is to check all hardware in plenty of time to iron out any glitches prior to an event. This goes for music performance equipment as well.

UD Guest Lecture

2009-01-27T05:29:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I was asked to give a lecture to the University of Dayton Music Education students. The topic was to be "classroom management". To prepare for this, I looked at a file I created that contained all the "classroom tips" for the musicteachers911 podcast. There I was happy to find over a hundred tips. I just printed out this list. As long as I talked at least 30 seconds per tip, I would be just fine. As it turned out, I expounded on a few key points and completely skipped over others. Attending the class with the students, was Dr. heather McLaughlin, an ethnomusicologist from Canada. She is currently teaching at a college in New York, but was in Dayton interviewing for a staff position at UD. Several times during my presentation, she raised her hand in interjected wonderful insights that gave a new perspective to the points I was making. I was very glad that she chose to attend. I spoke with her briefly after the session and invited her to contact me later about being a guest on the musicteachers911 podcast soon.

As I was speaking, I got in touch with my passion for teaching again. The timing for this event couldn't have been better, as I was to leave UD and travel directly to Tipp City. There I was to give a overview presentation for Macmillan Publishing to their music staff. Getting up in front of a class again was just the spark I needed to pump some fresh energy into my textbook presentation. More on Tipp City next post. As it is, I need to get busy and get the next podcast episode ready for iTunes.

Music Music Music!

2009-01-13T12:51:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday, I was asked to play the bass with a nine piece jazz band for a wedding reception.

Let me preface this post by saying that I usually play the piano with them. The bass player is vacationing in Florida. It was easier for the leader to find a sub for me on piano than a sub for bass. I must say that the pianist that he got to replace me did a marvelous job at covering the part. He had a different style of playing than me.

I thought it was refreshing that I finally found another pianist that knew to stay away from the lower keys when playing with a bass.

The event lasted four hours. Here is where I would like to interject that: whenever I booked a gig that lasted over three hours, I would stipulate that the band would be fed. Since I was not the band leader for this, I packed two ripe apples in my bass case and an energy bar in my shirt pocket for the last hour. The band leader offered to pick me up and transport me to the gig provided that I help him set up for the entire band. since the band leader is a close friend of mine, I agreed.

The event was to be held in an abandoned car dealership and was quite lovely. I was introduced to the mother of the groom who informed me that the buffet was indeed open to the band. Crab-cakes and shrimp appetizers won out over the apples hands-down.

The leader asked if I would set up on the right of the drummer with the pianist on the left side. Since I pack a 30 foot cord for the bass, it made sense that the amp be positioned there, but I walk over and looked off the pianists music. One pet peeve I have is that the piano music is often 10 to 14 pages long per song. This is far too much for the music stands to hold. I decided not to use the bass book at all and totally look off the piano parts. I know it was wrong, but I had to secretly laugh at the horrible time the pianist was having finding and negotiating the sheet music from the book and the music rack. I was loving not having to touch a single page of it.

The regular vocalist couldn't make it and sent a female vocalist in his place. The band leader had not auditioned her and took the vocalist word that she would be fine. She wasn't.

Don't get me wrong. Her voice is lovely and she can sing wonderfully. The huge problem is that she is a gospel singer and hadn't hear of any of the songs we were singing as she doesn't ever listen to secular music.

oops.......

I found myself singing the vocal lines to her moments before the leader was counting off the song.

Never use anyone for a performance that you haven't investigated thoroughly!

In spite of this, the crowd was happy and the gig was a success.

When the bass player comes back, I dread the thought of wrestling the piano charts again. I am just going to have to suck it up for the good of the entire ensemble.

Happy New YOU!

2008-12-29T15:08:00.000-08:00

I was contacted to run a contemporary Christian Praise and Worship Band and play keys at a rather large church on the Sunday between Christmas and News Years Day. I was the only professional musician in the group. The band consisted of drums, bass, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, keyboards and nine singers.

I arrived an hour early to meet the very competent sound-engineer. This was a relief as a bad mix can toast a great band.

