Student Spotlight - Pam Johnson

Pam Johnson, a former high school and college trumpeter, decided to resume music lessons after years of self imposed exile.


"I decided to try something challenging" she says with a laugh, "so I chose french horn. I've really  missed having music in my life".  


Pam has been studying at DSM and using the MusickEd curriculum for just over month.  She began with the Discovery Series but is anxious to start using the Kore Series this week.  "The new software looks great and seems a little easier to navigate."  


Because of her previous musical background she is already in Lesson 4. Pam's instructor, DSM and MusickEd Partner Gary Feltner says "she's doing remarkably well, especially considering the short amount of time she's been studying." 


 Way to go Pam, we're proud of you. And keep up the great work!

MusickEd Launches New Subscription Service with 1 Day Free Trial

MusickEd.com went live with a brand new subscription based website over Memorial Day weekend. The covert launch comes after a 4 year re-tooling of the entire Discovery Series.  The new Kore Series ushers in a new era from 'purchase and download' to a more immediate, 'subscribe and use' format. 


The new site gives users instant access to 20 lessons of the Kore Series and all of the support pages.  3 month or yearly subscriptions are available and there is even a 24 hour FREE TRIAL so that potential subscribers can see the wealth of information that's available.


"The free trial really lets users get a sense of the full MusickEd experience" say Bob Lawrence. "They have time to sample all of the lesson material and quizzes, hear the songs and amazing orchestrations, check in on our community and of course access all of the support pages. We feel that if they have a chance to see and use the product,  then they'll wind up subscribing."


Now the attention turns to site management with community content, videos and support material being added daily.  "We can also start a full blown marketing campaign" says Lawrence, "something we have not been able to do as of yet." 


"We'll monitor traffic over the next few weeks and tweak things as we go. It should be lots of fun to watch it all unfold!"

MusickEd Plays Role in MS Patients' Recovery

One friend, true friend
Always by my side
And I know that I can count on you
Days pass, we'll change, maybe move apart
But I hope that we'll keep talking
Sharing stories
Old friends for a long, long time

The words seem simple enough. The melody uses mostly small intervals, includes loud and soft sections and is only 20 measures long. So how did it come about that a Multiple Sclerosis support group sang this song at a recent meeting? Enter Toni Vogel.

Toni was diagnosed with MS in April of 2007 but she chooses to 'live' with the disease as best she can. After an initial loss of vision in one eye (which has since returned to 'normal' with steroid therapy) she continues to battle pain in her legs, hips, shoulders and neck as well as overall fatigue throughout an average day. The nighttime often brings restlessness to the point of waking up tired, yet her spirit remains undaunted.

Toni loves music and always wanted to learn bass guitar. She found The Dallas School of Music and started taking sessions with Dr. Bob Lawrence. Bob explained the schools' enrollment plans, the MusickEd curriculum and before long Toni was thumping away in time, reading notes, counting rests, playing melodies and learning musical concepts on her instrument. Toni embraced the challenge, enjoyed the learning process and made swift progress. She encouraged her husband Steve (a self-taught guitarist) to enroll and work through the curriculum as well.

Toni's new-found attitude and enthusiasm was apparent to everyone who knew her. Steve noticed that she seemed to have been in a "year long funk", sometimes depressed and often "not feeling up to even getting out of the house". But playing the bass and learning music gave her strength and it wasn't long until she was excited to get to her lesson each week.

"I feel like the connections in my brain are being re-wired", Toni says "and Steve as well as many of my friends in the support group have noticed too."

Steve does not suffer from MS but often attends meetings to support Toni and has learned much about the disease since her diagnoses. "The good news is that the brain and body are capable of repair" he says. "That's what makes music so great. It is paramount in the re-wiring process. Movement is also important for MS patients and music is a great motivator for that too."

Toni asked for the words to the songs she was learning so that she could sing them in the car. Since the curriculum is designed for all instruments (including voice), the lyrics were already in place. She downloaded the mp3 files to her iPod and began to sing the melodies as part of her daily routine.

