Door Slams

Short and sweet advice today from Doc himself: "Don't slam the door on this phrase."

Breathing room and smash-free noses abound. :-)

Hobey-ho.

Wipe Your Brow

I have been absent forever. Please don't hate me. I'm doing my student teaching.

So for today, just a quick quote from Doc - "Young bands like to do that when they're done. Play it out & then drop off after the hard lick. Don't wipe your brow yet. There's more licks to go!"

Somehow, this feels applicable not just to wind ensemble, but also to life. 7 weeks down, 7 more weeks of student teaching to go!

12 Signs You Were A Music Major - Buzzfeed

12 Signs You Were A Music Major

Imma just gonna leave this here, because Buzzfeed understands my life.

(Also, it's finds like this that justify my tumblr addiction. add me! Herkamir at http://tangosvu.tumblr.com/)

University Launches Certificate in Music for Social Change

Chicago's North Park University has added a new music certificate to its program based on what's called the "El Sistema" movement/philosophy bit. Basically, it teaches music students to use their talents to give back to their community and create social change through free after school music programs.

Now, to be fair, this article contains the sole knowledge I have surrounding El Sistema. I've never heard of it before. But I will never argue with free music education, especially not when it connects such fresh university students who just want to give back to their community, because guess what, I'm only 2 years out from my degree, and I've already learn 10k times more through personal experience than I ever did in a classroom (to be fair, it has been largely different information, but still.).

Has anyone heard of or used this philosophy, or seen it working in your community? If so, I'd love to chat with you, pros and cons, possibilities, ect. Comment peoples!

ABC News - How Music Could Make You A Rocket Scientist

How Music Could Make You A Rocket Scientist

Once again, another news article on the brain benefits of  music education!

Go figure.

Now I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel here or even beat a dead horse in the mouth. But seriously, there's been extensive proof that music and other arts education are essential to all areas of life, not just scholastically, so WHY THE HECK ARE WE STILL CUTTING MUSIC PROGRAMS?!

Thanks a lot Common Core. #sarcasm

Notate Me App

Digital Notation, Like You Imagined It’d Work: Draw Into iPhone, iPad, Android

This thing is FANTASTIC. It's not even out in full yet (you can buy the beta right now), but I heard about it several months ago during it's Kickstarter or Indiegogo or whatever campaign and it was the best support I've ever given. I am so excited about the potential for this. I know it will have some bumps along the way until it actually is as awesome as the programmers want it (and expect it) to be, but especially when you consider how expensive other programs like Finale and Sibelius are (not to mention the drama around Sibelius recently...if you're not aware, shoot me a comment and I'll update you), and how convenient to have this kind of program literally in your pocket for on the go notation, the benefits and uses are endless.

There's been some fuss that the learning curve is high, but isn't that how it is on any program like that? If you really need it, you'll learn quick. If you don't, you probably didn't need the app to begin with.

Have anybody used this yet? Please tell me your opinion! If I had an iPad I'd totally have it, but right now I'm still close enough to my University that I can just run into their computer lab with midi keyboards and bust anything out of Sibelius quick enough.

Hobey-ho!

Composers Insult Each Other

Composer Insults

Now if you think my directors come up with some doozies, try the quips some of our favorite composers gave to their fellow composers (though I'm not sure they would call them 'fellow' as that would imply too much camaraderie.)

This one's my favorite: "Bach on the wrong notes." Prokofiev on Stravinsky