After introducing myself to the band, I quickly deduced that they were pretty solid musicians. All the songs were traditional Christmas Carols, but the band wanted to perform them as hard rock tunes. They had heard of me and were eager to listen to any suggestions that I was willing to offer. I can assure you that this doesn't happen every day!

I usually go to a new band experience and lay low until I get a feel of their social dynamics, but felt that this crew was ready for some new direction. This was such a welcome feeling for me.

I listened to what they had rehearsed. It sounded a lot like Old country and Western swing (bouncing the alternating quarter and eighths as triplets). Not exactly what I felt was hard rock at all.

The drummer could play a rock beat, so I started with him putting down a solid beat in 4/4 using all straight eights on the cymbals.

I then told the bass player to lay down the tonic of the chord using straight eighths just like the drummer.

The rhythm guitar player was shown a blues lick that sounded like the beginning of the old standard, "Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown".

Add my directions to the overdriven lead guitar telling him to play whatever he wanted (he was very young and couldn't believe his ears when I told him to ROCK OUT!!!) He said that he never gets to do this.

The singers felt the new groove and started to wail unlike the first run-through.

After adding a catchy hook to each carol, the band was ready for the service.

OK, I know that I usually have a "don't let this happen to you" lesson for each new post. I can honestly say that this one was a breeze. I always kept a watchful vigil just in case something would go wrong so I never let down my musical guard.

I don't know what was more fun, watching the band have a great time playing in a rock style, or seeing my little daughter dancing in the aisles to the band during the service.

this posts lesson....

genuinely enjoy when a gig is going well and....

Happy New YOU!

larry@musicteachers911.com

Always be prepared!

2008-12-22T07:39:00.000-08:00

I was hired to play bass at the Dayton Convention Center with the University of Dayton Big Band for our City of Dayton Parks Christmas Party. In order to do this, I needed to drive to UD and pick up the bass amplifier. The director said that UD has a dolly that I can use since the school is on Winter break and won't be needing it.

The parking attendant at UD was very nice and allowed me to park fairly close to the music building, but it was still a fairly long trek. I went inside an looked at the amp. I don't remember it being this heavy or big!

I found the music secretary and asked where the dolly was. She said that they don't have a dolly, but a square board with four casters. I put the amp on the board and it fell off as soon as it started rolling. I picked it up and started carrying it out the door. Thank heaven, two young men who are music education students recognized me from my guest lectures and came over to give me a hand to the car. I knew that I still had a long haul from the Convention Center visitors lot to the stage, so I left UD and drove straight to Home Depot and bought the nicest dolly they had!

The new dolly rolled behind me so smoothly that I forget I was pulling an amp that weighed almost as much as I do.

The gig was a huge success. I think that I enjoyed playing a little more than usual because I was aware that I wasn't going to have to carry the amp back to the car.

Two lesson were learned this gig.

1. I left for UD in plenty of time to allow for unforeseen circumstances like having to swing by and buy a dolly.

2. Don't depend on someone else to get your stuff to and from the gig. The UD boys were a pleasant surprise. If they hadn't of helped, I would have had to carry the amp alone.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Tree Powered keyboard

2008-12-13T16:23:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I was asked to perform a couple of engagements during the Christmas season. The first was to supply keyboard accompaniment for Chris Haines on trumpet at a Victorian Bed and Breakfast in Xenia, Ohio.

