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The 10 Best Sports Video Games of the 21st Century

Written by Jake Uitti on . Posted in Gaming.

The history of sports video games started some 50 years ago with the release of the mock-table tennis title Pong in 1972. About a decade later, things got more interesting, with then-advanced games like One on One: Dr. J vs. Larry Bird in 1983 and Tecmo Bowl in 1987. Since then, the sports video game landscape has grown exponentially. Today, there are tennis games with which you can work up a sweat through the use of wireless controllers, golf games featuring legendary athletes like Tiger Woods, and football, soccer, baseball and basketball games that feel like real life.

Here, we will dive into the best of the past two-plus decades, highlighting the top titles and what makes them special, from growth in graphics to the enjoyment of playing … and winning. All these gaming choices offer engaging sporting experiences with the ebb and flow of competition, and the details in their soundtracks can be equally important for generating emotion, from the crowd noises to the acoustics of the arena itself, particularly if you add the immersive envelopment of surround sound.

1. MADDEN NFL 2003

Generally considered to be the gold standard in video sports games, the Madden series (named after the late football coach and broadcaster John Madden) is a perennial best-seller. The most recent edition is Madden NFL 23. But the best reviewed version, by a hair anyway, is Madden NFL 2003 — the 14th installment of the series and the first to have Mini Camp mode and Al Michaels serving as the play-by-play announcer. Originally released for Game Boy Advance, GameCube, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation® and Xbox™, this was an early entry to life-like digital gameplay. No live game on TV? Put this on and immerse yourself. Preview it here.

2. NBA 2K11

Two words: Michael Jordan. The GOAT (aka Greatest Of All Time) basketball player graced the cover of this release because this is likely the best incarnation of the popular NBA 2k series, with options to play single games or via Association mode, during which a player can control an entire (digital) NBA organization. New modes with Michael Jordan were also introduced (longtime gamers know how rare it is to have His Airness appear in games), and classic NBA teams were brought in here, as well. For contemporary rosters, including cover star Luka Doncic, check out NBA 2k22. Preview it here.

3. MLB 10: THE SHOW

People who have played Little League baseball often wonder what it would be like to face a professional curveball. For the 99% of us who never will, check out MLB 10: The Show. Though released back in 2010, many feel that this title is still the best in the series. It was the first in the line to introduce Catcher Mode, in which you can see the game from behind the plate, and Home Run Derby, where players can hit baseballs out of the park in competition. Watching real baseball on TV can feel slow, but this video game provides a completely different experience since it allows you to control all aspects, from base runners to hitters to fielders and even management decisions — all with realistic graphics and lifelike ballparks. Preview it here.

4. FIFA 13

There’s something majestic about the large, rolling green fields. The roar of the (digital) spectators. The rivalry of country versus country, the stakes of it all. While there have been dozens of FIFA soccer games throughout the years, this title, which launched in September 2012, notably offered “First Touch Control” for the first time, which affects how a player controls the ball upon receiving a tough pass. Play as legends in their prime, from Lionel Messi to Cristiano Ronaldo — but watch out, this game has been known to cause tension in even the closest of friendships (just like the real sport)! Preview it here.

5. WII SPORTS: TENNIS

In 2006, Nintendo released the multi-game package Wii Sports. It included baseball, bowling, boxing and golf, but it was tennis that was the focal point, and it remains one of the best even today, more than 15 years later. While the graphics are a bit more cartoonish and rudimentary compared to titles like Top Spin 4 (2011), the game play is fluid, fun and frenzied, thanks in large part to wireless Wii Remotes, which allow players to stand and swing at the oncoming ball like Venus or Serena Williams might. Preview it here.

6. TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 2004

Not only does this title have the most beloved intro, featuring rapper DMX, but this early incarnation of the universally beloved golf video game series also features 20 courses based on real life options, plus six fantasy courses. It’s a particular favorite on PlayStation because of the analog stick, which allows you to calibrate shots with unusual precision. PGA Tour 2004 was the first in the series to allow players to create their “Game Face,” meaning you could create the likeness of your golfer from scratch. And while graphics may have improved over the years, the gameplay of this series didn’t need to. Preview it here.

7. SPIKE VOLLEYBALL

Released in 2019, this title is a fairly recent addition to the sports game landscape. While volleyball doesn’t have the e-sports legacy of, say, basketball and football, there are dozens of titles that date back to the 1990s and earlier (Venice Beach Volleyball is a fun NES offering from 1991). With full commentary and 50 teams from all over the world, players can dive realistically into the contest for indoor matches that offer booming serves, masterful teammate setups and, of course, plenty of spiking! (Replays are lifelike, too.) Spike Volleyball does, however, require a fair amount of coordination between players so there may be a slight learning curve. Preview it here.

8. NHL 14

Debuting in 2013, this popular game is faster than previous titles in the series and showcases more realistic hits amongst the on-ice digital combatants. The game also offers more violent fighting between foes, if you’re into that — some have even described it as “brutal.” But such is the life of a hockey player. In addition, NHL 14 offers a “Be A Pro” career mode where players can improve the status of their legacies even off the ice. Gameplay and broadcast commentary is so real here that casual onlookers might think an actual game is onscreen! Preview it here.

9. WWE 2K14

Professional wrestling video games have a long, illustrious history, dating back to the Nintendo 64 days pre-millennium. But improvements have been made in the past two decades. Case in point: WWE 2K14, first released in 2013. Not only can you battle big names in the ring, but it offers different modes like “The 30 Years of WrestleMania,” which recreates three decades of wrestling lore and includes classic WWE footage. Players can take on opponents like The Undertaker, The Rock, Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan. Indeed, this game doubles as a history lesson and looks the part too, with stunning graphics. Preview it here.

10. UFC 4

Ready for some bloody combat between muscular foes? This modern Mixed Martial Arts title, released in 2020, is not for the faint of heart. UFC 4 offers 229 unique fighters and various modes, including Career mode in which players fight to become the Greatest. As you progress, you can choose to take on or dismiss certain fight offers or you can play online battling opponents in the intimidating Octagon. There are also backyard battles and literal underground forums. It’s like you’re an actual member of the Ultimate Fighting Championship! Preview it here.

 

Take your gaming experience to the next level by integrating a Yamaha AV receiver or sound bar into your gaming setup.

Silhouette of a person in a wheelchair on a hilltop at sunset raising a guitar in triumph.

The Healing Power of Music

Written by Shelly Peiken on . Posted in Creativity.

A little more than 20 years ago, our nation suffered one of the most brutal tragedies ever witnessed. I will never forget being woken by a phone call from a friend early that morning who said, “Turn on the TV, you’re never going to believe this.” And he was right. Part of me still doesn’t.

Just days after the 9/11 attacks, songs about air travel were banned from the radio and music sales plummeted but recording artists came out of their studios in droves to help us deal with the trauma. Sheryl Crow and several other artists appeared on America: A Tribute to Heroes, a televised benefit concert to raise money for the victims and their families. Although Ms. Crow’s contribution, “Safe And Sound” wasn’t written specifically about the event, it’s obvious how evocative it was of the day. The melancholy. The devastation. The heartache.

The following month Paul McCartney, David Bowie and The Who headlined The Concert For New York City to honor the first responders who put their lives on the line. Jon Bon Jovi, Neil Young and Alan Jackson penned inspirational songs about the unforgettable day. Bruce Springsteen compiled The Rising — an entire album based on the aftermath of 9/11.

Musicians raised over $170 million in the weeks after the terrorist attacks. Their generosity and empathy helped us, individually and as a nation, fathom and process the enormity of our loss. The universal language of music brought comfort to those who lost loved ones and communicated to them that they were not alone. Through music, the depth of their grief was not only understood but shared.

Such is the healing power of music.

Then, just a few years ago, the entire world was plunged into chaos by the arrival of a novel virus. Like some horror movie, everyone felt isolated and scared. City after city, country after country went into lockdown. Nobody knew how long it would last, or how bad the devastation would be. That’s when music-makers all over the globe stepped out onto their balconies and fire escapes to sing, strum, shred, pluck and harmonize in an effort to try and take peoples’ minds off of their loneliness and this mysterious illness. And you know what? It worked. It brought us together in spirit if not proximity. Jule Styne and Bob Merrill knew what they were talking about when they wrote the words, “People who need people are the luckiest people.”

Even my hubby and I jammed in our Laurel Canyon driveway. We aren’t first-rate musicians (which is why we call ourselves The Clams), but a neighborhood hungry for connection pulled up lawn chairs nonetheless and allowed itself to be lifted up by the sound of live instruments and human voices. It wasn’t only for them that I strapped on Ruby, my Yamaha TransAcoustic guitar. I went to bed that night with a smile on my face. I had sung away my own blues.

Nothing can change a mood quite like a song. Just as “You’ve Got A Friend” can fill an empty room when we’re lonely, “Dust In The Wind” can send us spiraling when we’re feeling just fine, thank you!

Researcher Elizabeth Krasnoff has done extensive study on the healing power of music in her paper “The Effects of Auditory Binaural Beats on Consciousness and the Human Nervous System.” As she explains, “Neuroscience research is just beginning to uncover the impact of sound on our nervous system. Shamanic traditions to this day still consider song the primary tool for healing the ills of the body and soul.” That may be one reason why surgeons have long played their favorite music to relieve stress in the operating room, and extending music to patients has been linked to improved surgical outcomes.

Come to think of it, my orthopedist recently used Shockwave Therapy — acoustic waves that lead to faster regeneration of the tissue — on my recently repaired rotator cuff. Though I couldn’t hear a thing, I believe my shoulder did! It’s feeling a lot better.

The positive impact music can have on Alzheimer’s patients has long been well-documented, and fellow blogger Rich Tozzoli has written here about his first-hand experience in seeing how just holding a guitar made a huge difference to a friend’s mother who was suffering from that horrific illness. So did my friend, hit songwriter Franne Golde, when she set out to find a way to keep her husband, record producer Paul Fox, connected to his music after he was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. The solution came via an organization called Music Mends Minds, a nonprofit that creates musical support groups for people with neurocognitive disorders.

Explains Franne, “Founder Carol Rosenstein noticed that her husband, a successful attorney and pianist who’d been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, came to life when he sat at the piano. Even though he was declining overall, he played perfectly. So she decided to start a band for him — they called themselves The Fifth Dementia. Soon others with Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, dementia and traumatic brain injuries joined up, adding their voices and instruments.”

Franne made a date with Carol to bring Paul to their next band rehearsal. “He was not thrilled at first,” she recalls, “but I convinced him that he could help, that this was a perfect opportunity to be a producer of sorts. Slowly he warmed up to the idea and began attending regularly, singing and playing keyboards and percussion. It brought live music back into Paul’s life. He made wonderful friends and it gave him a purpose, a sense of belonging and something to look forward to.”

Musical memories are often preserved because key brain areas linked to music memory are relatively undamaged. Someone who has been unresponsive for years may suddenly come to life. All you have to do is watch this video for proof that music can heal.

So whether it’s Mozart in D Minor, Samuel Barber – Adagio For Strings, Yacht Rock, Beyoncé, Disco, 60s nostalgia or the relaxing benefit of Singing Bowls, the next time your heart aches or your head hurts or you feel anxious, try picking your medicine from a playlist before you call the doctor. Give music a chance to heal you. It may be the only remedy you need.

 

Check out Shelly’s other postings

The Importance of Film Scores

Written by Jon Hadusek on . Posted in TV & Movies.

One of the most vital elements of a film is its score — the soundtrack that guides the viewer through each scene. Depending on the genre, the use of music can vary from minimal, such as a slice-of-life art film where the lack of music mimics the ambience of reality, to maximal, with epic orchestral arrangements adding to the grandeur of a big-budget adventure or sci-fi flick.

In the beginning, there were silent films, where actual live musicians and orchestras would perform music to accompany the action onscreen. (In those bygone days, the score was arguably even more important, as it was the only audible facet.) In the decades since, movie scores have become more dynamic and nuanced — and more rooted to what’s happening in any given scene. Sometimes it serves merely as subtle background music, embedded beneath the dialogue and intentionally undistracting. Other times it booms out of your home theater system or sound bar, lending an emotional tug to a climactic scene or turning point in the plot.

Here are some examples of how the score can enhance the viewing experience and help tell a film’s story.

The Theme Song

There’s no better way to ensnare the viewer than opening a film with a memorable theme song. It can set the tone and mood from the get-go, instantly capturing the audience’s imagination before a single character has even stepped onscreen.

Such was the case when moviegoers attended the first Star Wars in 1977. The opening orchestral blast of composer John Williams’ iconic theme immediately transported you to a galaxy far, far away. With its soaring melody and triumphant energy, it’s widely considered the greatest theme of all time. Other examples of notable theme songs include those in The Pink Panther series and the many James Bond films as well as The Godfather, The Terminator and Rocky.

The Atmosphere

The core function of a movie score is to provide atmosphere and ambience, accenting scenes and transitions with music of an appropriate mood. The late Vangelis’ soundtrack to Blade Runner is a perfect example. The implementation of synthesizers and electronic instrumentation brings the viewer right into director Ridley Scott’s futuristic dystopian rendering of Los Angeles.

On a more rustic note, Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood’s original score for There Will Be Blood projects the gothic Americana vibe of the movie with music equally as harrowing as actor Daniel Day Lewis’ star performance. The same could be said for Ry Cooder’s score for Paris, Texas, which also has a dark Americana tinge. Stripped down to sparse acoustic instrumentation and lonesome, lingering notes, Cooder’s soundtrack captures all the bleakness and depression that fills the screen.

Conversely, the absence of a score is sometimes the best way to reflect a film’s atmosphere. As an example, the road movie Radio On prefers the use of natural sound, and the only accompanying music is what the protagonist himself hears as he makes a lonely drive across Britain.

The Action and Suspense

It’s hard to imagine some movie sequences — especially in the action, thriller and horror genres — without music befitting of the onscreen energy. These scenes would feel pretty empty otherwise. In Alien, for example, the unsettling dark ambience of Jerry Goldsmith’s score actively promotes the terrifying uncertainty felt by the characters themselves, projecting the sense of looming fear onto the viewer. Howard Shore’s soundtrack to The Lord of the Rings trilogy is chock full of high-energy orchestral arrangements, providing epic musical accompaniment for The Battle for Middle Earth and its many sword duels and clashes.

Chase sequences can also benefit from a musical accompaniment that drives forward with equal intensity, thus amplifying the rush of action taking place. Post-apocalyptic action flick Mad Max features many such scenes, with screeching horns and brass underpinning the violent car chases and roadside skirmishes.

The Character Fanfare

Some films incorporate a fanfare to remind the audience of a particular character throughout a film. These pieces are musically synonymous with their respective character, with some obvious examples being Michael Myers in Halloween (sinister piano and string pads), Darth Vader and “The Imperial March” from Star Wars (martial orchestral), and of course, James Bond (spy surf rock).

Even if you hear these themes out of the context of the movies, the characters still come to mind. This is particularly effective in films with many characters, such as The Lord of the Rings trilogy, providing viewers an aural cue to help identify everyone. Here, Shore primarily uses folk instrumentation and whimsical flutes for the hobbits, haunting harmonious choirs for the elves, pounding orchestral percussion for the orcs, etc. Each group of characters has its own sonic palette.

The Soundtrack as a Storytelling Device

Some films even use the score as a tool to tell the story or advance the plot. Take John Williams’ Jaws  theme: The repetitious one-two string sweep is central to the shark attack scenes, gradually raising the level of suspense until disaster strikes. A more modern example can be found in the film Uncut Gems, with its soundtrack of shrieking noises and high-pitched frequencies actively disturbing the audience on a visceral and physical level, mirroring the anxiety experienced by the characters themselves.

The 1982 experimental art film Koyaanisqatsi took the concept even further. A commentary on the relationship between humanity and nature, it has no tangible plot or dialogue. Instead, a series of beautifully shot images are presented, accompanied by music from modern minimalist composer Philip Glass. The score and visuals run parallel, taking on an equal importance.

The Climax

Lastly, a film’s climax is a key moment for any score composer. At the emotional high point of the plot, the music must match it in intensity and grandeur. The 1939 epic Gone with the Wind is considered one of the greatest films of all time, and Max Steiner’s score receives equal praise. When tragedy strikes in the climactic scene, the sweeping melancholy of the orchestral arrangement is enough to bring a tear to the eye. Another example of more recent vintage is Prince’s “Purple Rain” — a tear-jerkingly beautiful use of music that makes its appearance during the peak moment of the film of the same name.

Dawn Chorus: Augmented Reality With a Disklavier

Written by Sonia Kanigel on . Posted in Piano Artists.

A piano is much more than the notes it plays. By some combination of its beauty, resonance, weight and presence in a room, a real piano can deliver a sensory experience that a recording just cannot match.

Sarah Meyohas, a conceptual artist based in New York City, explores this concept and more in her latest art piece “Dawn Chorus,” where she uses a self-playing Yamaha Disklavier piano as the centerpiece, in combination with interactive augmented-reality (AR) visuals set to music. Viewers wearing an AR headset see a three-dimensional display of iridescent birds trailing watercolor streaks of light as they swoop and flutter about the piano. When the birds alight on the strings, they trigger phrases of a complex melody that was composed especially for the exhibit. It appears as if the birds themselves are actually playing the music.

In 2022, “Dawn Chorus” was displayed at Top of the Rock, the observation deck at New York’s Rockefeller Center. Meyohas spoke with us about the piece and how the blend of inspiration and technology made it all possible.

Young woman in sundress holding headphones while leaning on a Yamaha grand piano.
Sarah Meyohas.

Q: What were your overall goals and mindset as an artist? Is there something you hope to show people through your art?

A: With art, I think there’s always some resistance to being exactly “one thing.” If it were just about saying one thing, we could write an essay about it. But I think a common thread in the work I’ve made is engagement with new technologies and how, maybe, they alter what it’s like to be human today. Some of my projects have taken technological trends and accelerated them to an extreme to reveal something.

In the case of “Dawn Chorus,” I’m using a technology — augmented reality — that’s more typically used in military or enterprise applications, where it’s not particularly meant to be a beautiful visual experience. In a sense it’s diverting this technology to something it wasn’t designed to do, which I think shows you something very beautiful and poetic.

Q: What do you hope people will get out of this piece?

A: It’s different from how you typically engage with either visual art or music. The piece we composed for this is three-and-a-half minutes long — and normally you never spend that long with an artwork. It’s [also] different from being at a concert, where you’re seated and not asked to engage with the music actively, as you do here. I want people to use that time to feel inspired and be taken out of their daily life. I want them to experience that moment of magic.


A video example of “Dawn Chorus” in action.

Q: How and when did you first have the idea for “Dawn Chorus”?

A: In 2018 I tried an augmented-reality headset and saw its potential as something really exciting for art, and I wanted to push its capabilities. After the initial inspiration, I knew I wanted to make it a musical piece and that a piano would be part of it. A piano is such a beautiful object and has such a presence in a space.

I first noodled around with some animation concepts that didn’t quite work technically. It took me a while to land on the idea of birds, but I knew right away it was perfect. Birds are linked to music, of course, and are small enough to see in the frame of an AR headset. It makes you feel like you’re wearing binoculars.

Then it was off to the races. We did our first demo of the piece in early 2020, and it was up for two weekends at the New Museum [in New York City] before everything was shut down.

View from inside of the observation deck of the Top of the Rockefeller Center. People are casually walking around and inside there is a grand piano.
The Disklavier at the Top of the Rock observation deck.

Q: Why did you choose a Yamaha Disklavier as the piano to be used in this piece?

A: It’s an amazing piece of equipment. There was really no other option — there’s nothing like it on the market. Technologically, we needed an instrument that could be triggered via MIDI. But also, we needed an instrument that sounds beautiful musically, a true acoustic piano sound. This piece would not be the same with an electronic keyboard. We wanted that illusion that the music is being played by birds landing on the strings. That was only possible through the combination of an AR headset and the reproducing ability of the Disklavier.

Person wearing augmented reality headset looking towards the piano.
The audience walks around as the augmented-reality birds appear to play live music.

Q: What can you tell me about the music composed for this piece? I understand it was composed in part algorithmically, but with contributions from a talented human composer.

A: There were a few cooks in the kitchen. I wanted the music to evoke water, as if the piano is a fountain that the birds are playing in — light and fluttery, with the sound of birdcalls. We took fragments from composers like Liszt and Debussy and did a statistical analysis to generate phrases that were similar to phrases in those compositions. I’m not a composer myself, so this was kind of a “hack” to be able to generate phrases, and then play them back and listen and adjust. Sometimes we’d have to change keys and figure things out as we went along. We also brought in a composer, David Francois Moreau, who composes for dance quite a bit — which makes sense because this was kind of like choreography for these birds.

The soundscape is a mix of birdcalls and flute, with a hint of some electronic sounds as well. The inspiration for that was a phenomenon called the “electromagnetic dawn chorus,” which basically occurs when people misinterpret ambient electronic noise as birdcalls.

There’s a sense in the piece that this is music humans couldn’t play, because there are just so many notes. The idea was that this is a composition only birds can play.

Q: What were your musical influences growing up?

A: I started playing piano when I was four years old and eventually took classes at the Manhattan School of Music. I like to play Liszt and Chopin and Debussy — a little Rachmaninoff too. As a kid I liked playing Béla Bartók. I remember playing a piece called “Diary of a Fly” that was completely dissonant and so hard to memorize. Maybe that’s what primed me to want to use music in this way. The piece we composed for “Dawn Chorus” contains some dissonant elements, in combination with some more melodic elements.

Q: What about visual art? What are your influences there, and how do they come into play in “Dawn Chorus”?

A: I love the Rococo period of art, and there is something kind of “Rococo” about pianos in interiors. In a sense, this piece is like a contemporary Rococo, where I’m using natural forms and taking them to this exuberant extreme.

Q: What kind of feedback have you received on “Dawn Chorus”? Are there any observations that stand out to you?

A: One comment that I thought was spot-on came from a friend who said it was very “Fantasia.” It’s that use of music — amazing, iconic music — in combination with the visual animation. So that made perfect sense to me: It’s like Fantasia come to life!

Photos: Top of the Rock

 

For more information about Sara Meyohas and her latest works, click here.

Watch more of “Dawn Chorus” here.

Woman playing synthesizer

MODX+ IS HERE!

Written by Yamaha Corporation of America on . Posted in Synthesizers.

For over 40 years, Yamaha synthesizers have inspired sound and expressive control. From the DX7 that helped define the sound of the 1980s to the MOTIF series used by top stage and studio artists around the world, Yamaha has long been a name associated with cutting-edge synthesizer technology. In 2016, we announced MONTAGE, a synthesizer that expanded the realistic instrument sound of MOTIF and modernized the expressive capabilities of the DX7, along with sophisticated dynamic control, followed two years later with MODX. (MONTAGE has since been supplanted by the even more advanced MONTAGE M.)

Enter MODX+: a new synthesizer with the DNA of MONTAGE and MODX in a compact, mobile and lightweight package, with three models to choose from. The 61-note MODX+6 is perfect for sound designers wanting the distinctive sonic stamp of modern Frequency Modulation (FM-X) synthesis. Performing and recording keyboardists requiring realistic piano, electric piano, strings, brass and other imitative sounds will appreciate the versatility and expanded range of the 76-key MODX+7. Pianists needing a realistic piano touch and sound will be inspired by the MODX+8 with its 88 graded and weighted keys.

There are three reasons why MODX+ deserves your attention: sound, control, and mobility.

SOUND

Like the flagship MONTAGE, MODX+ offers two synthesizer engines. Advanced Wave Memory 2 (AWM2) is a sample-based subtractive synthesizer engine combined with proprietary cutting-edge audio technology, allowing playback of extraordinarily detailed samples of instruments such as the Yamaha CFX 9′ and Bösendorfer Imperial 290 concert grand pianos, Seattle orchestral strings, and more. MODX+ offers 1.75 GB of internal user waveform memory, same as MONTAGE, and an upgrade over the 1 GB offered by MODX.

The second engine is based on Frequency Modulation synthesis, updated for the needs of today’s sound designer. Yamaha brought FM technology to the world in 1983 with the DX7. MODX+ features FM-X, with enhanced expressivity and dynamic capabilities as well as the versatility to create a nearly infinite variety of tones, from clear and bell-like to percussive and cutting or even distorted and chaotic. One of the major improvements offered by MODX+ is 128-note FM-X polyphony, as opposed to the 64-note FM-X polyphony in the original MODX.

CONTROL

MODX+ allows everyone to sound unique through Motion Control — a sophisticated dynamic control matrix. Its Super Knob plays a big role in this, allowing deep simultaneous control of multiple parts in multiple ways. For example, you can turn up a string sound while turning down a piano sound. Or turn a symphonic string section into a string quartet in a perfectly seamless manner. Applied to the FM-X synthesizer engine, the Super Knob can introduce tremendous amounts of sonic change where a simple pad becomes a bell which becomes something words can’t even describe!

Another part of Motion Control is the Motion Sequencer. It has a similar capability to the Super Knob but creates change rhythmically as opposed to manually — great for automating your modulation while synced to other parts. There’s also an Envelope Follower so you can use audio to control virtually any parameter or effect, along with ABS (Audio Beat Sync) that detects and synchronizes to the beat of an external device like acoustic or electronic drums, a drum machine, or any audio source. In addition, the pitch bend and mod wheels on MODX+ which, like those on MONTAGE, are rubberized, giving them a better feel and making them easier to control.

MOBILITY

Did we mention MODX+ is compact, lightweight and ready to go anywhere? The MODX+6 weighs in at just 15.9 pounds; the MODX+7 at 17.6 pounds; and the 88-note MODX+8 at 31.7 lbs. We’ve even got cool bags to go with them!

Check out the video:

 

For more information, check out Blake’s Take on yamahasynth.com.

Closeup of a guy playing a bass guitar.

Bass Tonality

Written by E.E. Bradman on . Posted in Bass. 1 Comment on Bass Tonality

Imagine you’re in a music store. You see a bass that gets your heart racing, but it’s hanging high on a wall. When you ask an employee for help, he says, “Sure!” and runs off to get a step stool.

When he’s not back a couple minutes later, you ask another employee. He’s on the phone, though, so he whispers a noncommittal “sure” and continues his conversation.

A third employee wanders in, but when you tell her that this just might be the bass of your dreams, she says, “suuuuuure” and backs away from you like you’re crazy.

Just then, the first employee returns with a step stool. He grins and asks, “You sure you want this bass?”

Each “sure” had a slightly different meaning. What set them apart? Tone.

The tone of your voice is just as important as what you say. In fact, the way you say something often conveys more meaning than the words themselves. It can be helpful to think of bass tone the same way: It’s the first thing we hear when someone plugs in, and a player’s tonal choices for each musical moment says a lot about them.

DEVELOPING GOOD TONE

Just as everyone has a distinctive fingerprint, skilled musicians develop a particular way of expressing themselves — a kind of “toneprint.” With practice, we first learn to imitate other players’ voices and then eventually develop our own. Part of the fun of becoming a proficient musician is learning to balance one’s natural tendencies with the needs of each situation, which is why the definition of “good tone” depends on the gig: What works for a death metal show won’t cut it at a roots reggae festival, and neither of those tones is quite right for a church gig, a salsa dance floor or a bluegrass session.

As bassists, our tonal decisions can make us or break us. In fact, we buy basses not just for feel, but for specific tones too — but where exactly does tone come from?

WEAPON OF CHOICE

Much of a bass’ tonality comes from the instrument itself, starting with the tonewoods used in its construction — not just the body, but the neck and fingerboard as well. The bridge materials and design also have a big impact on tone, as does the way the neck is attached to the body and the height of the strings (the “action”).

Equally impactful are the electronics inside the bass, starting with the type, number and selection of pickups. In addition, a bass with active electronics can sound quite different from one with passive electronics, and of course the settings of the tone controls themselves will also, unsurprisingly, have a major effect on tonality.

Dark and light toned bass guitar.
The Yamaha BB435 has an alder body, dual split single-coil pickups and passive electronics.
Light color bodied electric bass guitar.
The Yamaha TRBX505 has a mahogany body, dual double-coil pickups and both active and passive electronics.

Last but not least, your choice of strings (roundwound vs. flatwound, new vs. old, gauge thickness, etc.) can make a bass sound like a completely new instrument, as can a good setup.

As a bass geek with wide-ranging musical tastes, I’m fascinated by instruments that have come to be associated with certain genres and tones. Beginning in the 1970s, when both music industry advertising and bass-building took a quantum leap forward, the instrument of choice used by critically and/or commercially successful bassists could cement an instrument’s reputation for excelling in a particular genre. The rise of custom “signature” basses like those offered by Yamaha, along with the wide variety of tonally flexible mass-market instruments available today, have begun to change the way we think, but some basses are still closely linked with styles, eras and sounds.

IT’S IN THE HANDS

When people say “tone is in the hands,” it means that your way of expressing yourself will come through whatever instrument you play. In other words, a lot of bass tonality comes from you. The more you’ve trained your hands, the more sonic options you’ll have.

For example, having the ability to use a pick or play fingerstyle gives you a great deal of versatility, as do playing techniques like tapping, strumming or playing harmonics, all of which give you access to a universe of tone. Combining these with other choices, such as fretting-hand grip and picking-hand placement, increases your ability to reproduce a wide range of modern bass tones and conjure flavors that invoke guitar, synth or upright bass. If you regularly play several different basses, you’re most likely learning to modify your technique to bring out the best in each instrument, whether it’s using a different touch on passive and active basses or muting effectively on 5- and 6-string basses.

AMP, SPEAKER AND EFFECTS CHOICES

Your tone begins with your instrument and your hands, but if you use an amplifier, it will play a large role too. (An amp isn’t always required, since bass is often recorded direct, and in live performance, sometimes it’s fed into a PA system that way as well).

The characteristics of your chosen rig — the tonal signature and power-handling capabilities of your preamp (if you’re using one), amp and speaker(s), as well as speaker size — are all crucial factors in the search for a sound that’s uniquely yours. Especially if your bass has passive electronics (or is in passive mode), the preamp inside your amp is responsible for a crucial stage in your tone. If your bass has active electronics, consider how its circuitry jibes with your amp’s preamp. In fact, adding, removing, engaging or bypassing a preamp is one of the most popular ways to achieve a desired tone.

Last but not least, effects devices and pedals offer dozens of ways to subtly (or radically) shape your bass tone, although it’s worth mentioning that some poor-quality pedals may degrade your signal at the same time (a phenomenon known as “tone suck”). The addition of compression, for example, can make a huge difference in terms of sustain, as well as warming up your sound and giving it extra “thump.” Other effects, such as delay, flanging, phasing, chorusing, harmonizing, ring modulation and envelope filters can add a distinctive stamp to your bass parts — some players even like adding a touch of distortion at times, though it’s usually something to be avoided.

Studio musicians collaborate with engineers to deliver a bass tone that sits well in a mix, while performing musicians work with sound techs like FOH (Front Of House) and monitor mixing engineers to maintain consistent tone from venue to venue. Some players collect multiple basses that allow quick access to specific sounds, while others become adept at pulling dozens of distinct tones from a single instrument. But for most of us, the idea of “perfect tone” is a moving target, so have fun experimenting while staying open to what the song and situation needs. And the next time a bass line stops you in your tracks, take a second to think about all the components that came together to deliver that big, beautiful gift to your ears, and smile!

POSTSCRIPT: SOME COOL BASS TONES

Here are some examples of tonal settings you might want to try. These audio clips were all created with a Yamaha BB435 recorded direct — no amp, no effects. With its dual pickups (bridge and neck — each with its own volume control) and a Master Tone knob, this is a bass that offers a world of sonic options.

Turning both pickups and the tone knob all the way on is a great starting place for a bold tone that can cut through a mix:

Both pickups wide open and tone halfway up is a quick recipe for old-school slap tone like this:

Try turning both pickups all the way on, rolling the treble off, muting with your picking-hand palm and playing with your thumb for tone like this:

For a different flavor, use just the bridge pickup, add just a touch of treble, and mute with both hands:

Or, using just the neck pickup, roll off your treble and use your picking hand on the neck — far away from the pickups — for a tone reminiscent of fretless or synth bass:

 

Check out E.E.’s other postings.

Audio mixer controller and related equipment.

Step Up To A Better Mixer

Written by Steve La Cerra on . Posted in Live Sound.

The mixing console is the most important component of your PA system, acting as a central hub for all audio inputs and outputs. If you’ve been thinking about upgrading, here are some signs that you’re ready to make the move.

You Need More Inputs

Running out of inputs is a big indication that you’re outgrowing your current console. Maybe your band is playing larger venues and you’re ready to mic the drum set, or you’ve added playback tracks to your show. Or maybe you need extra microphones for a special worship service. No matter the reason, you’ll need inputs to accommodate those sources.

Closeup of a mixer board.
The Yamaha MGP32X offers 24 microphone inputs.

The mixer is typically the most expensive component of a PA system, so plan for the future with one that has more inputs than you need right now (it’s amazing how fast those extra channels fill up!). For example, the Yamaha MGP32X analog console offers 24 microphone inputs, plus four stereo line inputs, which should be sufficient for most venues. Although most analog mixers cannot be expanded, many digital ones (including all Yamaha TF and Rivage PM Series mixers) offer optional expansion racks and cards that can increase the input and output channel counts.

You Need More Outputs

As your band starts playing bigger venues, you might want separate monitor mixes for each musician. For example, the drummer may need to hear a click for playing along with pre-recorded tracks, but the rest of the musicians may not want to hear the click. Pro-level mixers generally offer more aux send outputs than beginner mixers. Both the Yamaha MGP32X and MGP24X models provide six aux sends with individual XLR outputs that can be used for creating monitor mixes, plus they have two internal effects sends.

Closeup of a rear panel on an audio mixer.
The Yamaha MGP24X provides six aux sends.

Additional outputs found on pro-level mixers like the MGP24X include a mono output (useful for feeding a subwoofer), extra stereo outputs for connecting auxiliary speakers, group outputs for patching into a recording device, and matrix outputs that allow you to combine different mix buses for specialized applications like streaming to the web.

Digital mixers often have assignable “Omni” outputs — a feature that you won’t find on an analog mixer. Yamaha TF Series mixers provide 16 XLR Omni outputs that can be user-assigned to the L/R mix, aux sends, or matrix outputs.

Screenshot.
This screen from the Yamaha TF1 shows that Aux Send 1 is assigned to Omni out 1.

Inserts

An insert is a special connection on a mixer that allows an external processor such as a compressor, noise gate or equalizer to be patched into a specific channel. Inserts are usually found on input channels, but many pro-level mixers also provide inserts on the main L/R output and the group outputs. Inserting a processor on an input or output channel allows you to optimize the settings of the processor for that specific channel — though the processor cannot be “shared” with other channels.

The inserts on an analog mixer often use a single 1/4-inch TRS jack as both an input (send) and an output (return) at the same time, and connect to the processor using a special insert cable, wired as shown below.

Screenshot of a diagram.
An insert cable.

Yamaha TF and Rivage PM Series mixers provide onboard digital effects (see below) that can be inserted on a channel, without the need for external patching.

Screenshot.
Here, a UA76 limiter plug-in is digitally inserted on a channel of a Yamaha mixer.

A Wider Range of Effects

Entry-level mixers usually provide just one or two onboard effects processors with a limited selection of effect types. Pro-level mixers — particularly digital models — feature comprehensive virtual effects racks that can greatly expand your sonic palette by allowing you to create unique effects for different instruments. For example, you could have one type of reverb for the drums, another reverb for the lead vocal and a third for the horns, each optimized for their respective instrument. Virtual effects racks also allow individual effects to be digitally inserted as described above. Many digital mixers offer a wide range of effects, including pitch shift, chorus, flange, phaser, stereo delays, and a variety of different reverb types such as plate, hall, room, chamber and reverse reverb.

Advanced Routing Capabilities

Pro-level mixers, particularly digital consoles, also provide routing flexibility you won’t find on entry-level mixers, such as audio groups, pre/post switching on the aux sends, and the ability to route effects into monitor mixes.

Audio groups (also called “subgroups”) make it easy to manage a large number of channels. As an example, let’s suppose you have ten channels of drums and want to make the entire drum set louder. Trying to move each fader by the same amount will prove frustrating and inaccurate. Grouping those channels together, however, enables you to control their level with just one fader (or two if you want a stereo group).

Digital mixers often provide a special type of group called a DCA or “Digitally Controlled Amplifier.” Unlike an audio group, a DCA is not an audio path — it adjusts the level of each channel individually, as opposed to summing all the channels into one.

Most digital mixers and some high-end analog mixers (for example, the Yamaha MGP24X/32X) also offer aux sends that can be switched between pre-fader and post-fader, making them equally useful as either effects sends or monitor sends.

Another type of advanced routing that you won’t find on an entry-level mixer is the ability to send effects to the aux sends. This enables you to add reverb or other effects to the monitor mixes, which can help inspire a musicians’ performance.

Screenshot.
Yamaha TF mixers allow you to send effects into the aux sends.

Talkback

Talkback is a special channel designed to help an engineer communicate with musicians on stage. Much more effective than yelling from the front-of-house mix position to the stage, a talkback microphone is routed into the aux sends so that it can be heard through the musicians’ monitor mixes. Most pro-level mixers offer this feature, providing an XLR input for the talkback mic, assignment buttons for routing the microphone into the aux sends, a level knob for controlling the volume of the talkback mic, and an on/off switch. A stereo assign switch for the talkback mic (again, found on many pro-level mixers) can be handy if you need to make an announcement over the PA system from front-of-house.

Improved Memory Capacity

One of the big advantages of using a digital mixer is recallability. Digital models can usually store and recall every setting on the mixer as a “scene” or “snapshot,” and many allow you to create libraries of channel settings, effects or EQs. Scenes can be created for each song and then sequenced to build a show. You can create different scenes for different venues, or for different performers in the same venue — which is particularly helpful in House of Worship applications where services may have different musicians and/or ministers. Scene data can usually be stored to and recalled from a thumb drive, allowing you to carry the data with you and load it into another console.

Screenshot.
Scene library for the TF Series.

