Music Is Not for Insects

It’s not reality but augmented reality with my wife and I participating in a music video with my “buddy” John Mayer:

Here is John talking about augmented reality and the first music video to use the new technology:

Take a moment to watch Bobby McFerrin do something so simple yet so profound, you will want to try this with your students.

Bobby McFerrin demonstrates the power of the pentatonic scale, using audience participation, at the event “Notes & Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus”, from the 2009 World Science Festival, June 12, 2009.

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

This just cracked me up:

Do you have any forbidden music in your classroom? For me it’s “Heart and Soul”, “Chop Sticks” or that other song kids play on the black keys where they roll their knuckles along f#, g# and a# then twice on c# repeat; then in the other direction and twice on d#. I literally scream “STOP” when I hear these played.

And lately it has been the McDonald’s jingle…all it takes is one kid to discover it and the rest are playing it non-stop on the piano. I guess I should be happy the kids are learning and experimenting. But non-stop jingles can take its toll on the psyche.

Have you ever had students say to you, “I don’t need math, I’m going to be a musician!” Why not introduce them to world-renowned drummer Ndugu Chancler, who explains why math is essential to music?

This is the synopsis of a great six minute video featuring professional drummer Ndugu Chancler over at The Futures Channel. This video is for kids of all ages narrated by a world class drummer who not only makes some connections to math and music, but gives you some resources for introducing basic rhythmic values to your students.
I showed this video to my piano lab students last week and I was able to teach a mini-lesson on rhythm. I simply notated the examples Ndugu showed on the video using drum set notation similar to the examples below (these were taken from Bill Powelson’s School of Drums website):

Then we played the rhythms on our imaginary drum set using our right foot for the quarter note, right hand for snare drum, left hand for the cymbal and engaged the students in creating rhythms that were fun. We became drummers dude! Much more exciting than rhythm cards to be sure.

In addition to showing the various rhythmic units as they relate to various styles (rock, reggae, samba, etc.), Ndugu shows how he uses a drum machine and computer to create tracks. It’s a great intro into multi-track recording and ends with this insightful quote-

Technology by itself is not creative. Technology gets creative based on the creativity of the musician behind the technology.

I realize I haven’t posted in ages, but this was too good to not share. Happy start of the new school year!

I’m posting this fun short video on behalf of my colleague Todd Gowers who will be running The 14th Annual Hammond Ashley Memorial Double Bass Workshop, June 25-29 on the Seattle Pacific University Campus. This is one of the largest bass camps in America. You can hear Todd describe what he considers a “bass geek” and see some students and faculty from the workshop at this link.

You may have heard this Chopin Prelude many times…but when played by Benjamin Zander in the context of the TED conference, you will be moved. It will give you hope as a fellow music educator and conductor. Watch it at this link.

Conducting robots…may be a phobia of mine? How about you?

Maybe it’s because I like charts to help simplify big ideas…maybe it’s because I’ve been thinking about making a career change. Whatever the reason, I hope you will watch the video clip below from John Doerr that I’ve had lurking in my “blog about file” for sometime.

It’s this chart from the video that I love

(click on the jpeg to open a new window and see the chart published in google docs):

I want to be on the missionary side of this chart when it comes to teaching and learning…

I could have renamed this post mercenaries vs. educators perhaps? It’s less than 4 minutes long. Check it out and let me know what you think. The last line he says as the video fades away is key:

…but really, at the final accounting, the lust for making meaning out of your work.