The place was decorated professionally and I couldn't believe how lovely it all was. We were led to a large room with an enormous tree that I found out later was over 12 feet tall. Unfortunately, with houses built before 1900, every room only had one outlet in the floor and it was being used for the Christmas tree. I had to think quickly as we only had four minutes to set up. I plugged the keyboard right into one of the strings of lights on the tree! It was the first time I ever had utilized this type of "green energy" to power my rig. The gig was a success and we were off to the next venue. We left Xenia for Beavercreek to provide music for our local Christian Radio station, WFCJ-FM. Chris and I are in Joshua Jazz. It is a Christian Jazz Combo that includes piano, bass, drums, alto sax, tenor, sax, trombone, and Chris on trumpet. We were pre-recording the show to air on Christmas Eve. The special guests for this show were the Stivers High School Handbell Choir directed by Cissy Matthews. The stage was set up right in front of Macy's department store, and the decorations were amazing! This Mall has two stories so the upstairs balcony was packed with fans of the radio station looking down from above. I was so sleepy afterwards, but the guys decided on all going out to Longhorn steakhouse afterwards. It was after 11 when Chris drove me past the Greene Mall on the way to drop me off and wanted to drive around that mall to see the outside decorations. Since it was a Thursday gig, I didn't have to get up early for Church or anything, so I slept in until after 10 AM. Lesson today is to schedule an afternoon nap when I have two gigs on the same night.

Zat you Santa Claus?

2008-12-06T16:58:00.000-08:00

Last week, I was asked by the Fairborn Civic Band Director, Gary Johnson, if I would help him with their Winter Concert by playing the snare drum. Gary and I went with the Dayton Philharmonic this summer to sing at Carnegie Hall. We got to spend a lot of time at Central Park together between rehearsals. He was the band and Choir director at Belmont HS in Dayton for many years and we became fast friends. He now started teaching general music in Fairborn and loves it.

The concert was wonderful!

The arrangements of the carols were done very tastefully, so I enjoyed listening to the music as I played along.

Then, Gary asked me to be the Santa and enter during the last song to give candy canes to all the audience members.

I arrived a half hour early and met two children who were sitting alone in the back of the auditorium. They were 14 year old Jennifer and 10 year old Peter. I asked them if they were staying to watch a family member perform with the band. They said that they lived across the street and were bored, so they thought they would hear the concert. I asked them if they would mind helping me with my Santa costume. They had marvelous attitudes. They laid the costume out on a table and took the shrink wrap off the candy cane boxes.

I informed them that, after the song "Frosty the Snowman", to meet me backstage and help me get ready. They were so helpful! Peter asked if he could ring the jingle bells and announce me to the crowd. I thought it was a great idea.

I came in Ho Ho Ho-ing and gave everyone in the audience a candy cane. After the concert was over, The kids thanked me for allowing them to help. I smiled and pointed to the Santa bag which was still full of extra candy canes and told the that the rest were theirs. They thought I was kidding, but I couldn't have been more serious.

lesson one, don't ever miss an opportunity to make a positive impact on a child or refuse to help a friend in need.

Signals crossed

2008-12-03T08:38:00.000-08:00

I was contacted by University of Dayton's temporary Gospel Choir Director to play the bass guitar for their Winter Quarter Concert Dec. 7th. She sounded very young, but seemed competent. She indicated that she would mail the sheet music and a CD of the tunes. I got them the following day.

I had played their Spring farewell concert for the regular Director, Professor Donna Cox, just before she took her sabbatical. It was a fantastic concert and the choir was excellent, so I was happy to help with the Winter Concert.

The new director indicated that they were having two rehearsals prior to the performance. hey were Tuesday Nov. 25th and Dec 2nd at 6 PM in the Theatre and Music Building. I grabbed my bass and heading out for the first rehearsal only to find the building empty and not a soul in sight. I had worked with their pianist, Mary Carmen, on several occasions and called her to find out what the problem was. She informed me that the temporary director cancelled the rehearsal but didn't inform me. Needless to say, I was not happy. The next day I called the number that the director gave me only to find out that it was the Music Dept. Office which was closed for the Holidays. The following Tuesday I set aside the evening for rehearsal but decided not to go until I had confirmation. 6 PM came and went with no word from her. At 8:30 I did get a call from her wondering why I wasn't at the rehearsal that night. I told her that I went last week and she didn't inform me that she had cancelled. She did apologize, and said that she would keep me better informed next quarter. As this was their last rehearsal before the performance, I can only assume that they will not be using a bass for the concert.

