Nomad With Glassware: 2 Summer Wrongs

This is quite an enjoyable and well written post. I think we'd agree there has been a Mrs. Rust and Mrs. Bell in all of our lives.

Nomad With Glassware: 2 Summer Wrongs: "Of all the things I've forgotten from elementary school, like basic math and how to avoid girl bullies, I've never forgotten music education."

If You Build It...

There is an old marketing adage that says 'If your idea is great, people will find you'. Thanks go out to Seth Godin for that one. We have always believed the internet could be a terrific vehicle to deliver music education. Hopefully the fruits of this labor are paying off as more and more people learn about the product and services we can provide at MusickEd.com....but I digress.
















Our resident composer/arranger Mike Finkel has an encyclopedic-like knowledge of musical artists, band members and genres. He pulls from all areas of his own personal I-pod of a brain and creates amazing orchestrations. I know because he works right across the hall in office 210... (that's Mike on the left and yours truly on the right).

I asked Mike to give our readers a sneak peek at some of his latest work for the Jazz Series. He says this little beauty is 'drum 'n bass' influenced in a British dance style. Discerning ears may notice a little Weather Report flavored funk as well. We hope you enjoy the track and we welcome your comments. And by the way, feel free to test Mike's music trivia knowledge anytime!

CLICK HERE FOR THE JAZZ SERIES SAMPLE

Embrace the Process, Beware the Shortcut

I have visited many music education related blogs over the past few weeks and have thoroughly enjoyed reading the opinions of my colleagues across the country and the world. We are an amazing group of thoughtful and intelligent professionals! Among the plethora of sites I visited however, there were a number that make fantastic and sometimes outlandish claims:

Cut 'your learning time in half' boasts one, offering 'tons of shortcuts' that evidently have never before been revealed. Another site has this bold and amazing statement; 'YOU DO NOT HAVE TO KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT MUSIC' and after just 30 minutes you'll be playing 'DOZENS OF SONGS WITHOUT STRUGGLING, WITHOUT BORING EXERCISES AND YOU DO NOT EVEN HAVE TO READ MUSIC'!

Now I am all about entrepreneurship, especially in our profession - believe me, but I am just as passionate about promoting quality music education throughout our communities. So rather than name names, I thought I'd cast this sobering thought out to the blogosphere; embrace the process, beware the shortcut. Remember, this goes for both the learner and the teacher.

I hope that teachers with passion will encourage learners to embrace the process of discovering musical concepts and manage the challenges that come with applying those concepts to any instrument. And I hope that music enthusiasts choose to embrace their amazing journey with excitement, optimism and realistic expectations.

Christopher Small, a very wise music philosopher once said that 'music should be viewed as an act instead of a thing'. He called the act musicking and claimed it to be valid at every level. Rather than searching for shortcuts, let's all remember that the connections formed around the act of hearing, learning and making music are what really matters.

So to teachers and students alike I say, choose your materials wisely and enjoy the process!

15 Years In the Business of Music Education

Today I worked with a 4 year old piano student, a 12 year old beginning guitarist, a 45 year old electrical engineer, a 13 year old saxophonist (via web-cam from Texas to Iowa!), and an advanced 40 year old guitarist... to name just a few. Between sessions I monitored my favorite blogs and posted a few comments. I also did some research on two new 'education' websites (they shall remain nameless) and managed to have a bite of yummy pasta for lunch. This is a typical day for me and many of my colleagues at The Dallas School of Music, Inc. and MusickEd.com.

We are fortunate to have been serving our community for over 15 years. It's a vibrant, growing area full of avid music enthusiasts and parents who value music education for their children. I often wonder how many other communities across the country might be able to sustain a for-profit school such as ours?

The dynamics involved in this venture are more than just choosing a culturally friendly and/or affluent location. There has to be a core team of passionate, dedicated visionaries willing to work for the greater good. And there needs to be the right mix of educators who think like entrepreneurs (this is an amazingly small pool of people by the way). These key members must be dependable, flexible and talented. It helps to be in close proximity to universities and our ties with the amazing school of music at the University of North Texas has provided a wealth of quality faculty leads. Still, it has taken nearly all of the first 15 years to assemble our current team.

The entire process of building a school has not been without sacrifice but we have always felt it to be a struggle worth pursuing. From the beginning we hoped to provide a model for music education outside of academia. We believe strongly that our noble and important profession can stand next to other disciplines such as medicine, law or accounting in communities across the country (and indeed the world!). If successful, we hope more music educators in training will become aware of this option and college curricula will begin to include course options for more business minded music educators.

Wish us luck as we venture on toward our 20th year!

Software Updates

It's an exciting time at DSM and MusickEd.com! Since the launch of our Discovery Series in December of '07, we have been working to overhaul the design interface and navigation of the software. We're confident that the information in our series is world class, but we are constantly striving to improve the functionality for our users. It's why online publishing and real time editing works well for us. As soon as our updates are published, everyone gets instant access to the new material. There's no re-printing, re-shipping or re-ordering... we're keeping it green!

The updated interface will make it easier for users to move from section to section within each lesson. This keeps the learning process simple and creates a smooth flow of information throughout the series. Users get into the groove of repeating a simple 3 step process of Discovering, Learning and Playing. You bloggers out there will be the first to get a sneak peek at the new look so stay tuned.

We are also working on a Jazz Series to compliment our core (Kore) series. We're fortunate to have Dan Haerle on staff to add his amazing jazz education expertise. Dan is a well known author and retired member of the Jazz Studies Division at the University of North Texas. He has recorded many Jamey Aebersold play-alongs and is an active jazz clinician both nationally and internationally.

The new series is a concept driven, sequential approach to learning jazz language, rhythms, melody and improvisation. As you can see, resident composer Mike Finkel is hard at work creating original songs and fully orchestrated play-alongs with blues, bossa nova, funk, swing styles and more. As with all of our material, the jazz series will be available for all instruments including voice. Be sure to subscribe to this blog for updates as they occur. The scheduled launch for the first lesson in this series is later this year!