Remote Control

A feature that you won’t find on entry-level mixers or any analog mixer is remote control via network. Many digital mixers can be controlled using a smart device, which opens up a world of possibilities. You can walk the room while controlling a Yamaha TF mixer from an iPad, and adjust your mix based on different listening positions. In addition, musicians can control their own monitor mixes from a smart device using apps like Yamaha MonitorMix, which supports the use of up to 10 smart devices simultaneously. MonitorMix provides each musician with personal control of their mix, reducing the workload on the front-of-house engineer.

Screenshot.
Yamaha MonitorMix.

As you can see, stepping up to a better mixer not only provides a greater range of sonic possibilities, it can also mean more options for taking control of your performances as you step up to bigger and better gigs.

 

Check out our other Tools of the Trade postings.

Five Ways That a Gaming Mixer Can Improve Your Game Streaming

Written by Mike Levine on . Posted in Gaming. 2 Comments on Five Ways That a Gaming Mixer Can Improve Your Game Streaming

If you’re a game streamer on a platform like Twitch or YouTube Gaming, or are considering becoming one, a dedicated gaming mixer like the Yamaha ZG01 will help improve the experience for you and your audience. In this article, we’ll explain why.

1. It Provides Just the Right Amount of Audio and Video Inputs

Closeup view of electronics unit.
The Yamaha ZG01 provides HDMI, USB and XLR/TRS mic connections.

A gaming mixer provides inputs for all the audio and video sources required for gaming — no more, no less. You don’t need a separate mixer and audio interface; the gaming mixer handles the functionality of both.

Typically, a gaming mixer offers the following connection types:

USB ports

The ZG01 features two USB ports. One port is used if you’re hosting the game from a computer that has USB-C. In that case, it not only provides power to the ZG01 but also carries game audio and voice chat from your PC into the ZG01 and sends your mix of game audio, voice and chat back to your PC for streaming.

The second USB port is used to power the ZG01 if you’re hosting the game from a console or from a PC without USB C.

HDMI® ports

These allow you to connect a game console’s audio and video signals to the mixer via HDMI. (Note: A gaming mixer won’t process the video but will “pass it through,” allowing you to send it to a video capture device for streaming on your computer.) The ZG01 offers two HDMI inputs, which make it possible to connect up to two game consoles (such as a PlayStation® and Xbox™, or an Xbox and Nintendo Switch™) and an HDMI output for a TV or monitor.

Here are the kind of connections you’d make in such a setup:

Diagram.
A game streaming setup incorporating a console and a video capture device.

Mic inputs

These enable you to plug in a microphone for chatting with your audience. The ZG01 offers both professional XLR/TRS and standard 3.5 mm microphone inputs so that you can use either a standalone microphone or the mic built into a gaming headset.

2. It Offers Comprehensive Control

Your stream includes both the game audio and your spoken commentary about the game action, as well any comments coming from your chat group. If you want to keep your audience interested, it’s essential that your viewers be able to clearly hear both the game audio and your voice, as well as their own chat. A gaming mixer like the ZG01 is purpose-built for doing just that. It allows you to easily adjust the balance between the game audio, your microphone and group voice chat. A good audio mix is crucial even if most of your audience is listening on mobile phones, poor-quality stereo headsets or laptop speakers with limited fidelity.

View of electronic unit.
The ZG01’s intuitive front panel controls let you easily balance the audio elements of your game stream.

3. It Has a Small Footprint

Many audio mixers take up a lot of space and offer dozens of knobs and switches, many of which are unnecessary for game streaming. Dedicated gaming mixers provide a smaller and easier way to manage your gaming audio experience. The compact footprint of the ZG01, for example, fits neatly into any gaming command center, offering just the right selection of tactile controls needed for real-time mixing and effects, with deeper, less frequently accessed settings available in free companion ZG Controller software.

4. It Lets You Fine-Tune and Personalize Your Voice

One way to make your stream more compelling and at the same time help differentiate your commentary from voices in the game is to add effects to your voice. The ZG01 provides a wealth of onboard effects, including compression, limiter, reverb, pitch, radio voice and more, plus press-and-hold buttons for echo and censor beep sounds. It gives you the power to substantially change the character of your voice, quickly and easily.

Screenshot.
Some of the voice-changing options offered by ZG Controller.

5. It Allows You to Enhance the Game Audio

A gaming mixer will sometimes let you enhance the game audio in different ways to add to the excitement for your audience. For example, the ZG01’s Focus Mode feature enables you to increase the ambient sound and reduce the player’s sound in the game audio to add to the dramatic effect in battle and other action scenes — there’s even a 3D Chat Space, where game chat voices get placed where you want them in a virtual space that avoids overlap with the game sound.

In addition, the ZG01 allows you to virtualize the game’s surround soundtrack, thus significantly enhancing the immersive aspects for your audience and making them feel like they’re part of the action even if they’re listening on stereo headphones. Check out the entire family of Yamaha gaming accessories.

Using Other Mixer Types

It’s worth noting that, although a dedicated gaming mixer like the Yamaha ZG01 or its smaller cousin, the ZG02, offers the most flexibility and connectivity options, you can get some of its functionality from a compact audio mixer with a USB output, such as the 6-input Yamaha AG06MK2 or 3-input AG03MK2. (The AG03MK2 is also part of the Yamaha AG03MK2 LSPK bundle, which includes a high-quality microphone and connecting cable, along with studio-quality headphones.)

View of panel.
The Yamaha AG06MK2 compact audio mixer.

Alternatively, you can use an all-analog audio mixer connected to an audio interface, which will route the audio signal directly into your computer. Audio mixers put many handy features at your fingertips. Their multiple input channels allow you to connect simultaneous sources (for example, multiple microphones if you have guests or more than one host). They also typically offer multiband EQ for adjusting the tone of your microphone as well as dynamics processing such as compression/limiting, along with panning and built-in effects for enhancing voices. However, they won’t provide the HDMI ports you’ll find on a dedicated game streaming mixer, which makes getting the game audio into it from a console much less convenient. (For example, if your gaming console has an optical out, you might need to convert that optical out to analog first.) You’d likely have to control the game audio level from the console or your streaming software instead of the mixer.

The lack of HDMI connections on a compact audio mixer won’t be an issue, however, if you’re playing the game on your PC rather than on a console. That’s because you can feed the output of the mixer into your computer via USB and then balance it with the game audio using software running on your computer, such as OBS Studio or Streamlabs.

 

Check out this companion article: “Five Ways a Mixer Can Improve Your Multiplayer Gaming”

Congressman Mark Amodei

Q&A with Congressman Mark Amodei

Written by Marcia Neel on . Posted in Q & A.

I am interviewing prominent people, some in the music industry, others not. For this Q&A, I talked to Congressman Mark Amodei.

I chose to interview Rep. Amodei from Nevada because it’s important to emphasize that arts education is a nonpartisan issue. Amodei, a Republican member of the House of Representatives since 2011, speaks joyously about his former music teacher as well as his memorable music-making experiences as a public school student in northern Nevada. Each year, he makes time to meet with me in his Washington, D.C., office, and he remains one of music education’s ardent supporters.
Q. Why is it important to protect access to a musical education?

Congressman Mark Amodei

A: I’m a product of my experiences — we all are. My experience in public schools in Nevada was well-rounded because all of us had music starting in elementary school. My grandmother had a violin, so in 4th grade, that was the instrument I learned to play. I was certainly not what one would consider a cultural icon, but a group of cellists and I would often get to go to a separate room and practice together. In fact, I once got to play a solo on the family “Stradivarius.” I was so proud to have actually learned a song that I could play on that particular instrument.

When the music teacher, Nonie Gardner, came into class, we always had fun, but she commanded our respect. Nonie was a lady of culture, and she was passionate about music. You not only respected her but also her subject.

Music is part of the fiber of growing up and going to school. In high school, you always knew the name of the football coach and the band director. It’s just part of having a well-rounded education.

Q. Which person from history, dead or alive, would you want to have lunch with and what would you discuss?

A. Any of the Comstock key figures — for example, John Mackay or Abe Curry (a.k.a. the founding father of Carson City) — to talk about what happened in those days and why, especially the establishment and eventual closing of the mint in Carson City. Turns out that much of Nevada’s silver was shipped to San Francisco to be minted because of an issue with the mint in Carson City. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall to learn more about what was really going on during the Comstock Lode days.

Q. What is your most embarrassing moment that you can share?

A. As an up-and-coming 5th-grade basketball player, I got the ball and promptly dribbled to the other team’s basket and scored. Oops!

Q. Other than music, what brings you inspiration?

A. When I was 40, the answer would have been different than what it is now. Now that I’m 60, I’m more introspective. I’m inspired by people who have not had an easy way in life because of major challenges (physical, environmental, etc.) and yet have persevered and achieved success. These people set a higher standard in life for all of us because of what they have accomplished in spite of their personal situations.

Q. What is your biggest pet peeve?

A. The older I get, the less tolerance I have for arrogance. There’s just no place for it.

Q. Why is music important to humanity?

A. In my experience, regardless of what kind of day you’re having — good, bad or indifferent — music will enhance your mood. It can be relaxing and soothing or energetic and motivational. It helps us with perspective because it can do so much for our attitude.

Q. What is your favorite guilty pleasure food?

A. When I’m in the right mood, I want a juicy hamburger with all the goodies. One of the best burgers around is at a place called Scoopers in the city of Sparks. I’m also a breakfast guy – more of a sausage links guy than a bacon guy.

Q. What book is on your nightstand right now?

A. I’m a techno-thriller guy but right now, I’m reading “The Curious Life of Nevada’s LaVere Redfield: The Silver Dollar King” by Jack Harpster and am interested in the subsequent implications for Nevada. While I was at Costco recently, I picked up another book that I’m anxious to read — “American Prisoner of War Camps in Arizona and Nevada” by Kathy Kirkpatrick.

Q. What piece of music do you wish you had written and why?

A. Most of my music affection is for the actual music itself — not necessarily the lyrics. Some of the Doobie Brothers music really fires me up. Specifically, I love “Listen to the Music.” I also enjoy the Free Willy song, “Will You Be There” — it’s the beat that drives the song. In terms of sound, I enjoy the “highs” with not so much emphasis on the “lows.” My favorite styles are pop, country and jazz. My jazz epiphany came as a result of hearing the Peanuts theme song! I’m also a huge fan of Mindi Abair (a Yamaha Performing Artist).

Q. What’s something about you that most people don’t know?

A. I’m a frustrated yard worker and truck guy. During my free time, I love to putter around the house doing handyman jobs. It also allows me to focus on something aside from the duties of my normal, daily routine.


2019 volume 2 SupportED magazine cover

This article originally appeared in the 2019 V2 issue of Yamaha SupportED. To see more back issues, find out about Yamaha resources for music educators, or sign up to be notified when the next issue is available, click here.

Yamaha Master Educator Doug Droste

Q&A with Yamaha Master Educator Douglas Droste

Written by Douglas Droste on . Posted in Q & A.

Douglas Droste is Director of Orchestral Studies at Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music in Ohio. As a dedicated advocate of music education, Droste regularly conducts youth and all-state orchestras and serves as a clinician and adjudicator for school orchestras and festivals.

He is also conductor of the Music For All Summer Symposium Youth Orchestra. A graduate of The Ohio State University and Texas Tech University, Droste previously worked at Liberty Union-Thurston School District in Ohio, Austin Peay State University and Oklahoma State University. He is a Yamaha Master Educator.

 

Q. Other than music, what brings you inspiration?

A. Two things: my children and athletes. My kids inspire me daily — to be a better father and person, and to hopefully give them the tools to be successful. Athletes are very similar to musicians in having to produce at a high level for a consistent period of time.

Q. When did you know that you were going to make music the focus of your professional life?

A. I knew very early that music would be a major part of my life. My parents, sister and aunt are retired or current music educators. Almost all of my relatives at least played an instrument or sang in choir.

Q. What is your biggest pet peeve?

A. Musically speaking (besides the basic fundamentals like intonation, tone, etc.), string players playing in the wrong part of the bow.

Q. What is your favorite guilty pleasure food?

A. Burgers and pizza, with a side of extra exercise the next day.

Q. Which person from history, dead or alive, would you want to have lunch with and what would you discuss?

A. Leonard Bernstein, a brilliant man and musician with an intense passion for everything he did. We would discuss music, politics, sports and him helping me get a guest conducting gig with the New York Philharmonic.

Q. What is the most embarrassing moment of your life that you can share?

A. My first job was as band director in Baltimore, Ohio. At my very first concert while speaking from the stage, I somehow managed to call the townspeople “Baltimorons.” It wasn’t in a negative way, so I think most people didn’t notice — or at least I hope so!

Q. What piece of music do you wish you had written and why?

A. “West Side Story” — masterful music and story.

Q. What book is on your nightstand right now?

A. Several books and magazines that won’t get read until after the last concert of the semester! My family has given me “How Dogs Love Us” by Gregory Berns and “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho. I’ll get to them eventually …

Q. Why is music important to humanity?

A. Music is in everything we do. It is an incredibly powerful tool for personal emotions, social change, rehabilitation, self-awareness, education, relationships … you name it.

Q. Why is it important to protect access to music education?

A. We must continue to advocate for music in our schools. Like I said above: Music is in everything we do. We must also use music to teach young people how to be good people. Unfortunately, not all decision makers are musicians or even artists. Once something is cut financially, it is that much harder to get it back. Keep your programs strong, perform often in your community, play at school functions regularly — stay visible!

Electric Guitar Tonality

Written by Robbie Calvo on . Posted in Electric Guitars. 4 Comments on Electric Guitar Tonality

The dictionary describes “tone” as the quality or character of sound. Of course, the quality of a sound is in the ear of the beholder.

Some of my friends revere certain guitar players, and often describe them as having great tone. Some I would agree with, some not. I’d argue that style, technique, chops and gear are separate attributes that contribute to the tone, but are not the foundation or source of the tonality itself. I’ve heard accomplished players make cheap electric guitars and amplifiers sound amazing, and players of lesser skill make expensive custom gear sound awful.

So where does great electric guitar tone come from? In this article, I’ll try to answer that question, looking at all aspects, from the physical to the metaphysical.

It Starts With Soul

It may sound clichéd, but I believe that first and foremost, great electric guitar tone comes from the soul of the player.

If this strikes you as vague, consider this: An extremely attuned and sensitive musician will respond in real time to the sounds they are coaxing from their instrument, making constant (and sometimes minute) adjustments in note choices, finger pressure, dynamics and phrasing until they achieve the tones they hear in their head (and feel in their soul).

When I’m presented with a new guitar, amp or pedals, I first listen to the sounds they produce and honor what they give me. I then combine that information with my personal touch to create my sound. I think you’ll find most skilled musicians do the same thing.

Does that mean we don’t care about what gear we use? Absolutely not. The sonic chain may start with the spirit, but the physical tools we use can be considered a conduit for the resulting tones.

Before we take a closer look at those factors, though, let’s discuss how playing technique helps shape guitar tonality.

The Importance of Technique

One of the fundamentals of playing guitar is that the fretting hand chooses the pitches, while the picking/strumming hand delivers the rhythm. If the fretted notes are played cleanly and are in perfect coordination with the rhythms, a positive and solid connection is made between the two hands, and the result is good tone. If the hands are not in sync with one another, the connection will be poor, and the resulting sound will be inconsistent and weak.

In my experience, these kind of synchronicity problems are usually due to strong downstrokes from the picking hand, with upstrokes that are weaker by comparison. These issues can be remedied by practicing scales purely with upstrokes until the dynamic, speed and attack are equal in both picking directions. Pay attention to how close the pick is to the strings; reducing distance in this area will improve tone, articulation and speed.

Don’t ignore the chords either. Practice clean chord changes slowly, with minimal space in-between each change, and gradually bring those transitions up in tempo.

It’s also important to have a handle on appropriate tones for specific styles of music.
If you play in a band (as opposed to playing solo), your main job is to create tones that support the feel, audio aesthetic and textures within that ensemble — challenges that will be crucial to keeping the gig. For example, the kind of overdriven tones you’d use for rock, blues and metal aren’t appropriate for jazz and funk music … in which case, you need to keep those tones warm and fat, clean and funky!

Now let’s move on to the physical aspects, starting with …

The Guitar Itself

Every guitar — both electric and acoustic — has its own intrinsic tonality. Plug a Yamaha Revstar into an amp and I guarantee you it will not only sound significantly different from electric guitars made by other manufacturers, but it will also be distinct from a Yamaha Pacifica or a Yamaha SA2200 semi-hollow electric plugged into that same amp. In fact, it will sound somewhat different from other Revstar models, and even (to a lesser extent) other guitars of the same exact make and model.

What’s the reason for this? A lot has to do with the physical construction of the instrument and the tonewoods utilized. Professional and Standard second-generation Yamaha Revstar electric guitar models, for example, employ mahogany for the body and neck, combined with a maple top and a rosewood fingerboard — a tried and true combination that harkens back to the ’40s and ’50s and the pioneering instruments made during the infancy of electric guitar.

Then there’s the issue of body type: hollow-body vs. solid-body, each of which imparts a distinctive tonality. Some newer designs, like that of second-generation Yamaha Revstar guitars, employ chambered bodies, which essentially combine the best of both worlds.

Neck design and how it is joined to the body is also a major contributor to electric guitar tonality. Does a guitar with a one-piece neck-through design and a truss-rod stripe sound different than one with a bolt-on maple neck and ebony fingerboard? Highly likely, as the wood, width and stiffness of the neck — even the width of the fret wires — all contribute to the transfer of tone.

Even the headstock plays a role. Anyone who has used a clip-on tuner will attest to the fact that resonance travels all the way from the player through the guitar and ends up at the headstock to produce the vibrations that the tuner uses to measure the pitch of the strings.

Electronics

Closeup of a portion of an electric guitar body focused on the knobs.
Yamaha Revstar RSE20 three-way pickup selector switch.

Needless to say, the electronic components of an electric guitar have a huge impact on the instrument’s sound. For example, single-coil pickups deliver a very different tonality than that of humbuckers or Filtertrons; that’s why many guitars offer combinations of various pickups. The magnets used in each, along with their windings, output levels and wiring configurations all have a profound effect on tone, as does the distance between the pickup and the strings, bridge and neck. Electric guitars with multiple pickups are outfitted with pickup selection switches; choose the pickup closest to the neck for a warmer tonality or the one closest to the bridge for a more “biting” tone, or opt for a blend of the two. (Some guitars, like Yamaha Revstar Professional and Standard models, offer comprehensive pickup selector switches that provide out-of-phase settings for even more tonal variety.)

Then there are the tone controls you’ll find on pretty much every electric guitar, as well as special features like the “focus” switch found on Revstar Professional and Standard models, which smoothes out the treble frequencies while boosting the lows and mids for a more defined sound. There’s also the dry switch (a bass filter) found on Revstar Element models, such as the RSE20 I’m playing in the video below.

Strings

Strings also make a considerable contribution to the tone. Lighter gauge strings generally lend themselves to articulations like bending, vibrato, tapping and legato-style playing, though at some sonic expense in terms of lack of “beefiness.” Heavier gauges work better for slide playing and add that extra bottom, but they are tougher on the fingers. In fact, you may need to compromise when it comes to strings. For example, when I’m performing live, I often need to play for extended periods of time, and that’s not physically possible for me on heavier-gauged strings; as a result, I have to find a balance between tone, gauge and a manageable string tension.

Picks

Yes, even your choice of pick (or your decision not to use one) affects electric guitar tonality. That’s because guitar picks are made from various materials (such as plastic, nylon or even metal) and come in different sizes and thicknesses.

Thin picks are great for strumming because they create a nice percussive sound, and work well in live performance. However, I often prefer medium picks (generally nylon) when I’m recording because they allow me to control the low frequencies and maintain clarity in the mids and upper-mid frequencies — something that’s extremely important when layering multiple guitar parts. I use extremely heavy picks for single-note lines because I like the solid connection the pick makes with each string. I can vary that dynamic using my inner sensibilities, coordination and tactility.

I’m also an advocate of using your nails for finger-styles, percussive rhythm playing, slide and double-stop parts. Acrylic nails impart their own unique tone, and allow you to articulate the notes the way you want for each individual technique.

Amplification

Electric guitars are rarely if ever played direct (i.e., plugged in but without amplification), so the amplifier being used will play a major role in tonality. It can be helpful to consider the musician and guitar as a painter and a brush, and the amplifier as the blank canvas on which the paint will be laid, layered and blended.

Most of the electric guitar tone will have already been created before the signal coming out of the jack reaches the amplifier and speaker. A quality amplifier and speaker combination like a Line 6 Catalyst® guitar amp will stay true to the delivery of the original tone. The amplifier’s tone controls (bass, mid, treble, presence) can then serve to accentuate (boost) or attenuate (decrease) different aspects of the sound for additional sonic shaping. A lesser-quality amp will alter the signal being delivered, usually deteriorating it to some degree. But even the best amp can’t do much with a poorly developed signal, in which case the result will almost inevitably be a substandard guitar tonality. The lesson is simple: Get your tone right before it reaches the amplifier.

Small rectangular portable guitar amp.
Line 6 Catalyst 60 guitar amp.

Effects

Just as electric guitars are rarely if ever played unamplified, so too are they rarely played without effects such as reverb, delay, phasing, flanging, chorusing, distortion, etc. Your choice of effect type(s) can have a profound effect on the tonality of your electric guitar — in fact, even where you place them in the signal chain (i.e., reverb before chorusing vs. chorusing before reverb) can have an impact on your sound.

Logically speaking, by choosing to add an effect, you’re looking to alter the tone. (That’s why they’re called “effects”!) The mere fact that an effect has been added will have an impact on the sound of your electric guitar. Some effects devices offer a “true bypass” feature, which means they won’t affect the purity of the signal path when the effect is not engaged.

The Video

The video below presents a good example of what I consider to be excellent electric guitar tone. In it, I’m playing a second-generation Yamaha Revstar RSE20 Element electric guitar, running through a Line 6 Helix effects processor. I used the neck pickup exclusively, with the dry switch engaged throughout. As I was experimenting with the melody, I found that the combination of resonant tones in the key of C# minor coupled beautifully with the humbucking neck pickup and my custom Helix preset. You may even notice a hint of flute-like tones emanating from the double-stop phrases.

The Guitar

Yellow electric guitar.
Yamaha Revstar RSE20 in Neon Yellow finish.

I really like how the Yamaha Revstar RSE20 faithfully reproduces my tone and adds that fat, warm sustain I look for in an electric guitar. It has a beautiful resonance thanks to its finely tuned chambered mahogany body, Alnico 5 humbucking pickups and neck-through body design. The RSE20’s tone control also features a “dry” switch that filters out some of the low-end frequencies for additional tone shaping.

The Wrap-Up

Without the musician, the guitars, effects and amplifiers all lay silent, absent of tone. So take time to evaluate your signal chain … starting with you.

When your soul and spirit connect with your physical being, they transmit and coordinate creative ideas through your fingers to the strings, tonewoods, pickups, amp and effects. When that happens, an electric guitar’s true tone makes its appearance as a unified sound and a unique form of musical expression. It’s not just magic, it’s sonic alchemy!

Photographs courtesy of the author.

Check out Robbie’s other postings.

A DJ on stage seen in silhouette from the show lights.

10 Best EDM Albums to Own on Vinyl

Written by Jeff Dorgay on . Posted in Vinyl.

While it can be tough to create the realism of a symphony hall in your home with a Hi-Fi system, if your amplifier has enough power and you’ve got big enough woofers in your speakers, you can at least transform your living room into your favorite club.

Here are 10 of the very best EDM albums you need to own on vinyl. Make sure your turntable is isolated from the floor so you can crank up the bass!

1. The K&D Sessions™ – Kruder and Dorfmeister

For many EDM fans, this two-disc CD collection of remixed tracks is considered ground zero in terms of the feel and seamlessness it achieves. Now that you can buy it as a four-album set on vinyl, things are taken up a notch. The tracks from Bomb the Bass, Sofa Surfers, Roni Size and more (along with two original tunes) will either keep you glued to your chair taking a major trip inside your mind or bouncing around the room with a glow stick. These beats hit hard.

2. Dehli 9 – Tosca

In this musical alternate universe to Kruder & Dorfmeister, Richard Dorfmeister partners up with pal Rupert Huber as the duo Tosca. Bass is in abundance — as it should be — but this record is very downtempo and ambient, almost symphonic at times. When I think of EDM, I usually think of a room full of people in close proximity. But this record always makes me want to take a road trip.

3. 4×4=12 – Deadmau5

When you first set the stylus down, 4×4=12 starts off slow and trancelike, but about a minute and a half in, the bass starts pumping and doesn’t stop till the end of the album. If you listen closely, you’ll swear some of your favorite disco tunes are sampled, yet ever so slightly in the way that has made Deadmau5 a living legend and an incredible curator of sound. But just when you think Mr. Mau5 has gone back to the ’70s, he slows things down with “Raise Your Weapon” and then backs you up against the wall with “One Trick Pony,” which feels a lot like a Rage Against the Machine track. This album offers some of the deepest bass you’ll ever feel, so get those subwoofers hooked up and ready to rumble!

4. Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites – Skrillex

It’s nearly impossible to talk about Deadmau5 without making Skrillex part of the conversation. Stalwarts of each may claim their guy is the best, but Skrillex brings his metalhead past to the forefront with faster beats and heavier hooks; as a result, Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites has a very different feel than 4×14=12. (Students of irony will enjoy learning that Scary was released a day after 4×4.) This is a bigger, more densely packed record that will have you looking for that last can of Red Bull in the fridge when you’re done listening. If you can take the whole thing in at once.

5. Pet Shop Boys – Electric

If you thought you knew the Pet Shop Boys as a synth/dance pop band, this album will get you rethinking. Electric kicks up PSB’s sound with harder-driving rhythms, the bpm meter cranked up, and so many layers of synthesizers, you might mistake this for a collection of Daft Punk outtakes. They even do a Springsteen song on this record (“The Last to Die”) and it succeeds brilliantly! Warning: This album may get you wanting to install a disco ball on your ceiling.

6. Homework – Daft Punk

Speaking of Daft Punk, if your appreciation for the helmet-clad French duo began with Random Access Memories — and that’s not a bad place to start — spin the clock back. Way back to the duo’s debut. This one’s as sparse as EDM gets; there’s barely more than a bass line on some of the tracks. Pure genius, or an uncut gem? You be the judge.

7. Ray of Light – Madonna

With the help of well-known techno producer William Orbit, Madonna puts together a record that’s equal parts pop, dance and techno. The sonic textures created here feel like they could almost be part of a David Lynch soundtrack, albeit not quite as dreamy. If you have a high resolution audio system, you’ll be hearing ear candy everywhere. Madonna keeps her smoky voice much more subdued here, building a sonic landscape that makes you want to get off the dance floor, sit at the table, take it in and chill.

8. 20 – Orbital

20 has a more coherent sound, and is somewhat more lyrical than some of the other choices here, yet there’s no skimping on the bottom end: these tracks thump. The killer mix of samples and ambient effects give 20 a Fashion Week catwalk kind of groove at times, and when they aren’t doing that, they feel like something you might hear as the backdrop of a ’90s video game. As a bonus, thanks to a high level of ambience, the tracks on this album will show off your audio system to great effect.

9. Moon Safari – Air

Where some subsets of electronica rely more heavily on beats and samples, Air’s debut album was much more of a textural exercise (as are their subsequent releases), and an incredibly intriguing one at that. Where Skrillex sometimes feels Andy Warhol, think of Air more as the Ansel Adams of techno, painting audible images in broad, sweeping forms. There’s a delicacy here that coddles you, where some of the others pummel you into compliance. Gentle drums and synth bits blend in with the solid bass lines; even a vocoder makes an appearance on “New Star in the Sky.” It’s far and away the dreamiest record on this list.

10. Play – Moby

Claimed to be the most successful electronica album of all time — and not only in terms of total record sales — every one of the tracks on this record have been licensed to the max. But the bluesy, backbeat texture of this record still stands up 20 years later. It starts out fairly raw but becomes diffuse at the end, as the beats and textures dissolve into your room. Even if you were there back in the day when it was released, revisit this one.

 

Check out these turntables from Yamaha.

Two different snare drums.

The Five Different Kinds of Snare Drums Explained

Written by Steve La Cerra on . Posted in Stage Drums. 1 Comment on The Five Different Kinds of Snare Drums Explained

Characterized by the metal wires or “snares” stretched across the bottom head, the snare drum plays a large role in just about all genres of music, including pop, rock, metal, funk, hip hop, R&B, progressive, marching band, drumlines, orchestral and jazz. When used in popular styles of music, it’s the snare that provides the backbeat on the 2 and 4; in orchestral and jazz pieces, the snare is used for color, accents and embellishments of musical phrases. Because it’s the centerpiece of the modern drum kit, the snare drum is the starting point for beginning drummers, and it often serves as a showcase for advanced players demonstrating their technical skills.

As you might imagine, there are a huge variety of snare drums available. In this article, we’ll look at the most common types and their applications.

Metal

Snare drums can be constructed from a variety of metals, the most popular being steel or stainless steel, aluminum and brass, followed closely by copper and bronze. Metal snare drum shells are constructed either by bending a flat metal sheet into a cylinder and welding the seam (so-called “welded” shells), or by spinning and heating a metal disk while pulling it over a cylindrical form (“spun” shells). The metal can also be melted and cast into a cylindrical mold, which is a very expensive process.

Small metal drum.
The Yamaha RLS-1455 snare drum features a stainless-steel shell.

Each of these materials has a unique sound, but in general, metal snare drums produce a sharp “crack,” a quick response, and a lot of overtones. Steel can produce bright, ringing overtones that require damping, while brass tends produce a rich tone with dark overtones. Metal snares in general have good projection, produce great rim shots (where you use a stick to simultaneously strike both the rim of the drum and the top head), and can easily cut through on loud stages, which is why they’re a favorite for hard rock.

Metal snares, like all acoustic snare drums, can be tuned across a wide range, depending upon the player’s preferences. Medium and high tunings generally project better while offering greater sensitivity and dynamic range. Low tunings are great for slow-paced songs like ballads, but can limit the dynamic range — meaning that you really have to smack the drum hard to make it speak.

Here’s the sound of the Yamaha RRS-1465 Recording Custom brass snare drum at a medium tuning:

Metal snare drum shell depths range from five to eight inches, with 14 inches being the most popular diameter, though there are models with 13- and 15-inch diameters.

A classic example of a metal snare drum can be heard in Led Zeppelin’s “Fool In The Rain.”

Wood

Snare drums have been made from wood going as far back as the 1300s(!), when a drum called a tabor was used for communication purposes. Wood shells can be constructed by gluing together thin plies (layers) of wood, by steam-bending a solid board, or by gluing together wood blocks.

Small round drum.
The Yamaha TMS-1455 Tour Custom snare drum features a six-ply maple shell.

A wide variety of tonewoods are used to make snare drum shells, including maple, birch, oak, poplar and mahogany, as well as more exotic woods such as wenge, jatoba and kapur. Each of these woods has distinct sonic properties. For example, oak produces a low fundamental tone with bright highs, while maple has excellent balance between mids and highs, with a warm low end.

Here’s an audio clip of the Yamaha LHS-1455 Live Custom Hybrid Oak snare drum at a medium tuning:

Multi-ply shells are most common because the direction of the grain can be alternated, producing a shell that is resonant, strong and stable. Multi-ply construction also enables a manufacturer to use layers of different types of wood to create a unique shell “recipe.” For example, Yamaha Absolute Hybrid Maple snare drum shells have a center ply of wenge, surrounded by layers of maple. This yields a shell that has a wide dynamic range, great response and excellent projection.

Small round drum.
Yamaha Absolute Hybrid Maple snare.

Wood snare drums sound warm and fat, and tend to be a bit less ringy than metal snare drums. Sizes range from five to eight inches deep with diameters of 12 to 15 inches, with 14 inches being the most popular. Wood snares provide a wide range of tuning from a low “thwack” to a high crack and everything in-between, making them useful in a variety of musical situations. As with metal snare drums, the tuning of a wood snare will have an effect on not just its tone but also its dynamic range. (See the “Metal” section above.) Ringo Starr played a wood snare almost exclusively throughout his career with The Beatles. For a good example of his signature snare sound, check out the song “Get Back.”

Marching

You’ve probably heard the distinct sound of marching snare drums in a drumline or as part of the marching band in a parade. The most common marching snare has a 14-inch diameter and is 12 inches deep, but diameters vary from 13 to 15 inches and depths range from 9 to 12 inches. Though quite large, marching snares are usually tuned very high, enabling drummers to play extremely precise complex rhythms and rudiments in an ensemble format.

A tall round drum.
The Yamaha MS-9414 marching snare is 12 inches deep.

The majority of marching snares employ wood shells, but unlike the snare drums used in drum kits, a marching snare may have retractable legs or suspension hardware that allows it to be held in place or attached to a carrier harness worn by the drummer.

Since they are often played outdoors or in large indoor spaces, marching snares are designed for precise articulation, maximum projection and durability. Marching snare wires are made from nylon or synthetic gut, which produces a dark, dry sound with less sustain than metal wires, and the snares may be independently adjustable. The shells may also have additional air vents for improved articulation and snare response.

Marching snares aren’t often heard in popular music, but there are some notable exceptions including on the songs “Tusk” by Fleetwood Mac and “Lose My Breath” by Destiny’s Child. Here’s what a marching snare sounds like:

Piccolo

As the name implies, piccolo snare drums are characterized by their small size: 3 to 4 1/2 inches deep with diameters of 13 or 14 inches (though there are some models with a 12-inch diameter). Piccolo snares provide a high-pitched, sharp “pop” that easily cuts through a mix, and rim shots that have a nice “bark.” They’re often used as secondary or effects snares in a large kit (as used by Rush’s late drummer Neil Peart, for example), but can also be used as the main snare in funk, pop, reggae or hip hop (as used by Yamaha artist David Garibaldi, best known for his work with Tower of Power). Piccolo snares can be made of metal or wood, but wood is generally the more popular choice.

Due to the reduced distance between the top and bottom heads, piccolo snares provide a fast response to quick stick patterns and ghost notes. They may ring quite a bit, but when properly tuned the ring can be musical, and the top head can always be damped to reduce the amount of ring. Here’s what a piccolo snare sounds like:

Click here to listen to David Garibaldi playing his Yamaha Piccolo Signature snare with Tower of Power on the song “What Is Hip?”

Electronic

Whether used as part of a hybrid acoustic/electronic or all-electronic drum kit, an electronic snare drum is one of the most versatile instruments you’ll ever encounter. A snare drum trigger pad such as the Yamaha XP80, combined with a Yamaha DTX-PRO electronic drum module, can provide a palette with hundreds of different real and electronic snares, as well as other instrument and non-instrument sounds.

Small rectangular control unit.
The Yamaha DTX-PRO electronic drum module.

An electronic snare gives you the ability to instantly recall different sounds, change tuning, or add effects such as reverb and delay. Some drum modules (like the DTX-PRO) can be used to sample (that is, record) your own snare drums, and the XP80 features multiple zones for playing rim shot and side stick sounds, which makes for realistic playing.

Electronic snare drums can be heard in all types of popular music. Two classic examples are the songs “Running Up That Hill” by Kate Bush, and “In The Air Tonight” by Phil Collins, which combines electronic drums with acoustic drums.

 

Check out this video of Yamaha Artist Larnell Lewis playing a Yamaha DTX10K-X electronic drum kit:

Here’s a video that compares the individual sound characteristics of various Yamaha snare drums:

View of a crowd at a stadium concert.

The 10 Best Concert Films to Watch at Home

Written by Jon Hadusek on . Posted in TV & Movies.

Artists have been releasing live albums for years, but a concert film can bring you even closer to the performance. In recent years, live performance clips have become even more relevant, with some artists relying on them entirely to promote their music in lieu of touring. Thankfully, with the power of a proper home theater system or sound bar, a good concert film can often be as gratifying as seeing a band in person.

Here are 10 of the very best that you can enjoy in the comfort of your living room.

1. The Last Waltz

Legendary director Martin Scorsese staged this masterwork documenting The Band’s final concert, in the process revealing the tangible camaraderie that permeated the Winterland Ballroom that memorable November night in 1976. Many consider The Last Waltz as being the best of the genre, and for good reason: Not only does it provide an intimate, up-close portrait of the group’s denouement, it manages to capture the zeitgeist of ’70s rock music in the process. In an unprecedented parade of talent, bonafide stars such as Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and others take the stage to play their own original material, as well as jamming with Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm and company. Stream it here.

2. Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé

Homecoming cemented Beyoncé’s status as one of the greatest pop stars of our time, documenting her now-legendary performance at the 2018 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. What’s especially fascinating about this film is the combination of vivid performance clips showcasing the entire set, along with behind-the-scenes footage documenting the creative direction of the concert and the events surrounding it. Stream it here.

3. Alice In Chains: MTV Unplugged

Of all the grunge bands, Alice in Chains were perhaps the most suited for the acoustic format of the MTV Unplugged concert series. They had already proven as much with 1994’s stripped-down Jar of Flies EP. Applying the tone of that collection to an entire live set, AIC put on a heart-wrenching performance, with sparse and minimal arrangements that added emphasis to the songs’ emotional weight and placed the pain-drenched vocals of frontman Layne Staley center stage. It may be a time capsule of halcyon days gone by, but it’s a requisite artifact of the era nonetheless. Stream it here.

4. Nirvana: Live at Reading

Notwithstanding their own breathtaking performance on Unplugged in 1994, Nirvana’s appearance at the 1992 Reading Festival in England — finally released officially in 2009 to widespread acclaim — was arguably just as important to the band’s development. It was an infamous event, perhaps best known for Kurt Cobain’s intro stunt. Playing off the then-rampant headlines surrounding his drug abuse and personal life, a smock-wearing Cobain is pushed on stage in a wheelchair. The morbid bit ends with him falling over after taking the mic and laying splayed across the stage. The jokes stop there, however, as Nirvana proceed to blast through an airtight, ferocious set. Stream it here.

5. Dave Chappelle’s Block Party

Comedian Dave Chappelle’s biggest contribution to the music world was 2005’s Block Party. With cult director Michel Gondry at the helm, Chappelle curates a who’s-who dream lineup of mid-2000s hip-hop talent that includes Kanye West, Mos Def, The Roots, Common and Erykah Badu. Watching this film is like hanging out at an actual party MC’d by Chappelle. It’s a true cross-sectional document of rap and R&B during that memorable era just over 15 years ago. Stream it here.