The lesson here is to keep in constant contact with everyone involved with your performances. Had she called me prior to Nov 25th about the practice being cancelled, I would have attended last nights practice. As it was, I was not going to drive all the way to UD again without confirmation.

The three magic words for this post is:

Initiate, Communicate, and then Validate!

It is better to over contact someone about a concert than under contact them. Try to leave nothing to chance.

I hope that she will remember this in her future dealings with her accompanists.

Outside gig in November?

2008-11-23T07:00:00.000-08:00

Well, I was hired to piano for a charity event at the Moraine Country Club. I was scheduled to play from 6-8 inside for a dinner with a seven piece combo (piano, bass, drums, A-sax, T-Sax, Trombone and trumpet). Then I was to move the electric piano to an outside tent to play with the Hauer 18 piece big band until 11:30. Since I was to play for 51/2 hours, I decided to take my best keyboard and was glad that I did. The outside temperature was in the teens! The club had a few tall patio heaters, but they were placed near the dance floor. The stage was freezing and there was a strong cold breeze that kept blowing the music off my music stand. The trumpeter had a few extra clothespins for me to use to secure the music. This is the first time I ever played the piano with driving gloves, earmuffs, and a winter coat! The band sounded great and the crowd loved it! I will remember next time to wear several layers as the year before I had a patio heater next to me and I was hot! I will also remember to layer at inside rehearsals in the winter months as the last UD Big Band rehearsal I had a heavy rugby shirt on and the room was in the 80s.

The next morning, I played with the UD big band at a TWIGS christmas affair. My amp blew a speaker the previous Thursday, and the pianist said that she would bring an amp for me Saturday. I left rehearsal Thursday and drove directly to the Hauer music store and my friend Michael Hauer fixed it in five minutes. I was charged $10. What a great place! Anyway, I left my amp and a 30 foot extension cord in the car overnight Friday so it went to the gig Saturday morning. It was a good thing that I did, because the amp the pianist brought for me was smaller than a toaster and the nearest outlet was 20 feet away! There was no way a bass plugged into that tiny amp would cut through an 18 piece big band. I ran to the car and saved the gig with my newly repaired amp. The lesson here is to take everything you could ever need to make the gig successful!

bad rehearsal, good performance

2008-11-16T15:05:00.000-08:00

Monday, I had a rehearsal with the Sinclair Gospel Choir and the director placed me right next to a new drummer. He was extremely loud and I couldn't hear the choir or any other instruments. I asked the sound engineer if I could have a monitor, but he said that he didn't have any more. I could see the pianist playing the keys, but couldn't hear a single note. I was in the very back of the stage. The choir was in front of me singing away from me so I didn't hear them either.

The director kept telling the drummer to play softer, but he said that gospel music has loud drums in it. We told the drummer that we have played music for years and to always do what the director instructs, but he wasn't ready to listen to us. Because of his defiant attitude, I didn't get very much out of the evening. I went home with a headache and ringing in my ears. We met again Friday and I had decided beforehand what I was going to do.

Friday was a totally different story.

As soon as I got there, I noticed that the bass amp was right next to the drummer again. This time, I brought a thirty foot guitar cable. I left the amp where it was, but sat on the other side of the piano so I could hear the piano and also hear the choir through the pianist monitor. This worked like a charm. The show choir was to perform the second half of the concert and I play bass for them as well. The drummer for this is very skilled at balancing the drums with the other instruments. The show choir rehearsal was fantastic.

Saturday night, I set up on the other side of the piano again and the entire performance with both groups was wonderful. The singers are very accomplished and the audience loved it.

Remember: It is your responsibility to always make sure that you can hear all the other instruments as well as yourself to insure a good performance. Just a simple fix like moving my chair 30 feet made all the difference in the world!

Wright State U lecture

2008-11-05T10:36:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday, I was asked by WSU Professor James Tipps to be a guest lecturer for his Music Education Major class. Since it was very close to Halloween, some of the 24 WSU kids were all dressed up in some very creative Halloween costumes. The hour-long session started at 8 AM, so I really had to alter my teaching style from the previous week when I lectured at the University of Dayton at 10:30. I found myself talking louder, roaming around the room, and asking a lot more questions to get additional involvement from the kids. It didn't take long until the class figured out that this was going to be fun. Thanks to Larry Bohannon, Sales Rep. for Macmillan. I had tons of free stuff such as pens, bags, and sample CD of the K-8 series.