Mike Finkel composes most of the songs, creates the orchestrations, does all of the recording and even writes many of the words for MusickEd.com. He describes the style of this particular tune as 'world music'. Steel drums, multiple cymbals, bongos and other percussion instruments can be heard on its more than 25 tracks. The style and interesting groove is what caught Toni's attention at first, but the words really hit home.

"It's what it's all about," Toni says, "making connections with new friends and sharing our stories."

Toni recently invited MusickEd Partners Bob Lawrence and Eugene Cantera to visit her group's Make Your Mark Day which occurs on the first Tuesday of every month.

"I didn't know what to expect" Eugene said, "but the room was decorated with music symbols and bright colors. There was a toddler laughing and playing on the floor and everyone was smiling and anxious to hear Toni perform and tell her story."

Toni spoke passionately about her experiences with MS and how music has helped her cope. She played a few songs from the MusickEd curriculum and then accompanied by Steve on guitar, performed a moving rendition of 'Dust in the Wind.' Lots of toe tapping and rousing applause ensued, but perhaps the most amazing moment came toward the end of the meeting.

"Toni had taught the 'Friend' song to her support group earlier that day and they sang it for us" said Cantera. "It's amazing to think that something we've had a hand in creating could be shared and used this way. My mind raced with the possibility of having an entire online community specifically for MS patients, telling their stories and encouraging each other as they learn music. It will be interesting to see where this all leads but if it never goes any further, it's already been quite amazing."

Toni feels so strongly about her musical experience that she is spearheading an effort to have the MusickEd curriculum and/or sessions at The Dallas School of Music included in the coverage for MS patients. She hopes that her story will be inspiring to others living with the disease and that new and unique connections might be made all over the world. "Just like the song" she says...

"Sharing stories
Old friends for a long, long time..."

To learn more about Multiple Sclerosis please visit www.nmss.org

Charting Creativity

On a recent plane trip to Philly I had the chance to catch up on some reading. As usual, FastCompany Magazine provided great fuel and possible fodder for an upcoming blog. But it was an article in the New York Times (love the crossword puzzle) that caught my eye and inspires this edition.

Charting Creativity: Signposts of a Hazy Territory by Patricia Cohen tells about a group of scientists who are researching 'the neurology of inspiration'. The lead lines caught my ADD brain and curiosity...

'Grab a timer and set it for one minute. Now list as many creative uses for a brick as you can imagine. Go. '

If ever there was a throw down I was built for, this was it. Creativity...? One minute? I am so there! I took my crossword pen (of course) and started making my list. I didn't care how long I went, the ideas just kept coming. It turns out this little exercise is part of a classic test that scientists are using to attempt to track creativity and inspiration in the brain.

I loved the standard definition of creativity that the scientists begin from: 'the ability to combine novelty and usefulness in a particular social context'. But some argue that this standard has outlived its usefulness.

Most people agree that no single measure for creativity exists. While I.Q. tests are still considered reliable at least for certain kinds of intelligence, there is no equivalent when it comes to creativity — no Creativity Quotient, or C.Q.

The 'brick' example actually comes from a test for “divergent thinking,” where a person is asked to come up with “new and useful” functions for a familiar object, like a pencil or a sheet of paper.

But Dr. Jung’s team goes a bit further and presents his subjects with weird situations. For example, what would be the implications if clouds had strings? Can you draw the taste of chocolate? Or, write a caption for a humorous cartoon. 'Humor is an important part of creativity,' Dr. Jung said. And his research has produced some surprising results. One study of 65 subjects suggests that creativity prefers to take a slower, more meandering path than intelligence.

“The brain appears to be an efficient superhighway that gets you from Point A to Point B” when it comes to intelligence, Dr. Jung explained. “But in the regions of the brain related to creativity, there appears to be lots of little side roads with interesting detours, and meandering little byways.”

Ah yes, those wonderful, meandering side roads. Jolly good fun they are. Take a break and read the entire article here. Then go be creative!

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.