6. Prince: Sign o’ the Times

Prince was a potent live performer, as many of us got to witness during the Super Bowl™ XLI Halftime Show. At the peak of his popularity, he was downright godly, as evidenced by this visual supplement to his 1987 album Sign o’ the Times. Despite being a box office bust, critics and fans have praised it for being a palpable document of Prince in his prime. He even gets to flex some of his acting talents during the between-song narrative clips. Stream it here.

7. Pink Floyd: Pulse

Pink Floyd were always known for their immaculate light shows and visuals; you could listen to their records over and over again, but you really had to see the band live to fully experience them. Thankfully, the 1995 concert film Pulse would fill that void. The spherical light fixture used during this show is now iconic among Floyd fans, as it somehow lends itself to each song featured here, from “Learning to Fly” to “Comfortably Numb.” One expects nothing less from the group, who play a gargantuan 145-minute set that includes a full performance of The Dark Side of the Moon. Stream it here.

8. Fleetwood Mac: The Dance

This 1997 concert film and live album of the same name signaled the reunion of Fleetwood Mac’s most successful lineup: Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and Christine McVie. Whatever the history between the band members, it was put aside for a career-spanning set of greatest hits and even a few new originals from the three primary songwriters. Unlike 1980’s Live film — compiled across 60 shows — The Dance was shot in one night at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. The controlled recording/filming environment gives this a rare sheen that’s irresistible to the attentive home viewer. Stream it here.

9. The Cure: Anniversary 1978-2018 Live in Hyde Park

In July 2018, goth rock pioneers The Cure performed this 29-song set to over 65,000 fans at London’s Hyde Park. The show celebrated the group’s four-decade career and was released as a full-blown concert film in 2019. One might expect that they wouldn’t quite sound the same after all the years apart, but they put on a timeless performance that could have been lifted from their peak in the late ’80s. From the opening cinematic splash of “Plainsong” onward, the band casts an irresistible spell over those in attendance and anyone who decides to watch this riveting film. Stream it here.

10. Metallica: S&M2

In 2019, Metallica reunited with the San Francisco Symphony to reprise 1999’s S&M concert. Across two September evenings, the band played career-spanning sets backed by symphonic flourishes, re-imagining songs such as “Master of Puppets” and “Nothing Else Matters” in an orchestral metal style. Original S&M director Wayne Isham was there to capture the proceedings, and the resulting 150-minute concert film is a love letter from Metallica to its fans. The many shots of the band members’ interacting with the ecstatic audience are as entertaining as the powerhouse performances. Stream it here.

New Yamaha Brass and Woodwind Instruments for 2022

Written by Yamaha Corporation of America on . Posted in Gearguide.

2022 has seen the release of a number of new Yamaha brass and woodwind instruments. Here’s a look at just a few of them.

BRASS

YTR-8335IIRKG-LN Xeno Trumpet

A golden trumpet.

Designed for musicians at any level, the YTR-8335IIRKG-LN limited edition B-flat trumpet is based on the acclaimed second-generation Xeno trumpet line. It offers several distinctive features, such as a proprietary cryogenic acoustic treatment that enhances the instrument’s ability to resonate, a durable clear lacquer finish, a medium-large 0.459″ bore and a reversed main tuning slide. In addition, thinner valve casing and pistons, along with the modified angle of the branch tube (the “knuckle”) result in improved response and provide the performer with an ideal blowing resistance.

Closeup of the exterior of a trumpet bell with engraving.

The new bell design of the YTR-8335IIRKG-LN contributes to optimum resistance for a powerful tonal core and accurate slotting, as well as enhancing playability in the upper register. The unique “Kangakki” (“wind instrument” in Japanese) engraving is a historical reference that reflects the balance between tradition and the instrument’s modern design and construction.

WOODWINDS

YOB-441IIT Series Intermediate Oboes

Designed for intermediate players, 441IIT Series oboes build upon the popular Yamaha 441 Series with additional keys and features designed to enhance performance, including a unique third octave key (the “T” in the name), which serves to stabilize both the articulation and the intonation in the third octave. In addition, the bell bore has been redesigned to improve the intonation of the middle range, with a low B-flat resonance key that improves the intonation of that low note and a low B-C# trill key. All models utilize all-cork pads for reduced pad noise and include a thumb rest with an included neck strap ring for improved playability and less stress on the player’s shoulder and neck.

The YOB-441IIT model utilizes Grenadilla wood for the body and bell for an exceptionally warm and pure sound, while the YOB-441IIAT has a body constructed from ABS plastic resin for enhanced portability and durability in all weather conditions, even in geographic regions with very low humidity. The YOB-441IIMT model features a Duet+ body — a proprietary Yamaha technology where the wooden inner bore and tone holes are coated with ABS resin to prevent moisture from soaking into the body even during changes in temperature and humidity, thus preserving the oboe’s sound and resonance. In addition, the 441IIT and 441IIMT models are constructed with metal tenon joints, making it easier to assemble the instrument.

Oboe.
YOB-441IIT.
Oboe.
YOB-441IIAT.
Oboe.
YOB-441IIMT.

Allegro Intermediate Oboe

Oboe.

The YOB-541MTAL oboe is the latest addition to the Yamaha line of Allegro band instruments and is the perfect partner for both aspiring and professional players. Whether you’re a chamber musician, wind ensemble member or multifacted doubler, this instrument was designed with all your needs in mind. It features an attractive and durable Duet+ body that ensures consistent sound and resonance even during swings in temperature and humidity.

The injection-molded inner bore of the Allegro oboe is designed to resist cracking and provide stability and tonal consistency. In addition, the upper joint body is drilled out slightly larger around the bore and tone holes. Other features include attractive gold-plated key posts, all-cork pads and a thin valve casing and pistons for improved response and ideal blowing resistance. There’s also a ring key, a banana key and a G#-A trill key, as well as a vertically adjustable thumb rest for ultimate comfort with or without a neck strap.

YCL-650II Clarinet

Clarinet.

Like the original Yamaha YCL-650, the new YCL-650II B-flat clarinet is designed for those who are serious about their clarinet performance but need to watch their budget. The body is expertly crafted from responsive, high-quality Grenadilla wood for a hearty sound and impressive pitch accuracy, and the keys, ligature and mouthpiece cap are silver-plated for stunning visual appeal. A 17-key, 6-ring Boehm key system is utilized, with longer E/B levers and C#/G# keys that prevent your fingers from slipping, reducing the chances of fingering mistakes.

The YCL-650II 65mm barrel design produces a focused tone and quick response by optimizing airflow, with a resonance chamber that aids in projection and improves intonation in lower notes. An adjustable thumb rest with needle springs allow for faster key action and makes playing comfortable for hands of all sizes. Leather pads provide improved pad life, seal and overall tonal performance, while at the same time eliminating unwanted clicking noises. Because the surfaces of the pads don’t vibrate when the instrument is played, no spurious pad noise occurs and breath flows directly toward the bell for outstanding projection.

YCL-631II Professional Alto Clarinet

Clarinet with upturned silver bell.

Yamaha clarinets can be found in many of the world’s top orchestras. They feature accurate intonation and a rich resonant sound. The new YCL-631II is a handcrafted alto clarinet characterized by superb playability and a tone that is warm and full with powerful projection.

The two-piece body of the YCL-631II is made of select Grenadilla wood and the inner tenon sleeves are metal, which improves the seal and tonal resonance. It utilizes standard Boehm system fingering and offers 19 keys and 7 covered tone holes that are undercut by hand for precision, leading to consistent, uniform response throughout the instrument’s full range. The ligature, cap, mechanism and bell ring are all silver-plated, and the ball joint key connectors allow you to easily assemble the clarinet and reduces the chance of damage when doing so.

A small stone that has been dropped into a pool of water. There are concentric ripples emanating out from the rock in the water.

Staying Inspired When You’re Creatively Spent

Written by Shelly Peiken on . Posted in Creativity.

I’m sitting here with a song title and a melody but it’s not going anywhere. In other words, I got nothing.

It was so good when it came to me last week. I should have written it down immediately, when the idea was fresh and hot. When a pebble had rippled the water.

A feeling is never as clear as in the moment you first have it. But, no. I waited. And so much has happened since then!

You might think if it’s important it will come back, but unfortunately that’s not always the case. Perhaps I can come up with something else — maybe even a song that’s just as good.

But what if I can’t?

This is not just writers’ block. It’s more like a creative stasis, the dictionary definition of which is: “a slowing or stoppage of the normal flow.”

That’s exactly what it feels like. And trust me, it’s my least favorite state.

When creative stasis happens, I consider kinetic energy to be the best solution. After all, if we want to accelerate an object, then we must apply a force, and applying a force requires us to do work. After that work has been done, energy will have been transferred to the object, and the object will start moving again.

I’ve been through this before, so I no longer panic when it happens. I know from experience there are things that can be done to awaken a sedentary muse. Here are a few of them:

1. Upgrade your personal aesthetics

Silly, I know, but consider your attire. It may sound superficial; after all, no matter what we wear, we’re still the same person underneath our clothes. Yet I feel differently when I go to the supermarket in sweats and a scrungy ponytail, as opposed to shopping in a pressed pair of jeans and clean hair. Your “shell” influences the way you feel, how open you are to the world around you and how people regard you … all of which affect your energy.

2. Relax your personal aesthetics

Sometimes you need to go in the opposite direction. There are times when I’ll “put myself together” before a session but when I show up, I realize I’m overdressed. Stiff. I feel it as soon as I walk in the door. When that happens, off come the shoes, up goes the hair. Hey, you’ve got to read the room.

3. Alter your space

I’ve worked in my writing room for decades. Recently I replaced a drab futon with a turquoise ultra-suede cover and a taupe carpet with a black and white rug which spoke a new language (physically and musically) with the keys on my piano. Call me crazy, but words and melody-movement have started popping more freely. (My theory: The room was bored. Now it’s happy!)

4. Put your eyes on something else

My nephew recently texted me a photo of his newborn baby. The look on the infant’s face is priceless: He is exhausted, thrilled, in love and absolutely terrified, all at the same time. I studied that photo for ages, took it in, absorbed it. And now I am verklempt … and anything but stuck creatively.

5. Listen to music that makes you emotional

Speaking of newborns, I imagine a new birth is how Carly Simon’s song “Julie Through the Glass” came to be. It’s the song I took to the hospital 24 years ago to share with my daughter the moment she was born. I suggest you give it a listen … and dare you to be unstirred. A rush of emotion is often all you need to get the creative juices flowing again.

 

Of course, I can add lots of other suggestions: Light a candle. Go for a run. Call a friend (preferably one with whom you can engage in a deep, provocative conversation). Make soup. You get the idea.

Creative stasis won’t last if you throw it kinetic pebbles. So change something. Anything. Your clothes. Your hair. The air. The lighting. The scenery. Your company. Your hunger level. And keep tossing those pebbles into your still waters until the ripples won’t stop!

 

Check out Shelly’s other postings

Woman running a trail through a park as seen from behind.

10 Songs to Pump Up Your Workout Playlist

Written by Shelly Peiken on . Posted in Music and Streaming.

Music is energy. We look to it to calm us down, to help us soak up the sun, or to get us through a rough patch. And sometimes we count on it as a means of motivation — to help us break out of lethargy and … move!

I’m talking about fodder for the workout. The gym. The 5-mile run. That said, it’s not always easy to lace up our running shoes. It’s hard to keep from thinking about your to-do list and the emails you need to return — any mundane task that will aid and abet procrastination.

What helps me get started is knowing that when I arrive on the scene, I’ve already curated my playlist so there’ll be no decisions to make or fumbling with my device when I step onto the treadmill. I can just press play and go.

Here are 10 songs to consider adding to your playlist. All will help start you up, keep you going and cool yourself down.

1. When You’re Around

This tune from the group Water From Your Eyes tops my list because getting started is the hardest part, and if I begin with a song that delights me as opposed to a full-on jam, I’m more likely to stay on the machine! Besides, going from 0 – 60 too quickly will tire anyone out. This whimsical, delightful track will help ease you into your routine and put a smile on your face simply because your ears are happy. Listen to it here.

2. Slow Song

This sexy, playful, Madonna-esque track from The Knocks (with Dragonette) is actually anything but slow: it’s rhythmic, boppy and uplifting. Let’s go! Listen to it here.

3. Fade

The mantra-like lyric “I feel it” and the trance-inducing rhythm of this Kanye West track is sure to get your pulse pumping. Even better, it will put you in the zone where you’re no longer making excuses or thinking about what else you have to do today. Time to start sweating! Listen to it here.

4. No Mutuals

What are Fake Fruit saying in this ultra-catchy song? I can’t tell. What does “No Mutuals” even mean? I don’t care. Hey, when it comes to workouts, it’s all about the vibe, and this track’s got plenty of it. Listen to it here.

5. Alpha Zulu

Phoenix frontman Thomas Mars was inspired to write this song when he heard a pilot repeating the phrase over the radio during a turbulent flight in stormy conditions … which is probably how many of us feel about life at times. All the more reason to keep running until you get to the other side! The rhythmic driving production will keep you focused on the prize: not quitting till you get there. Listen to it here.

6. As It Was

There’s a real emotional essence to this Harry Styles song, which, along with its infectious hook and brisk tempo, will keep you moving from start to finish. Turn this one way up! Listen to it here.

7. Cold Heart

I’ve always loved Elton John’s “Sacrifice” and “Rocket Man,” and in this PNAU remix (featuring Dua Lipa), the two are mashed-up together in an irresistible hypnotic tonic. This track will put you about as deep into the head zone as it gets. Listen to it here.

8. About Damn Time

Leave it to Lizzo to deliver this body-positive self-empowering affirmation that will encourage you to keep going even when you feel you’re ready to throw in the towel and climb off the elliptical. Listen to it here.

9. Colors

The relaxed tempo of this Black Pumas track will serve to slow your pace and heartbeat when you’re at the end of your workout. You may be sweaty but you’ll be ready to go out into the world (after a shower, of course!) and notice its beautiful dynamic colors … just like the song says. Listen to it here.

10. Stay High

This uplifting Brittany Howard song is all about feeling good and staying that way — a message you’ll want keep revisiting long after your pulse rate drops back down and those endorphins wear off. Listen to it here.

 

Enhance your workout with a quality pair of earbuds like the Yamaha TW-E3B, which are water/sweat resistant and offer a secure fitting, along with great sound.

A sound engineer at the keyboard with array of technology tools on screen in front of him.

What’s the Difference Between Recording, Mixing and Mastering?

Written by Mike Levine on . Posted in Recording.

If you’re new to music production, you may wonder what differentiates recording, mixing and mastering, which are the three steps in the music production process. In this blog, we’ll clarify the distinctions between them.

The order in which they occur is almost always as stated in the title of this article. That’s because you can’t mix until you’ve recorded, and you can’t master until you’ve mixed. Let’s take a deep dive into each step.

Recording

In music production, recording encompasses getting all of your instrument and vocal parts — whether they’re audio or MIDI — onto separate tracks in computer-based DAW software (short for “digital audio workstation”) such as Steinberg Cubase. DAWs are powerful applications that you can use not only for recording, but for mixing as well — even, to some degree, mastering too.

Screenshot.
Steinberg Cubase DAW software.

You can divide the recording process into several sub-categories. Tracking (sometimes referred to as “recording basic tracks”) is a term that refers to capturing the foundational building blocks of a song, such as drums, bass and rhythm guitar or keyboard. Typically, the elements that are laid down in a tracking session are the first things recorded for the song.

Genres like hip-hop and EDM are exceptions. They don’t usually require tracking sessions because the foundational tracks are typically programmed using loops or MIDI rather than being recorded by live players. Sessions in those genres generally skip right to overdubbing, another sub-category of recording, where you add new parts over existing tracks. More often than not, an overdub session involves a solitary musician or vocalist. However, it could also be a group of players like background vocalists or string or horn players. The idea is that you’re adding parts onto an existing recording rather than laying down the initial tracks for a song.

Although it’s a matter of semantics, one could argue that pre-production also belongs in the recording category. It entails rehearsing, arranging and sometimes recording rough demos before starting tracking. Some would even consider songwriting to be a part of pre-production.

Another term to consider is live recording. In the studio context (as opposed to the recording of a live show), this refers to a band or ensemble tracking all their instruments — and possibly their vocals too — together. Some bands prefer this approach because they’re more comfortable playing together as if they were onstage.

Live recording in a studio works best when the facility allows for enough isolation between the mics set up so that there isn’t much bleed (“leakage”) between the tracks. Otherwise, that can create problems with the next major music production category: mixing.

Mixing

Mixing (doing a “mix-down”) is the process of combining all the tracks in a multitrack recording down to a stereo or mono file. (Some DAWs also allow you to mix down to various surround sound formats like 5.1-channel or 7.1-channel, but that’s outside the scope of this article.)

Your DAW will offer a dedicated window that functions as a virtual mixing console (sometimes also known as a “mixing board,” “mixer” or “mixing desk”), which emulates the kind of large-scale hardware-based mixers you’ll find in professional recording studios. In this window, you are able to move onscreen faders to adjust individual levels for each track, as well as pan (place) them left to right in the stereo spectrum and insert plug-in effects like reverb and delay.

Screenshot.
A DAW mixer is extremely powerful.

DAW mixers (and most modern hardware-based mixers) also allow you to automate aspects of your mix in order to make volume changes, as well as to adjust pan and effects send/return levels in specific parts of the song.

In a typical DAW workflow, the final step in the mix process is called bouncing to disk. When you initiate a bounce, your DAW sums (combines) the various tracks in your session into one mono or stereo audio file. Once you’re satisfied with your mix, you’re ready to move to the mastering phase.

Mastering

Without question, the least understood stage of the music production process is mastering. Think of it as the final polishing of the music, where you apply any necessary frequency or level adjustments to make it sound as good as possible.

Engineers who record and mix albums generally don’t master them, although that’s changing somewhat. Professional mastering engineers typically work in highly specialized facilities with finely tuned acoustics and the best monitors and amplifiers to ensure they hear the music as accurately as possible.

The mastering engineer will improve the sound of a mix using equalization and dynamics processing (compression and limiting), usually quite subtly.

Screenshot.
Steinberg WaveLab mastering software.

Although the mixed audio files are in digital format, mastering engineers sometimes temporarily convert them to analog to apply tube or tape qualities to the material and make the audio sound “warmer” (i.e., less harsh), before converting it back to digital.

Besides polishing the sound, mastering engineers must ensure the music is at the correct level for the delivery medium (or media), such as streaming, vinyl or CD. They’ll often raise the volume using a mastering limiter, which squashes down the peaks and brings up the overall level, assuring that it’s as loud as the competition.

Some mastering software even incorporates artificial intelligence to analyze your music and apply the necessary frequency and level adjustments. It’s probably not going to sound as good as if you sent it to a human mastering engineer, but it’s faster and less expensive. However, there are other aspects of mastering jobs that are better done by a human. For example, if the mastering engineer is working on a multi-song project like an album or EP, they also must balance the levels between songs so that the listener doesn’t feel the need to turn the volume up or down to compensate for volume fluctuations.

For vinyl or CD, the mastering engineer puts the songs in the correct order and creates the spacing between songs. Although a lot of what a mastering engineer does is esoteric and highly technical, the artist and/or producer will sometimes attend a mastering session to weigh in on any artistic decisions, such as spacing.

There are specific frequency and time limitations that engineers need to consider when creating a vinyl master (aka a “lacquer”), a disc that gets physically cut on a lathe at the end of the mastering session and is required for the vinyl pressing process.

 

If you’re just getting started with recording, it’s best to focus on the tracking and mixing stages; your mastering skills (if you choose to learn them) can always come later — as we’ve seen, that stage is often carried out by dedicated mastering engineers anyway. And don’t worry about not having sufficient experience: Even the best engineers and producers started at the same point you’re at now. The best way to become proficient at music production is to dive right in and start recording!

 

Check out our other Recording Basics postings.

Las Vegas High School mariachi band

Case Study: Launching a Mariachi Program in Las Vegas

Written by Stephen Blanco on . Posted in Case Studies. 2 Comments on Case Study: Launching a Mariachi Program in Las Vegas

The Las Vegas High School (LVHS) Mariachi Program was founded for a community that embodies what it means to “shine bright” and “be a joya,” which is Spanish for jewel.

As the founding director, I was able to create a five-year implementation plan that allowed for maximum student success. The plan included annual goals as well as action items. Systems were meticulously designed to ensure the school’s first new music program in more than 50 years would impact as many students as it could reach.

Mission Statement and Vision

LVHS mariachi sombrerosFirst, we wrote a mission statement and vision that were adopted by staff and students. Every decision made for the group goes back to these philosophies, which helped us during the early stages of creating our massive mariachi program.

Here’s our mission statement: The Las Vegas High School Mariachi Program is dedicated to the advancement and preservation of mariachi music. It is the mission of the Las Vegas High School Mariachi Program to allow students to explore, engage, and perform music from the mariachi genre while designing curriculum to assist students in meeting their future goals.

Here is our vision: The Las Vegas High School Mariachi Program seeks to be a performance-oriented program that is engaged in both local and national concerts, invitationals, and competitions.

Once we had our mission statement and vision, the work began. Our first task was naming our performing group. Our name comes from our century-old alma mater:

Nestling near the golden foothills, ‘neath the western sky.
Rests the Jewel of the Desert, dear Las Vegas High
Sing her praises ever louder, echoing back and back
Hail to thee dear Alma Mater, Valiant Red and Black

“Jewel of the desert” resonated with us, so after input from students, staff and our community, Mariachi Joya was born.

Year One

Our first year was mostly about introducing mariachi music to students and giving them performance opportunities, even as beginners. Instruments were ordered an

d arrived in October 2018, and our first performance was at a local middle school hosting a big Halloween event. At this time, we didn’t even have T-shirts to serve as uniforms, so we dressed in school spirit wear to go along with the Halloween theme. Beginners performing in their first month learning new instruments was not a popular idea. I had some pushback from a few stakeholders, but I knew it was the right thing to do. Our fledgling program needed to get some excitement and buy-in from students, parents and community members. Although t

here were about 100 students enrolled in the program, we selected the top 25 to perform for the first performance of Mariachi Joya. The performance was a huge success, and the students were so happy with their work.

The rest of the year was

mainly spent on developing the basics on our instruments and preparing for the end-of-the-year concerts. The students were in a fairly good place by second semester, so we decided to attend our District’s Advanced Mariachi Festival for a rating. Mariachi Joya worked so hard in the months leading up to the festival performance and received a rating of “Excellent” from the judges! It was an overwhelming success for us as the district’s newest music program.

Year Two

LVHSJoyaWithPresBidenBy our second year, we had a true mariachi group formed within the program. Joya became an audition-only ensemble with weekly after-school rehearsals. We had some strategic marketing goals set and wanted to get out into the community as much as possible. An original theme song called “Tema Mariachi Joya” was written for us by Michael Sital, a renowned mariachi arranger from Victoria, Texas.

We started the year off with a bang, premiering this new Tema at the Las Vegas Flamingo Library Mariachi Spectacular. It was an amazing experience to open the show.

Throughout Year Two, we continued to grow and rehearse. We planned to attend a national competition in May, so it was time to really dig into some musical details and aim for excellence. (Of course, this competition was canceled due to the pandemic.)

During our preparation, we were asked to perform for then-candidate Joe Biden at one of his campaign stops in Las Vegas. Even though we were only given a week’s notice, we jumped at this opportunity. President Biden spent a lot of time after the event to speak with the students and really get some insight on what their public education was like. This performance was one of our last ones before COVID-19 shut us down for over a year.

Year Three

LVHS JoyaVPHarrisOur plans for Year Three drastically changed because for a full 18 months, we were not able to rehearse or build on our momentum. Students were upset, attendance was at an all-time low and music-making came to a halt. Something had to be done, so we decided to produce a record. Microphones were dropped off at students’ homes and recording began in September 2020. We released our original song, “Tema Mariachi Joya,” the following month in October, and we pushed the record out to everyone who missed playing and hearing music.

News traveled fast, and a few months after the announcement of the record we were asked by the Biden Inaugural Committee to represent Nevada at the 2021 inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. We had a mere 10 days to put together this performance for the most historical event of our lifetime. It was a true honor and having met President Biden the prior year made it that much more special.

LVHS Joya CDpromoWe ended the year with the highly anticipated release of our debut album, “JOYA.” We had a sold-out album release party and consequently released three music videos of our favorite songs. Things continued to look up for our mariachi program, and we started in-person rehearsals again in preparation for something huge.

We announced “JOYA — The Tour,” and our first stop was Las Vegas City Hall and later that week we performed for Vice President Harris at the White House’s “America’s Back Together” tour. Joya began performing at some of our nation’s most iconic venues, including San Antonio’s City Hall, The Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington, D.C., Las Vegas’s esteemed Smith Center for the Performing Arts, and Placita Olvera (the birthplace of Los Angeles). Mariachi Joya joined many other professional mariachi groups on their national tours and performed with or opened for ELLAS, Mariachi Sol de Mexico, Mariachi Nuevo Tecalitlan, Aida Cuevas, Mariachi Divas, Mariachi Los Camperos and Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan.

Through this tour Mariachi Joya was recognized by The Recording Academy, The GRAMMY® Museum and Billboard Magazine. We also received a certificate of Gubernatorial Recognition by Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak and made international news as far as Guatemala. A culmination of all of our hard work was when we were named “The Nation’s Premier Mariachi Ensemble” by SBO Magazine.

Growth of Mariachi in Las Vegas

Through its first few years, the LVHS Mariachi Program has made a great impact on its students and the local community. The program’s graduation rate is 100%, and mariachi students have regular grade checks to ensure academic success. The program grew to over 240 students who are also involved in the other performing arts at LVHS like band, choir, orchestra, dance and theater.

As the high school mariachi director, I helped establish feeder programs at both of our neighboring middle schools. There are more than 600 combined middle school students taking mariachi at those schools now.

Trio Vegas from Las Vegas High School's Mariachi program Although most of the students won’t become full-time mariachis after graduation, we also have a 100% career and college placement rate for the 2022 graduating class. With a few students taking over family businesses, the rest went off to colleges and vocational schools. It is my hope that they take with them the lessons they learned through our shared experience with Mariachi Joya.

LVHS now has six auditioned mariachi groups: Grupo Vegas focuses on other kinds of trio Latin music, Mariachi Joya and Mariachi Cristal are audition-only competition groups that perform across the state and country, Mariachi Brillante and Mariachi Resplandor are larger performing ensembles that perform at multiple LVHS concerts, and Trio Vegas is made up of the top three mariachi students in the program.

Mariachi students continue to bring pride and excitement to our school that bears our city’s name. We used to say “be a joya” as a sign off, but now with so many amazing groups, we say “shine bright.”

Huntington Beach High School student playing guitar

Case Study: The Power of Pop Music

Written by Savy Leiser on . Posted in Case Studies.

In the spring of 2021, 12 student pop bands at Huntington Beach High School in California faced a dilemma: They wanted to perform as they always have at the spring concert, but COVID restrictions only allowed no more than 50 students to be on stage at once, including performers and tech and media students.

A normal concert would have six bands on stage per night, performing three to four songs each. Program Director Danielle Collins suggested that students film their songs to play on-screen in the auditorium. However, the students wanted to perform live, and they proposed another idea. They would perform for four nights, with a maximum of 23 students on stage per night, which meant that each band would have to learn and perform nearly 20 songs.

Collins recalls telling them, “You’re crazy! You guys learn three songs per show, and now you want to learn 20?”

But student leadership insisted.

“They did it … and they killed it! Everybody got way better, and they took more ownership because of it,” she says.

Because the additional work was the students’ idea rather than a teacher-issued assignment, they were motivated to put in the work. Trying to reach a goal, which even their own teacher said was crazy, incentivized students to step outside their comfort zones. “If I would’ve asked them to do that, they probably wouldn’t have taken the responsibility,” Collins says.

This philosophy of student initiative is pervasive throughout the Huntington Beach High pop music program, which emphasizes a teen’s ability to forge their own musical path. “The students have their choice when they come here to find their niche,” Collins says. “If songwriting is their jam, they go in that direction, and we help develop that. If they solely want to be a performer, they go that way. If they want to run rehearsals, we start walking them down that leadership road.”

Pop music is one division in the school’s overarching Music, Media and Entertainment Technology (MMET) program. Collins oversees the program as well as the pop department, which offers real-world professional experiences through concerts, community gigs and more.

Teamwork Makes the Music Work

APA Playlist 2019In the MMET pop music program, students join forces to form multiple bands, but the collaboration doesn’t stop there. Because of the amount of collaboration required to put on a pop music show, students get a full education not just in music performance, but also in teamwork.

Students can audition for the pop music program on their choice of voice, guitar, bass, keyboard or drums. However, a lot of pop music, rock ‘n’ roll and other genres require a blend of other instruments, including brass and woodwinds. That’s where collaboration comes in. “We have a full-time instrumental music director on campus,” Collins says. “If I need strings and horns for a show, we work with those guys.”

The MMET department also makes sure that students within each specialty work together. Currently there are about 130 pop music students who work together with the 35 media and tech students to put on, direct and film the three student-run concerts each academic year.

The second concert in February is called Playlist and consists of half original songs and half top-40 pop music. For this show, media students create music videos while pop music students work on original songs. “The students make the set list, vote on it and pick the order,” Collins says.

Finding Structure in Chaos

Because students have so much agency in the MMET department, instructors must be more flexible with their approach to pedagogy. “With a student-led program, there’s going to be a little more chaos,” Collins says. “Because of that, the scaffolding is different. It’s not going to be Bloom’s taxonomy, where students understand, then apply, then analyze and create. Creating happens immediately.”

Collins models this self-starting behavior by keeping an open line of communication with her students and encouraging them to share their ideas. “You have to be open to not having the answer,” she says. “I don’t have all the solutions. A majority of the really cool things I’ve participated in with my program are things my students thought of.”

While the program allows for a lot of creative freedom, a consistent structure keeps students on the right track. Broken down by grade, students see Collins either every Monday and Wednesday or every Tuesday and Thursday, but always at 3:00 p.m. sharp. Each class period begins with a 15-minute meeting to go over logistics, and then students break into rehearsals in separate music studios. Each student group has a 45-minute block scheduled in the studio to rehearse, and rehearsals last until 6:15 p.m.

Bringing a Song to Life

APA I Hope The EndFrom the moment they receive a new song until the moment they step on stage at a concert, students have about six weeks to learn and perfect their music — for the first three weeks they focus on learning the songs, and the rest of the time is for rehearsing.

Learning a song is all about breaking it down. “They’ll start out on instruments and will chart all the songs,” Collins says.

To make chord and lyric charts, students can research their music at home, work out the notes on their pianos or guitars, or even find chord charts online that they then verify. “We’ll check the lyrics to make sure they’re school-appropriate, and we have the students change anything that isn’t,” Collins says.

Once the song is mapped out, it’s time to break out the technology. Students record their individual parts and then turn in their isolated recordings — called “stems” — to Collins as part of their assignment. Collins, along with the rest of the pop music staff, drops the student recordings into LogicPro to put all the parts together. The staff and students then listen to the consolidated recordings to find any errors.

Students then receive rehearsal tracks for each of their songs, which have a metronome click added to the audio. While practicing, students gradually wean themselves away from the rehearsal track, but if they run into any issues, they can always refer back to the track to get back in the right groove.

Throughout the learning process, students work on setting their own goals, which include due dates for memorizing chords and lyrics. “I have them calendar out when they want their checkpoints, and we build the checkpoints together,” Collins says.

During the rehearsal stage, students use in-ear monitors in place of the metronome tracks. Because many shows start off on a dark stage before a dramatic lighting shift, students practice their songs in the dark to get used to performing without being able to see. Tech rehearsals and dress rehearsals follow as students prepare to become rock stars onstage.

Finding Success Through Failure

A program based on student initiative requires a strong foundation of trust between teacher and student. Students must feel comfortable enough to try and fail. That’s why Collins emphasizes the importance of failure as a learning tool.

To build that trust with her students, Collins is honest about her own strengths and weaknesses. “I admit what I do and don’t know about teaching pop music,” she says. “I was trained as a classical percussionist and marching drummer. I’ve never been in a pop music band, and my kids know that.”

By acknowledging some of her shortcomings, Collins has helped her students become comfortable with identifying their own places for growth. “We’ve tried really hard to build trust with the kids so they can be honest about failure,” she says.

She recalls a rehearsal with a sophomore vocalist. Collins asked the student how she felt about her performance, and she replied that she wasn’t really happy with it. Collins then asked if she knew what needed to be fixed. When the student confirmed that she knew, Collins simply said, “Take the time, and you’ll be fine.”

By making failure part of a routine conversation rather than a high-stakes evaluation, students can work on identifying their own weaknesses without pressure. “I try not to pass judgment … instead, I help guide them so they feel good about what they’re doing,” Collins says. “If they feel like they’re letting me down, they’re going to fail. They’re much harder on themselves than I could ever be.”

Professional Pop Stars in Training

APA Playlist 2019By fostering student self-sufficiency, the MMET pop program helps prepare students for music industry jobs. Whether a student is interested in performance or in the business side of music, MMET has resources to help them reach their post-graduation goals.

Classes are sequenced so that, on average, most upperclassmen have opportunities to perform gigs throughout the community. While freshmen and sophomores take songwriting and recording classes, juniors and seniors take classes like Advanced Professional Music, which teaches about performance, producing and management. Underclassmen record a holiday album every year, while upperclassmen spend the season performing holiday songs around the community.

Students learn multiple facets of putting on a show, not just performance. “I have students who are more interested in the business end, so I have them help me with the admin side of my job,” Collins says. “[Students] learn how to set up and tear down for a gig. They learn audio basics and how to troubleshoot their gear, and they learn advanced microphone techniques.”

Additionally, the MMET program has an offsite performance coordinator, who has arranged for multiple standing gigs for students, including a weekly paying restaurant gig. “The kids are performing, programming the set list, casting it, managing the pay, the gear, the schedule,” Collins says.

Resources for Growth

For schools that are interested in starting a pop music program, Collins recommends a few resources. She mainly emphasizes the importance of learning tracks, or tracks with the students’ individual parts isolated. For example, the pop music department’s vocal director will often take a new song and sing over the original record at a higher volume to isolate an individual’s part. These learning tracks are then deposited into a Google Drive folder that the entire department has access to.

Even if a school doesn’t have the number of staff that the MMET program has, Collins says creating these resources is still manageable. “Our vocal director did it [when she was] a student,” she says.

She recommends finding some strong students who can build tracks with isolated parts and click tracks. “Give them some learning resources like recordings,” she says. “Preparing the resources for the kids to learn these songs is the biggest steppingstone for other directors trying to do pop music.”

10 Great Arpeggios for Left and Right Hand

Written by Jerry Kovarsky on . Posted in Keyboard How-to. 2 Comments on 10 Great Arpeggios for Left and Right Hand

Arpeggios (broken chords—that is, chords played one note at a time) are great devices to use as an accompaniment for a singer, or as runs between the main melodic phrases of a tune. Everyone who takes piano lessons learns how to play them, but usually in a pretty basic fashion that’s kind of predictable and lacking color.

In this article, we’ll explore ten ways of making arpeggios more interesting.

1. Use Both Hands

You can add excitement (and a nice touch of showmanship) by using both of your hands to play arpeggios, alternating from the left hand to the right hand as you go up (and back down) the keyboard. This is pretty easy for even beginners to execute, and looks cool as well.

As an example, here’s a basic C Major arpeggio, played up and down the keyboard across four octaves:

Musical annotation.

The notes are played as eight-notes (two notes to the beat), but I have notated the stems/beams in groups that show which hand plays which notes. Stems that go down are played by your left hand, and stems that go up are played by the right hand.

After you play the first three notes and move into the notes to be played by your right hand, start to move your left hand over your right to get into position for the notes starting on beat 4 of the first measure. Continue to alternate your hands in these three note groupings. Notice that when you get to the top C on beat 3 of the second measure I indicate that you should use the 2nd finger of your left hand, but for that note only: you return to using the right hand for the following three notes.

Here’s another way to execute this top of the phrase:

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With this technique, you change your fingering slightly in bar 2 so you can play the whole phrase with your right hand, avoiding the extra crossover.

You should practice this until you get all the notes sounding smooth and are able to alternate your hands with ease. Try it with different rhythmic groupings as well — for example, triplets (three notes to the beat):

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Then take it up a notch by arpeggiating sixteenth notes (four notes to the beat):

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Be sure to explore this in all 12 keys, and to try other chord qualities too, such as a minor triad:

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We’ll be applying this two-handed method to the other nine arpeggios in this article as well.

2. Repeat Ranges

It sounds really nice to repeat part of the range you play, rather than just going straight up and down the keyboard. The next example illustrates how this works. Here, the left hand goes back over the same notes the right hand just played when ascending, and the right hand repeats what the left hand played on the descent. Note: In this, and all the following audio examples, I’ll first play the arpeggio slowly (with a metronome click for reference), then repeated at a much faster tempo, without the metronome.

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Here’s the same approach using a minor triad:

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3. Add Color Tones

Arpeggios become much more interesting when you add some notes that go beyond the basic root, third and fifth of a triad. Here’s an example where the right hand swaps out the root for the second (a D) — a simple change that sounds very pleasing to the ear.

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This also works well when applied to a minor chord:

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4. Add A Sixth

In a similar vein, try adding a sixth to your arpeggios, like this one, applied to a major chord:

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Here it is on the equivalent minor chord:

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5. Combine Both The Second And The Sixth

Commonly called a 6/9 chord (we call the second a ninth if there are tones from the sixth or higher present in the chord), this lends itself especially well to arpeggiation. Here it is applied to a major chord:

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And here’s the minor 6/9:

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6. Extend the Range Of Your Notes

Extending the intervals between your notes beyond the stacked thirds of a triad gives your arpeggios a more expansive sound. Likewise, not always playing the triads as root position chords can enrichen your playing. Here’s a great way to approach the added second arpeggio we explored earlier:

Musical annotation.

The left hand shape goes from the root up to the fifth, skipping the third (for now), and then goes on to the added second note. This open sound is more modern than the typical root position triad. Next, the right hand plays a C triad, but in its first inversion, where the notes have been rearranged to be third, fifth, and then root. This will take some practice to get comfortable, since both hands have to stretch a bit further.