WSU Dr. Ellis requested a sample set of 5th grade texts for WSU last year, so every student had their own text in which to follow my presentation.

This was a lot of fun and it was great being asked to lecture at my Alma Mater. WSU had certainly grown since I attended. I remember having band class in the University cafeteria. Now they have their own Creative Arts Center.

I just found out that my concert Friday at the Kettering Medical College has been postponed. This give me time to rehearse for the bug Sinclair College Quarter recital next week. I should get the music by this weekend. I bought a new 5 string bass so this should be very fun hitting all those really low notes with the Gospel choir. Interviewing an author of a Contemporary Christian Music Book for the next podcast episode.

University of Dayton lecture

2008-10-23T10:10:00.001-07:00

This morning I was guest lecturer for a music education class at the University of Dayton. I was asked by colleague and music education coordinator, Dr. Linda Hartley, to present an overview of the Macmillan series "Spotlight on music".

The class was small, but the students present were very excited about learning more about the series they will most likely be using from one of Macmillan's Music Education Specialists.

Larry Bohannon, Southwestern Ohio's Macmillan Sales Representative, took me to lunch Monday and we had a wonderful time planning strategies for increasing music sales in his district. He is a wonderfully kind and generous person. When he learned that I was giving two Macmillan presentation, he insisted on meeting me for the purpose of giving me sample materials of the Macmillan series to distribute. I will be the guest lecturer at Wright State University next week and giving the exact same overview. Larry B. gave me enough materials to cover both lectures. The students eyes sparkled when I started passing out the Macmillan pens, tote bags, CDs, and even a DVD door prize.

I took them through the "scope and Sequence" and Overview" brochures, then demonstrated Halloween songs from Grade 2-8. I also showed them an example of the animated listen maps and electronic lesson planer. I finished with a few silly Halloween activities that my elementary kids loved. The class ended exactly on time and I headed out to the UD pizza hang-out that also offers free Wi-Fi called Milanos. I am there now writing this over a hot turkey sub and a glass of Chablis.

This afternoon I will work on episode #17 of the musicteacher911 podcast that will feature Joe Pisano from mustech.net. He is an amazing technology expert and is very influential in the field of music technology. His podcast is one of my two favorite. The other is Keith Mason's "Mus Tech for me" I already recorded a 40 minute interview with Joe. His is currently the Band director for Grove City College in PA. He recently asked me to be on his music educational podcast review board. Frankly, I have no idea just exactly what it entails, but am looking forward to meeting other giants in the music education field. This will turn out to be a great resource for getting future guests for my podcast. more on this and the class at WSU later.

Oh, the UD lecture was during the UD big band rehearsal. They saw me in the building but I never entered the rehearsal room.
When I finally went to the room next door instead, they were a little mad at me. They said that they really missed having the bass guitar providing the bottom foundation for the horns.

boiling blood is now simmering

2008-10-13T04:54:00.000-07:00

I went to play bass last night at a church with the same gospel choir and band that had the bass amp turned around the last time.

As soon as I got there, the director said to turn the bass amp toward the back wall. This sent my blood boiling!

But, after all, he is the director. For 32 years I have been telling the kids to listen to the director and this is the Universes was of having me practice what I preach. I turned the amp around and noticed that the amp was wired to the main sound board in the back.

The up side was that they had a giant PA system and the bass amp was being sent directly to a sound engineer that I trust.

I saw a former teacher friend in the back of the church that came early and was just sitting there. I went over to her and asked if she would let me know if she could hear the bass when the band & choir started practicing. After about 30 seconds, I saw her give me a big "thumbs up" and a smile.

The performance was very nice and the crowd loved it. The director really knows how to get a wonderful sound out of the choir and the band was cooking.

