Create the "Check" Box

Note:This blog was originally written as a guest post for a fantastic web site called Entrepreneur The Arts (the title alone makes it a worthy read). We will be writing more about them in an upcoming blog.  In the mean time you can see the post as it originally appears here.

What's our check box?  We are entrepreneurs in music education. Yes, you heard me right. I'll give you a moment to re-read that one more time. We're used to it.

We began our endeavor in 1992 by opening a for-profit music education "firm" called The Dallas School of Music, Inc.  It's the brain-child of Dr. Bob Lawrence who thought that music education could and should stand alone, outside of academia, if packaged and marketed correctly. 20 years later we are going strong and many consider us to be the benchmark for music education in our area. Although all of us have degrees in music, we have no academic affiliation – we are not part of a college or university program, no national affiliation, (as nearly all community music schools are non-profit organizations) and we are not part of a traditional “music store”. Our product is simply quality music education.

By 1994 the power and promise of the internet did not go unnoticed and we soon began to formulate a way to use technology to bring our brand of music education to the world.  In 1996 we decided that MusickEd.com (which is an homage to philosopher Chris Small's hypothesis that 'music is a verb rather than a noun; it is something one does and is valid at every level') was born.  Although we were not exactly certain at that time how it would manifest itself, we had exciting ideas and and set out to create an online presence. 

In 1998 the partners agreed to send my colleague and I to the National Association for Music Education's national conference as representatives of DSM and MusickEd.com.  As stated on their site, MENC is "proudly among the world's largest arts education organizations" and we were very excited to finally meet our colleagues and tell our story.  With nervous anticipation we arrived in Phoenix; its mountains rising abruptly out of the flat dessert and giant cacti lining sunny streets.  We made our way to the convention center and to the check-in booth.  The following account is what took place as we met our greeter, pen in hand, ready to plug us in to the conference:

  

MENC Welcome to MENC, how can I help you?

US  We are The Dallas School of Music and we're attending the conference!

MENC So you are in the DISD? (Dallas Independent School District)

US No, we are a private school.

MENC About to confidently check the box....Oh, are you member of TAPPS? (Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools)

US No, we are a private, for-profit music school.

MENC Confused stare at paper...pen moving from box to box...Ah, so you are a vendor!

US No we are attending as educators!

MENC Hmmm, OK.  I don't know what category you fit into then.  So I am going to just draw a little box at the bottom here, put "other" and  then check that.  

And so it went... and so it goes.

We've been drawing and checking the 'other' box ever since that day as it seems there is no precedent for entrepreneurial music education. We learned a lot about who we are and who we are not at that convention.  And we realized there was a gaping hole that we felt needed to be filled. We came home to share our stories with our colleagues and with a message that basically said, "we are either very smart for thinking of this, or very dumb for trying it...maybe both?"

We continued to develop MusickEd.com with even more intensity and in a few years had a clearer vision of what it could become.  While teaching daily and running the DSM campus of 400 families each week, we somehow managed to complete our Kore Series software in 2008.  This PMLP (Personal Music Learning Program) currently encompasses 20 Lessons developed for 39 instruments. It is being used by individual music enthusiasts, church groups and even public and private schools here in the states. In 2011 we will launch a Jazz Series and begin work on the Kore Series II.

One of the little ironies of this story is that next year we plan to attend the TMEA (Texas Music Educators Association) convention as members, vendors, and possible presenters.  I know there will be many more boxes drawn and checked along the way as we cross every hurdle of being music education entrepreneurs. That's OK, we're used to it...

Theta Music Trainer - Get Your Game On!

Theta Music Trainer is a subscription based site that features several specially designed games for musicians to improve their 'musical sense'.  We recently ran it by the staff and  students of varying ages on campus at MusickEd. One of the first nice things about TMT is the ease of getting each game started. There's no need to hunt around - everything is laid out clearly on the home page and the 'START TRAINING' button invites you to try the games immediately. 

One of our favorites was Channel Match which works on identifying the sounds of instruments on a simulated mixing board. This game is particularly effective because you get to hear the instruments blended together before (and after) they are isolated. This can be especially helpful for youngsters or novice musicians who do not often have the opportunity to play in a group setting.