This approach also works well using a minor chord quality:

Musical annotation.

7. Move Away From Typical Triad Shapes

We’ve kind of been saying this all along, but it bears repeating: try to steer clear of playing typical triad shapes wherever possible, as in this example. As you can hear, especially when played fast, the results can be pretty spectacular.

Musical annotation.

8. Combine Different Triads

As you start to explore 6th and 7th chords you can create good voicings and arpeggio patterns by stacking two different triads together. For example, if you combine both a C and G triad you get a C Major 9th chord, which also includes the major 7th. In this next example, these are the triad shapes we’ll be using:

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Now we’ll incorporate both triads into a two-handed arpeggio pattern, like this:

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Here’s a variation, using the 2nd inversion of the G Major triad:

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9. Combine a Minor Triad With a Major Triad

Stacking a major triad on top of a minor triad — especially if you add the 7th, 9th and 11th — delivers a really rich sound. For example, here’s a B-flat Major triad on top of a C minor triad, with those extra notes added:

Musical annotation.

Here are both triads arpeggiated in their root positions to sound the minor 11th chord:

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This time we’re only playing it up as a sweep and then letting it ring: you don’t have to play your arpeggios up and down all the time. In fact, when using them as runs it’s often better to simply play them either up or down; that way, it doesn’t sound so much like an exercise.

10. Combine Complex Chords

Lastly, you can combine complex chords to create very effective arpeggios. This example stacks a C dominant 7th chord in the left hand and an A Major triad in the right to create a very jazzy sound.

Musical annotation.

When we arpeggiate it, we’ll leave out the G (the 5th) in the left hand so there’s a better balance of notes per hand:

Musical annotation.

And here’s that same arpeggio as just a simple run going up:

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Notice that I left some notes out of the left hand after the first beat, reducing it to a single B-flat each time. This makes the arpeggio not only simpler, but faster to climb up — perfect for a flashy run after playing a chord voicing.

All audio played on a Yamaha P-515

Check out our other Well-Rounded Keyboardist postings.

 

Click here for more information about Yamaha keyboard instruments.

Seven Tips for Playing Bass in Your First Band

Written by Michael Gelfand on . Posted in Bass.

Most bassists don’t dream of becoming a solo artist — instead, they dream of playing with other talented musicians in a band. Whether you aspire to be in a duo, a power trio, a fab foursome, a jazz quintet or a big band, there are a number of fundamental steps you can take to pass an audition, meet your fellow musicians’ expectations and become an indispensable, full-fledged band member. Here’s a starter checklist to get you ready for the big time.

1. Have Reliable Gear

The instruments, amps and other gear that musical groups use are typically a reflection of what the band members like — or can afford. But other times the gear connotes a specific vibe they want to give off. (You probably won’t find an acoustic bass in a thrash-metal band, for example.) Which brings us to Rule #1: No matter what bass and amp you use, make sure it works as it should. In terms of your bass, that means it’s a quality instrument (Yamaha offers lots of different models to choose from, from entry-level to professional grade) that has been set up properly and isn’t suffering from performance issues like buzz and hum, poor intonation or an inability to stay in tune.

A red electric bass guitar.
The Yamaha TRBX174 is an excellent entry-level bass.

Similarly, be sure your amp is suitable for the type of music you’ll be playing, that it sounds good, has adequate power and no blown speakers. The well-known company Ampeg make a line of Rocket Bass amps that are all eminently suitable for bassists in first-time bands. While we’re at it, make sure your instrument cable works perfectly, your strap is in your case, you have a fresh battery if you own a bass equipped with active electronics, and an extra set of strings in case you break one. In other words, be prepared.

A living room setting with simple floor lamp, hardwood floors and large turquoise couch with bass guitar on it in background. In foreground are a variety of sized amps.
Any of these Ampeg Rocket Bass amps will serve you well in your first band.

The bottom line is this: You can be the best player in the world, but if your gear doesn’t function properly, that’s what people will remember about you. As the saying goes, you only get to make a first impression once.

2. Show Up on Time

Whether you’re going to an audition, a rehearsal or a gig, show up on time. Better yet, be early. No excuses. Being late is bad form, and starts you off on the wrong foot. It’s always good form to be punctual; and if you can’t be early, at least don’t turn up late. Of course, it’s inevitable that someone will be delayed every once in a while for a valid reason, and at some point it’ll happen to you. But it can’t happen over and over again, or you’ll find yourself outside looking in. Every minute of rented rehearsal space costs money, and even if money isn’t an issue, you shouldn’t keep other people waiting for you, especially if you’re the new person in the band. The issue is magnified when you’re gigging: Do not under any circumstances show up late and miss sound check or show time. Most bands have at least one time-challenged member, but don’t let that person be you.

3. Do Your Homework

Don’t show up to an audition or rehearsal without knowing the material you’ll be playing. If you know most of the songs and have questions about a specific change or part you don’t understand, that’s fine. But if you think you’re going to waltz into the room without having run through the material beforehand, think again: Your lack of preparedness is probably going to be obvious, and it’s going to tick off your bandmates. Showing up unprepared says you don’t care enough about the people you’re playing with, and/or that you think too highly of your own chops. Believe me, it’s not the precedent you want to set.

I suggest you make it a habit to run through the songs on your own at least once or twice before each rehearsal — enough to ensure that nothing comes as a surprise when you’re practicing with your bandmates. Sometimes it’s enough to stick to root notes in the early stages of working through a song if you don’t have the specifics of a bassline down yet, but at the very least, you have to know the chord changes; otherwise, you’ll be lost, and everyone will hear you flailing around. It’s the surest way to flub an audition or ruin a rehearsal. So don’t be lazy. Learn the material.

4. Learn at Least a Little Music Theory

Great players aren’t born, they’re forged in the fires of practice, studying, listening and performing. For me, studying theory has always been the weakest aspect of my playing, but I’ve always known enough to understand what’s going on. In other words, I know what I don’t know — and it’s a lot.

That said, I can hear a drum groove and figure out the time signature, select the right notes to play in a given progression or arrangement, and I am conversant with other musicians when we’re using actual words rather than notes to communicate what we’re doing or want to do. Degrees in music theory aren’t required, but they won’t hurt, and having basic knowledge is always an advantage over ignorance. The more you know, the more you can contribute to the whole.

5. Bring a Tuner

In this day and age, a tuner is a no-brainer for home, stage or studio use, whether it’s a clip-on unit that attaches to your headstock like the Yamaha GCT1, a stompbox, a multi-effect device with a built-in tuner or a dedicated rack-mounted tuner. For the purposes of auditions and rehearsals, any of these options will do. You don’t necessarily need to mute your volume when you’re tuning up, although doing so is always appreciated, and is a pro move.

But unless you have perfect pitch (and you most likely don’t), you need to have a tuner in your signal chain or within easy reach, and you need to use it religiously.

Small screen with clip.
Yamaha GCT1 clip-on tuner.

If you don’t own a tuner, go buy one. If you own one and don’t use it, stop undermining yourself and make using it a habit. Playing in tune won’t necessarily make you better, but it eliminates a problem that could otherwise doom your tenure in any band.

6. Less is More

Auditions are your first opportunity to show off your talent and versatility, but don’t overdo it. Play with energy, and in the pocket, but only play what’s necessary. Experienced bassists know that the space in-between the notes is just as important as what you play. A good bass line is a combination of the right note pattern, the right syncopation, and lots of air for it to breathe. Resist the urge to show off and play too much.

7. Lock in with the Drummer

The essence of groove is when the bass and drums lock together. It’s that magical “mojo” that melds the two, making each instrument sound better and more powerful than they do on their own. You need to learn how to read the drummer’s mind simply by looking into their eyes. That doesn’t mean staring at their foot to copy their kick drum pattern (although that can work wonders when all else fails). It means knowing your part, knowing their part, actively listening, and complementing each other with your rhythmic and note choices.

When your bassline slots in with a kick drum pattern, everyone in the room will hear it and respond to it — the audience and your fellow bandmembers alike. One thing most great pop, rock, soul and R&B records have in common is that the drums and bass are working hand-in-hand from start to finish. Believe me, when you learn how to pull this off, it feels so good, it almost becomes an obsession — the more you do it, the more you want to do it. The best rhythm sections do it with authority.

The best way to teach yourself how to find a groove is to practice scales and patterns with a metronome — the slower the better — so that you can nail beats at any reasonable tempo. Then raise your game by playing along with drum loops, a drum machine, isolated drum tracks, or your favorite songs. As you move on to playing with your band’s drummer, make this a focus and eventually it will start to happen all by itself.

 

So, to summarize: Get your gear together. Show up on time. Do your homework. Learn some music theory. Bring a tuner. Adopt a “less is more” approach. Work hard with your drummer to craft a groove. If you do these things, you’ll be off to a great start. So what are you waiting for? Grab that bass and start rocking!

Collaborative Concerts Grow Musicianship and Community

Written by Matthew Martindale on . Posted in Teaching Tips.

Band directors are always looking for new ways to get students excited. One sure-fire way to do this is to have students observe other students perform, which usually happens during competitions, where they watch groups in different categories than themselves.

This is a great educational opportunity because students learn to identify what entails a great performance.

Before the pandemic, I never thought of creating special concert events with our band program. However, during the past three academic years, I have worked with a great group of people to figure out the ins and outs of planning a collaborative concert. If this is something you’re interested in developing, I hope that you can learn from my hits and misses.

First Collaborative Concert: Christmas Celebration

band posingOur first collaboration was within our own school during the 2019-2020 school year. Ashlyn Kuyrkendall, the choral director, and I wanted to put together a big event to open The Grande Hall, part of the new performing and visual arts center in town. Our idea was a Christmas Celebration, showcasing all aspects of the music departments at Shelby County High School (SCHS) and Columbiana Middle School, for all of Columbiana to enjoy. We began planning in August with the Shelby County Arts Council and city officials. The process of getting this concert off the ground was much more work than we anticipated.

First, we received the go-ahead from the school administration and the arts council for our December concert date. We were told that the venue would be ready even though it was in the final stages of construction. The Grande Hall was ready — barely. We had dress rehearsals with the painters in the hall, and students had to unpack hundreds of chairs for the floor.

Second, we learned that having a concert off campus can be tricky. You must make sure that you have everything covered, such as equipment, sound, risers, as well as a plan A, B and C — in case anything goes awry.

Together, Mrs. Kuyrkendall and I crafted an event that is still talked about today! The concert itself was a great success, but the required planning prepared me for future collaborative endeavors.

Second Collaborative Concert: Arts on Main

Arts on Main posterAt the end of the 2020-2021 school year, the fine arts teachers at SCHS were approached by our district’s fine arts supervisor about starting an annual end-of-the-school-year arts event in our town. We are not the largest high school in our school system, but we are home to the central office, and Columbiana has a thriving main street, which is part of every quintessential southern town. At first, we were caught off guard because this would be our first big event since the pandemic, but as we started planning, we saw how this event would be great for our community and our school system.

With the help of other district teachers, we hashed out a plan to have groups representing each of the seven school zones in our system. We partnered with our city’s Main Street Columbiana and the Shelby County Arts Council, and with only a few weeks of planning, we arranged to have two stages for performances, art installations, food trucks and store fronts opened for the big event.

Challenges we faced included timing, weather (because it was an outdoor event), coverage and ensuring that all the local businesses were happy. Just when we thought everything was taken care of, we learned that a separate event would be taking place in one of the venues in the arts center. We could not use that section of the center, but everything else was open to us. We had chosen that venue as our rain backup plan, but luckily, we were blessed with a great day of weather, and everything went off without a hitch.

main street aerialThe second year of the event in 2021-2022 brought more challenges. This time, the arts center was completely booked, so we were only able to use our main street area. We revamped our event with some changes that really made the event shine. First, we moved the two performance stages to each end of Main Street. This created a corridor and centralized the focus of the event. The previous year, one stage was on the street and the other was around the block at the arts center. Although this allowed for a bigger footprint, the spread-out nature of the event seemed to create less of a buzz.

With the lack of space at the arts council, we were unable to have our county-wide high school senior visual arts display that we did the first year. Instead, we featured the artwork of the seniors in each storefront. We felt this brought more traffic into the shops and created a buzz about it more than in previous years.

We are in the process of planning year three of Arts on Main, and we believe that some of our new ideas will highlight the arts even more in our great small town. We want to continue the same buzz from the second year with a more centralized location, but we also want to incorporate our multimillion-dollar arts center in town. We want a similar set-up as year one with one stage near the arts center and park. To encourage foot traffic in that area, we plan to have vendors in the park. We also want a final celebration performance at night, featuring all performing arts students from the seven school zones along with a fireworks display.

Third Collaborative Concert: Joint Jazz Concert with the University of Montevallo

The final collaboration that I worked on over the past few years, was a concert with the University of Montevallo, which is about 25 minutes away from SCHS. We have several teachers who are alumni of the school, and many Shelby County students attend college there.

JustJazz posterMontevallo has a very successful band program, and the director, Joe Ardavino, is one of the nicest people you will ever meet. At the start of the 2021-2022 school year, our program at SCHS expanded its course offerings to include Jazz Band for the first time. I knew it would take a while to get the jazz group up and running. We spent the first semester learning the language and theory behind jazz. We performed at some community events during the holidays to get the group used to playing in public.

Olivia Snyder, a SCHS special education teacher, who helps with the band, is a Montevallo alum, and I mentioned to her in passing that I thought it would be cool if we did a collaborative concert with Montevallo’s jazz ensemble at the end of the year.  The next morning, I was cc’d on an email between her and Joe.

Before I knew it, we were planning a concert for April in correlation with Jazz Appreciation Month. We just needed a venue, so I called the Shelby County Arts Council and asked if the Black Box Theater, which seats a couple hundred guests and has great acoustics, would be available. It was!

We had numerous discussions about what we wanted the concert to be and settled on each jazz group playing a 20-minute set to highlight the jazz programs at SCHS and Montevallo. Then the concert would end with a jam session between both groups. My jazz students were so excited about the joint concert, and even students who were not in jazz band were excited to be audience members.

The planning for this event was beyond easy, and it was due to all the previous collaborative events I had worked on. This is another event I always get on the calendar early to give our jazz program something to work toward. I would love to expand the collaborative jazz concert to include the jazz programs at other district schools as well as other local jazz groups to create a jazz festival in Columbiana.

Lessons Learned

After three years of collaborative efforts, these are the five key elements to pull off a successful event:

    1. Don’t be afraid to ask others if they want to do a concert together. All music educators want to highlight their students’ achievements and doing it together can really be a great thing for your students.
    2. Make sure your venue is secure in all aspects. Think of everything imaginable and have back-up plans. A contract is good — just make sure it specifically outlines exactly what each party expects and what is required.
    3. Overcommunicate. The more conversations you have with your colleagues, the more likely you will uncover things that may have been missed.
    4. Publicize your event more than you think you need to because you want as many people as possible to show up to see your students perform. If you notice some important people at your event, make sure to talk to them or at the very least recognize them.
    5. The more you plan, the greater the event will be. Make sure you delegate work to volunteers or other teachers, so that on the day of the event, you can enjoy your students’ performance and not have to worry about whether the bathrooms are open.

Remember, the more you highlight your students in creative and new ways, the more your program will grow. I am seeing that more and more, especially in our middle school band program, which has doubled in the past three years! Many middle schoolers say they joined band because they have seen the high school band preforming in many different locations and settings.

Another way we have showcased the artistic talents of our students is through three murals around town. My favorite is the one Ruthie Johns and Lauren Campbell, two band students who graduated in 2022, painted outside the band room door. They approached me about it in the spring of 2020 before the pandemic, and they finished it in the summer of 2022.

tree muralThe idea for the mural came last summer, when the band went to the back of the practice field where a giant oak tree was located. I noticed that the tree had sustained some damage, probably when a tornado came through the town in 2021 and destroyed several homes. I told the students that the tree represented our band program. We might take shots to the exterior, but our roots and interior are strong.

The quote on the mural by author Tom Robbins — “Our similarities bring us to a common ground, but our differences allow us to be fascinated by each other” — mirrors the inclusive nature inside the band room. We accept everyone regardless of their background.

Ruthie and Lauren thought the idea for the mural was perfect for what the SCHS band program is: A family that welcomes everyone and stands strong regardless of any shots to our outside. Principal Kyle Dudley loved the idea and gave them the go-ahead.

Our city is becoming increasingly more of an art sanctuary with multiple murals, the arts council and thriving fine arts departments at all five local schools. I hope that as the fine arts grow in Columbiana, so will our community in support as evidenced by our collaborative efforts these past three years.

5 Lesser-Known Composers and Why You Should Teach About Them

Written by Aleah Fitzwater on . Posted in Teaching Tips.

While most of your students have heard of Mozart or Beethoven, I bet they haven’t heard of these five composers: Saygun, Lehmann, Mehul, Ben-Haim and Janáček.

If we just stick to the names of household classical composers, our young listeners will not have the opportunity to broaden their musical tastes. So, without further ado, let’s take a peek into some of the greatest little-known composers, from “Turkey’s Sibelius” to the first woman to ever be commissioned to write the score for a musical comedy.

Ahmet Adnan Saygun

Ahmet Adnan SaygunTurkish composer and musicologist, Ahmet Saygun (1907-1991), is known for blending Turkish folk songs with the sounds of the West. Perhaps you’ve heard of “The Mightly Five,” a group of famous composers who created a unique version of Russian classical music. Saygun was a member of a similar group called “The Turkish Five” that introduced Western-style music to Turkey. In his obituary in The New York Times, Saygun was called “The Sibelius of Turkey,” referring to Jean Sibelius, who is regarded as Finland’s greatest composer.

Saygun created a set of 10 piano etudes based on Aksak rhythms (aksak means limping in Turkish). These rhythms are uneven sets of beats, such as the combination 2 + 3. Watch this video about Aksak rhythms and listen to this video of Saygun’s piano etudes.

For something a little more ethereal, watch this video of Saygun’s “Concerto for Cello and Orchestra.”

I discovered Saygun when I bought a hammer dulcimer. While these two topics seem unrelated, they have a connection to me! I bought a vintage hammer dulcimer at a garage sale and decided to tune it up. While waiting for my tuning key to arrive in the mail, I researched the history of the instrument and learned about a type of dulcimer-like instrument called the cimbalom, which is typically played in Romani music. Then I read about Aksak rhythms and then about Eastern European/Balkan music theory. One rabbit hole led to another, and pretty soon, I was listening to Saygun!

Liza Lehmann

Liza Lehmann 1Liza Lehmann (1862-1918), a soprano vocalist and composer, was born in London to a German painter father and music teacher and composer mother. She is believed to be the first woman to have been commissioned to write a musical comedy. Her performing career lasted well over a decade, then she began songwriting and composing.

Lehmann composed many lighthearted, comical pieces, such as “Nonsense Songs” and “Four Cautionary Tales and a Moral.” She is best known for her vocal compositions, and especially her song cycles, a set of songs that are tied together by one theme, such as love.

“In a Persian Garden” is her most well-known cycle. This collection stands out because it includes part of the Rubáiyát that has been translated into English. The Rubáiyát is a text that focuses on the mysteries of life as written by the Persian poet Omar Khayyám (1048–1131).

Lehman’s musical talent must have been passed down through the generations — three of her grandsons have musical careers: Steuart Bedford is a well-known opera conductor and concert pianist, David Bedford is a composer, and Peter Lehmann Bedford is a singer. Steuart created professional recordings of his grandmother’s pieces, including this Spotify playlist of three of her songs.

Listen to another one of Lehmann’s song cycles in this video of “The Songs of a Flapper.”

Étienne Nicolas Mehul

Etienne MehulÉtienne Nicolas Mehul (1763-1817) was dubbed “the most important opera composer in France during the Revolution.” He was a member of the French Symphonic School of music, and according to ClassicFM, he may have even been the first composer to ever be called “Romantic.”

Unfortunately, Mehul’s librettist (the person who writes the text of an opera) was not quite up to par with the composer. According to Parker Symphony Orchestra’s website, one of Mehul’s operas was such a huge failure because of the librettist that a music critic commented, “It would be impossible to imagine anything worse.” Perhaps this is why the composer felt compelled to write two symphonies, as symphonies don’t need lyrics!

Speaking of symphonic works, the fourth movement of Mehul’s First Symphony in G Minor sounds extremely similar to Beethoven’s Fifth. Both pieces were written in 1808, which has led musicologists to pose the question “Who copied whom?!”

My first experience listening to Mehul was comparing the two pieces in music history. Listen to Mehul’s First Symphony and see what you think.

Despite the issues with his librettist, it is remarkable that Mehul is so infrequently mentioned today.

Paul Ben-Haim

Paul Ben Haim 1Although Paul Ben-Haim (1897-1984) is a composer known for his Israeli/fusion classical pieces, he was born in Munich, Germany. He studied with Fredrich Klose, a German composer best known for writing a piece in response to Franz Liszt’s death.

Ben-Haim had a unique musical flavor that is described as being somewhere in the middle of traditional Middle Eastern music and French Romanticism. According to Bach-Cantatas, he was the leader of the Middle Eastern school of music.

Known for his two symphonies, cello concerto, clarinet quintets and patriotic pieces, Ben-Haim’s work has often been compared to that of Swiss composer, Ernest Bloch. Ben-Haim’s pieces feel as monumental and exotic as Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherezade.”  In his lifetime, he won an Israel Prize in music, and guided many pupils, including Tzvi Avni.

I have long been a fan of Bloch, but I didn’t discover Ben-Haim until after college. He redefined what classical/romantic music meant, and he certainly didn’t hesitate to use dissonance!  My personal favorite is his Second Symphony, which is blossoming and flute-heavy.

Leos Janácek

Leos JanacekWhile Czech composer Leoš Janáček (1854-1828) is considered a household name amongst classical musicians, most non-musicians haven’t heard of him. He was devoted to studying folklore and folk music, which he collected extensively.

Janáček is believed to be the most frequently performed Czech opera composer throughout the world. According to statistics by OperaBase, he is the 15th most played composer. Though he wrote many operas, they are all in Czech, which likely explains why they are not as frequently performed throughout the West.

His most well-known work, the orchestral “Sinfonietta,” was dedicated to the Czech army and was a contribution to Sokol, a Slavic gymnastics movement/ organization.

I remember in college when our wind ensemble performed the Janáček piece, “Capriccio,” with a guest pianist, who was a long-time friend of our conductor. Unfortunately, as college kids, we simply couldn’t wrap our minds around the complex piece that was written by someone we had never heard of. This frustrated our conductor to no end because he had a deep appreciation for the composer. Since college, however, I’ve learned to enjoy Janáček a lot more myself!

Sadly, Janáček isn’t well known in western countries, especially in the States, but he should be.

Listen to his haunting piece, “In the Mists.”

Sources

Photo Credits from top — Saygun: Moornebel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Lehmann: W. and D. Downey, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; Mehul: Antoine-Jean Gros, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; Ben-Haim: National Library of Israel, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Janáček: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Bob Malone: A Look Back on a Storied Career Designing Yamaha Trumpets

Written by Sonia Kanigel on . Posted in Brass.

In Bob Malone’s shop, there’s no such thing as a generic instrument. In almost 40 years of designing and modifying Yamaha horns — 21 of those years working directly for the company — Malone has become known for his design collaborations with such artists as Bobby Shew and Wayne Bergeron, among many others. But beyond the artist credits to his name, Malone has helped change how Yamaha develops instruments. Instead of designing a prototype and seeking artist input later, Malone helped pioneer a process of consulting first with the artist — often one specific, elite artist — and tailoring the instrument around that artist’s needs. His approach yields instruments linked indelibly to one musician’s personality and playing style, but with elements that enrich whole product lines and inspire musicians at all levels, like a star athlete’s signature shoe that becomes a favorite with aspiring players across the sport.

A Craftsman’s Career Begins

A trumpet player since grade school, Malone initially pursued a performance career with a sideline in instrument repairs and modifications. That sideline would become a lifelong calling. After starting out under renowned brass technician Larry Minick, Malone started his own business, Bob Malone’s Brass Technology, in 1983 — quickly earning a sterling reputation for his craftsmanship. Originally working out of a space in Minick’s shop, he opened his own facility in Southern California in 1987.

Four men standing side by side looking at camera in a workshop.
Bob Malone (second from right) in his California shop in the late ’80s, with Swedish trumpeter Hakan Hardenberger holding one of his latest designs.

Soon afterward, he formed a relationship with Yamaha: first becoming a Yamaha dealer, then performing authorized Yamaha repairs, and eventually landing the career-changing assignment to develop the famed Z Trumpet alongside Shew and legendary Yamaha designer Kenzo Kawasaki.

Three men standing side-by-side in a workshop smiling for camera.
Bob Malone, Bobby Shew and Kenzo Kawasaki

In 2001, Malone was brought into the company and was sent to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he helped form the Yamaha Custom Shop. In 2003, he was part of the group that selected and designed Yamaha’s showpiece New York City atelier offices. He was essential to the creation of the Xeno Artist Model line of B-flat and C trumpets developed with orchestral greats John Hagstrom, David Bilger, Thomas Rolfs, Robert Sullivan, Håkan Hardenberger, Tom Hooten and Chris Martin. He also provided wind instrument technical support to Tower of Power, Snarky Puppy and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, working with the bands’ entire horn sections to facilitate instrument selection and modifications. While trumpets will always be nearest to Malone’s heart, he’s also brought his signature approach to the development of key Yamaha trombone, flugelhorn, French horn and tuba products, as well as creating a patented clarinet barrel.

A Conversation About Collaborations

Now once again based in Southern California as the Yamaha Corporation Director of Winds Atelier and Artist Relations, Malone is looking toward a new phase in his career. Not yet ready to retire, he’s carved out a role where he can focus solely on the creative side of his work. With new projects in his sights, Malone talked with us about some of his favorite collaborations and what they’ve meant for a generation of horn players.

Q: In general, what’s your approach to developing a horn for an elite artist?

A: At that level, they know what their sound is. They have an identity. So you’re trying to give them an instrument that allows them to be them, but in a way that’s easier to play and offers them more possibilities.

You’re trying to give the artist the freedom to create. They have a musical idea. You want the instrument to be almost transparent, and not get in the way of that idea — so they’re not having to think about mechanics or intonation or needing to manipulate anything as they play.

Q: What was it like working with Bobby Shew? What did he need in an ideal trumpet?

A: Bobby is such a unique player. He’s obviously a great jazz player, but he’s also known for being an incredible lead player who plays effortlessly in the upper register. So we had the challenge of creating an instrument that would work really well in both areas. He had developed this concept of playing that was really based on efficiency, so he needed an instrument that matched what he was trying to do. The Z Trumpet was the result.

Older man with beard holding a trumpet seated with another man kneeling next to his chair. Both are smiling for camera.
Bob Malone with legendary trumpet artist Bobby Shew.

Q: How did the process behind the Z Trumpet change how Yamaha develops instruments?

A: Yamaha had earned a great reputation for quality manufacturing. But their process for developing new instruments was mostly internal: putting together a prototype and then taking it out and having players try it, taking notes on their reactions, and making changes based on that feedback. The criticism was that even though the instruments really played in tune, were easy to play, and had high-quality manufacturing, they didn’t have any personality.

The Z project may have been the first time Yamaha didn’t do that. They identified a player, and the idea was to make an instrument that he would be 100% happy with. Since it wasn’t designed by a committee but was based on a particular person — a really well known, well respected artist — we ended up with a trumpet that had personality: Bobby’s personality. From that point on, virtually all of the development projects that we’ve done involving pro or custom instruments have had a development artist associated with them.

Man in suit smiling for camera while holding a silver colored trumpet. Behind him is an large wall display case of trumpets.
Bob Malone holding the Chicago Artist Model C trumpet he helped create.

Q: What about the L.A. Trumpet, the model you developed with Wayne Bergeron? How was that different?

A: Wayne and I have known each other for a long time. We met while playing out at Disneyland, and we’ve been friends ever since, so we had a really good base from which to work together.

The Z Trumpet was a great trumpet that satisfied a lot of players, but it didn’t satisfy a certain kind player, and Wayne really represented that type of player. He’s a very physical player. At the end of the night, after the second or third set, when he was really tired, he wanted a trumpet that wouldn’t force him to be “efficient.” As he put it: “I want to be able to fight myself off the ropes. I want to be physical with it and not have the trumpet hold me back.” He needed a trumpet to match his style of playing, so we went back to the drawing board and ended up with a trumpet that was him.

Four men holding trumpets.
Mark Gould, Jim Thompson and Robert Sullivan, with Bob Malone (front). All three have led as principal chairs in major orchestras around the U.S.

Q: You needed a different approach with elite orchestral players. What’s the story behind the Yamaha Xeno Artist Model Trumpets?

A: I had known John Hagstrom of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since he was out in California playing with the Disney All-American College Band, and I’d modified virtually every instrument that he was playing. I asked John if he’d be interested in helping Yamaha develop a new C trumpet. He said yes, and we started on a path of discovery to build an instrument that would be a preferable choice for players in a symphony orchestra. That ended up being the Chicago C Trumpet.

That was the first Artist Model trumpet, and there were lots of twists and turns in developing it. At one point the orchestra was on tour in Switzerland, and Daniel Barenboim was the conductor. In front of the orchestra, they did a playing test between our Yamaha prototype and another well-known trumpet brand, playing them both back and forth … and Barenboim chose the Yamaha. That was a really important moment in our development of that horn. It went into production, and I think for a period of time it was used to win more trumpet auditions than any other model.

We went from almost no presence in the major orchestras to a dominating presence. The entire Boston Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestra play Yamaha trumpets now — not to mention players in the New York Philharmonic, the L.A. Philharmonic, and the list goes on.

Q: What’s unique about doing this kind of work with Yamaha?

A: It goes back to the core values that made me join Yamaha in the first place. It’s the way Yamaha values the development process and strives to create the best instruments, at every level. For a student, it’s giving them something that isn’t going to get in the way of their progress. The idea of creating more music makers is huge. With a professional player, it’s giving them an instrument that will allow them to fully develop their musical ideas without getting in the way, giving them new possibilities.

One of the big differences between Yamaha and other companies is on the R&D side. They have designers assigned to every instrument, and those designers go to work every day thinking about how to make these instruments better. And it’s supported from the top on down — from the executives all the way down into the trenches where these development sessions take place.

Four men with trumpets smiling for camera.
Bob Malone (left) with fellow Yamaha technicians Katsuhiko Furumi, Norihisa Fukuda and Wayne Tanabe (left to right).

Q: You’re now moving into a different kind of role with Yamaha. What will that entail?

A: I’m pretty excited about it. I’m stepping into a consultant role where I’m giving up my administrative responsibilities and I’ll be able to focus on development projects: working with artists, mentoring staff. The agreement makes me available both here in the U.S. and globally. It’s allowing me to transition into retirement a little more gradually, and we’ve got some exciting projects that I’d love to still be involved with. I’m looking forward to it.

Man in workshop hand polishing a trumpet.
Bob Malone during the early days in his shop.

Insights from a Master: Great Instrument Qualities

How do you build a great musical instrument? For Malone, the X factor is creating the instrument that becomes “transparent” in the player’s hands: “You want that instrument to let them project their voice without thinking about it,” he says. “The creative process doesn’t get filtered out through the instrument. Their focus stays on the creative side, and not on how to overcome this or that deficiency.”

If that’s the “secret sauce,” what’s the basic recipe? You can start with these four essentials, according to Malone:

  • Intonation: “When the horn has a problem with intonation,” he says, “compensating for that problem can become subconscious for the player — pushing a certain note up because it’s flat, let’s say. But with an instrument that plays in tune, the player doesn’t have to do that. It puts less stress on them, and they don’t tire as quickly because they’re not having to manipulate so much. At the same time, you want to create an instrument that’s flexible, because in the real world, you’re playing with ensembles where the pitch may vary, and you need flexibility to push the pitch one way or the other.”
  • Quick response: “You want the instrument to be agile — to react in the musical moment. If you watch a great jazz quartet, there’s so much communication going on between the players. They’re reacting against what the others are doing. You need an instrument that responds quickly so you can have that musical conversation.”
  • A “blow” that feels good to the player: “You want the instrument to meet the player where they’re at. You want the balance of resistance to match what that player needs. If that isn’t right, there are lots of problems that can develop. One is fatigue. Another is that the instrument won’t resonate properly. It may not have the same uniform color or sound as you go from the bottom register to the top register.”
  • A signature sound: “The signature sound is relative to the player, not the instrument. There are a lot of instruments out there that may play in tune, may be easy to play — but there’s no flexibility, no opportunity for the player to project who they are. You want flexibility. You want transparency. You want the artist’s sound to come through.”

 

@yamahamusic The special cryogenic process that we use with brass instruments releases the stress in the metal caused in production. It breaks in the instrument and brings out the characteristics of its sound. #YamahaMusic #Yamaha #Trumpet ♬ original sound – Yamaha Music

A quick look at the Winds Atelier’s special Cryogenic process.

Photographs courtesy of Bob Malone.
A small studio setup brimming with audio equipment and at center is a computer display with onscreen application.

Talking Club Cubase With Greg Ondo

Written by Mike Levine on . Posted in Recording.

Steinberg Cubase is powerful DAW software with a deep feature set that grows with each new release. With so much functionality in one application, it’s not unusual for a user to have questions about how to use or access specific features. To that end, Steinberg offers an array of online support resources, none more impressive than Club Cubase, a twice-weekly live-streamed Q&A session on YouTube with product specialist Greg Ondo.

Man smiling.
Greg Ondo.

During each session, viewers around the globe ask Ondo questions in real time, primarily via chat, and he provides live answers. The visuals consist solely of a screen share of Ondo’s computer running Cubase, so you get to see the program in action the whole time.

We recently had a chance to talk with Ondo to get a behind-the-scenes look at the show.

ML: How did Club Cubase get started?

Greg Ondo: I used to do a lot of in-person Steinberg events — I was traveling constantly. People would ask, “Can you come to Sacramento? Can you come to Boise?” It was hard to justify all that travel, so a few years ago we decided to try to do something that could reach people regardless of where they lived.

ML: I understand your viewership is from all over the world.

GO: We haven’t had anyone from Antarctica yet, but we’ll have people from Asia, Australia, Europe and all over Africa, as well as, of course, North and South America. Usually, we have about 5,000 views for each session. We do two four-hour sessions a week.

ML: Do you get any of the questions in advance?

GO: We have an email address — clubcubase@steinberg.de — that people can send questions to, but probably 95 percent of the questions come from live chat.

ML: Do you also use Club Cubase for new product introductions and demos?

GO: When we have a new Cubase version release, I’ll do a special walkthrough, and instead of just hitting bullet points, I try to take the time to explain the concept and the features and tie different features together. There are usually about a hundred features that get added with each new revision. If you look at most marketing materials, they may cover five or six of them.

ML: What’s the typical postproduction process?

GO: After every livestream, I’ll take a break for dinner for an hour or two, then, I rewatch it and type up the questions to create an index of all the topics discussed. We also have a viewer named Jan Karlqvist in Stockholm, who just created a site called cubaseindex.com. He takes my indexes for each episode and puts them into a searchable database. It turns out that, over the past couple of years, we’ve answered about 19,000 questions.

A small studio setup brimming with audio equipment and at center is a computer display with onscreen application.
The Club Cubase setup, from Greg’s perspective.

ML: What’s the most common question you get asked?

GO: Probably, “When is the next version of Cubase coming out?” Even though I’m really careful not to share any inside information, the question still gets asked a lot.

ML: Besides Cubase-specific questions, do you get into generic production topics too?

GO: Sometimes people will ask things like, “How can I get a vocal better?” So, we’ll get into stuff like that, and I’ll present a solution using Cubase.

ML: You have all these projects that you constantly have open while demoing features. Did you create those specifically for Club Cubase, or are they your music?

GO: I often create projects to show specific features, and sometimes, when we have a new version coming, I’ll call in a favor. For example, I think it was in Cubase 6 that we added multi-track drum editing. I got in touch with a friend of mine who’s a drummer, and asked, “Do you have any drum tracks that were played really badly that I could use?” (laughs) People will also volunteer songs and projects for me to use. I can’t use anything that’s copywritten, obviously.

ML: It sounds like your viewers are pretty interactive.

GO: Yes. Club Cubase has built a great community, and even though I’m the only one talking, I want people to introduce themselves in the chat and say where they’re from. Some of our viewers have formed good friendships and have ended up doing projects together. One of the guys sent me some files with drum tracks, and he asked me to play bass over them. Next week, we’re releasing our second album! I’ve only met one of the guitar players — a guy who lives outside the Dallas area — a couple of times at seminars I’ve done, but the other two guys live in Spain. It’s turned into an interesting musical project, even though we’ve never actually played together at the same time.

Another thing we do to build community is, for the last two hours of the last livestream of each month, we have a little Zoom meetup so that everyone can talk to each other. We also sometimes have a guest artist. We had Clay Ostwald last month, who has done work for Gloria Estefan for 35 years and also served as musical director for the Broadway play On Your Feet. He answered questions, provided insights, and shared industry perspectives. It’s just a wonderful community. And everyone is so nice and respectful of each other.

ML: What are your top tips for new users of DAW software?

GO: Learning the keyboard shortcuts can really speed up your workflow. Whenever you find yourself going to the same menu often, memorize the keyboard shortcut. Also, you don’t have to know everything in your DAW. It’s better to learn one thing at a time, like, “Okay, today, I want to figure out how to make beats,” or, “I’m going to teach myself two new tricks on programming drums,” or, “I want to learn how to do better vocal tuning.” DAWs can do so much, but you don’t have to use all their functions. You can just use those that you need.

And always hit “Record”! So many great moments are never captured. Cubase has a terrific feature called Retrospective Record. If you happen to play the most beautiful theme when you weren’t in record, you can just hit a button, and the MIDI data will appear.

You know, in the old days, if you walked into a recording studio as a musician — a facility with a large format console and racks of hardware effects processors and tape machines — you wouldn’t be expected to understand any of it. So it’s okay not to know everything that’s going on in your software. Don’t feel bad about it. I often compare learning a DAW to learning a musical instrument. You don’t sit down at a piano the very first day and play Chopin — you have to get the mechanics of it, which takes time. Take the same approach when learning your DAW.

