Contest Give Away!

Are you a music learner? Are you an iPhone or iPod Touch user?  Well, here's a chance to add a FREE, cool app. to your menu from DLP and our friends at EasyEarTraining. Its perfect for honing your listening skills on the go and a great compliment to the DLP Kore Series.

The RelativePitch App includes:

Training Mode: 14 lessons guide you from beginner to expert, teaching you all the intervals in the octave.

Testing Mode:Check your progress by trying to get the highest score in testing mode. If you distinguish intervals correctly, you’ll unlock new levels and new challenges in training

Custom Mode: If you’re having trouble with one specific piece of training, set up a custom training and testing session to target your problem spots.

So what is relative pitch? Unlike "perfect pitch", relative pitch is common among musicians, especially those who are used to "playing by ear", and a precise relative pitch is a constant characteristic among good musicians. Unlike perfect pitch however, relative pitch can be improved with practice! Thanks to EasyEarTraining this app can help do the trick!


3 ways to win. Enter as often as you like between October 6th and November 1st!


1. Comment on this blog
or
2. Like us on facebook
or
3. Re-post this link on twitter


Good luck - we look forward to announcing the winner on Thursday, November 3rd!

Technology and Music Education

By Guest Blogger - Lindsey Wright
Lindsey is fascinated with the potential of emerging educational technologies, particularly the online school, to transform the landscape of learning. She writes about web-based learning, electronic and mobile learning, and the possible future of education. We are happy to have her weigh in on the use of technology in music education.


Music education possesses an endless number of benefits for students of all ages. However, most people first encounter music lessons while they are still in elementary or middle school.


Often these lessons are provided through the public school system and range from general music appreciation courses to band and choir classes. Students with a real affinity for music often take private music lessons in voice or in different musical instruments on their own time as an extracurricular activity.


Yet with the proliferation of technology in our everyday lives it is only natural to wonder if there is a way to merge an interest in music with the Web. The accessibility and versatility of the Internet actually lends itself very well to continuing a musical education. In fact, interested individuals will find that there are a number of online programs and tutorials dedicated to enhancing their knowledge of and appreciation for music. 


Many of these online courses are offered free of charge or at very low cost and cover a wide range of musical abilities from the complete novice to the near virtuoso. Even people who have not yet learned to read a single note of music will find an application that can introduce them to an entirely new language. For instance, anyone wishing to learn to play the piano can join the Discover, Learn, and Play website and get started instantly. Early lessons introduce the student to reading music and the concepts of rests and scales. As students progress through subsequent lessons their knowledge and skills grow as does the sophistication of their understanding. This particular site offers a variety of Individual, Family, and Group memberships to suit almost any need. These Lessons are available on 39 different instruments! 

The Active Bass website is another excellent musical learning resource available to users free of charge. Here students can click on a lesson and hear a demonstration, which can help them tell if they are playing the song on key. Along with the auditory component, students are also shown the music so they can read along and practice. The lessons are structured in brief, easy-to-master segments that allow students to feel an almost immediate sense of achievement when they successfully play a piece. 


Similarly, a lot of students want to learn how to play the guitar proficiently. For them, GuitarTricks is a reliable resource. Their step-by-step instruction guide introduces novices to guitar in a non-threatening and encouraging environment. Some lessons are available for free while others require a small fee. Either way, this is a learn-at-your-own-pace experience that allows students to challenge themselves and fit in their lessons whenever it is convenient. 


Music education is valuable in schools for a variety of reasons. Studies have shown that a musical education is critical to the intellectual development of children. Students who have grown up with music lessons often perform better in math and science courses and benefit from the discipline and hard work that the mastery of music demands. Music training even continues to benefit the student later in life. A recent study concluded that musicians tend to have well developed, highly functioning brains. 


Undoubtedly the challenge of music is good for the brain, but it is also a great way for people to keep alert and active throughout their life. Elderly individuals who regularly listen to or play music have less anxiety, report fewer instances of depression, and generally experience an overall beneficial effect from their interaction with music. If the study of music can so positively influence the lives of people of all ages, why are so many lessons aimed only at children? If more online music education content was aimed at people who are over 20 years old, all the way up to age 70 or 80, and beyond, the beneficial effects would be enormous. 


The benefits of music education flow naturally into other areas of study. Children who study music perform better in other disciplines. Additionally, music lessons have been shown to help children develop stronger social skills. With such lessons many children learn to overcome stage fright and experience firsthand the satisfaction that comes from learning a new skill. 


And by encouraging adults to indulge their interest in music on a long-term basis their lives are enriched. As they notice the mental stimulation they receive through the study of music, they will also find that their stress levels are reduced. Plus there is an innate sense of achievement that comes from taking on a challenging hobby. Every accomplishment is a victory in itself and anyone listening to the musician will derive pleasure from the experience. 