The drummer never showed, but I saw a guy in the first row during our run-through and he was banging on the pew railing to the beat.

I asked if he ever played the drums and he said that he was indeed an budding drummer.

Get up there! I said.

I stood right next to him and described the upcoming songs meter and tempo as well as giving him cues on how to play. He did a nice job, although I could tell that he lacked the confidence of a real pro. Still, he kept a nice steady beat and was grinning at his family the entire time. I chalked up this performance as a win-win situation for all of us.

This Friday I play for the Concert of Prayer for the Lost at a huge church with the same group. I know the PA system will be killer and the same sound-man will be there running everything just right.

Birthday Present

2008-10-10T04:39:00.000-07:00

I went to Murlin Heights church for a performance with the Sinclair Gospel Choir. The church was hosting a big banquet and we were the entertainment. When I got there, I noticed that the director placed the bass amp facing backwards! I shot him a look. He walked over and he said that we needed to talk. Previously, I sent him a copy of 9/23 post entitled, "My Kingdom for a monitor". In there, I mention how horrible the sound mix was at our last performance. I think that it's important to tell the director if something happens badly to give him (or her) a chance to fix it.

This was a first.

I played the entire 90 minute concert with the bass amp turned toward the back wall!

After the concert, I asked some friends in the audience if they heard the bass. They said, "Oh, were you playing?

Ouch!

The only saving grace was that the church had a grand piano that was in tune. The pianist still keeps banging away at the lower keys, but the timbre of the piano didn't clash with the bass lines that nobody heard.

If you are reading this and know of any other musical group on the planet earth where the bass player's amp is backwards, let me know.

enough on that!

So why did I title today's post, Birthday Present?

Yesterday, I was a little upset about my musicteachers911 podcast dropping from #2 to #3 on the iTunes store. The reason is that when we had the 9 day power outage, I missed posting two episodes. I would like it to be #1 by New Years Day.

To put it back on top, I scheduled two interviews..... back to back..... right after my UD big band rehearsal.

They were:

Mike Finkle of MusickEd.com who wrote an online instrumental method book, and Joe Pisano from mustech.net. He is a giant in the music technology field.

Both interviews were amazing! These two are the best that music education has to offer.

Anyway.........

Both interviews were going so well, that they lasted over an hour each! Since I try to keep the podcast episodes under 40 minutes, Both guests will be featured over two episodes each.

My Birthday present is that I now have enough interview material to last a month!

Happy Birthday to me!

Sunday, I play again with the Sinclair Gospel Group. If the amp is backwards this time, I am turning it around myself.

MusicEdMagic.com

2008-10-02T04:36:00.000-07:00

Last night, I had an podcast interview with MENC journalist and band director, Chad Chriswell, from Altoona, Iowa. Chad hosts a website called MusicEdMagic.com. This site has over 1300 web pages! It is a web-based clearinghouse for resource and information for music teachers and is a fantastic site.

The interview started our fine, but four minutes into our discussion, the Skype connection went down. I called him back and talked for another 27 minutes. I was using a digital recorder called, Audio Hijack. When I concluded the interview and played back the session, the first four minutes were fine, but the last 27 were of silence!

I came to find out later that the Audio Hijack input source must be selected every time a recording session is started. When Skype terminates a call, It resets the input to "internal mic" and not skype. I found this out by calling another skype friend of mine who owns a little italian restaurant up the street called Palermos. I called her and played around with the recorder using her as a test subject until I solved this problem.

I'll be ready next time!

On a brighter note, I also found out why the person I was interviewing sounded like they were broadcasting from an alien spaceship. Audio Hijack pro automatically adds special audio effects. I manually deselected all those weird sounding effects for Chad's interview. As a result, episode 14s interview sounds a lot better than 13.

Today I go to University of Dayton to rehearse with their big band on electric bass guitar. UD has a blue Yamaha five string bass I use. I must say that I am starting to prefer their five string bass to my four string. I have a black Rickenbacker 4001 bass at home that was given to me by a gentleman who quit an alternative band to find Jesus. He would be glad to know that I use his bass to play in two College Gospel ensembles.

