For those of you with a spiritual leaning, check out Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, vs. 11-13.

Peace,

-J

Got this in an email the other day!   Looks like something I’d like,  hopefully it will interest  you, too!

Improvisation Master Classes

The following master classes are part of the Bienen School of Music’s four-part series, Music Education for the 21st Century. The series, which takes place between February and May 2009, is designed to spark discussion and fuel thought on new and innovative ways to move music education forward.”Improvisation, Creativity, and Consciousness: New      Pedagogical Horizons in Music and Beyond” Presented by Ed Sarath Wednesday, February 11 6 – 7 p.m. CST Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, or the Pick-Staiger webcast page This master class, for instrumentalists and vocalists alike, will explore improvisation as both a means for musical creativity and a vehicle for examining the mind’s creative process. The session will serve as an introduction for musicians with little or no background in improvisation as well as a method for expanding the horizons of experienced improvisers. Ed Sarath will guide participants through rhythmic exercises, movement, and meditation practices. Participants – and online viewers – are encouraged to bring their instruments to put the concepts of the class into practice. “Free Play: The Art of Improvisation” Presented by Stephen Nachmanovitch Thursday, March 5 6 – 7 p.m. CST Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, or the Pick-Staiger webcast page In this hands-on master class, Stephen Nachmanovitch will help participants to strengthen technique through improvisation; overcome fears; take advantage of mistakes and accidents; create coherent, well-formed music without a plan; contact the creative process while performing; and renew the pleasure of play. Special attention will be given to ideas for bringing these techniques into “school music” settings.

Internet2 Viewing
Institutions with access to Internet2 can view the high bandwidth mpeg2 multicast feed using the VLC media player or an mpeg2 decoder. Details are available at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall’s webcast page.

Yesterday I received my 15 year service pin from the university.  Of course, no one sent me the memo about showing up in coat and tie.  That’s me on the left of Dr. Pat Rossi.  It’s funny, 15 years ago I was as tall as Pat.  I wonder what happened?

I probably need to start taking Progenitorivox ASAP.

My IP must be blocking Jack Pribek’s site ’cause I can’t get it at home without firing up the laptop and stealing my neighbor’s wireless signal.  Jack, you’re making me do unethical things to read your blog. 

If you’re wondering where all the posts have been going, take a look at the theory, aural skills and audio principles blogs I started this Fall.  I’m trying to make this technology educationally productive, so if you’re thinking that my main site has been neglected a bit,  you’re probably right.

DM Mobile blog has new studio pix up!

Protooler continues to inspire and teach great tips!  Where does he get all this time to figure things out?  I can’t even keep my office clean…

Guitarflame is talking Music Theory!  Ovidiu is not as mean as his post suggests.  Go there and learn some real-world stuff.

Song FU #2 Round #2 challenge is up:

Your challenge is to choose a famous inventor and craft a song proposing a “dance craze” based on either the inventor or one of his/her most well known inventions. For an idea of what we’re looking for, here’s a song proposing the ill-fated “Lurch”…

Thanks to everyone who voted for Paul and Storm.  Your check is in the mail.

See what I’m fired up about?  This is a very creative way to hone your songwriting skills.  Think about the team mixing contests on the Womb boards (mixerman.net);  –this is great stuff!!  Taking tests on “The Craft of Lyric Writing” is not in the same ballpark!

You are in control of your own education!  In my class, I try to build a supportive environment that protects egos and encourages experimentation.  While these Internet contests are not for the faint-of-heart, they may well be the future “sorting-machine” type of education that is missing from many curriculi and that helped create our past generations of winners.

Now, how can I convince you that you’re good enough to be a winner?  That’s tough, but Louis Schmier is one of those people I visit for inspiration.  In a recent blog post, he shared this poem;

We can see dandelions as a weed that invades the pristine beauty of our gardens.  Or, we can see it as a beautiful flower or a fluffy white ball to wish upon or as a source of nourishing food and drink.

We can see a mud puddle and see only dirty shoes, soiled clothes, and stained carpets.  Or, we can see it as a pool to stomp in, splash around in, and have fun.

We can feel a wind and worry about how it will muss our hair or toss leaves on our manicured lawns.  Or, we can close our eyes, let it massage our face, and imagine we’re soaring on an updraft like an eagle.