Closeup of someone's hands on a computer keyboard with large monitor in background showing app.

Seven Fun Games to Stream on Twitch

Written by Jake Uitti on . Posted in Gaming.

Since its launch in 2011, the live streaming service Twitch has become an indispensable online platform for gamers, serving as a hub of entertainment for viewers who want to watch others navigate popular games. By October 2013, the service boasted some 45 million unique users who were watching gameplay both live and on-demand, with a multitude of fun games, from “e-sports” like football, baseball and basketball titles to first-person role-playing games like Grand Theft Auto and multiplayer games like Fortnite.

Of course, success breeds competition, and today, Twitch is not the only platform that gamers can dive into. YouTube, for example, offers everything from gaming tutorials to live gameplay of popular titles like Call of Duty. The social platform Discord, which debuted in 2015, gives players the ability to communicate via instant messages, voice calls, video calls and text massaging in private or public chats, trading tips (and even a little trash talk) as they play.

Nonetheless, Twitch still serves as the primary forum for introducing new titles, showcasing how specific games can be played and elucidating strategy as well as providing gaming tips, tricks and secrets. There’s even a biannual convention known as TwitchCon where fans can play and compete with one another. Here are seven of the best games to enjoy on Twitch.

1. Grand Theft Auto 5

Known for its nefarious protagonists and seedy missions, GTA5 allows players to control one of three characters as they contend with corrupt government agencies while attempting to complete various heists on foot, in a car or even while flying a plane. This is an open-world multiplayer game that offers myriad options and places to interact with and venture, and it’s a popular title to not just play but to observe, both to learn the ins and outs of the strategy and for those who may not want to partake in the often-brutal missions. Do you want to be an actor or a viewer? Both are fun, but one may just require a stronger stomach. Check it out here.

2. Fortnite

This popular title offers three modes: an everyone-for-themselves “battle royale,” a cooperative “save the world” and a build it yourself “Fortnite creative.” As with many modern games, there are countless intricacies to each that require a level of comfort before one can attempt to be successful, and especially since players can enjoy Fortnite online against opponents all around the globe, it’s smart strategy to watch some gameplay style before diving into the deep end. Check it out here.

3. Minecraft

This is what’s known in the industry as a “sandbox” game, meaning that creativity is at the core and just about anything goes in terms of options and strategy. Players explore “blocky” infinite terrain to build structures, invent machines, fight computer-controlled enemies or even cooperate with players against other human-controlled adversaries. Minecraft is as big as it gets when it comes to the vastness of gaming possibilities, so watching others play it can be informative for later gaming, or it can be viewed simply as the longest animated movie ever, with action around every digital corner. Check it out here.

4. Call of Duty: Warzone

This latest addition to the Call of Duty franchise offers something that previous iterations didn’t: a focus on the accumulation of in-game currency. It also supports up to 150 players, up from the previous 100. The game’s “battle royale” mode pits players against one another in an ever-shrinking map with the objective of being the last player standing. Players want to avoid the yellow gas, which in turn forces them into tighter and tighter spaces. Needless to say, there is a big learning curve and a lot of strategy necessary to compete and win. It’s also action-packed and rich with refined graphics, making it a compelling war story even if you choose to just observe instead of playing. Check it out here.

5. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

This multi-player first-person shooter pits two teams — the Terrorists and the Counter-Terrorists — head-to-head in order to complete various objectives. The Terrorists can plant bombs while their opponents work in unison to stop them. Or, in another plot, the Counter-Terrorists attempt various hostage rescues that their opponents have captured. Officially, there are nine game modes in this title, all involving distinct details and plots. It’s a fast-paced game, with bullets flying and potential enemies around every corner, so for those who may not want to wield a digital gun or involve themselves in the game’s espionage, watching it unfold can be a better (or at lest less heart-pounding) approach. Check it out here.

6. Sid Meier’s Civilization VI

This title requires a sense of the big picture. Players work to develop a civilization from a smaller settlement over the course of thousands of years to become a world power. Goals include military dominance, technological prowess and cultural superiority. Players compete against the computer or other human opponents by exploring vast worlds, developing new cities and civilizations, building infrastructure, developing the military culture and strengthening defense systems. All these can, however, be difficult tasks without a strong sense of how the game works, which is why you may want to view it on Twitch first and then develop your own order of operations based on the experience of others. Check it out here.

7. Animal Crossing

A bit of a lighter offering compared to the (mainly) war-themed titles listed above, this game involves a human character living among anthropomorphized animals in a village. Players collect items, plant plants, catch bugs, fish and socialize with the local furry residents. Created by Nintendo, this open-world game is played in real time and involves various holidays and slower events like the growth of trees. It’s highly customizable too: a player’s house can be furnished, decorated or expanded; clothes can be made, accessories and hair styles changed. You may not need to observe Animal Crossing online for strategy or tips, but it’s fun just to enjoy its entertaining details. Check it out here.

View of Ryan Nelson seen from behind as he manages show tech.

Behind the Scenes at NAMM: The Yamaha Main Stage

Written by Steve La Cerra on . Posted in Live Sound.

One of the most exciting attractions at NAMM each year are the Yamaha Main Stage concerts. Since 2013, the Main Stage has hosted legendary artists such as Stevie Wonder, Tony Bennett, Elton John, Earth, Wind & Fire, John Legend and U2 drummer Larry Mullen Jr. In 2018, the venue was moved from the indoor Anaheim Marriott Ballroom to the outdoor Convention Center Grand Plaza, allowing larger numbers of people to enjoy the concerts.

Crowd seen from behind facing an outdoor stage where a band is playing and you can see a screen behind the with "The NAMM Show" projected on it.
The Yamaha Main Stage.

The 2022 NAMM show (the first in-person gathering held in two years) featured two Main Stage events: A Night of Worship with Fred Hammond and Saddleback Worship, and a Saturday concert that included performances from Kandace Springs, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and Tank and The Bangas.

A young man in a short-sleeve plaid shirt.
Ryan Nelson.

Overseeing production was Ryan Nelson, the Yamaha Director of Recording & Concert Production, whose resume includes work with Kenny Chesney, Matchbox Twenty, The Monkees, Alabama, Gretchen Wilson and ZZ Top, among others. Ryan recently provided us with a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to get NAMM Main Stage events from planning to reality.

SL: You’ve been running the Main Stage since 2013. How was this year different?

Ryan Nelson: In the past we’ve had a “house band” with core musicians like Nathan East, Greg Phillinganes and Teddy Campbell, and Yamaha Artists would make guest appearances with them, performing one or two songs. This year we treated it more like a music festival, where each band played a full set, so we had the opportunity to work with their engineers, stage managers and backline techs. It’s a unique opportunity for musicians and their crews to feel the magnitude of what Yamaha brings to the music industry. Some of the front-of-house (FOH) or monitor engineers weren’t familiar with the consoles, so we had teams in place to work with them in pre-production, helping them create and edit show files and making sure they were comfortable using the desks. We also had product specialists on-site to help with instrument setup if, for example, a guitar player wanted the action adjusted on a guitar.

Ryan Nelson as seen from behind on the audio controls for the event.
FOH mixing position.
View of equipment on site.
Monitors mixing position.

SL: How many days did it take to set up?

RN: We started dropping gear off and staging trucks on the Sunday evening, which gave us four days to load in and set up. Normally, we’d like to have one more day for load-in, but this year we were up against a Star Wars™ convention.

View of the load-in process as seen from above.
A truck delivering gear to the Grand Plaza.

SL: What are some of the challenges that you face each year?

RN: One challenge is that there isn’t a real load-in area, so we have to be very cognizant of scheduling when things can load in or out. When we show up at the Grand Plaza, it is just a concrete pad in front of the convention center in between two hotels and a bunch of palm trees. We’re responsible for bringing everything required to make the shows happen: power generators stage decking, roof, motors, rigging, the ballasts that it takes to hold all of that up — even the dressing room trailers fall underneath our purview. The amount of trucks and gear that have to come into that small area is phenomenal. We make sure that trucks can get in, unload their gear, and get out to make room for the next group. We’re basically turning the Grand Plaza into a festival-type venue for NAMM.

Team on outdoor stage setting up equipment.
The Main Stage under construction.
As seen from above.
The Main stage from above with elevated Yamaha VIP section.

Another big challenge is that there isn’t a proper backstage area at the Grand Plaza because things are happening all around you. This year we flipped the direction of the stage so that Yamaha could provide a VIP experience from their booth on the third floor of the convention center looking down towards the stage. But the Grand Plaza is also the main entrance for NAMM, so now people entering from the hotels were looking at the back of the stage. We set up LED screens and a PA on the backside of the stage to create a welcoming environment — as opposed to just a backstage area where nothing is happening. If there is overflow of people behind the stage or if they’re eating at the food trucks, they can see and hear what’s happening on stage.

Small white tent with tables under and adjacent with the onstage screen visible in background.
Backstage area.

SL: What equipment was used for the main PA system?

RN: All of the consoles were Yamaha Rivage. We used a Rivage CS-R5 Control Surface for FOH (front-of-house), a CS-R10 for monitors and a CS-R3 for the broadcast/live stream mix. We had a 58-channel isolated analog split between FOH and monitors, and we used all of those channels — though not necessarily all at the same time. Each of the systems also used Yamaha HY256, HY144D, and HY144D-SRC expansion cards that enabled us to connect to other devices via Dante® if needed, or provide feeds for virtual recording and playback. The PA speakers and amps were all NEXO, and were provided by Reach Communications (Minneapolis, MN) and Mastermind Production Group (Fullerton, CA).

Tall stack of speakers supported by scaffolding.
Main Stage NEXO speaker array.

SL How did the new generation of Rivage consoles facilitate operations that were difficult in the past?

RN: The way that Rivage consoles network makes it possible to quickly patch, repatch or pull channels that we didn’t think we’d need at FOH, monitors or on the streaming side. For example, the Disneyland marching band played at the front entrance of the Anaheim Convention Center to kick off NAMM, and at the very last minute they asked if their performance could go livestream. It was easy to flip a camera around for the visual, but we also needed microphones for the audio. We were able to utilize some of the inputs to the FOH console and patch them to the other consoles via the TWINLANe network. This would have been much more difficult to deal with if we were using copper snakes.

Nelson at controls as seen from behind.
Backstage livestreaming area.

SL: What sort of response did you get from the artists and the engineers?

RN: We had a really positive response from both artists and engineers. The engineers were able to get first-hand experience using Rivage consoles in a real-world situation. They could hear the EQ and processing for themselves in a familiar context, and they were able to walk away with a show file they could use as a starting point for their monitor or front-of-house mixes.

On the artist side we had a lot of positive reactions too. There were keyboard players who may have had a preference for a particular instrument, but when they heard, for example, a Yamaha YC88, they wanted to make it their go-to stage keyboard from then on. And it seems like every time we put a Yamaha guitar in a guitar player’s hand, their reaction was, “I’m taking this with me! This is my new axe!” It’s great to see that kind of excitement.

SL: Is seeing that sort of reaction your favorite part of doing this?

RN: Yes, and also I love being behind the scenes and watching everything from this side. I’ve been mixing front-of-house for years and have mixed for some great artists. I wish the bands could experience what it’s like at front-of-house. I’ve always seen that position as an extension of what’s happening on stage, and it translates to the audience. It’s amazing to be in the middle of that energy!

And I’d just like to add that these shows would not be possible without the behind-the-scenes work of an entire Yamaha team that includes Chris Gero, John Wittmann, Ben James, Jalissa Gascho, Rachel Mills, Jeff Woods, Helen Pursell, Greg Crane, Preston Gray and Tres Cozad.

Photographs courtesy of Ryan Nelson and Steve Leiken.
The King's Academy trumpet player in the jazz program

4 Ways to Elevate Your Jazz Program

Written by Jordan Smith on . Posted in Case Studies. 1 Comment on 4 Ways to Elevate Your Jazz Program

Jazz was one of the keys to growing the music program at The King’s Academy (TKA), a K-12 private school in West Palm Beach, Florida.

In his six years at the school, Director of Instrumental Arts Wes Lowe, has almost doubled the enrollment in the music program, which offers students many different fine arts specialties, such as band, choir, dance, and musical theater.

He attributes this growth in part to the fact that students can start learning an instrument in 4th grade instead of waiting until 5th or 6th grade. “In order to have a successful program, you need a healthy system in place where you can have the younger students filter in,” Lowe says. “We’ve spent a lot of time investing in our elementary students, and we are reaping the benefits.”

Lowe is very familiar with TKA’s musical legacy since he attended the school himself and his mother was the drum major there. “My heritage and ties to the band program inspire and motivate me to lead the program in a way that continues to have life-changing impact on my students,” he says.

The area that has been the biggest catalyst for growth at TKA has been the jazz program. “Our school really caught onto jazz music and our community enjoys it as well,” Lowe says.

He focuses on these four pillars to continue to strengthen the jazz offerings at TKA.

1. Select Appropriate Music

Wes Lowe“The most important thing is choosing the appropriate music for your group,” Lowe says.

When selecting jazz music, find the best type of music that will challenge students but is also attainable for them to execute with practice. “You don’t want to choose something so far out of their skill level that they’re never going to reach it,” he says. “So, this does take time on the director’s end — listening and sifting through everything that’s out there to choose high-quality music that’s standard and enriching for jazz bands.”

The music you choose for your program is completely dependent on the setup and abilities of the students involved. “Some programs can perform more difficult music than others, and that’s OK,” Lowe says. “At TKA, we started with more fundamental jazz music that the kids and audience liked before we started increasing the difficulty and technical level of the music.”

Lowe’s biggest tip: Go to the J.W. Pepper website to see all the jazz options that are available. Listen to different sample recordings and sort by grade level to find appropriate music.

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2. Ask Local Directors and Musicians to Work with Your Band

b2ap3 small sax sectionReaching out to other band directors who have a thriving jazz program or local jazz musicians “can be very valuable, especially for high school jazz bands,” Lowe says.

Band directors are members of many Facebook groups and readily share success stories as well as music resources, Lowe says. For example, if you’re focused on jazz but aren’t a jazz player (Lowe was a tuba player), advice from other music educators is a great way to add enrichment to your program. Two Facebook groups Lowe recommends are Band Directors and Middle School Band Directors.

“When I took over, I asked a lot of local directors what I should be doing,” Lowe says.

trombone sectionHe picked their brains about music selections and ways to teach the many different genres of jazz. Lowe also asked local professionals to work with his entire band or to take a sectional out and focus on a small group of students. This was a great way for him to get plugged into the local band community, and it allowed his students at TKA to hear from a variety of instructors.

“The end goal is to make students better, so the more people you bring in, the more they’ll grow,” Lowe says. “I find this helps inspire students to be more receptive to feedback during rehearsals and more reflective on their own playing ability. This practice will ultimately increase their level of musicianship.”

The piece of advice Lowe heard the most on how to improve as a jazz instructor from area experts? Listen to as much jazz as possible. Lowe learned that jazz is a language, and in order to learn and teach it, you have to immerse yourself in it. So, he added jazz to his playlist, and surrounded himself with jazz.

CHECK IT OUT: The YAS-26 Standard Alto Saxophone

3. Produce a Jazz Concert or Event

“It’s important to highlight your students’ work. There needs to be some type of goal or product you’re working toward,” Lowe says.

Jazz is the most accessible type of music to a wide audience, so hosting a jazz-and-coffee night or jazz concert will resonate with your community. “It’s important to create these events and hype them up within your school community,” Lowe says. “Then, your students will have the opportunity to showcase their talents and passion to an appreciative audience.”

Jazz trumpeter Wayne Bergeron performs with TKA's horn sectionLowe has found success producing an annual Night of Jazz that features guest artists, such as the late drummer Duffy Jackson and Yamaha Performing Artist Wayne Bergeron. “Having these world-class artists working alongside my students inspires them to work harder and push the level of our group even higher,” Lowe says. “And, working with a professional artist at a concert helps take some of the performance pressure off of the students and allows them to shine.”

Concerts and performances require a lot of practice and rehearsals, so be sure to give students ample time to gain confidence to be performance ready. Find a timeline that challenges them as well. For TKA’s Night of Jazz concert in April, Lowe and his students started working on the music in January.

“In four months, they learned 14 charts, which pushes them for sure,” he says. “In the past, it took my students maybe the entire year — from August to April ­— to learn those charts, but as the program has taken off, so have the strengths of the students.”

4. Seek Outreach Opportunities to Perform in Your Community

EthanRapp HadiyaStewart AnnieMatot“The more you can take jazz to your community, the more people will rally behind your program,” Lowe says. “Jazz is so accessible, especially for the older generation, and it’s the perfect opportunity to take your band and perform at downtown marketplaces, retirement communities and 55+ communities that are looking for entertainment.”

Lowe, who was recognized as a 2022 Yamaha “40 Under 40” music educator, has also found that the more he takes his students to perform in the community, the more people they have attending their concerts.

“It allows you to get the pulse of your community, and it’s a way for students to give back,” Lowe says.

In 2021, TKA’s jazz program expanded to different groups, including The King’s Academy Jazz Ensemble and a quintet called The Annie Matot Jazz Quintet. This jazz quintet was formed around a senior vocalist and Young Artist of the Year award winner, Annie Matot. Her fellow schoolmates — Ethan Rapp (trumpet), Alex Theodore (piano), Hadiya Stewart (bass) and Ashton Horne (drums) — comprised the rest of this student-run ensemble.

black white couples dancing“This is a great example of being flexible and finding different avenues for students to showcase their hard work, especially if the students are super talented,” Lowe says.

The quintet started playing in downtown marketplaces in the summer of 2021 as a way to bring music back into the community after COVID-19 shut down everything. By booking their own gigs, the musicians in the quintet have been able to get real-word performing experience — especially at events and venues that could only accommodate smaller groups — while still being in a controlled environment. The Annie Matot Jazz Quintet now has its own Instagram and Facebook pages.

“Before you know it, we had people reaching out for the quintet to play at weddings and fundraisers,” Lowe says. “Now, we’ve gone all over the state, and this all started by simply going out in the community.”

woman with hand over her eyes looking at reflection in mirror

Stop Negative Self-Talk and Apply Strategic Arrogance

Written by Don Stinson on . Posted in Self-Care.

“Early in life I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility.
I chose the former and have seen no reason to change.” —  Frank Lloyd Wright

You do the work, get your observation hours, complete student teaching, get your degree and land your first job. You have the training, credentials, experience and potential to be a great teacher. Yet, when it comes to your abilities, you don’t want to appear too confident.

Why not?

People want to follow confident leaders! Parents and communities are trusting us with their most prized possessions — their children. We have to be able to look parents, administrators and other stakeholders in the eye and say, “I am the right person for the job. I may not be perfect, but I have the skillset that will ensure your students’ safety and education. I work hard, and I’m more than capable of taking on this role.”

Simple and straightforward, right?

Apparently not, because I have noticed a shift in confidence in both younger and experienced educators. These educators are hard-working, well-qualified and talented. However, their confidence in their abilities has taken a hit for various reasons. We cannot control the expectations or criticism that society may have on teaching. Yet, we can take some steps to make sure that we are not standing in our own way. In other words, we must take measures to maintain our confidence, build a little more belief in ourselves and even be arrogant when the job calls for it.

Avoid Self-Deprecation

woman mirror hand covering face unsplashI learned these lessons the hard way.

  1. People will believe what we tell them about ourselves.
  2. We accept most of what we think.

Let’s start with a pet peeve of mine: self-deprecation. To me, this is the opposite of confidence. I despise when people make fun of themselves and cloak it in humor. I am generally an optimistic person, but I know that there are enough people and situations in the world that will knock you down. And when you start making fun of yourself, you have joined those ranks.

Negative self-talk can be insidious. There’s a time and place for poking a little bit of fun at yourself, but I’m talking about those who do this multiple times each day. Most of the time, they’re trying to be funny, but they could also want to appear agreeable or may use self-deprecation as a defense mechanism.

But remember my second lesson above — we believe most of what we think. When we start thinking or talking a specific way about ourselves, we’ll risk believing it.

It’s a very short distance from “I can’t believe I was so dumb to do this” to “Maybe I can’t handle this career.”

Try this exercise. The next time you have a negative thought about yourself, pretend that you’ve said it out loud in front of someone who wholeheartedly agrees with your unnecessarily negative thought. Think about how offended you might be.

“I can be really stupid sometimes.”

“You sure can be!”

“I’m a failure at this.”

“Absolutely — you ARE a failure at this!”

“This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever done.”

“Sure is!”

“Hey! Why do you keep agreeing with me?”
“Because I’m taking what you say at face value.”

What’s the lesson here? If you tell people how many mistakes you make and how you have no business leading a classroom, they will believe you.

On the flip side, if you show that you have confidence in your abilities to lead a group of students but that you need help with some organization, people will believe you.

I’m not suggesting being overconfident. After all, we all have things that we need to work on. But why make things harder? Convincing yourself or others that you are not good at something creates unnecessary barriers and challenges.

Have you ever thought, “I’m the worst at this.” Are you really? Probably not.

And if you are, that’s awesome because you’ll feel great every time you show some improvement. Embrace opportunities for progress — sometimes you’ll master something quickly and other times, your learning curve will be steep. It’s important to recognize your strengths and weaknesses and make adjustments to routines accordingly. For example, if you aren’t great at tracking student paperwork for competitions, put weekly reminders in your calendar or delegate this task to a parent or student leader.

How can you expect others to support you if you don’t support yourself? 

Appreciate the Appreciation

“Thank you” is a complete sentence.

Why are we so quick to disregard positive feedback for something we worked hard for and put so much time and resources into?

confident man pexelsHow often have you been told “Job well done” or “Great work” after a concert or event, and you immediately give the credit to everyone else (or the ever-popular, “The kids worked so hard!”)?

Yes, the kids did work hard, as did the district that supports the programs financially and morally. Newsflash – so did you! Your time and work came at the cost of degrees, professional development, time and money — just like everyone else.

“Mr. Stinson, the band sounded great today! What a wonderful concert!”

“Thank you! I really appreciate that!” (Is this so hard to say?)

Obviously, give credit where credit is due, but don’t deny someone the desire to show appreciation for you and your work.

You Don’t Have to Be the Best

When we think we are “the worst” at something, many of us aren’t satisfied until we’re “the best” at that particular task. I’m going to say something that might surprise you (and me): Work to be the best at some things, but it’s OK to simply be good enough in other areas.

You also don’t have to get better at everything. If you’re a competitive person, this will be extremely challenging. Raise your hand if you’ve worked hard at a skill just to prove a point to someone and later realized that you didn’t even want to personally build that skill. Admittedly, I’ve done this a few times before I realized that I was being driven by rivalry rather than self-improvement. Make sure that your priorities are your priorities, and not just something to prove to someone else who isn’t paying your bills.

How Do I Become More Confident?

I wish I could tell you that it’s easy to just stop thinking negative thoughts! It’s like telling someone who’s angry to calm down. Has someone red in the face ever said, “You’re right. I’ll calm down”? No!

Here’s another exercise. Take an inventory of your strengths, weaknesses and personal characteristics. Rank or categorize them in whatever system you prefer: pros and cons, from 1 to 5, green-yellow-red lights, etc.

red yellow green light unsplashIn my case, I label my strengths as “green lights.” These are the things that I am naturally good at or worked incredibly hard at. Traits and characteristics in the green category would include connecting with students, writing, playing my instrument, project management and consistency.

My “yellow lights” category contains items that I’m good at but that require work and can fall by the wayside if I don’t pay consistent attention to them, such as fitness, eating well and personal organization. I may fail at these things once or twice a year, requiring me to reset or adjust.

I need to work on “red lights” things, which can be perceived as weaknesses. My current red lights are avoiding conflict, not focusing during conversations, too much screen time and not getting enough sleep.

It’s important to note that a red light item can be promoted to be a yellow light, but a yellow light item can also be quickly demoted to be a red light if I’m not careful. That being said, this list will change over time. The more you deal with something, the more confidence you will have to handle future occurrences.

For example, let’s say you need to tackle a large project. A beginner teacher’s initial thought might be “I can do this.” The mid- to later-stage educator might think “this project needs to be done.”

I had a colleague who sponsored the school prom. She did this job for nearly 10 years, and at two different schools! Every year, the prom went off without a hitch. Venues were secured, tickets were sold, transportation was booked, volunteers were scheduled, food was catered, the DJ was booked, etc. When something went wrong, she would say, “OK, time to adjust.” She called in favors or just did the job herself. The kids had a great experience and didn’t have to worry about how much work went into this.

Why was my prom-planning colleague so confident? Because she had done the job many times before, and there were very few surprises left. At one point, she was a new teacher sponsoring the prom, and she had to deal with last-minute cancelations, including a venue change one week before the dance. She had no guidance, no project binder to refer to and barely any budget. It took her about a week to recover from her first prom. But she stuck with it and was able to come in with a more detailed action plan every year.

woman making a face that shows she's unsure of herselfYes, she still gets upset and frustrated, but this does not stop her from finding a solution to the problems that come up. Furthermore, she goes into these events expecting some issues to happen. She is mentally prepared to address surprises and solve problems. If nothing happens, that’s a bonus! Nothing is perfect, and when we expect perfection, we can easily go into a downward spiral that isn’t good for anyone. Things happen, and we can choose to either react or leave it alone.

You might be thinking, “I’ll never chaperone prom!” But if you’re a music teacher, make sure to translate the above statement to every concert, marching band festival and field trip. Some of us are doing the equivalent of three or four proms a year! The up side of this is that there is so much experience packed into one year that you’ll have no choice but to be confident!

Direct Your Doubts to the Right People

Sometimes we need a pick-me-up. This is important, but make sure you go to the correct people. For small issues, it’s fine to vent to a couple of friends. You may have a great relationship with your supervisor, who may be open to listening to you, but I would not make this a habit. As previously stated, you don’t want to persuade someone — especially one who can affect your job — that you’re dealing with some self-doubt about your job.

We all go through rough patches, so treat them as speed bumps or detours, but avoid convincing someone else that this is a roadblock for you.

Strategic Arrogance

Arrogance is exaggerating your own worth or abilities. To me, arrogance is the complete opposite of self-deprecation. If negative self-talk can convince you that you aren’t as good as you really are, then perhaps you can use arrogance as a tool to become better than you currently are. Some of my best growth has been from being strategically arrogant.

I don’t practice the type of arrogance that comes from talking down to others. Instead, I hype myself up. In fact, the more absurd and irrational I can make my thoughts going into a stressful situation, the more I lighten up and actually perform better.

True story: I started teaching at a school that had a very high-performance reputation. I spent hours lesson planning, and the students ate everything up and asked for more. They’d even email me outside of school hours with content-related questions or thoughts on the music we were playing. A teacher’s dream, right? Of course, I enjoyed this situation, but the stress and self-doubt were starting to take over. Thoughts like “Am I really the person for this specific job?” and “I can barely stay one step ahead of these kids — what happens if they find out how hard I have to work for this?” crept into my mind.

I was spiraling fast as our first concert approached. Not only did I have to prove to the kids that I knew what I was talking about, but their parents as well. I never stopped working hard to prepare myself and the kids, but my stomach was in knots over my self-doubt.

Two hours before the concert, I made sure the kids were supervised, and I went to our backstage area to decompress and ended up watching one of my favorite videos, Gustavo Dudamel conducting the New World Symphony for the Pope.

Here’s a window into my mind and thoughts as I watched the video. Hmmm, I bet Gustavo Dudamel worked pretty hard for this performance. You know who else has worked hard for a performance? Me! What if someone records this school performance with me conducting, and puts it on YouTube, and then that video gets shared a bunch of times, and in another part of the world, Gustavo Dudamel is nervously getting ready for a performance and goes backstage to decompress and watches a YouTube video, and he sees me! He thinks, “Wow, this guy looks like he works hard! I’m going to take a few conducting tips from him tonight!”*

So, that’s how I got through my first concert. Yes, I worked really hard, but I combined this with my duty to make sure that Gustavo was not nervous for his performance. I was Maestro Dudamel’s only hope (just like Obi-Wan Kenobi, but let’s not go down that rabbit hole!).

* This is not the craziest thought I’ve had. (I realize that this footnote is self-deprecating in an article about avoiding negative self-talk. We’re all works in progress.)

You are a Leader Whether You Like it or Not

2 confident women leaders unsplashI grew up an hour outside of Chicago in the ‘90s, during the Chicago Bulls’ six championships. A lot of my childhood was spent adoring the starting lineup of the Bulls and despising any team that wasn’t them. A famous opponent of the Bulls was Charles Barkley of the Phoenix Suns. In a controversial Nike ad from 1993, Barkley famously stated that he was not a role model. People can debate whether professional athletes are role models, but everyone agrees that teachers are.

People look to role models and leaders for guidance. Some may look for leaders to take on what they cannot or will not take on themselves. Others are capable of what we do, but simply do not have the time. We don’t always expect perfection from our leaders, but we do expect confidence and capability.

As educators, we sometimes have doubts about our abilities. We fear risk and the unknown just as much as everyone else. We make mistakes and may even fail … hard. But we must manage our fears, embrace the challenges thrown our way and come out stronger on the other side. And even when we mess up, people still follow us because we are confident leaders and have their best interests at heart.

Closeup of a black musician's hands resting on a trumpet on a table.

The 10 Best Musician Biopics to Stream

Written by Jon Hadusek on . Posted in TV & Movies.

Biopics are one of the best ways to familiarize yourself with a musician’s life story and creative output. Not only are these films visually compelling, they often emphasize sound design, giving viewers a treat for the eyes and ears.

Here are 10 of the best music biopics available for streaming. Settle in front of your big screen and crank up your surround sound system or sound bar for a great viewing — and listening — experience.

1. Ray

This 2004 release stars Jamie Foxx as R&B legend Ray Charles in a transcendent performance that would earn Foxx an Oscar® for Best Actor. Charles led a tough but triumphant life, and it’s as if Foxx put that weight on his own shoulders to deliver the most convincing characterization possible. Find out where to stream it here.

2. Walk the Line

For many people, when they think of music biopics, this is one of the first to come to mind — it was a sensation when it hit theaters in 2005, notching $186.8 million versus a mere $28 million budget. Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon star as husband-and-wife country superstars Johnny Cash and June Carter, and the chemistry between them is undeniable. Director James Mangold presents everything in a realistic, measured style — just how The Man In Black would have wanted it — and the screenplay is based on Cash’s own autobiography, so he essentially wrote the film himself. Find out where to stream it here.

3. Straight Outta Compton

Dr. Dre and Ice Cube are among the producers of this 2015 movie about the rap group N.W.A., and what they created is arguably the greatest hip-hop film of all time. The individual stories of the members of N.W.A. (which, of course, includes both Dre and Cube) are vivid in their own right, but the biggest takeaway from the movie is the music industry snapshot it provides. From contract disputes to studio sessions, we’re given an inside look at how the industry worked — for better or worse — in the early 1990s. Find out where to stream it here.

4. La Vie en rose

Marion Cotillard stars as legendary French singer Édith Piaf in the 2007 release La Vie en rose, named after one of Piaf’s most famous songs. The film is structured non-linearly, exploring different parts of the singer’s life and career, ranging from her greatest heights — enrapturing audiences from the stage — to her tumultuous personal life and addictions. Find out where to stream it here.

5. Bird

Jazz lover Clint Eastwood sat in the director’s chair for this 1988 biopic, which transports the viewer to the smoky nightclubs of the ’40s and ’50s as it follows the life of Charlie “Bird” Parker (Forest Whittaker) — one of the most influential jazz saxophonists of all time, and the main founder of the bebop style. Eastwood does an admirable job of maintaining historical accuracy as he traces Parker’s career from playing small venues in his native Kansas City to his glory days in New York City performing alongside the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach and other legends. If you’re a jazz fan, this one is a no-brainer. Find out where to stream it here.

6. The Doors

If you want to see how Jim Morrison became The Lizard King, you’ll want to check out this stylish and memorable trip back to the late 1960s, directed by Oliver Stone. Although there were four members in The Doors, the film focuses mainly on Morrison (played brilliantly by Val Kilmer), whose erratic behavior and heavy drinking led to his tragic death at the age of 27. Find out where to stream it here.

7. Lords of Chaos

Lords of Chaos falls into both the music biopic and true crime categories, following the vitriolic and often violent rise of Norwegian black metal in the early 1990s — specifically the band Mayhem and one-man project Burzum. Mayhem mastermind Euronymous (Rory Culkin) is the de-facto leader of Oslo’s nihilistic black metal scene, holding court at his record store Helvete. From there, the story descends into, well … chaos. This was Hollywood’s first foray into the realms of extreme metal, and it doesn’t disappoint. Find out where to stream it here.

8. Bohemian Rhapsody

This powerful and moving Freddie Mercury biopic essentially introduced a new generation to the music of Queen. Within weeks of its release, the group’s records couldn’t be found in record stores, and play counts on streaming services went through the roof. It’s a testament to the strength of the film itself and Rami Malek’s jaw-dropping performance as Mercury, which earned him a Best Actor Oscar at the 91st Academy Awards®. It’s as if Queen had time-traveled from the past to perform in glorious 4K. Find out where to stream it here.

9. The Dirt

Anyone who has read Mötley Crüe’s tell-all biography The Dirt can tell you that the band’s story begged for a film adaptation. Netflix finally filled that void in 2019, presenting a vivid glimpse into the sleazy and excessive ’80s hair metal scene as we follow the band through its wild and hedonistic lifestyle on the Sunset Strip. Of all the biopics on this list, The Dirt is the one best suited for a watch party. You’ll feel like you’re hanging out with the members of Mötley Crüe! Find out where to stream it here.

10. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Produced by Denzel Washington and adapted from the 1982 play of the same name, this film is set in the 1920s and gives the viewer a birds-eye view of a turbulent recording session by diva blues singer Ma Rainey (Viola Davis). Chadwick Boseman plays the ambitious trumpeter Levee Green in what would be his final role, as he tragically died during post-production. The film is dedicated to his memory, and he would receive a posthumous Best Actor nod at the 93rd Academy Awards. Find out where to stream it here.

Young woman in mortar board with tassel expressing joy.

Pomp and Circumstance

Written by Shelly Peiken on . Posted in Creativity.

As I write this (in late June), I’m noting much pomp and circumstance around me. Groups of young adults with corsages on lapels and wrists, gathering at a local park. White limos rolling down the streets, shuttling celebrating students to prom night festivities. Facebook feeds filled with proud parents of graduates.

It brings back memories of my own school days, and of those teachers who influenced my path in life. Not surprisingly, because I chose a career in music, it was my high school choir director Mr. Chris who gave me the courage to go forth and … be musical. If I had been equally energized by a history teacher, would I have chosen a different path? Hard to say.

On second thought, maybe it’s not so hard. After all, an influential teacher is someone who is excited about what they teach. Full-stop. Their enthusiasm and purpose are contagious.

I strived to be a good singer in Mr. Chris’ class. Though I was an alto miscast as a soprano (in my opinion), he thought I belonged on the right side of the bleachers singing melody, not harmony. So there I stood. I trusted him. I stretched to hit those high notes … because he thought I could.

A young girl looking directly at the camera.
Here I am in a high-school production of Fiddler on the Roof.

He cast me as Sarah Brown in the musical Guys and Dolls —a leading role. I was definitely not the strongest singer in my class, which had me wondering why he chose me instead of Laura, who clearly had a stronger voice, with a masterful vibrato and a good command of pitch. I, on the other hand, found vibrato elusive, eventually convincing myself that some people seem to be simply born with it while others are fated to be eternally searching for it. And pitch? At that point in my life, pitch was a concept I had never even heard of, much less an asset I possessed.

Maybe my audition was simply more convincing than Laura’s. All I know is, as soon as I saw my name on the casting sheet, I felt believed in. It affected me. It spurred me on. Mr. Chris saw something in me that I didn’t see myself. I’ll always be grateful to him for that.

He also chose me for a one-night All-County choir performance for which I rehearsed so fervently that on the night of the show I completely lost my voice. There he was in the audience. Little did he know I was mouthing the words.

An inspiring teacher is a student whisperer. An enabler. An empowerer. They don’t have to come out and tell you in so many words what they think your path is. They may let you know in subtler ways. And if you’re listening, you’ll take their cues.

It was obvious that Mr. Chris loved what he did, and he wanted to pass that love onto his students. He was full of lightness of heart as well. I remember him turning back to us after bowing to the audience at one concert he conducted and wiping a tear from his eye with the tip of his tie — a signal that we had done him proud.

Years after I graduated, I wanted to come back and thank Mr. Chris for that love and belief. Sadly, he passed before we could reconnect. I was too young and perhaps too self-absorbed in high school to realize that there are words worth saying before graduation.

A couple of years ago I became a part-time college professor, teaching songwriting. When I accepted the position, I asked myself two questions: How could I inspire my students to believe in themselves? How could I signal to them they have something unique to offer the world?

I found the answers by trying to follow in Mr. Chris’ footsteps. I make sure to let my students know when their songs move me, and I point out the parts I think are really special. I let them know when I think they’re better than they think they are. They may not see it yet. But hopefully one day they will.

And occasionally I receive an email at the end of a semester from a student telling me how much they appreciated my guidance … that it was the best class they ever took! I’m grateful they thought to tell me before they graduated.

If they have a hit song one day and remember me, that will mean I did my job.

 

Check out Shelly’s other postings.

Best New MusicCast App Features

Written by Phil Shea on . Posted in Music and Streaming.

The Yamaha MusicCast system is wireless multi-room audio technology that works with a variety of home audio components, including AV receivers, wireless speakers and even a Wi-Fi turntable. The free Yamaha MusicCast Controller app allows you to use your smart device to control MusicCast-enabled products via Wi-Fi.

The latest release of the MusicCast Controller App offers many exciting features that help enhance the user experience and make enjoying music easier than ever. Here are some of the best new MusicCast App features you’ll want to try.

A New Look for the Main Screen

The app looks a little different now, but it’s more than just a cosmetic facelift, with numerous controls and access to commonly used functions repositioned for easier access. For instance, the Main screen is now essentially four screens in one, with dedicated panels for Device Control, Source Selection, Now Playing and Navigation Tabs. Putting the most used activities up front simplifies the enjoyment of your MusicCast system.

Series of screenshots.
The Main screen is divided into four panels for fast access to commonly used functions.