Saturday, I will be playing bass with the Sinclair College Gospel Ensemble at a local church. I sent their director a copy of last blog entry of how the bass and choir weren't balanced. He never wrote back. I am curious to see how the stage will be set up this time. I'll write more on this next time.

My Kingdom for a monitor!

2008-09-23T08:37:00.000-07:00

This week I played the electric bass for the Sinclair College "Welcome Back" festival held in the Sinclair Campus Courtyard. the event was nicely attended and the weather was perfect. The balance of the band and Gospel choir, however, was not.

Allow me to explain.......

The Choir consisted of 16 singers all on wireless handheld mics on separate channels to a master soundboard in the crowd. The piano was playing quietly through a small amp behind the singers but also through the board and very loudly out through the main speakers. The guitar and bass were using amps but NOT through the board. They were sitting directly next to the Choir and their director. I was standing in front of the main speakers and there were no monitors for the Choir or Director. (big mistake)

Since I was out near the crowd, I turned my amp up to blend with the main front speakers playing the choir and piano sounds. From my vantage point, the sound the crowd was hearing was well balanced. I must say however that the main speakers were deafeningly loud and hurt my ears whenever I got within 20 feet of them.

From the vantage point of the choir & director, however, it sounded understandably as if the bass was entirely too loud. If the choir had monitors, they would have all heard that the vocals and piano were projecting very well. (Maybe too well).

As a result of this, the director proceeded to the bass amp and turned it down so that he and the choir could hear themselves better. From where I was in the crowd, the bass guitar line ceased to be heard from me (the bass guitar player). The pianist is young and rather "set in his ways". He insists on playing the bass keys of the electric piano loudly which clashes with the bass guitar lines I play anyway.

So what did we learn?

Here are two options.....

1. Run the bass guitar directly from the board

If there are no choir monitors, the bass amp should be abeam with the mains and I out in front manually balancing the bass and choir mix. With the bas amp in front of the choir by the main speakers, the bass guitar sound will not be too prominent for the choir or their directors ears.

One final comment abut the keyboard player...

When there is an acoustic piano being used, the low keys surprisingly do not conflict with the bass guitar lines. This is due to the pronounced difference in their timbres. When an electric piano is used, the sound is muddled and conflicted.

I know that, even when I play acoustic piano with the Hauer Swing Band, I never play a key below middle C as to keep the keyboard and bass guitar lines separate.

Of course, this stylistic decision came after lots of experience hearing recordings of live performances I've done on both acoustic and electric pianos over the past 40 years.

It is my sincerest wish that the Choir director educate his talented, but very young, keyboardist on this technique. If not, I will chose to play bass on only those venues that provide an acoustic piano such as their quarterly concerts and various church services.

the good, the bad, and the angry

2008-09-14T05:28:00.000-07:00

Thursday, I played electric bass at a rehearsal of a volunteer Christian Contemporary band. I was invited by the guitar player from our Sinclair College Gospel Choir for the Jesus Jam to occur Saturday. He is such a great guy and very upbeat as well as talented. I like him and he needed a favor, so I agreed.

The band consisted of guitar, bass, drums, piano, two backing female vocals and a male vocal.

The rehearsal went well but I felt that all their songs sounded too much alike. They were all even in the same key! Note to bands, your playlist should include songs of varying tempos, styles, keys, and mood so as to keep the interest of the audience. I did notice at rehearsal that everything was running through the sound board except the piano but wasn't concerned. I know now that I should have been. More on this later.