We can see a rain storm and see only that we will be drenched, depressed by the grayness, and that the warm rays of the sun will disappear.   Or, we can sing and play in the rain as if it was a water fountain, realize the raindrops are nourishing our gardens, and think warmly of the sun that still shines above the gray clouds.

and then Louis added:

Now, just replace “dandelion” and “mud puddle” with “student.” /…/  Seeing the good side or being able to discover and savor things to be grateful for, doesn’t reduce or erase the inconveniences or discomforts or headaches or disappointments. But, it can change dramatically how we choose to deal with them and what impact they will have on our ability to persist, persevere, and feel accomplished, satisfied, fulfilled, and happy.

Thank God for people like Louis.  We love ya, dude!

Make it a good one-

-J

Does this make me an exhibitionist?

In this clip, Mr. Newman describes how creating a “flexible” book leads to production appeal.

When a show is picked for production, it takes on a “life of its own”.

Take advantage of all the opportunities you can at the undergraduate level. Tommy speaks about his experience at TROY.

Red Mountain Theatre Company’s director Keith Cromwell speaks about his career, the new musical incubation process, and how Tinyard Hill was selected for production.

That’s all the videos; please leave comments!

-J

This semester I’ll be adding Theory and Aural Skills pages to the blog;  I’m hoping this will be less confusing than starting 2 additional blogs, but for you old-timers, it means you’ll have to sift through some occasional posts about building fundamental skills.  Relax.  It’ll be good for you!

Syllabi are on the way and I should have my class schedule ironed out tomorrow.  I’m expecting everyone to have the first chapters in our texts read… so log off and get busy!

Make it a good day!

P.S.   If you’ve missed my blogrolls, I have a tiny tidbit;  Joel Falconer’s excellent post on Songwriter resources.  Thanks to Oliver Chesler’s Wire-to-the-ear for this jewel!

http://audiotuts.com/resources/50-great-lyric-writing-resources/

Piracy Czar?   Are you kidding me?  I thought we already had one of those…

According to the 2008 press release archive on the RIAA.org site, the following universities have been targeted for pre-litigation settlement letters. 

January 10th:  (18 universities)

 Arizona State University (33 pre-litigation settlement letters), Bowdoin College (11), California State University, Monterey Bay (25), College of William and Mary (15), Duke University (16), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (19), Mount Holyoke College (15), Rhode Island College (22), Saint Mary’s College of Minnesota (13), Stanford University (15), Texas Christian University (14), University of California, Berkeley (26), University of California, Los Angeles (26), University of Connecticut (25), University of Iowa (24), University of Nebraska-Lincoln (22), University of Texas at Austin (50), and Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University (36).

February 21st: (12 universities)

Boston University (35 pre-litigation settlement letters), Columbia University (50), Drexel University (33), Indiana University (40), North Carolina State University (35), Ohio State University (30), Purdue University (28), Tufts University (20), University of Maine System (32), University of New Hampshire (32), University of Southern California (50), and the University of Virginia (16).

On May 6th, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the PRO-IP Act which strengthens laws against illegal downloading, allows for seizure of property involved in the commission of said crime and gives new enforcement measures to investigators.  Billboard.biz quoted David Israelite of the Nat’l Music Publishers Assn:

“This bill will go a long way towards making sure law enforcement agencies have what they need to get the job done,”  

According to Mark Hefflinger of DMW Daily, the bill also-

The bill, which passed unanimously in the House Judiciary Committee last week, would also establish a White House-level piracy czar — dubbed the Intellectual Property Enforcement Representative — to coordinate law enforcement activities.   (emphasis mine)

 David Utter at Webpronews succinctly summed up the situation last year when the act was first getting off the ground:

More bureaucracy, another well-connected insider getting a sweet gig to graze at the taxpayer trough (we’re betting whoever gets the new IP Enforcement Representative job will have a big media background), and absolutely no impact on foreign counterfeiting whatsoever appear to be the salient points of PRO IP.

But Heaven help the first college kid busted under PRO IP for MP3 trading. It’s going to be brutal.  

Folks, this is a strong piece of legislation that kicks the Intellectual Property Rights game up a notch;  –it’s not just national in scope, it defines an international effort to set up rights and enforcement measures.  I predict that given the success the music industry has seen so far, within a year we’ll see an astronomical increase in pre-litigation settlement letter mail-outs.   And those won’t just be going to college campuses.