Main Screen – Device Control Panel

The Device Control panel provides direct access buttons to handy features like switching rooms, timers, sound settings and linking options. These controls are commonly used every time you play music over your system.

Series of screenshots.
Device Control panel details.

Main Screen – Source Selection Panel

The Source Selection panel not only lets you select the source you want to hear, but lists the recent sources that were accessed, as well as up to 40 of your most recent content selections. Your personalized playlists and favorites are all right there as well.

Series of screenshots.
Source Selection panel details.

Main Screen – Now Playing Panel

The Now Playing panel is normally minimized on the Main screen. Tapping the panel will expand the Now Playing panel to full screen. This displays more details about the music you are listening to, as well as providing quick access to other commonly used screens for further customization.

Series of screenshots.
Now Playing panel details.

Main Screen – Navigation Tabs Panel

One of the major improvements to the new MusicCast app layout are the three Navigation Tabs located at the bottom of the screen. With a single button press, you are instantly routed to one of three important sections of the app: the Main, Routines and Settings pages.

Series of screenshots.
Navigation Tabs allow you to instantly go to the app’s main three pages.

Routines Page

When using the MusicCast app, you’ll likely find yourself developing habits based on what sources you listen to and what rooms you like to link together, as well as a favorite volume level. You can think of Routines as being whole-home presets — a quick way to reset your entire system with the press of a single button. There are factory Routines, such as “leaving home,” which provides a quick way to shut down all MusicCast devices in your system. In addition, once you have your system set the way you like, you can also save it to a Routine. For example, you can build a Routine for parties, with all zones linked together, or one for morning listening, with just the bedroom and bath playing the news while you are preparing for your day. Take advantage of Routines to make your listening more enjoyable.

Series of screenshots.
Here’s how to access and create Routines.

Settings Page

Though somewhat tucked out of the way, the Settings Page connects to an area of the app that contains some very important controls. Most of these controls are not necessarily used every day; however, they can be critical to enjoying the optimum MusicCast experience. The How-to-Use button, for example, can be a real goldmine of information while learning the nuances of your system. Use these “mini tutorials” to graphically guide you through step-by-step procedures to get the most out of your MusicCast system.

Series of screenshots.
Settings page details.

Now that you’re up to speed on the latest changes to the MusicCast app, it’s time to give it a spin. Enjoy!

Guitarist playing acoustic guitar.

Recording Acoustic Instruments, Part 3

Written by Mike Levine on . Posted in Recording.

In Part 1 of this three-part series about recording acoustic instruments, we described the various microphone types and presented general tips for mic placement; in Part 2, we showed you how to best capture the sound of guitar and bass. Here, we’ll conclude by looking at how to mic an acoustic piano, as well as some common brass, woodwind and hand percussion instruments.

Before getting into the specifics, though, here are a couple of general points about instrument miking: First, in most situations, if you’ve got one mic that’s by far the best one in your collection, you should consider using it, even if it’s not the “type” suggested for a specific source. And secondly, patience is critical. Spend time moving the mic (or mics’) around — even if it’s only by small increments — until you find the placement where the instrument sounds best.

The Ivories

How you go about miking a piano varies greatly depending on the type and quality of the instrument, the room acoustics, and whether the pianist is featured in the arrangement or is just playing a background part.

You can get pretty elaborate with setups that include combinations of close and room mics, but we’ll keep it simple here and talk about practical two-mic configurations, which can yield an excellent sound if executed correctly.

The typical method for capturing the sound of a grand piano involves a spaced pair of microphones, one for the lower range and one for the upper. (If possible, use condenser mics because pianos have a vast frequency range.) If you have mics that offer omni polar patterns (which pick up sound equally from all around), you’ll get a more representative sound and more accurate bass response (with no proximity effect) than with a unidirectional mic … but you’ll also pick up more reflections and less direct sound.

Inside of a grand piano as seen from above with lid removed. Two bullseye style target graphics imposed.
Start by aiming your mics as shown.

Use boom stands to position the two mics 8 to 12 inches above the strings, near the hammers, and start by spacing them roughly 15 inches apart, as indicated by the “bullseyes” in the illustration on the right. You can experiment with the distance between the mics; however, be sure to follow the 3-to-1 rule. If you want a more focused stereo sound, try a configuration like X-Y or ORTF, with the mics aimed at about the center point of the hammers.

If you’re trying to get more attack in the sound, try lowering the mics a few inches. The closer they are to the hammers, the more direct sound and transient energy they’ll pick up. The higher they are, the more reflected sound coming off the lid and from the room will get picked up, creating more ambience.

Although you’ll probably end up recording your piano in stereo (with the final mix usually made from the player’s perspective — that is, with the lows on the left and highs on the right), you should always check the signal in mono. If you hear significant phase cancellation, try reversing the polarity on one of the mics.

Because of its physical differences from a grand, an upright piano requires a modified approach. Some people like to take off the entire bottom panel under the keyboard and place the mics there, spaced a foot or more apart. You can also get good results by opening the top lid and using boom stands to place the mics inside. Use a similar concept as with the grand piano: one mic for lows and one for highs in a spaced pair. Move the mics lower inside the lid for a more direct sound, or higher up for more room sound.

Horns of Plenty

The two brass instruments you’re most likely to encounter are trumpet and trombone. Both are relatively uncomplicated to record because virtually all of their sound comes out of the bell at the end. They’re also quite loud.

Considering those two factors, a cardioid dynamic mic is a good choice because it has a directional polar pattern and can handle high sound pressure levels without distortion. A large-diaphragm condenser can work well too, although you’ll probably have to engage its built-in pad switch. (A pad cuts the input level by a specified amount, making microphones more suited for loud sources.) You could also use the pad switch on your console or interface, but if the mic is getting overloaded, the sound will be distorted by the time it gets to the preamp in those devices. Alternatively, many engineers like to use ribbon mics on brass, so if you’ve got one (or the budget to rent one), you might want to experiment with it.

If you’re overdubbing a single trumpet, start with the mic pointed directly at the center of the opening in the bell, about 10 inches away. For trombone (which is even louder than trumpet), start at about 14 inches away.

Graphic comparing microphone placement.
Aim the mic directly at the trumpet or trombone bell.

You don’t want to get too close for a couple of reasons. First, you don’t want to pick up a lot of wind noise. Second, you want to capture some of the reflected waves in the room, which loud instruments like trumpet or trombone are sure to create. Ideally, you want to record trumpet in a relatively “live” room; that is, one with a number of hard surfaces.

Experiment with the distance and angle (and mic, if you can) until you get a good, full sound without distortion. Pointing the mic straight into the center of the bell will give you the brightest results. You’ll capture less high-end if you angle the mic to one side or the other (i.e., off-axis).

As with other instruments, your miking strategy will depend on several factors. Particularly with trumpet, pay attention to the frequency range of the part. If the player is hitting many high notes, the trumpet may sound shrill, and so you may need to angle the mic off-axis. You also might opt for a dynamic or ribbon mic in such a situation, because condenser mics tend to capture more high-end and could accentuate the shrillness.

If you’re recording a brass or horn section, you’ll get the best results if you record all the instruments at the same time (as opposed to overdubbing each part individually). After all, a well-arranged horn section should meld the various instruments into what sounds like a single entity. Horn players are also used to playing together, and so you might get a superior performance that way. A single good-quality omni mic can be used to capture the sound of a horn section in mono, or you can try a pair of mics in a stereo configuration such as X-Y or ORTF; individual microphones for each instrument are rarely needed. Either way, have the players stand at least three feet back from the mic (or mics) as a starting point.

Also experiment with the placement of the musicians in order to get the optimum blend. Bear in mind that you won’t have any way to change the individual instrument levels when you’re mixing, so make sure you’re happy with the balance you’re getting. If you’re capturing the sound of the horn section in mono, consider recording two passes of the part, panning one left and the other right during the mix to add width. Even if you’re recording in stereo, doubling will make the section sound bigger.

A Mighty Woodwind

Unlike trumpet and trombone, where the sound comes mainly from the bell, woodwinds such as saxophone and clarinet create sound throughout their bodies. As a result, you don’t want to aim the mic directly at the bell; instead, start by placing the mic about 18 inches away from the instrument and aim it over the bell so that it’s pointed at the approximate center point of the keys.

Graphic.
Aim the mic at the middle of the sax or clarinet.

The best mic to use will depend on the instrument, the sound you’re going for, and what you have available. Both condenser and ribbon mics do a good job of capturing the sound of all varieties of sax, as well as clarinet and flute.

Shake It

Hand percussion instruments such as shaker, maracas and tambourine create sounds consisting primarily of upper midrange and high-frequency energy. Because they’re percussive, they also tend to have very loud transients. Those transients are also of such brief duration that many standard VU meters are too slow to display them — a leading cause of distortion, and a good reason to use Peak Program (PPM) meters instead.

There’s a divergence of opinion about which mic type is best for recording hand percussion, but you should do fine with either a small- or large-diaphragm condenser, both of which excel at capturing transients. If the sound you’re getting is too cutting or piercing, you could try a ribbon or dynamic mic instead, since they capture fewer high frequencies. As with other instruments, the closer the player is to the mic, the more present and “in your face” the sound will be; the further away, the more ambient.

A good starting point is to have the player stand about eight inches from the mic. Because hand percussion instruments have to be physically shaken to create sound, the direction of the movement relative to the mic will impact the results. If the player moves it forward and back from the mic, the forward sounds (typically the accents) will be louder. If you’d prefer to minimize accents to get a more even-sounding part, have the player move the instrument from side to side relative to the mic capsule.

Graphic.
The direction a hand percussion instrument moves relative to the mic affects the captured sound.

Tambourine is not only capable of jangly sounds but may have a drumhead on it too, in which case it will generate low and midrange frequencies as well as high ones. With or without a drumhead, tambourines have a very wide dynamic range and so can easily overload the input. Therefore, you should make sure to set its level relatively low so that you have some headroom. Otherwise, you could end up with clipping that makes the track unusable.

Most of the time, you can get a good result recording hand percussion in mono. It’s usually better to have the percussion instrument coming from a single point in space rather than being too spread out across the stereo soundstage. In addition, when you’re mixing a shaker, maraca or tambourine in a song with a drum kit, you typically want to pan it away from the hi-hat, or their parts (which are in similar frequency ranges) may mask each other.

 

Check out our other Recording Basics postings.

A Guide to Mentorship in the Collegiate Music Program

Written by Dr. Justin John Moniz on . Posted in Teaching Tips.

Stop. Take a moment for yourself. Create a short list of those special educators who propelled you forward to where you are today. Think carefully about what each of them had in common. If your list is anything like mine, you may have just reached a riveting realization.

An exceptional educator is one whose work continues far beyond the walls of the teaching studio; one whose impact is sustained well past the conclusion of any final exam, recital or capstone experience. I have spent my academic teaching career navigating an expansive landscape of collegiate music programs from public to private, liberal arts to top research universities. While each has offered its fair share of unique opportunities, the common denominator is that students consistently desire something beyond the curriculum itself — mentorship.

mentorship /ˈmen-ˌtȯr-ˌship/ noun. (1) the guidance provided by a mentor, especially an experienced person in a company or educational institution; (2) a period of time during which a person receives guidance from a mentor.

Admittedly, many of us choose to enter the field of education because of an impactful relationship we had with a mentor. I recall some of my own experiences with my undergraduate opera director, Dr. Carleen Graham. What was it that made her so impactful? Of course, her knowledge knew no bounds. But, it wasn’t Dr. Graham’s expertise in the field of opera (or her newly minted doctorate from Columbia) that had the greatest influence on her students. It was her natural ability to cultivate a connection. It was her desire to show up and be present. And it was her undeniable passion for pedagogic practice — a passion so fiery that I can still feel the heat some 14 years later.

As I have ventured to live up to the legacy of Dr. Graham, I have found great success in the mentorship of many of my own students. While there is no one formulaic solution to providing great mentorship, the four steps below offer a systematic procedure by which to explore new pathways to success.

1. Seek to understand each of your students.

Human connection is fostered by mutual understanding and shared experience. It is important to spend time getting to know your students, both in and outside of the classroom. Learn a bit about their unique journeys, struggles, hobbies and interests. In addition, offer them the space to begin to share who they perceive themselves to be.

Once we have a clear understanding of each of our students, we are more capable of helping them discover what they wish to say as artists. One’s personality simply cannot be removed from the equation. When we are having conversations surrounding identity, brand, and an individual’s artistic footprint, these details are paramount. Without such information, artistic expression often lacks definition, passion and purpose.

2. Encourage calculated risk-taking.

teacher mentoring student unsplashA great mentor equips their mentees with the tools by which to seek success. As per the high stakes nature and competitiveness of the performance world, it is imperative to remember that each risk carries the potential for yet another disappointment. When trying to empower young artists to develop the confidence and self-worth to move forward (despite the continuous stream of rejections), a calculated approach to seeking performance opportunities is especially important.

I often encourage my students to conduct a bit of market research on the companies and programs for which they are hoping to audition prior to the allocation of any resource — be it time, money, mental energy or otherwise. If a particular young artist program has a track record of hiring singers with two or three previous seasons of professional experience, only those artists with parallel profiles need apply. Equipping mentees with the skills necessary to evaluate such opportunities is especially critical for early career success. It is through this process of calculated risk-taking that we build more thoughtful, sustainable and resilient artists.

silhouette stage actors unsplash

3. Support your students outside of the classroom.

It probably goes without saying, but visibility is essential. The work of a great mentor goes well beyond the meeting hours of any course. It is important to make time to show up for students, whether it be by attending performances, meeting them during office hours or even sending a quick check-in email at various points throughout the semester.

The relationship between mentor and mentee is strengthened by clear and consistent communication among both parties. I have also found student engagement to be more considerable during class when these additional steps are taken outside of the classroom. It’s a win-win situation for both mentor and mentee and a significant step toward exceptional mentorship by way of increased accessibility.

4. Inspire by sharing your journey.

It is no accident that you are in the position you are in. You have undoubtedly taken many calculated risks and successfully navigated the tumultuous terrain of being a musician and an educator in the 21st century. Congratulations!

While there is no one path to success in our ever-changing industry, sharing accounts of one’s own trials and tribulations can be particularly insightful and encouraging. Perhaps you were covering the role of Cassio in Verdi’s “Otello” at Utah Festival Opera and had to go on during the company’s closing performance with less than 10 minutes notice. Or maybe your work was criticized by somebody who claimed you weren’t “doctoral quality,” and you persevered. Then again, it might have been a job where you later won over an individual who spoke poorly of your artistic abilities. Whatever it may be, these anecdotes are invaluable pieces of the puzzle. They enable mentees to see the reality of the profession and offer great insight into the process, however difficult.

Dr. Justin John Moniz with student Christina SwansonThe universe has an unusually clever way of bringing life full circle. For instance, a handful of my current students are singing with companies that I have performed with some years ago. Like Christina Swanson, for instance, who is currently spending her summer working as a Festival Artist with Utah Festival Opera. Will she go on for any of her cover assignments? I’m not sure. But, what I do know is that she is equipped with the tools by which to find success should she be called upon to do so.

While I’m unsure if I’ll ever live up to the legacy of Dr. Graham (who, by the way, now serves as Dean of the Vocal Division at Manhattan School of Music), I will continue to reflect on the mentorship offered to me by so many of my most admired teachers. Mentors like Dr. Jill Pearon, Dr. Dean Southern, Dr. Evan Jones, Mrs. Margaret Murphy, Dr. Justin Comito and many more.

So, If you’re still reading and remain unsure as to where to begin, stop. Take a moment. Carefully refer back to that list of educators who helped get you to where you are today. And when in doubt, give your “Dr. Graham” a call. You’ll be glad you did.

9 Yamaha “40 Under 40” Educators Eligible to Win 2023 GRAMMY Music Educator Award

Written by Yamaha Staff on . Posted in 2022.

In June, 207 teachers were named quarterfinalists for the 2023 Music Educator Award presented by the Recording Academy and GRAMMY® Museum. An additional 125 “legacy” applicants from 2022 are also eligible to win the award.

Among the quarterfinalists and legacy finalists are nine Yamaha “40 Under 40” music educators from 2021 and 2022.

“It is always an inspiration to hear these worthy educators’ stories, but we’re thrilled to see so many ‘40 Under 40’ educators being recognized for their innovative teaching methodologies and commitment to transforming their programs,” Lisa MacDonald, the Director of Vertical Marketing for Yamaha Corporation of America. “We are particularly heartened to reflect on the generation of students who are being inspired by these extraordinary teachers to be lifelong music makers.”

Yamaha “40 Under 40” Educators and GRAMMY Quarterfinalists

Amos DavidDavid Amos, a 2022 Yamaha “40 Under 40” music educator, is the Director of Bands at Heritage Middle School in Painesville, Ohio. He finds creative ways to introduce his students to the many facets of music, such as a nine-week Careers in Music class that looks at non-performing careers in the music industry and including diverse repertoire as part of his curriculum. One of his students said that Amos always finds ways to push students to be a better version of themselves as an individual and in music. “Remember, music is worth it. … While music is the content we teach, our first goal must be to teach students the skills they need to be successful in this changing world,” Amos said.

Antos JustinDr. Justin Antos, another 2022 “40 Under 40” educator, is the Director of Bands and Orchestras at Dwight D. Eisenhower High School in Blue Island, Illinois. He has grown his music program by first building morale and establishing a culture of respect and encouragement. He celebrates little victories to enhance his students’ sense of pride. “I believe that being a music educator is less about the ornate spires and more about the individual bricks that build the castle,” he said. In 2021, Antos was a top 10 finalist for the GRAMMY Music Educator Award and used the honorarium he received to purchase hand drums, Gato boxes, wood blocks and pitched handheld instruments for the music therapy department at Advocate Children’s Hospital of Oak Lawn.

Jones AmirAmir Jones, who was named as a Yamaha “40 Under 40” music educator in 2022, is the Director of Bands at Thomas W. Harvey High School in Painesville, Ohio. Some of his students come from challenging socioeconomic situations, but when they enter his program, “they are given the best opportunity we can offer despite what other obstacles they may experience outside of our program,” Jones said. His unique approach — using a large-band mentality for his smaller band — has paid off. “We started to travel yearly, we play music that pushed our limits, we purchased quality equipment, we performed on our local news and participated in as many performances as possible,” Jones said.

Swick Tyler2Tyler Swick, who was part of the first Yamaha “40 Under 40” group in 2021, is an elementary music educator at Robert and Sandy Ellis Elementary School in Henderson, Nevada. Parents have described him as a “musical musician” whose “work ethic knows no bounds when it comes to ensuring he gets a smile out of a few extra kiddos.” Fun is a big part of Swick’s Orff-based music classes and his YouTube channel, Swick’s Classroom, which has videos of catchy songs that feature Swick’s “cutting-edge creativity and self-taught knack for audio and video production to create educational material,” according to another parent. In 2020, Swick received the “Heart of Education” award from The Smith Center and used his $1,000 prize to purchase each Ellis Elementary student a pair of drumsticks, a scarf and a shaker — items that he called for them to use in remote classes during the pandemic.

Wilga AlexanderAlex Wilga, a 2022 “40 Under 40” educator, is the Director of Bands at Davenport Central High School in Iowa, which has a rich 136-year history. “My job is to make sure the program is in better shape when I am done than when I started,” he said. Wilga was part of the district team that coordinated a proposal to secure $2.5 million in funding for music and other special activities when “pay-to-play” participation fees were “I am always pushing for my students to have every experience that is possible through band.  I don’t want them to worry about quality instruments, quality facilities, adequate funding or the other administrative things that come with a large program. I don’t want students to have a single roadblock so that they are free to become the best versions of themselves that they can possibly be,” he said.

Yamaha “40 Under 40” Educators and Legacy Applicants

Gibb Clark AndrewAndrew Gibb-Clark, who was recognized as a Yamaha “40 Under 40” teacher in 2021, is the Director of Choral Activities at Highland High School in Illinois. When the pandemic hit in 2020, Gibb-Clark was determined to still present the spring musical production of “The Little Mermaid.” He brainstormed with the production team and came up with the idea of a drive-in “… with students performing live inside, and the audience in their cars across the street, enjoying the drive-in- movie style musical,” he said. The video feed of the performance was projected on a 11×22-foot screen and sound was transmitted through each car’s radio. A colleague said that Gibb-Clark’s “the-show-must-go-on attitude shows his unselfish caring toward his students.” In the fall of 2022, he is moving to Kirkwood High School in Missouri.

Lowe WesleyWes Lowe, a 2022 “40 Under 40” educator, is the Director of Instrumental Arts at The King’s Academy (TKA) in West Palm Beach, Florida. Lowe knows the legacy of the TKA instrumental arts program because he attended the school as a child. “My heritage and ties to the band program here inspire and motivate me to lead the program in a way that continues to have life-changing impact on my students,” he said. He started band instruction with proper fundamentals and training for 4th graders, building on the foundation of having a strong beginning band program. Thanks to Lowe, the jazz program has grown and students perform for the community regularly, and the halftime shows have been compared to Super Bowl™ halftime shows!

Martindale MatthewMatthew Martindale, another 2021 Yamaha “40 Under 40” music educator, is the Director of Bands at Shelby County High School in Columbiana, Alabama. The “Pride of Shelby County” is the oldest band in the county, but it was the smallest and in need of many upgrades when Martindale first arrived at the school. Through a capital campaign and grants, he purchased band uniforms and instruments. His students soon started calling him “Martindad,” showcasing the bond he has with his students. The band won Best in Class during Martindale’s second year, but trophies aren’t important to him. “If you can get your students to realize that competition is only one aspect of growth and that improvement is more important, then you can be happy as a director,” he said.

Villanueva EJEJ Villanueva, a 2021 “40 Under 40” educator, is an instrumental music teacher at Orange Grove Elementary School in Anaheim, California. With the expectation of teaching the same students for seven or eight years from transitional kindergarten (pre-K) to 6th grade, Villanueva knows that he must provide unique experiences that go beyond traditional elementary music. “I … explore different facets of music that can range from learning how to sing, dance and respond to music, [to] learning how to compose, beatbox, rap, play in a rock or pop band, … everything,” Villanueva said. The depth and breadth of Orange Grove’s music program seems even more phenomenal since Villanueva only started teaching there in 2018, and the entire Anaheim Elementary School District had been silent — with no music classes — for approximately 20 years, shortly before Villanueva’s arrival.

Winner Will be Announced in March 2023

The GRAMMY quarterfinalist and legacy applicant list will be narrowed to 15 semifinalists, then 10 finalists and finally one winner in March 2023, who will attend the 2023 GRAMMY Awards and participate in several GRAMMY-related events. The winning music educator will receive a $10,000 honorarium.

According to the GRAMMY in the Schools website, the GRAMMY Music Educator Award recognizes current kindergarten through college educators in public and private schools who meet the following criteria:

  • Have made a measurable difference in the lives of students
  • Have a made a significant and lasting contribution to the field of music education
  • are exemplars of the best in the field
  • Have shown a commitment to the broader cause of maintaining music education in the schools
  • Have made a significant impact on their school and community

The Basics of Bass EQ

Written by Michael Gelfand on . Posted in Bass.

Great basses aren’t created by accident — they’re conceived, designed and built with intent. To varying degrees, each design decision affects a bass’ character. For example, its neck construction (bolt-on or neck-through) impacts brightness and sustain. The tonewoods selected for the body, neck and fretboard impart particular sonic characteristics, while also affecting the instrument’s overall weight and balance. In addition, the pickup types and configurations (along with their locations on the body) play a big role in determining tonality and harmonic content, as does playing technique (picking versus fingerstyle) and the choice of string (flatwound versus roundwound). The list of contributing factors goes on and on …

But perhaps the most important factor that determines the tonality of a bass is its equalization (EQ) circuitry and settings. The “tone” knobs and switches on your bass are all connected to an out-of-view host of electronic components that make an outsized contribution to the sound even before the signal exits your bass and hits your amp, preamp and/or DI box.

Manufacturers take a variety of different approaches to bass equalization. These are the most common ones:

1. Master Knob
2. Two-band EQ
3. Three-band EQ

In this article, we’ll explain how each works, along with a description of the pros and cons of the three approaches. We’ll also provide audio clips so you can hear for yourself how tweaking your bass’ EQ controls can alter the sound. First, though, we need to tackle the concept of …

ACTIVE VS. PASSIVE EQ

Some EQ circuits are active, meaning they require power from an onboard battery to function. Others are passive, requiring no power. In the case of passive EQ circuits, the tone controls only cut frequencies, whereas active EQ controls allow you to cut or boost frequencies. Cutting frequencies isn’t necessarily better or worse than being able to boost frequencies; it’s simply a different approach to carving out the signature sound you’re after.

As you might guess, active and passive EQ circuits have different sonic characteristics. Active EQs are commonly considered more “hi-fi,” while passive EQs are often referred to as “vintage” and “warm.” If you like both, you should consider a bass equipped with active/passive EQ switching, such as Yamaha BB700 Series and TRBX600 Series instruments. Here’s what a BB735A sounds like with active EQ:

And here’s what it sounds like when switched to passive EQ:

Electric guitar.
Yamaha BB735A.

The BB735A, along with its four-string cousin, the BB734A, also offers an interesting twist on active/passive switching: When in active mode, the three-band EQ knobs work as expected (see the “Three-Band EQ” section below), but when in passive mode, the treble knob becomes a Master Tone control, which we’ll describe next.

MASTER TONE KNOB

Many vintage basses, as well as some new ones, are equipped with a single passive “Master Tone” knob that cuts highs when you turn it counterclockwise. All Yamaha BB Series basses except the BB734A and BB735A models offer this kind of EQ control, as does the Yamaha RBX170 and TRBX174/TRBX174EW.

Electric guitar.
Yamaha TRBX174.

The following three audio clips (recorded using my vintage Yamaha BB1200 bass, strung with flatwound strings) demonstrate how the sound changes when you turn the Master Tone knob. Here, it is wide open (completely clockwise):

Next, the half-way position:

And finally, with the highs fully rolled off (completely counterclockwise):

TWO-BAND EQ

Many of today’s basses feature either a two- or a three-band EQ circuit — a “band” in this case meaning a specific frequency range. A bass with two-band EQ offers separate knobs for treble and bass. If the EQ circuit is passive, filtering occurs over that frequency range when you turn the knobs. When both knobs are wide open (i.e., turned fully clockwise), you’ll hear the uncolored sound of your bass. From there, you have two ways to alter the sound: Roll off the highs to cut string noise and accentuate the low end, and/or roll off the lows to bolster the snap and sizzle of your attack.

In basses with active two-band EQ (such as the Yamaha TRBX204 and TRBX304 /TRBX305, you can opt to boost the highs and lows, as well as cut them. Here’s the sound of a TRBX304 (strung with roundwound strings, and with both pickup volume controls equal) with both the high and low EQ knobs set to their center detent position for no cut or boost:

Compare that to the sound of the same bass with both the bass and treble boosted to the max:

And here’s the TRBX with the bass still boosted to max, but with the treble completely rolled off, for a richer, less aggressive sound:

Electric guitar.
Yamaha TRBX304.

Bassists who prefer instruments with three-band equalization (see below) claim that two-band EQ doesn’t deliver enough control over midrange frequencies. My take is that most two-band EQ circuits are more than up to the task of tone shaping, and that you should use your amp’s or mixer’s EQ section to create the general sound you want, then use the bass’ onboard EQ to tweak things to perfection, not the other way around. That said, there are certain specific advantages offered by three-band EQ, which we’ll explore next.

THREE-BAND EQ

A three-band EQ circuit features separate knobs for treble, bass and mids, and the circuitry is almost always active. Three-band EQs inherently offer greater flexibility to players who want to create a very specific sound. Perhaps you are an aggressive slap-and-pop player who lusts after a particular mid-scooped sound, or maybe you’re in a band with two guitarists and a keyboard player and need your bass to carve out a specific midrange frequency slot within the overall band mix to be heard above the din. In these and other situations, an active three-band EQ offers the comprehensive versatility to craft the specific tone you need without any compromises.

Many Yamaha basses offer three-band EQ, including the BB734A / BB735A models; the TRBX504 / TRBX505 and TRBX604FM / TRBX605FM; the BBPH Peter Hook Signature BB Bass; the BBNE2 Nathan East Signature Model (which adds a unique Mid Cut control and switch); and the TRBJP2 John Patitucci Signature Model.

Here are four audio clips demonstrating the effect of EQ on a Yamaha BB735A, strung with roundwound strings and in active EQ mode. First, here’s the 735A with the bass and mid knobs set to the center detent for no boost or cut, but with the treble full up:

Next, here it is with the bass and treble knobs 3/4 of the way up, but with the mids fully boosted:

Finally, here it is with the same bass and treble knob settings, but with the mids fully cut for a “scooped” ’70s funk sound:

While it’s true that having an extra mid band (which will usually be cut, not boosted) can help give your instrument a richer sound, set-it-and-forget-it players who typically don’t fiddle around with the knobs on their bass may not want or need so much tonal control. Inexperienced players may also find themselves intimidated and confused by the presence of so many knobs (in addition to volume and possibly blend knobs). To address that concern, some basses, such as the Yamaha TRBX304 and TRBX305, come equipped with EQ presets, enabling you to immediately select the precise sound you want rather than tweak knobs in hopes of arriving there manually. The following audio clips demonstrate two of the five EQ presets offered by the TRBX304. First, the “Pick” preset, played with a pick:

Compare this to the “Finger” preset, where I play the same bassline, this time fingerstyle:

NO WINNERS, NO LOSERS

Before you decide which approach to equalization you prefer, keep in mind that no amount of EQ (or EQ system ever designed) can make you sound better than you actually are. Great tone starts with the player, both in terms of how you play your instrument and where on the bass you actually play it. For example, plucking or picking closer to the bridge will yield a crisp, ‘70s funk sound, while playing further up the neck where the fretboard meets the body will result in a richer, warmer tone. Any and all of these approaches will dramatically affect the sound of your bass before you ever touch a tone knob, and will make your use of EQ that much more powerful when you start tweaking away.

 

Click here for more information about Yamaha basses.

Central Falls High School choir

Case Study: 4 Keys to Drafting a New High School Music Program

Written by Bryant Montalvo on . Posted in Case Studies.

When music educators assume a position at a new school, they routinely follow in the footsteps of their predecessors. They will inevitably be told “this is how we do things here…” or may even receive pushback if they attempt to break the status quo. This was often my experience at the beginning of my career.

Some educators may find comfort in walking into a school with an already established music program, knowing that all they have to do is meet a set of expectations. But what happens when the program and the expectations don’t exist? Where do you turn when you take on the task of building a new music program in a school where music education was absent for quite some time?

This was the challenge I faced during the height of the pandemic, when I moved back to the United States from teaching abroad to begin a new high school music program at Central Falls High School in Rhode Island.

Outlined below are the four essential keys you must consider when launching a new high school music program. Starting a program from the ground up takes a lot more work, but the benefits and rewards are worth it!

1. Begin with a Strategic Plan

students music labPrior to the start of the academic year, draft a strategic plan for the new music program that includes a mission. Why are you there to begin a music program? What purpose does it serve? Make it concise but keep the bigger picture in mind.

Here’s our mission: “The mission of the Central Falls High School music program is to educate and inspire students through collaborative music making while providing positive life-changing musical experiences for the entire high school as well as the greater Central Falls community.”

Next, draft a vision for the program. What will you specialize in? What will you provide for your students?

Here’s how our vision begins: “Every student at Central Falls High School will have opportunities to participate in collaborative music making and develop musical skills for lifetime application.”

Finally, detail the core values in your strategic plan that will serve as the anchors for your new program. It’s helpful to align these core values with the National Core Arts Standards if your school district uses them. Be specific and connect these core values to part of the music process.

For example:

  • Inclusive — Music making is provided to all students as they are able to participate at their own level.
  • Comprehensive — Students develop an awareness and knowledge of multiple musical styles as they engage with repertoire that is varied in genre, language and culture.

Share the strategic plan with your administration and ask for feedback. They will be delighted to have the opportunity to be included in this exciting process. Discuss how the core values of your music program connect with your school’s larger mission statement or academic program of studies.

One of our school’s goals is to develop more practices of culturally responsive teaching, so it was important to my principal that our music program met these same standards. It was also essential for him to hear how we planned to create connections within the community of Central Falls. Sharing your vision as the new music director is a necessary step to confirm your administration’s full support of the new music program.

Return to your mission statement and program vision when you are reflecting on the progress of the program mid-year and make revisions as needed. Let this be a living document that continues to inspire both music teachers and music students.

2. Minimize Course Offerings

students boomwhackersAll music directors wear many hats, and they are often some of the busiest people in the school building! Developing new curriculum, units and lesson plans for multiple courses at the same time is extremely time consuming and can lead to burn-out.

For the first year, plan to offer only one or two different courses. Even if you previously taught this course at another school, there will inevitably be changes that you will need to make. For example, you may need to re-write your unit plans in a specific way or on specific forms that are unique to your new school. Or, you may need to have fully realized lesson plans for every unit depending on your administration. By having just one or two different courses, you can focus on your students instead of worrying about all of the administrative paperwork required of teachers.

Also keep in mind that as a new staff member, you will need to be evaluated. Teaching one or two courses to multiple sections will provide ample time to become a master teacher who is able to focus specifically on the needs of your students at your new school. Each group of students will have nuances, so you must adapt your curriculum and mode of instruction accordingly. Once you are comfortable with these courses, consider adding a third course the next semester. Don’t forget to reflect on how the first semester went and continue to develop your original curriculum to meet the demands of the 21st century learner.

As the years progress, your music program will grow, and you will be able to identify and retain those students who live, eat and breathe music. When this happens, you will discover the joy of creating both fun music electives as well as new performing ensembles. Just remember to start small and take it measure by measure before attempting to offer the gamut of musical experiences.

3. Get Buy-In from Your School Community

ukulele guitar studentsAs music educators, we are often “othered” and may not be seen as “core” teachers. Some districts refer to the music, art and drama teachers with a condescending label like “itinerants,” and guidance counselors might think that music is “just an elective.” Other teachers or building administrators may complain about the amount of noise coming from your room. If you are a seasoned educator, you have experienced all the above and then some. However, if you are entering a new school that is not used to having music as a course offering, all these challenges will be heightened. The best way to overcome these hurdles is with community buy-in.

First, identify staff members who have a musical background. Maybe a science teacher plays the trumpet in a band, or perhaps a Spanish teacher is the organist at her church. Once you identify these individuals, make them your support system and advocates! Use them to help acclimate the community to understand what having a musical experience is like.

Next, identify the type of ensemble that is best suited for your school. Will it be a marching band, an orchestra or a choral program? Before you begin a new ensemble, find out what your administration would like and expects. You also must be realistic and identify the particular strengths of your own musicianship.

Make sure to involve your current students next. What are they interested in? Do you have a lot of students who like to sing? Or maybe you have enough interested students to begin a modern band program. Once students are excited about the opportunities that come with performing in a new ensemble, you can begin to include the other staff members you’ve previously identified and see how they can help and support your students in this new venture.

4. Open Your Doors

singers graduationOpen your classroom doors — figuratively and literally! Make the music room “the place to be.” Welcome students you don’t know into your room or invite them in for lunch. Get to know them. Provide a safe and welcoming environment for anyone walking into the room, whether or not they are music students.

Fill the hallway with music. Music is such a unifying, humanizing and healing force. Any passersby who hear the music will be filled with joy, and they might peek into your room. Invite them in. Play for them. Sing for them. Invite them to play or sing with you. The more you consistently involve other community members into the daily work of music making, the more respect your program will receive and the bigger the impact will be on your students.

When your students are comfortable, find opportunities to share their work with the school community. Perform at lunchtime. Invite other classes to the music room. Run a school-wide talent show where music students serve as hosts and perform together. Identify your rising stars and have them sing the national anthem at school sporting events. Start new traditions like hosting an international night and welcoming community members to share their musical backgrounds and cultures. Find opportunities to fill as many hearts and minds as possible in your school with music.

Then, open your doors to the greater community. Connect with a local college music program or arts organization. Find ways to collaborate and invite guest artists to work with your students. Reach out to professional artists who will be visiting your town and inquire about holding a master class for your students. You may be surprised to find that a five-time Grammy-winning group is more than happy to pay a visit to your school. Once you provide these transformative musical experiences for your students, you may notice that new students will find the courage to walk through your door every single day wanting to join and asking how they can be a part of “it.”

cheerleaders and mascot

Football and Band: A Match Made in Heaven?

Written by Jarrett Lipman on . Posted in Teaching Tips. 1 Comment on Football and Band: A Match Made in Heaven?

Use the relationship between your athletic and spirit organizations to strengthen your campus community. Look at football games as a chance to showcase your music program while supporting and enriching the school’s culture. Pep rallies, playoffs and athletic events are a fantastic time to show the band’s versatility.

Here are some of my strategies, suggestions and thoughts about creating a strong relationship between football and band, such as what music to play, how to build relationships with coaches, how to balance this with other events, the importance of being visible at community events, and how all of this can create a support structure for your program goals.

Strengthen Community

football team entering fieldTexas is known for great football. And where there is great football, there is often a great band. Players, coaches and spectators appreciate the energy and presence of the marching band in the stands and on the field during halftime. The band brings more fans to games, increasing the crowd’s size and spirit.

Bringing together football, band and the spirit teams — the school’s largest organizations — can positively impact all aspects of campus life. The relationship between football and band fosters goodwill and mutual respect. Directors should create an environment where the band serves as the “connective tissue” between sports and the spirit groups. This takes effort and compromise.

I admit that I struggled with this for a long time. Only recently have I come to appreciate how these relationships can boost overall school spirit as well as morale within the spirit groups and each sport team.

You Get Out What You Put In

This best sums up my relationship with our athletic department since Claudia Taylor Johnson High School (CTJ) opened in 2008 in San Antonio. As a young teacher, I was driven toward a single mission: To build the best band possible. Anything that fell outside the spectrum of improving our marching and playing skills was deemed a distraction from that goal.

football team on sidelinesI resented the constant “drumbeat” from spirit and athletic organizations that always seemed to want a piece of our time. “Send us a drumline for this,” “Can we get a pep band for that,” “The band can’t miss that game for the biggest contest of the year.” There always seemed to be someone requesting the band at an event that took time away from rehearsals.