As adult students of music reap the benefits of their continuing education, they are more apt to become ambassadors of local and national school music programs.  Budget cuts often mean that arts programs are first on the chopping block, but this new trend may make people more proactive rather than just shrugging and thinking, “It’s only music class.” And new trends may begin to develop that could encourage more youngsters to start their own learning or even embark on a career in the music business. The focus would not necessarily be on an academic career, but rather on a path that may allow them to teach music to a broad range of students of varying ages and abilities by designing online music lessons. This could prove to be a very promising branch for the profession. 


Music education should really be for everyone and it certainly deserves a healthy dose of respect and appreciation.

Killing...uhh, Saving Classical Music

This is a reply to a post titled Classical Music's Problem...  The author (who writes at a site ironically called KillingClassicalMusic) is actually an advocate for "rescuing the world's best music from a slow, certain death at the hands of tired traditions and oppressively ordinary thought." How could we not read on???  The general premise of the post is "how do we expect untrained audiences to relate to classical music?"

Here is our reply:

They say the definition of absurdity is repeating the same thing and expecting different results. There's simply no reason to put classical music on a pedestal in this day and age - if it dies, so be it (note to newspaper publishers). Times change - new things arise. Watching a symphony play 200 or 300 year old music (or even 50 year old music for that matter) is just not something the i-pad, i-phone or i-pod generation wants to do. So here is one group's solution:

1. Create a digital music learning environment. Make it a professionally designed curriculum that is not a shortcut but a solid user-friendly learning 'system'.

2. Make it personal, affordable, and so crystal clear that even school district music administrators and groups like MENC stand up and take notice.

3. Allow it to grow, change, adapt, and be flexible enough to be used by both teachers as a basic curriculum or students learning on their own.

4. Make it available for all instruments, including guitar, bass, electric guitar, piano, and keyboard (not just band and orchestral instruments).

5. Use many genres of music as playing and listening examples. We hear all sorts of music in our everyday lives, why continue to 'teach' musical concepts using outdated songs, examples, and exercises?

Basically, WE as educators (and the profession of music education) must adapt to create an environment where people of all ages interested in learning music can access it on their terms using modern practices and technology as a vehicle. Until we begin to reach current (and future) generations as they are accustomed, we will be mired in the state we are now, with dwindling in-school music programs (despite all the 'music makes you smarter studies) and poorly attended (classical) concert halls.

At MusickEd.com we have created the Kore Series as a start toward this end. Our goal is to package, market,  and sell (gasp!) music education to everyone, which in turn might lead to selling more instruments, more CD's, more sheet music, and more tickets.  Win-Win.

Our philosophy is simple and hearkens to a quote by Chris Small, "Music is a VERB not a noun, it is something one does and it is valid at every level."  We try and live this each day on campus at DSM and online at MusickEd. Comments welcome!

The Other 80%

This is my response to a long and winding thread on Dr. James Frankel's blog Music Technology in Education. The original post was titled 'The Other 80%: An Industry Perspective' about how important technology is to the profession of music education and addressing the fact that academia seemingly ignores 80% of interested music makers by focusing on the K-12 demographic.

Fantastic discussion! As a music educator, software developer, and entrepreneur...(I know, your heads are exploding... but hang in there) I am delighted by and happy to address, design for, and 'sell' to the 'other 80%'. My colleagues and I have consciously tried to reach this group and find it baffling that the profession of 'music education' almost complete ignores such a large, enthusiastic, and frankly, financially sound demographic - especially at a time when 'band, choir, and orchestra' programs are being cut right and left.

We started the Dallas School of Music as a 'for profit' business, a place where people of all ages could access professional music education in a vibrant, modern, and state of the art facility. The school has been serving families in the DFW area for almost 20 years. When we first began, people (mostly family members and well wishing friends outside of music) told us to 'contact the schools' to let them know what we could provide. Their logic seemed sound, 'of course they would want to send their interested students to study privately at your facility?'. Academia could have cared less, but it became a blessing in disguise.

It didn't take long to learn that a bigger pool of interested, passionate music makers lie outside of the K-12 demographic. Of course, DSM does have classes for young children and we have many school aged kids in lessons each week. But we also have doctors, lawyers, businessmen, and average Joe's learning music for the first time (don't get me started on why many schools do not have guitar or piano classes!). The formula seemed to work and when the internet began to take hold we realized it was the perfect vehicle to take our approach to an even wider audience, so we began MusickEd.com.

Today, enthusiasts all over the world use our software and teachers have adopted our Discovery Series as part of their own curriculum. In May we will be launching a subscription service and a new 'Kore Series' followed by a Jazz Series (later this summer).

I hope that our success will pave the way for future educators to be innovative in their thinking, innovative in their teaching, and innovative in helping the profession seek more opportunities outside of the traditional classroom. Technology indeed has never been more important to music education, but if we strive only to reach that 20% - we will have sold ourselves very, very, short....again.

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.