Don’t risk it!  Email is an unreliable choice to turn in final projects.  Burn film projects to DVD and make a copy for me.  Audio projects can remain on the audio drives in studio A and B.  Make copies for yourself if you want it in your portfolio later.  If circumstances beyond your control prevent you from making the deadline, go see the department chair and get an OK for an incomplete grade.  Then leave me a voice mail or put a note in my mailbox. 

In other news,  the Branson newspaper is featuring Mr. Pribek in a series of articles.  It’s a good read and you can listen to my Pribek CD in my office. 

Article #1

Article #2

Article #3 

Jack’s blog is here:

For those of you who have Protools, there are two good articles on inexpensive plugins on the Protooler blog.  Read “Mixing on a Budget – part I”   and “Mixing on a Budget -part II”.

Friday is officially “No Pants Day”;  I will not be participating at school and if you’re my student, I urge you not to participate either. (via Listenerd)

Jonathan Coulton has posted a 20 minute Flip video (condensed) of his trip to Seattle and Portland for gigs w/ Paul and Storm.  It’s wacky and a fairly entertaining way to waste 20 minutes when you should be studying. 

You can read about Marilyn Manson’s sex change on Industrial Addiction (or not).

Metal Martyr hopes you think twice before you get a tattoo (check out the link to badtattoos.com).

Sheplaysmusic lists the Top 10 Bad Girls of Music.

The coolest place in the whole world to intern is still looking for interns.  Why doesn’t anyone want to learn a trade anymore?

Finally,  juried exams start tomorrow;  –if you haven’t already spoken with me about accompanying your jury, then you are too late.  It’s not that I can’t do it.  It’s better that you learned a lesson about planning ahead.

Peace, folks.  Good luck on exams!

-J

Yesterday she arrived 10 minutes before time to start playing.  Her name was Joyce and she was a “hotshot” soprano from a cathedral in Virginia.  Usually she sent music well in advance, but today she just showed up and wanted to sing.  I bumped the communion hymn off the hymnboard to make room for her solo and she handed me the copied pages of music;  –music I had not seen before.  I had only 5 minutes to prepare to sightread this piece.  What did I do?

1.  With pen in hand, I examined the page to make sure the notes were there.   Soloists are infamous for only paying attention to their part and trimming the lower clef off the other parts.

2. I made sure everything was legible and dark.  I will write letter names for notes more than 3 ledger lines above or below the staff.  Copies made too dark or light can spell trouble when sightreading.

3.  I examined the solo for 1st & 2nd endings, Da Capo al Fine, and Coda marks and highlighted these with attention-getting symbols of my own design (I favor frowny faces).

4.  I looked for courtesy accidentals.  Upon finding none, I inserted my own.  Many publishers use courtesy accidentals to help you realize that the preceding accidental has been cancelled.  The more accidentals a piece has, the more brainpower it requires.  Once there was an old TV game show called “Concentration” where contestants had to keep remembering where the pieces were.  If you don’t appreciate key signatures, go pick up a copy of some Paul Creston.  I’m sure Creston was smart enough to use key signatures;  –the problem was that he modulated so much he figured he didn’t need them.  Most of the time he probably didn’t know what key he was in!

OK, enough of the accidentals rant.  It’s important to know when accidentals are there and when they are cancelled.  Do what you have to do.

5.  I decide tempo and sing (”audiate” i.e. hear in my head) through the most complicated part of the soprano line.  She may be the soloist today, but I’m driving the parade;  –I’ll set the tempo and we can argue about it later.

6.  Finally, I study the most important notes in the bass (i.e. reduction or Schenkerian analysis, for you music theory buffs out there).  If the right hand should get lost in a sea of accidentals, I’ll jettison its part and will momentarily become a one-handed bass player. 

The important things I keep in mind are:  keep the steady beat (unless it’s colla voce),  drive the music defensively (i.e., –act like the soprano drops a beat out of every 3rd or 4th measure and you’ll win a million dollars if you jump in the music with her) and don’t lose your cool.  

Salvation is only a half-step away.

 There you have it:  my 5 minutes of prep.  The performance was fine, btw, and Joyce said ”it’s so nice to work with a real accompanist that’s always ready to go” as  she ambled off in search of food.  Thanks, Joyce. 

Whether  you’re preparing for a studio session or live show, there are some interesting rituals that take place. 

If possible, I also remove my wallet, checkbook, keys and spare change (when I have any) and hide them away in a safe spot.  Sometimes there are no safe spots.  Oh well.

If you have a moment, why not share one?

Thanks,

J