I wanted to practice, and I wanted my students to focus on what we were there to do — be great at marching band. I resented that football, basketball and dance were able to focus on their activities without being called to serve as a “jukebox” for every event on the calendar where someone thought that the band could add a little “ambiance.”

At games, we rotated between 12 or 13 stand tunes, plus the fight song and the school song. These tunes took a while for my young students to learn in the early years because of the complicated rhythms and syncopations. We received regular critiques from football parents that we didn’t play loud enough or didn’t play the “right kind of music.” It was, to say the least, a bit disheartening. It seemed that everything we did was under fire. At this time, our band was starting to do really well in competition, so I felt frustrated that the community seemed to focus on what we were not doing instead of what we were actually achieving.

Around my fifth or sixth year, I began to reflect on why the band’s relationship with spirit and athletics was not as strong as it should be. I remember talking to then-Principal John Mehlbrech, who encouraged me to take a step back and try to see the bigger picture. He was at every band event and worked so hard to support us. Even though I heard what he said, I don’t think I was really listening.

The band worked harder to be more energetic at pep rallies and play better music, but I still wasn’t “feeling the love” from or for my colleagues or the athletic community. Finally, in 2020, when the pandemic hit, things clicked for me — during my 13th year of teaching.

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Unity through Adversity: Preparing for the “Pandemic Season”

cheerleaders and mascotIn June 2020, we started discussing the upcoming season and whether the football season and marching competitions would occur. I spoke weekly with Principal Gary Comalander, head football coach Mark Soto and dance team director Stephanie Trevino. My goal was to gain insight into the community outside of band to gauge the desire to participate in a season of some kind.

I learned that Coach Soto and Director Trevino were already working on plans of their own to move forward with a season. We hit a setback when the start of school and our season was delayed until after Labor Day, but thanks to the open communication among the four of us, we were able to navigate the challenges and eventually proceed with practices. The bond that we developed during the summer preparation only grew stronger as the season progressed, and our students and parent organizations began to emulate the relationship they saw among the campus leadership.

Our parent organizations helped each other with safety preparations, including hand-washing and bottle-filling stations. Our students encouraged one another to participate and stay healthy so that we could continue moving forward.

Through the weeks of preparing our groups for our initial performances, we were communicating so regularly that any time an issue came up, we leaned on one another for emotional support and guidance. Mr. Comalander’s steady guidance and leadership gave us the courage and strength to tackle the day’s challenges. The camaraderie that had evolved among spirit, athletics and band made it feel much less lonely.

A Successful Season and a Glimpse of the Future

Though socially distanced and in masks, the first pep rally with band and dance was an emotionally charged event. The spirit groups and band were pumping each other up in a way I had not experienced before. When it was time for the first football game, we were all a little nervous about how it would play out.

I watched the football team race to the band and spirit squads after defeating a rival team and start jumping and cheering. The band members were screaming and returning the energy back to the team. As the season evolved, this connection only grew stronger. The football team continued to win games, the band and spirit teams got closer, and we all looked forward to the end of the game when the football team would run over with joy to celebrate. We all worked harder to play louder and better and added some new stand tunes to our repertoire that would pump up the team and help them win.

band the jungleOur season in 2020 extended nearly to Christmas because of the schedule change, which allowed the spirit groups the opportunity to perform “Holly Jolly Holiday Parade” together at halftime in our “Holiday Extravaganza” show. This performance showcased the unity of our various teams and represented an entire season of working to support each other, overcome obstacles and keep our students safe. It was the culmination of sharing ideas and pursuing a common goal. This special energy and synergy provided a glimpse of what it could be going forward.

In 2021, I wondered if the energy of 2020 would repeat itself, and I was delighted to see that it did! With the return of the packed student section in the stands (called “the jungle”), the drumline and band members made it a tradition to energize the section during the third quarter by playing “Blinding Lights,” “Welcome to the Jungle” and “Bula!” (See photo to the right.)

The students in “the jungle” were gracious in a way I had not seen before. Their energy inspired the band members to give even more passion to the game and the players.

The shift in my attitude and the collaboration with the administration, football coach and dance director during the pandemic opened new doors for the team and our entire school community.

17 Ways to “Reach Across the Aisle”

This positive energy that is shared among the football, band and spirit teams is part of the culture at many other programs in San Antonio. Some great ones that have inspired us at CTJ include James Madison High School with Philip Flynn and Evan Berry, Brandeis High School with Richard Herrera, and Winston Churchill High School when our own Alan Sharps was leading the charge. These programs built strong relationships with their athletic departments and went out of their way to support their teams while maintaining incredibly competitive marching bands.

Things I have learned from watching these programs as well as my own experiences at CTJ include:

    1. Remind students that the number one priority at football games is to support the team. All energy from the stands should be positive and professional.
    2. Keep students involved in the games and pep rallies, and train them about how to respond to first downs, touchdowns and player injuries on the field.
    3. As directors and staff, model enthusiasm for your students at the games. Be engaged and supportive of the team regardless of the score or the time of year.
    4. Learn stand tunes that pump up kids and coaches. Ask your coach if there are any songs that they would like you to play. And see what the players think about your choices.
    5. Consider what your dance team and cheerleaders want to do. Can you coordinate selections, drum line cadences and other events to create more unity in the spirit section?
    6. Coordinate events with your spirit organizations for maximum impact. Think about doing a halftime show together at least once or twice a year to signify unity between the organizations.
    7. Logan Kitchen, a member of band and football, presents his game-day jersey to band director, Jarrett Lipman Highlight student athletes who also participate in band. Look for ways to showcase their accomplishments and cheer on those athlete-musicians at the games. (See photo to the right.)
    8. Coaches and administrators do not always understand everything about band, especially if they weren’t involved in it. Many administrators were former coaches. Do not take it personally if they question things. Be receptive to questions and receive criticism and suggestions openly. Be considerate in your responses and avoid seeming defensive.
    9. Avoid missing football games for contests. Yes, we still need to compete, but consider selecting regionals based on your football schedule to avoid Saturday conflicts. When the band doesn’t attend a game, it affects athletics revenue because band parents aren’t there and the game doesn’t have the same energy. Or, see if your middle school band can fill in for you if missing a game is unavoidable.
    10. Go to away football games. That’s right, I said it. Go to away games. Remind your community how valuable your band is and how much it contributes to the team spirit. Show your investment in the community at large.
    11. The band must be at pep rallies, but does the entire band need to go? Consider rotating the responsibilities so not all the kids go all the time. This could reduce stress on the students and directors while still showing support.
    12. Can you send a pep band to basketball, track, soccer and other sports? Check with your administrators.
    13. Consider attendance at send-offs. They may fall during your rehearsal. Can the drumline go? What about a section or pep band?
    14. Bring the drumline or a pep band to play for the student section during one of the quarters of the game to get them energized. At CTJ, the student section is called “the jungle,” and we play “Welcome to the Jungle” and a few other tunes and cadences during games to get them pumped. It gets pretty rowdy, and the band members love it.
    15. Coaches and band directors should make it a point to spend time together outside of school. Find common ground and enjoy fellowship once or twice a semester with a happy hour, dinner or other get together.
    16. Recognize athletic and spirit groups’ accomplishments on your social media.
    17. Invite your athletic teams to one of your competitions. Our football team has attended one of our competitions the last two years, and it was a huge hit with our students. Spirit and athletics also hosted a send-off pep rally for our band heading to state. The band members felt so supported.
Robbie Calvo playing a Revstar guitar at the NAMM 2022 show from the Yamaha section of the tradeshow floor. Logo is visible, as well as various instruments.

NAMM 2022 Yamaha Guitars Recap

Written by Robbie Calvo on . Posted in Gearguide.

As an artist, I’m always fascinated by the design layouts and floor plans developed for trade show events. Display areas have to be visually appealing as well as functional, plus they have to be easy to navigate by a large group of people.

The new Yamaha location at the 2022 NAMM show, on the third floor of the Anaheim Convention Center, allowed the company to condense several product areas into one large square presentation space. This allowed for full line of sight to all of the display areas within the booth — a great idea that I think was appreciated by Yamaha staffers and attendees alike.

The focal point, in the middle of the space, was the revolving stage, overhead Yamaha logo and the company’s spectacular new CFX grand piano. Theatrical lighting set the mood, along with huge wall monitors projecting performance videos and NEXO speakers suspended from the ceiling emanating immersive surround sound. No matter where you were standing in the booth, the effect was dramatic!

Beautiful grand piano under a theatrical lighting scheme at a tradeshow with drop lights hung from an oversized representation of the Yamaha logo from above. Tradeshow visitors can be seen in background.

But my personal focus, of course (and the reason I was representing Yamaha at NAMM), was on Yamaha guitars, and there were plenty of them at the show, including …

Second-Generation Revstars

I’m happy to report that there were quite a few second-generation Revstar guitars on display in the guitar section, including a left-handed RSE20L and numerous Professional (RSP) Series instruments.

I’d been dying to try out the Professional line for a while, and got the chance to demonstrate an RSP20 in Swift Blue and an RSP02T in Sunset Burst (shown below) at the show. Both guitars had been set up perfectly, and played just the way I (and, I think, most people) like them. To my eyes, the combination of cream pickups and scratch plate really do complement the Sunset Burst finish very well.

Closeup of the bodies of two electric guitars hanging on a wall.
RSP20 in Swift Blue and RSP02T in Sunset Burst.

All RSP models are identical in construction, with chambered mahogany bodies, maple tops, rosewood fingerboards, carbon fiber rods in the body and neck, and 12-inch radius fretboards with stainless-steel jumbo frets. They also feature an extremely versatile five-way selector switch and a unique Focus Switch for an instantaneous boost in the low and mid frequencies. The RSP20 has two humbucking pickups, while the RSP02T sports two P90s instead, for those tasty single-coil sounds we all love. The tones they provide for rock ’n’ roll are excellent, and blues slide, legato melodies and double-stops all shine on both instruments. They were my favorite electric guitars at the show, without a doubt.

New TransAcoustic Guitars

Robbie Calvo playing guitar and singing.
Here I am, demoing the FSC-TA at NAMM.

Yamaha acoustic guitars were also represented extremely well at 2022 NAMM, with a full complement of amazing TransAcoustic instruments. The FGC-TA and FSC-TA are the latest cutaway models in the line and really do take center stage for the solo performer who needs an acoustic guitar that provides easy access to the upper register.

I used an FSC-TA in tobacco sunburst finish throughout the show for my demo performances, and I really loved the plugged-in tone as much as the acoustic sound and ambient effects. (Check out the video below for my full performance on this guitar.) It came as no surprise to me, then, that the FSC-TA followed in the footsteps of previous TA models by winning the NAMM “Best in Show” award again this year! What will they think of next for this range?

New Amplifiers

The big news on the amplifier front is that Yamaha THR-II wireless desktop amps have received a refresh in the aesthetic department and are now available in black or white, in addition to the original tan finish. This makes total sense when you consider that most players will have these amps on their desk at work or coffee table at home. Your choice of desktop amplifier can now complement your interior design palette as well as your musical taste!

Robbie Calvo holding a guitar and smiling for camera.
Posing with a THR30II in white and a Pacifica 612VIIFM.

Also on display at NAMM were Line 6 Catalyst combo amplifiers, along with the company’s flagship Helix processor and HX Stomp effects pedal, all of which were put to good use in the stage backline. The new DL4 MkII, which takes delays to the next level of digital expression, was also a mainstay of the main stage at the Yamaha booth.

The Videos

I always feel that products are best demonstrated in the capacity in which they’ll ideally be used, paired with other products and in a real-world live music situation.

The FSC-TA, vocals and percussion loops in the video below, shot at NAMM, are all running through a Helix effects processor and a Yamaha Stagepas 1K (since supplanted by the second-generation Stagepas 1KMk II) portable line array PA system — the exact same setup that I use for all my live performances. You’ll notice that the parts all retain their clarity even when I’m overdubbing in the looped outro section. I think it sounds pretty good, considering this video was captured using my smartphone. Trust me: the sound is infinitely better in person.

I shot this second video the day before the show opened because I couldn’t resist capturing my two favorite guitars before they were covered in fingerprints by adoring fans — the Revstar RSP20 in Swift Blue with humbucking pickups, and the RSP02T in Sunset Burst, with those lovely cream P90s. I hope you enjoy admiring these beauties as much as I did, as well as listening to the musical underpinning I composed to celebrate their release.

The Wrap-Up

While attendance at the 2022 NAMM show may have been lighter than in past years, it was clear from the enthusiasm of the attendees that the passion for the music manufacturing industry is alive and well.

We all love what we do, and that always shows at the Yamaha booth. The live performances there were all world-class, interactions with dealers, competitors and artists were always cordial and fun, and the entire Yamaha team worked together in every way to support the vision of the company, its products and the end user.

We are back, stronger and better than ever!

Photos courtesy of the author and Steve Leiken.

 

Check out Robbie’s other postings.

Bowl of popcorn and two game controllers as seen from above.

The 10 Most Iconic Multiplayer Video Games of All Time

Written by Jake Uitti on . Posted in Gaming. 1 Comment on The 10 Most Iconic Multiplayer Video Games of All Time

It wasn’t all that long ago that like-minded gamers would have to physically travel to each other’s homes to enjoy rudimentary multiplayer titles like Street Fighter II or NBA Live. Modern video games, of course, have increased greatly in both complexity and visual appeal; what’s more, with the rise of technology and widespread broadband access, gamers can compete with one another from pretty much any location in the world, as long as there’s a Wi-Fi signal or LAN connection. In addition, with the availability of community chat apps like the messaging platform Discord and the video live-streaming service Twitch, gamers can interact with friends and competitors, sharing texts or videos as they play.

Here are 10 of the most iconic multiplayer games of all time.

1. FORTNITE

Arguably the most popular multiplayer game ever, this title first hit the shelves in 2017. Today, there are three ways to play: Battle Royale, in which up to 100 players fight to be the last one standing; Save the World, which is a cooperative survival game; and Creative, in which you can build your own worlds and arenas. The game is something of a cross between a first-person shooter and Second Life, meaning it’s got drama and feels like you practically live inside it. Preview it here.

2. SUPER SMASH BROS. ULTIMATE

This title, the fifth installment of the Super Smash Bros. series, was released in 2018 and offers a melee of battle action between a wide-ranging cast of Nintendo protagonists. Gamers like to play this at parties because many can join in and there’s a wide array of characters. The game is bright, fast-paced and cartoonish in the best of ways, making it family-friendly too. Preview it here.

3. RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2

Also released in 2018, this is the third in the Red Dead series. Set in 1899, players act as outlaws in the Wild West, and the multiplayer mode, known as Red Dead Online, allows up to 32 people to get together in both cooperative and competitive missions. Players can customize a character and explore the world either alone or in a posse, galloping on horseback or running through an old saloon town. The game is on just about every “best of” list for its realism and immaculate graphics. Preview it here.

4. WORLD OF WARCRAFT

Released in 2004 (with some 12 million subscribers by 2010), this title is often thought of as one of the originals for the modern multiplayer. Gamers love the options of being able to create detailed characters, engage in myriad missions, combat their foes and explore vast worlds in a group or solo. The screen can get a little crowded in battle mode, so gamers will want to be able to hear each bow-and-arrow shot and sword chop in order not to be caught off guard … making it a real plus if you can listen on a good sound system while playing. Preview it here.

5. OVERWATCH

Though this first-person shooter was first released in 2016, the game’s creator, Blizzard Entertainment, adds new worlds, characters and maps with each subsequent version. The title is very much group-focused, assigning players into two teams of six. Gamers then choose which “hero” to control from a large and diverse roster, each with special abilities, and teams must compete in specific tasks during a limited period of time, creating a heart-racing experience. It’s also an easy-to-play game with comic book-like graphics that is today included in “E-Sport” professional leagues. You won’t want to miss the dialogue between competitors in-between forcefield deployments and flame-throwing, so listen with the volume up! Preview it here.

6. CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE

While this title is over a decade-and-a-half old — it debuted in 2007 — it’s also, to many, the gold standard when it comes to multiplayer first-person shooters. Customize your player, complete team-oriented tasks and enjoy the seemingly never-ending battle modes. Unlike its three predecessors, Call of Duty 4 ditches the World War II backdrop and takes place in modern times (well, 2011). A Middle Eastern president has been executed and there’s a civil war in Russia, but Western forces have been sent in to end the fray. Unlock weapons and camouflage as you advance to the sound of loud, whirring helicopters and crackling radio calls. Preview it here.

7. GRAND THEFT AUTO 5

Just about every gamer knows of and has played a GTA title, and the fifth installment, which was released in 2013, is one of the most popular to date. Set in the fictional locale of San Andreas, players navigate the underbelly of the city as one of three lowlife characters. Hop in cars, planes and other vehicles as you work to complete tasks, or just take down those in your way. Grand Theft Auto Online allows up to 30 players to perform in a variety of different modes, accompanied by the beloved soundtrack and non-stop action. Preview it here.

8. GOLDENEYE 007

Based on the 1995 James Bond movie GoldenEye, this became an instant hit upon its release in 1997, with split-screen action that seemed ahead of its time. The original version could only be played as a single protagonist completing tasks or in a head-to-head “deathmatch” mode, but in 2010, an updated version allowed up to eight players to compete remotely. This is one game where stealth matters, so you’ll want to listen closely in order to be able to hear every footstep and weapon reload. Preview it here.

9. MINECRAFT

Originally invented to help kids with problem-solving skills, Minecraft is known as a “sandbox” game, which means it allows a great deal of freedom for players to engage however they like. Since its debut in 2011, it’s evolved into one of the most popular games in the world, despite having simple block-like graphics. Depending on the chosen mode, players can fight the computer or cooperate with (or even compete against) each other online. Preview it here.

10. SUPER MARIO KART

One word comes to mind when describing this title: addictive. The cartoonish gameplay, combined with familiar characters that include Mario, Luigi, the Princess and Donkey Kong, makes this pure fun: no military-style battling here. Instead, challenge friends by racing go-karts and bikes over the many tracks as you fire banana peels or turtle shells at each other — even fly or dive underwater. Originally launched in 1992, updates released in the 2000s and 2010s allow gamers to play online in competition. Preview it here.

 

Video games are best enjoyed when you’re listening through a quality audio system or a sound bar like the Yamaha YAS-109.

How to Use Keyboard Pedals

Written by Jerry Kovarsky on . Posted in Keyboard How-to. 2 Comments on How to Use Keyboard Pedals

Playing keyboards involves more than just your hands and fingers. There are also one or more foot pedals involved, and while using them is not mandatory, employing them will enhance your performance. In this article, we’ll show you how.

The Sustain Pedal

No matter what kind of keyboard you’re using — acoustic grand piano, acoustic upright piano, digital piano or even a simple digital keyboard — there will be a Sustain pedal. On acoustic pianos this is called the Damper pedal, because when you press it down, it lifts up all the dampers (small pieces of felt-backed wood that are used to stop the strings from vibrating, as shown in the photo below), but regardless of terminology, they all have the same function: to allow notes to sustain after you lift your fingers from the keys. This helps you to connect notes that are too far away for you to reach without moving your hand position.

Closeup view of dampers on a piano.

On acoustic pianos and digital pianos with a case design that looks like an acoustic, this will be the pedal on the right. Smaller, slab-style digital pianos and digital keyboards will come with a separate pedal that gets plugged into a jack in the back, usually labeled Sustain:

Closeup of rear panel for electronics. Yamaha logo is visible.

The basic technique for using the sustain pedal is as follows:

1. Make sure that your right foot heel is on the ground, and that the front of your foot is resting lightly on the pedal.

Closeup of a booted foot using the right-handed piano pedal.

2. Play a note, and then immediately depress the pedal fully. When you lift your finger off the key, the note will keep ringing. If you lift your toes up from the pedal, the note will stop ringing.

To demonstrate how to use the Sustain pedal to connect notes together instead of using your fingers, we’ll use a C Major scale. Start by playing Middle C with your second finger, then press down the sustain pedal. When you’re ready, play the D note (again, with your second finger), and lift the pedal up as you press down on the key. If you lift it up too early, the notes won’t be connected. If you’re a little late, the C note will ring into the D slightly. Right after you play the D, press the pedal down again. Repeat this process each time you play the next scale tone: Using your second finger only, play a new note while simultaneously lifting the pedal, and then depress the pedal again.

Here’s the exercise represented in musical notation, along with an audio clip so you can hear what it sounds like. Note the line below the music staff, which shows the intended pedal actions (the solid line indicates when the pedal should be held down; the up arrows indicate when it should be lifted up):

Musical annotation.

This technique is commonly referred to as legato pedaling (legato is a musical term that means “to play connected”). Now let’s apply this kind of pedaling to some basic musical examples. The notation below shows a common way to play a chord with the left-hand only by first striking the root down low, and then bringing the hand up to play the triad. Using legato pedaling, you can connect the low note to the chord cleanly, with no overlap, as you can hear in this audio clip.

Extending the concept, here’s a good exercise for the left hand that trains you to move across longer distances, again using the Sustain pedal to connect the notes.

Musical annotation.

Next is an exercise for the right hand. The first two notes fit under the hand nicely, so no pedaling is required; however, to jump up to the higher E you’ll need to do a legato pedal move. The following G also fits well under the hand, so no pedaling is needed, but then you’ll need to shift your hand position, so you’ll want to use the pedal to connect that smoothly.

Musical annotation.

Other Ways to Use the Sustain/Damper Pedal

Connecting notes is only one way to use the Sustain pedal; it’s also often employed to create a warm swirl of sound with notes all overlapping together. Go back to the first left-hand example we presented, but this time keep the pedal down so the chord gets added on top of the low C note, like this:

Musical annotation.

As you can hear, this sounds fuller than the way the figure was played earlier.

Next, move on to the second example, this time keeping the pedal down. As you can hear, this builds a nice, rich voicing.

Musical annotation.

Finally, go back to the right-hand exercise and keep the pedal down to build up a full sound like this:

Musical annotation.

This will work well until the harmony changes, or until other notes are introduced that clash with the sustaining ones. When that happens, you’ll want to refresh the sound by briefly lifting up and then depressing the pedal again. Exactly when you do this is a matter of taste — use your ears to judge when the sound is getting too cluttered. To demonstrate how to do this tastefully, here’s a famous piece of music by J.S. Bach, with the pedaling indicated in the line under the staff:

Musical annotation.

Here’s the same piece of music played at a slightly faster tempo, with the first run-through using pedaling and the second run-through with no pedaling.

All the notes in this piece fit easily under your hands, so you don’t need to use the pedal. But after listening to how rich and sonorous everything becomes when the notes ring together sympathetically, playing with no pedaling sounds so much drier, and, well … ordinary.

The Left Pedal

If you have an acoustic piano, or a digital piano with a full complement of three pedals (either built-in or available as an optional accessory), you can explore the left-most one, traditionally called the Una Corda pedal, or the Soft pedal. Both names are a bit confusing, for reasons that we’ll explain shortly.

When you depress this pedal on an acoustic grand piano, the entire keyboard mechanism is shifted slightly to the right, causing the hammer to only strike two of the strings, rather than all three, as shown in this video. This will produce a slightly thinner sound, though it’s a very subtle change. It does produce a markedly different tone, however, due to the fact that fewer strings are being struck, and also because the area of the hammer closer to the edge is employed, which is likely to be less compressed and worn from general playing. So why call this pedal Una Corda (“one string” in Italian)? It’s because, when the piano was invented in the early 1700s, the majority of the note range used groups of two strings, not the three that became common design around the middle of the nineteenth century. Using this pedal thus reduced the struck area to one string.

In an upright piano, the mechanism is different. Here, depressing the Soft pedal moves the hammer action closer to the strings, so it has less distance to travel, as shown in this video. This results in less momentum during the hammer motion and a truly softer sound, but with no tonal difference. Obviously digital pianos cannot physically achieve either of these mechanical effects, so they just reproduce the aural effects, making the sound both quieter and tonally gentler. You can hear this in the audio clip below, where the second run-through is played with the Soft pedal engaged.

In general, if you want to simply play softer you should achieve that effect with touch alone. The Una Corda/Soft pedal should be used only when you want a more delicate, or more muted sound as a tonal variation. This pedal is also commonly engaged when accompanying a vocalist or other instrument soloist so you don’t overpower them with your playing.

The Middle Pedal

On acoustic grand pianos and most digital pianos, the function of the middle pedal (called the Sostenuto pedal) is to selectively sustain only those notes whose keys are currently depressed; you can then play freely around those notes with a short articulation and/or apply the damper pedal as needed, as this video demonstrates. However, on some pianos, depressing the Sustenuto pedal will only sustain notes in the lower range of the instrument (a function called Bass Sustain), since you’ll often want to sustain one or more bass notes while being able to play higher notes more freely.

On most upright pianos, the middle pedal serves a different function, instead moving a long piece of felt between the hammers and the strings, as shown below. This serves to mute the sound, thus allowing players to practice quietly, as demonstrated in this video.

Image of hammers, strings and felt rail exposed with indications of how it works.

In those pianos, the middle pedal may be called a Practice pedal, or a Mute pedal. However, there are a few upright piano models, such as the Yamaha YUS5, where the middle pedal provides a true Sostenuto function.

All audio played on a Yamaha P-515

Check out our other Well-Rounded Keyboardist postings.

 

Click here for more information about Yamaha keyboard instruments.

Tammy Miller leads group piano lessons for children and their parents

Case Study: Implementing A Successful Group Piano Program

Written by Jordan Smith on . Posted in Case Studies. 2 Comments on Case Study: Implementing A Successful Group Piano Program

Tammy Miller, a member of the Omaha Conservatory of Music’s artist-faculty and the Keyboard Explorers Liaison, who coordinates piano group lessons, is working to change the way students engage in piano lessons. In doing so, she hopes to create more students for life.

Miller herself was a late beginner — she started taking piano lessons at 14. She says her father decided she might have some talent in music, so he bought her a digital keyboard and signed her up for lessons with the lady down the street.

“I was hooked and decided to make it my lifelong passion and career,” Miller says.

She went to Idaho State University for piano and vocal performance, and through the school’s Preparatory Piano Program, she started teaching at a pretty young age. Then, Miller began to take some educational psychology courses and realized she loved learning about how people learn, which inspired her to go to the University of Oklahoma to get a master’s in piano and pedagogy, where she also taught group piano lessons.

When she landed at the Omaha Conservatory of Music, there wasn’t an established group piano program, so Miller worked to implement one called Keyboard Explorers. “A group piano program is beneficial for the students and the community,” she says.

Building a Program’s Success

Miller holding music sheetA group piano program is a unique and fun way for students to progress quicker than if they were taking individual lessons, Miller says. With a group of students who are at the same level, you can pre-determine the pacing and you can make lessons more curriculum based rather than individualized. The pacing can move faster as students’ skills develop because they are following the same curriculum with the same teacher.

And, a successful group program builds community. Students form friendships in a group setting, which encourages them to practice and commit to their piano playing.

“It’s like if you’re trying to stick to a new workout routine and you go to the gym with a friend,” Miller says. “Having a buddy helps encourage students to continue lessons.”

Miller believes that another way to ensure a program’s success is to have an event for students to work toward. She plans to implement a recital and a graduation after her eight-week courses.

Her students usually progress through two levels of Keyboard Explorer lessons before moving to individual lessons. “It’s up to the teacher and student/parent — with the help of the liaison — to determine whether the student is ready for individual lessons, should advance to level 2 or even retake level 1,” Miller says.

“In some ways, group lessons act as a feeder program. It’s a way to see which students would be a good fit for your studio if you don’t do any auditions, and it’s a good way for students to find a teacher they connect with,” she adds.

Group classes also have a shorter timeframe and are less of a financial commitment so parents can decide if studying piano is right for their child.

Overcoming Challenges

Miller teachingIt can be a challenge to build a Keyboard Explorer program, but it is also a labor of love — as long as you are patient, Miller says.

Some issues that she has run into include convincing an administration and parents about the value of the program. It took five years to grow the Keyboard Explorers, which started with Miller as the sole teacher. Now the program offers eight sections of keyboard classes for children and adults. “The model has worked and grown in popularity! In fact, since the success of the Keyboard Explorers, the conservatory administration has now created Explorer-type classes for every instrument,” Miller says.

Another potential problem is that students are required to practice at home or outside of their lessons. To facilitate practicing, the Omaha Conservatory of Music has practice rooms that students can use.

While Miller’s group piano lesson are eight weeks, she says that a course can range from eight to 16 weeks long per level. Miller finds that her eight-week model works best for student retention because the time commitment is less daunting, and it allows students to get their feet wet to see if they eventually want to move on to individual lessons.

Connecting Through Community

A group program makes teaching piano adaptable and approachable. Teachers can adjust to student needs and connect with more students at once.

“One of the issues that the conservatory faced was a long student waitlist, and a lot of students on that list were beginners,” Miller says.

Tammy Miller teaching group piano lessons with young students and their parents at Omaha Conservatory of Music In the past, the solution to having more than 100 students on a waitlist was to hire more teachers, which proved to be easier said than done. “There were students who had to be turned away because there just wasn’t enough room or individual teachers,” Miller says. “The Keyboard Explorers program is a great way to give more students the opportunity to take lessons at the conservatory!”

A group piano program allows for many students of different age groups and abilities to take lessons. For example, beginner courses can be split by age, such as 6 to 8 and 9 to 12, with multiple levels.

This gives students (and parents) a chance to try out piano lessons in a cost-effective setting.

At the Omaha Conservatory of Music, the Keyboard Explorers program uses a keyboard lab, which can host 12 students at a time.

For younger kids ages 8 and under, parents are required to take the class alongside their child. “Parents are learning with their students! It can be a fun bonding experience for parent and child,” Miller says.

Having a teacher who knows how to teach both parents and students in a class geared toward students is really important, she says. Not all parents have a background in music, much less piano, so by participating in the class, parents can help their child at home, which helps students progress faster and tackle music of increasing difficulty.

Overall, Miller has seen a successful retention rate since implementing the Keyboard Explorers program and has had at least one student per session continue on with lessons.

“The students who come through the program are awesome,” Miller says. “We’ve seen the community come together, and friendships have formed because of the group lessons.”

Modern living room with large flat screen and audio equipment.

Best AURO-3D Scenes and Songs

Written by Mike Levine on . Posted in TV & Movies.

AURO-3D® is a multichannel sound format that expands on standard 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound by adding additional height layers that fill in above the left, right, center and surround channels, allowing for more detailed sound localization. With so many movies featuring speeding cars, airplanes, rocket ships and other flying objects these days, the extra layers of height provided by AURO-3D can make the user experience feel even more immersive, and the same is true of complex music with dense instrumentation.

Watching or listening to content in this format requires an AV receiver that is able to decode the AURO-3D signal and distribute it to the appropriate speakers, such as the Yamaha AVENTAGE RX-A8A or RX-A6A. You’ll also need the requisite speaker configuration, including those in a standard 5.1 or 7.1 surround setup, plus a speaker pair above the screen and another high one that points down at an angle (these can be in-ceiling mounted speakers).

Small piece of audio equipment.
The Yamaha AVENTAGE RX-A8A offers AURO-3D decoding.

And, of course, you also need AURO-3D content. Here are some recommendations for movie scenes and songs that best demonstrate the capabilities of this exciting technology.

AURO-3D Movie Scenes

Because of its ability to project sound above the listener, an AURO-3D movie soundtrack can be even more immersive than one mixed in 7.1 or 5.1 surround sound. Check out these scenes!

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2 – THE WING SUIT

The plot of this animated adventure film centers around protagonist Hiccup and his dragon Toothless, who united the Vikings and Dragons in the first movie.

As you might expect with a movie like this, there’s a whole lot of flying going on, so there are plenty of scenes where the extended height perception you get with AURO-3D accentuates the animated thrills. This scene is particularly thrilling, as Hiccup (the protagonist) dons a suit that allows him to fly and then begins riding on the back of his dragon Toothless. They start out low over the water and then zoom up to higher altitudes, with Toothless spinning faster and faster as they break through the clouds. Watch the scene here.

BLACK PANTHER – THE CAR CHASE

This popular superhero movie tells the story of T’Challa, who goes back home to the African country of Wakanda to become king after the death of his father and finds that ruling a nation is a bit more challenging than he expected. Also crucial to the plot is a substance called vibranium, which gives superpowers to those who eat it. T’Challa partakes and becomes the Black Panther.

The car chase scene in this film is epic, enveloping the viewer for almost five minutes of nonstop action. You’ll see spinning and flipping galore, with the Black Panther jumping off a speeding car onto a nearby building. Needless to say, AURO-3D makes the action significantly more intense. Watch the scene here.

SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING – THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT RESCUE

This film from the ever-growing Marvel franchise shows a teenage Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man, performing humdrum typical teen activities like walking on the ceiling, holding broken ferry boats together with his webbing and fighting against a criminal in a flying vulture suit. There are many scenes where AURO-3D’s immersive height implementation comes into play, but the most compelling is the Washington Monument rescue scene.

It starts with Spider-Man standing on a tiny ledge near the top of the monument. Next, police officers in helicopters arrive to arrest him. He jumps off the structure using his web to keep him in the air before crashing through a window, where he again uses his web, this time to rescue his friends from a falling elevator. Finally, he saves his would-be girlfriend from tumbling down the elevator shaft. If you have a fear of heights, you might need to hold on to your seat while viewing! Watch the scene here.

BLADE RUNNER 2049 – THE SEA WALL CHASE

This film is a sequel to the original Blade Runner movie from 1982. Like the first movie, it takes place in a dystopic future version of Los Angeles, only this time, it’s 30 years later.

Our hero, Officer K, is a blade runner for LAPD, and that means he hunts down replicants (enslaved bioengineered humans) that break the law or rebel. Many of the scenes have a distinctly vertical aspect, but none more so than in the Sea Wall Chase, with flying cars dive-bombing each other, spinning out in flames and landing in the water. Particularly during those moments, the soundtrack’s implementation of AURO-3D height-localization prowess is compelling. Watch it here.

AURO-3D Music

Some music available in AURO-3D is mixed directly for it, while other pieces get “upmixed” from stereo. (Upmixing uses software algorithms that intelligently transform stereo mixes into immersive AURO-3D.) To handle the data required for AURO-3D, albums supporting it are typically released as Blu-Ray™ discs. Here are a few notable AURO-3D-encoded songs.

“REQUIEM: VIII. SANCTUS”– NIDAROSDOMENS JENTEKOR, TRONDHEIMSOLISTENE (LUX)

This song comes from the album Lux, with AURO-3D-savvy producer Morten Lindberg at the helm. It won a Grammy® for Best Immersive Audio Album in 2020 and features Nidarosdomens Jentekor (the Nidaros Cathedral Girls’ Choir) and Trondheimsolistene (Trondheim Soloists string orchestra) performing together. On “Requiem: VIII. Sanctus,” the high notes from the choir soar even higher (in height, not pitch) than they would in stereo or even in 7.1 surround sound. You feel totally enveloped by the music and can easily imagine you’re listening from inside an old European cathedral. Check out the stereo mix here.

“LUNACY” – DAVID MILES HUBER (PARALLAX EDEN)

Grammy-nominated producer David Miles Huber’s Parallax Eden has been released in various multichannel formats over the years, including an AURO-3D version. If you want to feel surrounded by pulsing beats and brilliant electronic textures, any of the compositions will get you there, but the most compelling is “Lunacy,” which starts with a solo clavinet and builds to complex interweaving synths, keyboards and drums. Listening to it in AURO-3D lets you hear each instrument with more clarity than in stereo because the soundscape is so much bigger.

“I immediately fell in love with the powerful emotion [AURO-3D] brings to the listeners,” says Huber on the AURO-3D website. “Creatively, more possibilities come to mind when you have such an extensive canvas available.” Check out the stereo mix here.

“CAROLS OF DEATH: NO. 3. TO ALL, TO EACH” – SKYLARK VOCAL ENSEMBLE (CROSSING OVER)

This song comes from a concept album by the acclaimed American choir. According to the group’s website, each composition “depicts the dream state at the end of life.” Hearing it in AURO-3D places you in the middle of these mystical choral arrangements, with the soprano, alto, tenor and bass parts panned three-dimensionally. “Carols of Death: No. 3. To All, To Each” by American composer William Shuman is an awe-inspiring example. Check out the stereo mix here.

 

Looking for an AURO-3D compatible AV receiver? Check out the Yamaha AVENTAGE RX-A8A and RX-A6A.

Brandon Felder with two students at SHABACH! Christian Academy

Case Study: Intentional Music Programming Allows Students to Enjoy the Journey of Music-Making

Written by Michelle Jovin on . Posted in Case Studies.

While most music educators plan for one or two big annual performances, Brandon Felder, the music director of SHABACH! Christian Academy in Landover, Maryland, tries something different.

“I’ve always been of the mindset that we should not work for just one culminating activity but rather a continuum of different experiences,” he says.

Felder achieves this continuum of experiences through what he calls “intentional music programming.”

“I cannot emphasize enough the importance of students performing in public, so I regularly organize small classes for my students to play through their pieces to gain confidence in front of an audience,” Felder says. “I also try to arrange informal performances for them to gain further experience before their formal concerts.”

By performing often, not only do students develop their musicianship, but they also develop life skills like teamwork and the ability to manage projects, time and stress. “The wider experiential base allows for the brain to understand complex information and meaning,” Felder says. “Performance experience provides more anchors for the brain to process and function … and it helps students develop into responsible citizens with a sense of purpose, accomplishment and a deep appreciation for the arts. This is the most satisfying achievement for me as a teacher.”

Branching Out of the Classroom

Felder boy keyboardFor Felder, music education should be more about the journey than the destination. That means creating what he calls “many mini-opportunities” for students to practice and perform outside of the classroom. He says it’s important for students to perform for different crowds and to “allow their music to be heard more than just once.”

According to Felder, the journey his students go on should not stop in the classroom. So, he sets up experiences and opportunities for his students to interact with and perform for members of the community. He starts within a 3- to 5-mile radius from SHABACH. That way, students don’t have to travel far, and spectators are members of their local community.

To find new opportunities, Felder first goes to places that fit into what he calls the HEAR Perspectives: Humanitarian, Educational, Artistic and Religious institutions. One week, Felder might take his students to a bookstore and have them perform a recital or go to a local college and take a tour of the music department. Another week, they might play for patients at a nursing home, sing for people at a soup kitchen or perform for a church fashion show.