Jose Carlos Rivera 'owning' Paddle Pitch

Students also enjoyed Rhythm Puzzles, a rhythm identification game with a little bit of a twist. You must identify a small part of a large rhythmic phrase by matching the sounds with the written music....and you're being timed! Good stuff.

There are 10 games in all.   They fall into the categories of Melody, Harmony, Rhythm, and Sound.  All the games load quickly and include a FAQ page to help you get the idea.  Of course, most of the students who tried the games simply chose 'PLAY' and somehow innately knew how to operate everything....our wired kids!

There are many levels of play and some can get quite challenging, but the beginning stages work well enough with just about any age group that can operate a computer. Some are more tricky to navigate than they are musically difficult (note: my lousy score on Chord Locks was because I couldn't figure out how to change the combinations - I swear!).  Other games like "Parrot Phrases" and "Tone Trees" may seem a little too 'cutesy' for older students though the concepts are solid. And still others are slightly nostalgic and addicting, (try the Atari flavored "Paddle Pitch" for instance).

*Note to the designers: The staff thought the guitar fretboard was a really nice option.  Now, if we can get those darned guitarists to actually read music...

A full subscription allows you to play the games at all levels and they can get quite demanding.  Note to players: be sure to choose/click accurately as the system is keeping track of your answers! The "Training" and "Progress" reports are a nice touch and this program can be a fun supplement to a solid curriculum (like the Kore Series!), especially for students who enjoy the challenge of playing games on the PC.

Visit Theta Music Trainer for more information and to create your free account.

Unplugged at MusickEd.com

Kirk Baker "Unplugged"

Our Lesson Support video production continues on campus at DSM/MusickEd.com.  The process is running smoothly and we are confident that the results are in keeping with the overall style and philosophy of our curriculum. We present terrific information and content with little if any 'fluff'.

Here's the process we use with all performers:

The studio looks a bit like the set of 'unplugged'.  The backdrop and lighting, volume, and acoustics have been set to be consistent from video to video. The performer hears the actual play along through ear-buds so only the purest sound of each instrument is recorded into the Rode Podcaster microphone. A relatively simple Logitech webcam captures the entire process.

Next, the video is imported into Camtasia Studio (by TechSmith) and synced up with the actual mp3 play-along. This process keeps all the nuances of each performance in tact (dynamics, articulations, breathing, phrasing etc.) while creating a clear separation for the final product. 

Emphasis is placed both on capturing the musical concepts that are presented in each song as well as instrument specific characteristics such as embouchure, fingering, bowing, hand position etc. Careful attention is placed on framing each performance so that the end user gets a clear sense of these techniques used relative to their chosen instrument.

Click here for a sample video from the Kore Series - Lesson 3, A New Twist 2, - cello.

Staff Spotlight - Chiaki Hanafusa

Chiaki Hanafusa in the MusickEd lab.

Saxophonist Chiaki Hanafusa recently completed her Doctorate of Musical Arts in Performance at the acclaimed University of North Texas School of Music.  She has been on staff at The Dallas School of Music and MusickEd.com for more than three years and hails from Saitama, Japan.  "It's a neighboring city of Tokyo" she says with a smile.

Chiaki started playing saxophone at age 14. But when she was little she had something else in mind for her life.  "I was thinking that my career would be making music, but with a Japanese stringed instrument called a koto which I played since I was 6 yrs old. Neither I or anyone in my family could imagine that I would end up playing saxophone." 

It was a school band audition that changed everything. "When I entered middle school I tried playing the saxophone, clarinet and trumpet in the band. Saxophone was the most comfortable instrument for me to play, and I really liked the sound. But they assigned me to clarinet

because there were too many people who wanted to play saxophone."

She never lost interest in the instrument even as she played clarinet in the band for two full years.  "I finally convinced my parents and the teachers to switch me over and I haven't stopped playing saxophone since then. That band tryout literally changed my life."

I asked Chiaki if she has any special favorite songs or styles of music that she enjoys. "There are so many pieces I like, so I can't possibly choose just one or two as a favorite! I like to play alot of contemporary or new music and I love the sound of saxophone playing transcriptions of baroque music as well." 

We are happy she's here. Arigatou Chiaki!

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!