The 911 on 9/11

musicteachers911
Music Education Services

I just completed a really cool interview with Larry Marra of musicteachers911 coincidentally on 9/11. I am located in Carrollton,TX and Larry is in Dayton, OH. Not only was I able to hear Larry, I was able to see him on web-cam. We used a program called Skype which allows you to make calls to others on Skype - from your computer - and it's free!

I know Larry was interviewing me but it was fun to learn a bit about him in the process as well. He said he had heard about Skype from one of his 14 year old students (reason # 947 why packaging and delivering music education in a new tech-savvy way is a smart idea). He thought the kid was either kidding or a bit 'off' when he said he could make calls anywhere in the world with video capability for free online. It didn't take long for Larry to check out and embrace the technology and the rest as they say is history... a pod-caster was born.

Larry also told me that his podcasts rank #2 at i-tunes for Music Education. So if you're reading this - let's go bump him up to #1! Yesterday my colleague Mike Finkel and I listened to a few minutes of one of Larry's episodes to which Mike commented 'He gets a great sound on these!'... and coming from Mike (our resident composer and recording guru), that is high praise indeed.

Larry ran a great interview. He showed a genuine interest in hearing about DSM and MusickEd.com. After learning that our software includes built-in ear training samples he quipped, 'If I had this when I was a band director, I might have offered some kids the $10 myself!'.

Larry was also keen to mention that music teachers need to keep an open mind to new ways of thinking about teaching and in particular, adopting new approaches and technologies. He, like myself and many others I've encountered in the blogosphere, have spent some serious time thinking about music, teaching and the profession as a whole. (I have been working on a phrase that attempts to identify and explain 'us' as a group. After several failed attempts I decided to try a Latin translation site and came up with 'posterus magister ' which roughly means 'teacher of the future'.... but I digress).

Kudos to Larry for his work and thanks again for allowing us to participate. I will try to include the actual podcast on this blog after it has been edited and posted.