Friday, I played a 9 foot Steinway grand piano with the Hauer Swing Band for a 50th wedding anniversary at the Dayton Women's Club. The piano was huge, but the stage was small. The first row of saxes had to set up on the floor in front of the stage. I liked it because I got a stereo effect by having the saxes in front of me and the rest of the band behind me. Note to keyboardists. Whenever you perform with a bass player, stay off all keys below middle C so as not to make the band sound too muddy what with the bass and piano having the same low range. Also, when playing with a big band. DO NOT OVERPLAY! Many times when all the horns were playing, the harmonic structure of the sing was being covered. I just stopped playing altogether. I came in during horn solos when all the other horns dropped out when the chords weren't being played and a few piano solos here and there when written in the chart. In swing and jazz, most of the time, the melodies and counter melodies come in after the beat. Many times I would play just on the first beat very high in piano register to give a little punch and harmonic variety to the songs. Here's one for the honesty books. My piano sub is a better piano player than I! Why on earth would he be the sub and I be the main pianist? It's really simple. He plays band gigs as if he were doing a solo piano performance. He invades the bass players notes and clashes harmonically with the horns. He often doubles the melody but uses a different rhythm (this just plain sounds bad). IMPORTANT, playing a gig isn't about having your part out in front drowning out and clashing with the other instruments, but having the entire sound of the band balanced and musical! I use my piano as if it were salt and the song were a recipe in which the band is the cuisine. A little goes a long way. Too much is just pain tasteless. Why would I go on about this?

Let's fast forward to Saturday......

Saturday was the performance of the Christian band for the Jesus Jam. We take the stage and now the piano is going through the main mixing board. We start the first song in a blues style and the piano is twice as loud as everything else! Remember that I am on bass and the piano is pounding out low notes drowning me out. He was so loud that you couldn't even hear the vocals! After about 20 seconds of this, the director in me raises his ugly head and I tell the pianist to turn down and not to play with his left hand. He looks at me and says, "This is the way I play man". All this is happening during the first song. The drummer shot me a look as if to say, "What's the piano players problem?" Then shrugs his shoulders as if to say, Oh well, let just keep playing (but I don't)

I stop playing. When a song as two bass lines sounding, the overall sound of the song gets too muddy. I didn't play the rest of the show but sat there with my left arm resting over the neck.I was fuming mad!

The song had ample bass from the piano so the bass guitar wasn't even missed. Why the heck was I even there? I felt like leaving the stage right then and there, but felt obligated to the guitarist not to rock the boat.

But, I was still angry at the pianist's blatant lack of concern for the others in the band, especially the vocalists. The piano player knew that I wasn't playing but it didn't seem to bother him in the least. The first song ended with silence and confusion from the audience. Not one single song then entire set got any response from the crowd. Thursday, I found out that the pianist is a lawyer. I am guessing that he isn't a very good one as he doesn't listen to anyone but himself! When the set ended, I got the heck out of there as fast as I could.

So what did I learn?

1. don't expect inexperienced musicians to understand the concept of musical balance in an ensemble setting. Not everyone was lucky enough to have a good music teacher.

2 don't expect others to listen to you as if you were still the band director in charge and your word is law.

3 remember that your instrument is the salt. When someone else is salting the recipe (song), put your own salt shaker (instrument) down.

4 never stop doing favors for friends as they are important

Skype me

2008-09-11T13:24:00.000-07:00

I just completed a wonderful interview for the musicteachers911 podcast with Eugene Cantera from the Dallas School of Music. We were using an internet based application called Skype.

For those who would like to hear it, it is episode 13 and can be found by searching the iTunes store using the apple application iTunes. The podcast just got a bump to being the #2 music teacher education podcast on iTunes.

Skype allows people to make free long distance calls using the internet. I recorded our conversation using an inexpensive program called Audio Hijack to create an mp3 file to import to my garageband podcast file.

Afterwards, he posted a few comments on his blog at http://discoverlearnplay@blogspot.com.

Tonight is rehearsal for Saturday's big "Jesus Jam" and I will be playing bass with a Gospel Band that I will meet tonight. I got this through the guitar player for the Sinclair Gospel Choir.

Tuesday, I head for Piqua to present an inservice to the music staff for Macmillan Publishing.

I will be traveling with Macmillan Sales rep, Larry Bohannon, who is a fantastic person and was instrumental in getting me hired with Macmillan in the first place.