Don't forget to shift gears

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

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!

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!!!

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

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Cheers,

Kenji Crosland

Sad but true....

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

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

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 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
• Thomas J West Music
• UrbanMusicEducation.org
• What Music Means to Me
• 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!

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

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