Finding Balance

Intentional music programming is not a new idea for Felder. “It’s a full circle thing for me,” he says.

During his high school years, he experienced a more traditional approach to music programming. However, Felder was also afforded wonderful on-the-fly opportunities, like a last-minute phone call to back up country superstar Shania Twain when he was a freshman in high school. “We’ve all felt those goosebump moments, so the more often that students have those opportunities, the more chances they have for their skills to transfer from the four walls of the traditional classroom mindset and beyond the traditional music class curriculum,” he says.

Felder says that he now tries to offer those big showstopping moments for his students, as well as more local, community-based opportunities. So, whether he is recruiting artists on Cameo to make virtual appearances at SHABACH recitals or working with a local piano store to host a recital where his students could play on top-of-the-line instruments, Felder says he tries to stay flexible and think outside the box.

The Five Cs of Intentional Music Programming

two female students playing the violinMini-opportunities serve multiple purposes, Felder explains. First, they allow his students to give back to their communities. They also introduce his students’ art and music to members of the community who may not otherwise be exposed to it. Felder says that at their spring shows, he’ll often see people who first experienced the SHABACH music program during one of their mini-opportunities.

Felder wants these mini-opportunities to provide both students and spectators with “two shots and a booster: Two shots of curiosity and empathy and a booster of optimism in every musical presentation.” He says that whatever they decide to do musically, those three elements must to be accounted for because “music has the power to transform mind and spirit, in addition to allowing souls to communicate.”

Felder also looks for ways to emphasize what he calls his five Cs of intentional music programming: Creativity, Collaboration, Community, Connection and Citizenship. In any opportunity that he finds, Felder asks himself if those fundamentals are met. “I’m always looking for opportunities that allow students to experience the five Cs,” he says.

The elements of the five Cs became especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Felder hosted his music classes virtually. He found creative ways to continue following his intentional music programming method, by having students record voice memos of them singing or playing instruments, having socially distanced performances when they could, and even creating and filming an hourlong adaptation of “The Wiz,” featuring a red-carpet premiere, a mix of gospel and modern-day music, and, of course, dancing scarecrows.

Staying Energized

Brandon Felder oversees student playing keyboardFelder says finding these curated opportunities can be challenging, so it’s important for him to stay personally energized about music. He sees himself as a “teaching artist,” meaning that he values the level of his own musical experience, while also trying to share that knowledge and love of music with his students.

He “continually looks to fuel [his] own creative experiences through personal performances, examination and objective opportunities” before he can then feed his students’ passions. Whether that’s at SHABACH, his work as the music director of the Georgetown University Gospel Choir, performing his own music, or serving the D.C. chapter of the GRAMMYS® as Governor and  Music Education Chair, Felder learns from and becomes energized by these experiences. He says it’s his responsibility as a music educator to take those experiences and the innovation and fresh ideas that come along with them and transform them into a meaningful curriculum for his students.

Felder says that if he’s excited about something, his students have an easier time buying into it, so staying energized is vital for him.

Staying Honest

Felder ensembleIt’s also important to be transparent with your students. “Life is still happening to us,” Felder says.

Because he shares how he’s feeling with his students, they can learn empathy and compassion. When they see that Felder has had a tough day, but he’s still there, ready to teach, he says they learn resilience and how to push forward. And finally, when they see him turn to music to deal with his emotions, they learn that they can do the same thing in their own lives.

The more honest he is with his students, the more that honesty is reciprocated. “I want my classroom to be a safe space where students can share and where there is comfort,” he says.

Sometimes, that means making on-the-fly adjustments to the curriculum when big events happen. “I sometimes allow the energy and the feelings of the students dictate where the programming may go,” he says.

By pivoting, he can reinforce collaboration, as well as show students that they can use music to express their emotions.

Felder is also transparent with the curriculum he teaches. He analyzes the history behind famous songs with his students. They debate whether certain lyrics are still applicable today and hold discussions on which parts of songs to stress during live performances. This collaborative way of music programming helps students feel that their voices are being heard and that they have input in their performances.

Finding Success

Brandon Felder oversees student playing small xylophoneFelder insists that there is no cookie-cutter way to attempt intentional music programming and that each group of students should have curated programs for their own needs and situations. To be successful with this type of curriculum, Felder says you must find balance and learn what works best for each group of students. And, perhaps most importantly, it’s about staying flexible and being able to change direction when a situation arises that can’t be ignored.

It’s also important to reexamine how most music educators measure success. Felder says intentional music programming has deepened his music program in a qualitative way. While he acknowledges that numbers matter, he prefers to measure growth differently.

If a program grows too fast and has too many participants, Felder is not able to fully reach all of his students, which he sees as problematic. “Sometimes, we look at how we scored on a certain assessment instead of noting that ‘this student’s range of knowledge has grown’ or ‘this student’s vocal range has grown’ or ‘their experiential range has grown,’” he says.

This type of data is more important for Felder’s own goal of helping his students flourish. “My goal is not to make the next Beethoven or Justin Bieber or Beyoncé, but just to make well-rounded citizens,” he says.

Felder hopes that the lessons his students learn in his music programs set them up for success, regardless of what they do. He especially loves when former students come back to remind him of moments or performances that he’s forgotten. Felder says that’s ideal for him — that some performance or show he’s curated, big or small, has stuck with his students for years. This proves the core message of his intentional music programming: Give students as many opportunities to perform as possible and allow them to appreciate their journeys just as much as their final destinations.

Spotlight On Yamaha PHX Series Acoustic Drums

Written by Steve La Cerra on . Posted in Studio Drums.

What does it take to build the ultimate drums? That’s the question Yamaha designers asked in the early 2000s. Tapping into more than 40 years of drum building experience and input from world-renowned Yamaha artists, the quest to create the finest drums available led to the development of the Yamaha PHX (pronounced “Phoenix”) Series. Introduced in 2008, PHX are the company’s flagship drums, incorporating numerous innovations and combining the best of new technology with traditional craftsmanship to create the ultimate high-end drum kit.

Ready to learn more? Read on …

The Hybrid Shell

The heart and soul of every PHX drum is the shell, which features a unique 11- or 12-ply hybrid design combining several different species of tonewood.

Graphic representation of a crosscut of drum shell.
PHX hybrid shell construction.

The center ply is Jatoba, an extremely hard and dense wood. This “core” ply is surrounded by layers of Kapur, which is in turn surrounded by layers of North American maple used for the interior and exterior plies. North American maple has traditionally been a popular choice for the construction of drum shells due to its hardness, but is actually the softest of the woods used in PHX shells. Constructing the shells with the hardest and most dense material at the core provides increased volume, a strong fundamental tone and a wide tuning and dynamic range. In following the company’s philosophy of “vertical integration” (where developments in flagship products are incorporated into other products down the line, wherever feasible), hybrid shell construction is also used in Yamaha Absolute Hybrid Maple and Live Custom Hybrid Oak Series drums.

As is the case with all Yamaha drum shells, PHX Series shells are hand-crafted using an “air seal” system whereby an air bag is dropped into the center of the shell mold and inflated, pushing outward against the interior ply and joining the plies together with uniform pressure throughout the shell. Diagonal, staggered seams and cross-laminated wood plies increase the strength of the shell and ensure that the shell holds its shape.

PHX drums are available in a variety of finishes (see the “A Wide Range of Choices” section below), with an exterior ply of either North American maple or textured Tamo ash. The ash veneer is less than half the thickness of a traditional coating so it doesn’t interfere with the resonance of the shell.

Closeup of a wood-toned drum.
PHX Textured Black Sunburst Ash finish.

Bearing Edges

The bearing edge of a drum shell (the portion of the shell that contacts the drum head) has a huge impact on both tone and articulation. All PHX bearing edges are cut at 30 degrees and finished perfectly smooth by master craftsmen to guarantee easy tuning and a wide tuning range.

Comparison diagram.
PHX bearing edges have a specific shape depending upon the type of drum.

Y.E.S.S. (Yamaha Enhanced Sustain System) II Mounting System

PHX Series rack toms employ the Y.E.S.S. II shock mounting system, which permits the shell to vibrate freely while preventing unwanted movement. Incorporating a wood mounting plate (made from the same North American maple as the outer ply) and specially designed rubber inserts, the Y.E.S.S. mounts are located at nodal points on the shell — places where there is minimal vibration — to ensure that the mount does not interfere with the shell’s ability to resonate. The mounting points on larger toms are located where less desirable overtones are present, allowing optimum control over the decay and overtones produced by the shell. For drummers who prefer to mount their toms using stands, PHX bass drums are also available in an R-Version without the tom mount.

Crosscut comparison.
Details of the Y.E.S.S. II mounting system.

In another example of the aforementioned “vertical integration” approach, the Y.E.S.S. II mounting system is also used in Yamaha Live Custom Hybrid Oak and Absolute Hybrid Maple drums.

Hooked On You

The hook lug on PHX drums (as well as on Absolute Hybrid Maple drums) evolved from the Yamaha Nouveau lug, which was an innovation in lug technology. Designed to make head changes quick and easy, the hook lug has a small footprint and is located at a position on the shell where it mutes unwanted overtones and enhances the fundamental note. Its rectangular shape prevents rotation of the casing while tuning, guaranteeing that the tension rod is perfectly aligned, as well as providing firm support even when under high tension.

This kind of lug makes head changes much faster than with traditional lugs because the hoops can be removed simply by loosening the tension rods. Studio players will love the fact that they can convert their kit to concert toms in minutes without worry about rattling hardware, losing tension rods or washers, or the chance of cross-threading tension rods.

Closeup with crosscut diagram.
The Yamaha hook lug.

Attention To Detail

Every component used in the construction of a drum has an influence on the sound, including the hoops and the air vents. During the PHX R&D process, the Yamaha team discovered that die-cast hoops made from zinc can choke the sound of a drum — particularly smaller sizes such as 8-, 10-, and 12-inch toms. Die-cast hoops made from aluminum, however, provide rigidity, and deliver powerful rim shots and clarity of tone without choking the drum. That’s why PHX and Absolute Hybrid Maple drums utilize 3.0 mm die-cast aluminum hoops.

Vent holes allow air to escape from inside the shell, which improves the playing feel of the drum. They also affect the pitch, projection and decay of the drum. Depending upon the dimensions of the shell, PHX drums have between one and ten air vent holes. As the size of the drum increases, so does the number of air vents. A large PHX floor tom can have six vents while a bass drum may have eight or ten, depending upon the size.

View of drum with top removed.
Air vents affect the pitch, decay and playing feel.

Increasing the number of air vents lowers the fundamental pitch and shortens the decay. All of these variables have been fine-tuned in PHX drums to create the optimum tonal balance and playing experience.

A Wide Range of Options

PHX Series drums are meticulously hand-finished in a variety of eye-catching colors and high-quality finishes, accentuated with gold or chrome hardware. Maple PHX drums are available in either matte or gloss finishes, while the Ash models are available in gloss or textured finishes (the latter has a slight shine to it).

Closeup of three wood finish drums, one with light color, one with darker brown and one with a red tone.
PHX gloss, matte and textured finishes.

These finishes have been rigorously tested for resistance against changes in humidity or fading from exposure to UV light, guaranteeing that they will sound and look beautiful for a lifetime.

 

Here are some videos that show how PHX Series drums are constructed:

 

Check out this video of Yamaha Artist Larnell Lewis playing the PHX:

woman playing the piano

Utilize E-Portfolios to Improve Equity in Student Assessment

Written by Dr. Robert Bryant on . Posted in Teaching Tips. 1 Comment on Utilize E-Portfolios to Improve Equity in Student Assessment

In the face of societal shifts and the COVID-19 pandemic, music teachers have realized the need to address issues surrounding access, equity and inclusion more intentionally in music education.

Much of the conversation, however, focuses on recruitment, retention and diversifying repertoire. While these are essential elements in our efforts toward a more inclusive music education for all, I believe that assessment is one of the most critical areas to improve. How we assess our students is critical in determining whether they decide to continue in our programs and reap the benefits of active music-making in a school setting. If we diversify the avenues in which we allow students to demonstrate what they know and what they can do, we can give them a more equitable chance at success.

flutist performing pexels

In recent years I have become a major advocate for portfolio assessment, which I believe is one of the most authentic and relevant methods of assessment we have at our disposal. The music department at Tennessee State University developed an electronic portfolio, or e-portfolio, as a cornerstone assessment for our program. Through this process, we learned how to prepare our students for future careers and continuing education by giving them a product that is personalized and responsive to the competitive job market and post-baccalaureate landscape of today.

What is an E-Portfolio?

An e-portfolio is a collection of student work that demonstrates progress and achievement over a given time period. The e-portfolio captures contextually rich evidence of student performance through audio, video and other digital artifacts that are easily accessible and editable for the student and easily viewable and gradable for teachers.

In addition to providing evidence of cumulative student growth and achievement over time, e-portfolios can provide detailed information regarding how students learn through self-assessment and reflection. Numerous music education researchers (Burrack, 2002; Dennis, 2018; Dunbar-Hall et al., 2015; Hepburn, 2017; Taylor et al., 2012) discuss the importance of incorporating e-portfolios to increase student achievement.

Why Portfolio Assessment Matters

trumpet performance pexelsEarly in my career, my approach to assessment was primarily based on two types of performance: pass-offs for individual students and performance assessment ratings for ensembles. Pass offs are a type of performance task, e.g., scales, rhythm sheets and excerpts from music, that students perform to demonstrate their level of proficiency. Performance assessments can include any contest, festival or competition in which students are evaluated and given a formal rating as a group. Many music educators are familiar with and utilize these systems because we experienced and excelled at these types of assessments when we were students.

Over the years, however, I have found that these approaches are not the be-all and end-all for assessment in music education. During my first year of teaching music in higher education, I was able to judge a prospective music student for admission into our program. The student, who uses the pronoun they, had achieved many accolades, including numerous awards and all-state ensemble participation. But, when it came time to audition, nerves got the best of them, and they left feeling dejected. However, as a supplement to their application package, the student provided a link to their e-portfolio. It contained numerous solo performances at solo and ensemble festivals. Their ratings were the highest marks achievable. The student also provided evidence of their versatility on multiple instruments and their ability to collaborate with other students through various chamber music performances.

As the audition team assessed the videos and other evidence in the e-portfolio, the perception we had of the student changed. No longer did we believe that the student was not adequately prepared or lacked the requisite skillset. Instead, we saw that they were an ideal fit for our program — who just happened to have a bad day and got nervous in a high-stakes setting. This student would go on to major in music education, receive a substantial music scholarship, earn numerous honors and awards, graduate near the top of their class, and is now an accomplished teacher and currently working on a graduate degree in music.

My reflection on this experience clarified the power of portfolio assessment in promoting equity in learning outcomes and access to opportunities within the field.

strings ensemble pexelsThe Purpose of E-Portfolios

One of the new buzz terms in the assessment community is “sustainable” assessment, or “renewable” assessment, which comprises non-disposable assignments (Seraphin et al., 2019). This type of assessment puts students at the center and prioritizes the production of knowledge, skills and performances. E-portfolios are one of the best tools we can use to move toward more sustainable assessments. They provide an authentic way of assessing student learning while allowing students adequate time and space to produce and highlight their best work. E-portfolios also offer multiple opportunities for teacher observation and assessment. Many of our current assessment practices, while performance-based, are only an isolated snapshot of what a student is truly capable of. It simply shows us what happened at a specific time and place. On the other hand, portfolio assessment is holistic and allows for a comprehensive view of a student’s skillset.

E-portfolios can encourage students to develop the abilities needed to become independent, self-directed learners. The goal of all music educators is to give their students the tools and strategies needed to be independent and confident musicians. When my students reach this ability level, I know that I have done my best. I believe that portfolio assessment not only lets students reflect and be honest with themselves, but it also develops and monitors their progress over time. This factor alone has inspired me to reassess and revise not just my assessment approach, but also our planning and instructional practices.

Implementing E-Portfolios

piano performance pexelsYou’re probably thinking: This all sounds great, but where do I find the time to construct, implement and grade all this!? This is a valid question. It took me almost four years to see my department’s e-portfolio come to fruition. It is not a quick, set-it and forget-it sort of task.

Our first year was mostly planning. We researched other schools doing this kind of work, assessed what we were already doing well, and discussed how we could create a meaningful and relevant assessment for our students that would set them up for success in their future endeavors. Once we agreed on the purpose of the assessment and chose the software (an already in-use learning management system), we began to hash out the details.

Below is a list of the components we wanted in the e-portfolio. We also asked our students for feedback throughout the process. As you develop your e-portfolio system, you and your students may also want to consider things that you think would serve students best. Our e-portfolio categories include:

    • cover page
    • biography
    • resume with student goals
    • video recordings
    • pictures
    • ratings from contests/performance assessments
    • repertoire list of pieces performed
    • concert programs
    • self-reflections
    • formal teacher feedback/evaluations
    • student composition/conducting evidence (if applicable)
    • evidence of awards and honors
    • recommendation letters.

I know that there are many things to consider when implementing e-portfolios. What software to choose, the scope and timeline, selecting required components and deadlines for student submissions, rubric development, and grading best practices are just a few things that come to mind. When we began the process, none of us considered ourselves experts on this. But after spending time planning, piloting, revising and developing both the process and product over several years, we are now in a space where both faculty and students feel that the e-portfolio is something that graduates can use going forward as they move into the next phase of their academic and professional lives.

Relevance is Key!

E-portfolios are not the easiest type of assessment to implement, but they are deeply meaningful and can be one of the most relevant products that students can produce to demonstrate what they know and what they can do. I always recommend that you start small and keep it simple. Once you understand how you want to structure the e-portfolio and where it will exist, the next step is to pilot it with just one class or one small group of students. It is also essential to explain to both students and parents how the e-portfolio can be used beyond the classroom.

I hope we will continue to innovate as educators in all areas of our programs and create systems that give our students the best opportunities for success.

References

Introverts: Surviving as a Quieter Music Educator

Written by Kathryn Drury Wagner on . Posted in Self-Care.

I think of extroverts and introverts in terms of batteries. True extroverts recharge their energy reserve — their batteries — by interacting with other people. They thrive in the spotlight, on meeting new people, on social engagement.

Extroverts are the ones who must be dragged from a party and who feel no anxiety when they get an invite to a “mix and mingle” networking event. (Whereas I get tense even typing the words “networking event.”)

Introverts like me recharge their batteries with either time spent alone or with one-on-one time with loved ones. This doesn’t mean introverts are shy or unenergetic, but they will come home from an event and think, “Phew!” For introverts, interacting with other people takes exertion, and having periods of time with less stimulation is restorative.

How to Tell If You’re an Introvert

Introversion/extroversion is one of the five main personality traits often called the “Big Five” used in psychology to describe aspects of human personality and to predict behavior. (The rest of the Big Five are openness to experience, conscientiousness, agreeableness and neuroticism.)

According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, introverts in the workplace tend to prefer solo projects instead of group projects, enjoy written communication over verbal, and feel tired after being in social settings. Extroverts, in contrast, don’t need much alone time, enjoy group projects and love to be in social situations. Those students you see belting out show tunes by their lockers? Definitely extroverts.

In the past, introverts got a bad rap as being antisocial, but introverts are increasingly understood and valued for their strengths, which include creativity, excellent listening skills and careful decision making — traits that help them in leadership positions. So, you don’t need to fake being an extrovert to succeed. Instead, learn to work with who you really are. As Anne Lamott wrote, “Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.”

Are Introverted Teachers Unusual?

According to a research study called “Do You Have the Personality for Teaching Music?” by David Synder, DMA, a professor of music education at Illinois State University, extroverts are more common in the music teaching profession. He used the Myers-Briggs Personality Indicator for this research, which looks at people’s preferences in these four areas:

    1. making faces pexels

      You prefer to focus on the outer world (E=extraversion) or your own inner world (I=introversion)

    2. You tend to focus on the basic information you take in (S=sensing) or interpret and add meaning (N=intuition)
    3. Your initial decision-making is based on logic and consistency (T=thinking) or on people and special circumstances (F=feeling)
    4. You prefer to get things decided (J=judging) or stay open to new information and options (P=perceiving)

There are 16 possible personality types, each expressed as a four-letter code.

Snyder found an “extraordinarily high concentration of ENFJs, a personality type that is extroverted.” However, he writes, “there is a wide range of personalities represented within music teaching and within the teaching professional as whole,” and notes that there are successful educators of all types. If you are an introverted music educator and feel surrounded by extroverted colleagues, it’s not surprising.

Schedule in Quiet Time

By the very nature of their jobs, music educators are called on to expend social energy. Think about work such as teaching one-on-one instrument lessons, standing in front of a classroom or directing a choir. Then there are the staff meetings, open houses and district trainings. That’s a lot of output for an introvert.

It’s important to schedule in some downtime during your day with activities like taking a walk or reading alone in a quiet spot. These restful moments will help you feel recharged and ready for the next social interaction. Some introverts even find that teaching at smaller schools is a better fit for them, with fewer students per class and less crowded classrooms.

Make Mindful Choices

look in mirror pexels

Another key for introverts: Don’t overcommit. When opportunities arise to chaperone the senior-class trip to a ropes course, make sure it aligns with your needs. Introverts may do better with more behind-the-scenes roles, such as designing flyers for that class trip or helping with trip registrations. And because introverts need time to process information, try to avoid knee-jerk “yes” or “no” responses — try “let me check and get back to you.”

Resources for Introverted Music Educators

Here are some ideas for developing your music education career, while nurturing your inner introvert:

As for me? I’m going to go savor some alone time now, thanks.

Tropical beach on a sunny day.

10 Best Songs to Stream on the Beach

Written by Shelly Peiken on . Posted in Music and Streaming.

Got my flip flops on. Margarita in hand. Sunglasses — check. Straw hat — check. Beach chair — check. Smart device — check. All I have to do now is put on a quality pair of earbuds and I am  ready for some leisure time!

Now, some people head to the ocean simply to cool off. For me it’s more of a spiritual event. But if it’s 98 degrees in the shade, proximity to H20 is an oasis for the body and the soul. Here on the baking sand, I prefer a soundtrack that reinforces the chill vibe I want to retain. And if I had to pick 10 songs to give me that vibe, these would be the ones I’d choose.

1. Here Comes The Sun

This prayer-like mantra from The Beatles’ Abbey Road album never fails to help me honor and appreciate the renewed 24-hour cycle we so often take for granted. As I listen, I picture the sun sneaking up from the horizon and I remember how grateful I am I get to see another day. (Thank you, George, for showing Paul and John you could write a great song too!) Listen to it here.

2. Soak Up the Sun

If this Sheryl Crow song doesn’t get you in the beach mood, I don’t know what will. Turn up the volume as you settle in and let the rays do their thing — it’ll make you feel like you’re absorbing that vitamin D right into your blood. (Don’t forget the sunscreen!) Listen to it here.

3. Ocean Man

This kooky ditty by Ween gets me out of my hot head. In fact, by the second hook I’m swimming with Jacques Cousteau or meeting future fried calamari with my octopus teacher. Pass the snorkel gear! Listen to it here.

4. Stuck in The Middle With You

The lyrics have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with surf or sand, but I love this Steelers Wheel song nonetheless because it transports me back to summers gone by. I’m with my girlfriends. Someone’s mom dropped us off at the beach. There we basked, tin foil-lined double album covers turned into sun reflectors strategically angled under our chins, boombox blasting this track. Life doesn’t get much better than that. Listen to it here.

5. Sailing

Occasionally, I’m lucky enough to be invited out on a friend’s boat. Looking back at the shore, I consider the opposite perspective, how small it all seems. I take in the breeze, the smell of the salt in the water, the random dolphin chirping a greeting. Like a fine wine, Christopher Cross’s “Sailing” is the perfect pairing for the moment. Listen to it here.

6. Space Song

If someone broke your heart last night, the sea can have a mystical healing effect. Go to la mer and confide in her. Have faith in the process. And in the ocean. Then touch your toes to her waves and queue up this cathartic Beach House tune. Listen to it here.

7. Leave the Door Open

Bruno Mars and Anderson Paak are the fun-lovingest duo ever. This feel-good flirtatious number will put a smile on your face, even if there’s one already there. Trust me, it’ll just get wider. Open the door and let them in! Listen to it here.

8. Jamming

I shouldn’t have to even explain this choice. Come on, it’s Bob Marley. He’s jammin’. Put on this track and you can be jammin’ with him too. Listen to it here.

9. Island in The Sun

This utterly infectious summer throw-back from Weezer reminds me of my favorite vacation — the one in which I drank too many piña coladas and read that trashy novel. If you don’t have the time to get away for a week right now, this track will make you feel like you’re already in Aruba. And the bonus is you’ll save a bundle in airfare! Listen to it here.

10. Good Vibrations

What would a beach playlist be without a Beach Boys track? Most lists would probably include the obvious: “Surfing Safari” or “Surfing’ USA.” But “Good Vibrations” is my choice because even if you can’t surf to save your life, the positive energy you’ll get from this “pocket symphony” (as composer Brian Wilson characterized it) is all you’ll need. Listen to it here.

 

If you’re heading for the beach, Yamaha TW-E3B wireless earbuds are a great choice thanks to their IPX5 rating, which provides sweat-resistance, protecting them from water activities short of swimming or diving.

Man in lounge chair on beach.

Testing the Water

Written by Shelly Peiken on . Posted in Creativity. 2 Comments on Testing the Water

When I used to take my young daughter to the beach, she’d splash around in the water for hours. Me? I’d sit in a chair and watch the waves. Still do. Maybe my passivity has something to do with a fear of sharks that developed shortly after seeing the film Jaws.

But I never felt like I was missing out. On the contrary. Watching water move has always made me feel calm and creative. There’s nothing like an ocean to clear my head or cleanse my palate.

Fortunately, I live 20 miles from the Pacific. I grew up five miles from the Atlantic. So no wonder I have this connection!

Today, as I sit on the sand watching the waves come in and go out, nothing’s changed. And since I muse here regularly, I decided to take a little dive into my laptop to see if there was any basis to my theory that water is an elixir for the soul.

Turns out there was plenty. Psychology Today, for example, features a blog in which innovation strategist Kathryn Haydon writes, “Water and creativity are alike in so many ways. Not only does describing water force us to think creatively, the nature of water is similar to the nature of creativity: it’s ubiquitous, keeps us alive, comes in many forms, has an infinite variety of expression, and its strength can alter the very landscape.”

Thank you. I couldn’t agree more.

Maybe it comes down to the fact that nobody can live without water. Water = life. We’re made of water (mostly, anyway). I’ve noticed that when I make an effort to stay hydrated, I’m cognitively more focused, less tired.

However, I believe that it’s more spiritual than that. Oceans are deep. Perhaps they subliminally send an invitation to our brain that says we too have depth that invites exploration.

Many people claim to get their best ideas in the shower. You may be one of them. While it’s true that showers are not especially deep, it makes me wonder if our minds mimic the flow of the water. After all, movement inspires movement. This speaks to how the back-and-forth motion of ocean waves provokes the mind to do the same, instilling rhythms in our soul — rhythm being one of the intrinsic components of music, of course.

A Harvard study suggests that when a person gets distracted, his or her mind gets a break and the dopamine released during that time helps the brain to conceive some new creative ideas. That may or may not be true for everybody, but water in motion certainly always distracts me. Gets me out of my head. Puts some space between me and my worries, calms my over-excitement, loosens my writers block.

I realize that not all of us live near an oasis. But a lake or a pond will do. A swimming pool. Even a bathtub! I notice that when I’m at the gym, looking out the window as I tread away on the treadmill, my eyes inevitably veer toward (and stay focused on) the swimmer in the lap pool and the water she is causing to ripple. Not surprising.

I’m grateful that I live near the ocean’s powerful muse. Every time I put on my favorite cable-knit, fall into my frayed yet faithful beach chair and look out onto that vast body of H2O, I hear her creative calling.

In his book Blue Mind, marine biologist Wallace. J. Nichols argues that when we’re physically immersed in water, our body doesn’t have to work so hard to support itself, which liberates the part of our brain which would ordinarily take part in that support.

Isn’t that exactly the freedom we strive for, wait for, work toward, welcome, covet, yearn to hold on to?

Maybe I should get out of my chair and get into the water more often.

 

Check out Shelly’s other postings.

Bryson Finney speaking at We Are Nashville festival

Case Study: The Growth of the We Are Nashville Festival

Written by Michelle Jovin on . Posted in Case Studies.

Hundreds of elementary, middle and high school musicians eagerly look out over the crowd of the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, home of the Nashville Symphony. These students have spent months preparing for this day and their hard work is about to pay off.

Choral performers climb to the loft, while instrumental musicians find their places onstage. The crowd murmurs excitedly; it’s packed with proud families and members of the community.

This is the We Are Nashville Festival, and the person behind the curtain, making sure everything goes as smoothly as possible, is Bryson Finney — artistic director of the festival.

Bryson Finney, artistic director of the We Are Nashville Festival, speaking on stage

A Growing Dream

The We Are Nashville Festival just celebrated its fifth year, and while today, it’s made up of hundreds of students, as well as partnering artists and arts organizations from around the city, the festival looked very different just five years ago.

The festival began as an idea between Finney and other local music teachers. Finney’s school administration at Cole Elementary where he served as the music educator, had connected him with Dr. Kevin Stacy, the current director of the English language learners department, and Dr. Nola Jones, the director of the visual and performing arts department, for Metro Nashville Public Schools. These educators were interested in finding a way to highlight diversity through music within the district. At the time, Finney was working with a widely diverse student population and had just put out a CD showcasing his elementary choir, and they were interested in his thoughts.

Finney left the meeting excited to find a way to make it happen. It took months of brainstorming between Finney and five of his fellow music educators — Christopher Blackmon, Franklin Willis, Ann Marie Morris, Kathryn Affainie and Nita Smith — before the idea of the festival took form.

country duo singing on stage at We Are Nashville Festival The first We Are Nashville Festival took place in 2018 at Christ Church Nashville and consisted of students from three elementary schools and one middle school. The group sang “We Are Nashville,” a song Finney had written two months earlier. “That song caught the ear of the community and that’s the reason it grew,” Finney says. “I just knew we had to do the festival again.”

The following year, the number of interested schools jumped to nine, and Finney needed a larger performance area. Finney went on a hunt to find a venue that could house the event, but he was having trouble finding a space. After searching all around Nashville, he approached organizers at Blair School of Music located on the campus of Vanderbilt University, who loved the idea of the festival. They gave him full use of the building, and through a budding partnership with the Country Music Hall of Fame a plan was developed to support by bringing over artists to teach and perform at the festival. This festival structure — a large performance venue and local artists leading workshops — solidified the future of what the festival would look like.

Changes During the Pandemic

In 2020, the festival became a program of Choral Arts Link, an arts and community focused non-profit in the Nashville area. This move and partnership with non-profit director Margaret Campbelle-Holmon was vital for the festival as it continued to grow. During this same year, the festival was planned for March 3, but Nashville was faced with a major tornado, so Finney moved the date to March 28, but he then had to cancel the event due to COVID-19.

After the cancellation, Titus Underwood, the principal oboist for the Nashville Symphony, reached out to Finney with an idea to make a video of “We Are Nashville,” the song Finney had written for the 2018 festival. The song was previously performed in 2019 and 2020 by the Nashville Symphony during the annual Let Freedom Sing Concert. Finney asked the music teachers who were scheduled to go to the festival to provide as many videos of their students performing the song as possible. Other community-based groups were excited about the idea and wanted to join in as well. The resulting video was a collaboration between the Metro Nashville Public Schools, Nashville Symphony, the Nashville Symphony’s Accelerando students, Nashville Ballet and the Voices of Vision Community Choir. The video would go on to win the 2021 Midsouth Regional Emmy® award and further propel the We Are Nashville Festival into the community’s consciousness.

students performing on stage at We Are Nashville FestivalWith the pandemic still raging in 2021, Finney knew that the festival would need to be all digital, which he was excited to explore. Finney works as a Learning Technology Specialist for Metro Nashville Public Schools and assists educators with successfully integrating technology into their instruction. So, he interviewed local artists and music directors and provided digital resources for students and teachers.

In 2022, the festival was back to being in-person and accomplished its biggest show yet. Finney had built strong relationships with members of the Nashville Symphony and thanks to the valued partnership with Kimbery McLemore, vice president of education and community engagment, the show took place at the symphony’s home, the Schermerhorn Symphony Center. Students from 11 schools participated, along with Vanderbilt University’s Philharmonia Youth Orchestra and Nashville Symphony’s Accelerando Program. In total, there were more than 300 orchestral and choral musicians participating in the festival. “I think we definitely met our goal, building community through music,” Finney says.

A Long Journey

The We Are Nashville Festival may take place over the course of a single day in March, but the preparation and planning begins much earlier. Finney spends months organizing and preparing for the day, with some festival planning beginning just a few weeks after the previous festival has ended.

Finney wants “everything to be concrete by August” because educators can apply to be part of the festival beginning in September. For the next few months, Finney meets with interested educators to go over the meaning behind the festival and what will be expected of them. Finney and his team finalize the roster of schools in December and distribute the music that will be played at the festival. The next three months are nonstop for Finney, with logistical operations being finalized, including sending in the stage layout. The morning of the festival in March is the culmination of a year’s worth of time, dedication and planning. And the day is just getting started.

The Day of the Festival

Student arrivals at the festival are staggered with elementary school students arriving first. “Their day begins with rehearsals, and then they’re immersed into a general music experience,” Finney says, with students being introduced to different types of music, dance and even exploring music through visual arts and crafts. Finney recruits local Nashville artists to lead these workshops, further driving home his message of community and togetherness. Finney thinks that it’s crucial to introduce elementary school students to different paths that they can take in music.

student performance4While elementary school students are in their general music experience, middle school and high school students arrive to practice and take workshops of their own. Then, they break apart and begin practicing their music in sectionals and tier-based rehearsals before coming back together for dinner. During dinner, the We Are Nashville student orchestra made-up of high school students from all over the Nashville area, begin their final run-through of music before the final dress rehearsal and show.

Finney is quick to acknowledge that the success of the festival is due, in large part, to the hard work of the teachers. “The music educators run this show,” he says. “They’re conducting. They’re even writing the songs, and 40% of the music was original this year.” Finney says his goal is to have that growth continue. “I want as much original music as possible, highlighting the talent of music educator in this city” he says.

The Heart of the Festival

Finney, a 2022 Yamaha “40 Under 40” music educator,  is passionate about making sure that even as the festival grows, the core of the festival remains the same — through community showing students what’s possible with music and what they can do.

“The festival is definitely centered around exposure,” Finney says. “Children need to be exposed before they can dream of what they can become.”

In the spirit of that goal, Finney believes that there are three elements that the festival offers to help students envision their futures in music — see, identify and participate.

First, Finney wants students to be able to see where music can take them. He says it’s important for students to meet local Nashville artists and the Nashville Symphony musicians and know that there are paths open to them in music.

Next, Finney wants that exposure to turn into identification. “I want students to be able to build some type of relationship with what they’ve seen,” he says.

student performance2He hopes that the elementary school students can look at the middle and high school students and envision themselves in their positions. Finney says that he receives feedback from teachers who say that their students want to join the middle school or high school orchestra or choir because they saw them perform at the festival. For Finney, that is what the festival is all about. He says it’s important for students to realize that “they’re just like me, or they look just like me, and they’re doing something I would love to do,” he says.

Lastly, Finney wants students to feel like they are participating in something unique, which they might not have a chance to do otherwise. Being able to perform at the festival in “this big, beautiful performance hall with local Nashville artists, as well as your peers, is key to the success of the festival,” he says.

This exposure and participation make up the heart of the festival. “After those three elements — I’ve seen it, I can identify with it and I’ve participated —kids can dream and have the ingredients to know that this is what they really want to do,” Finney says.

Looking to the Future

Finney is thrilled with the success the festival has had since its inception, but he still sees room for growth.

“I would love for it to become a week-long event where the festival is the launch, but resources are available all week,” Finney says. He envisions the week including local musicians visiting schools for workshops and performing for students and their families as a way of encouraging the community to come together through music.

Regardless of how big the festival grows, Finney says that it’s important to keep community and exposure at the festival’s core. He says one of the most impactful parts of the festival is when teachers see their former students performing with the middle or high school groups. That desire to reconnect solidifies the community-based nature of the festival. Or, in the words of Finney’s award-winning song: “Hand in hand, together we will stand, we are Nashville.”

A closed box with "Yamaha Disklavier Enspire Essentials Kit" emblazoned on it, plus a variety of small elements placed around the box, including adapters and power source.

The Yamaha Disklavier ENSPIRE™ Essentials Kit

Written by Yamaha Corporation of America on . Posted in Piano How-to.

The Yamaha Disklavier is a truly revolutionary instrument — a world-class acoustic piano that can faithfully reproduce every nuance of a performance and stream it, wirelessly, anywhere in the world … including your living room.

A beautiful grand piano in an upscale modern living room with a large flat screen embedded in wall where a jazz concert is playing.

More than 30 years of continuous innovation has resulted in the latest iteration: the Disklavier ENSPIRE™. If you were lucky enough to purchase one of these remarkable pianos recently, you should have received an “Essentials Kit” from your dealer. (If you haven’t, contact them to get one.) This box of goodies includes accessories and information about setting up streaming services for your instrument, as well as access codes for free downloadables and online content.

Ready to learn more? Read on …

Contents of the Essentials Kit

An open box with a set of equipment and small book laid around it.

Here’s what’s included in the Essentials Kit:

3-month trial of Piano Radio

Disklavier Radio (formerly Piano Radio) is a truly unique listening experience. With 60 live channels of streaming music, it’s like having a professional pianist in the room playing your favorite songs by your favorite artists. With moving keys and real acoustic sound, Piano Radio brings your Disklavier ENSPIRE to life and creates the perfect atmosphere. As a bonus, your Piano Radio subscription also includes access to DisklavierTV™ programs featuring streaming video content. (Available in the U.S.and Canada only.) There’s no need to change disks or set up a playlist — just sit back, relax, and enjoy!

Free PianoSoft album download

With the promo code provided in the Essentials Kit, you can choose any one of these six PianoSoft albums as a free download. (Available in the U.S. only.) PianoSoft albums allow you to listen to original recordings of your favorite piano performances on your Disklavier ENSPIRE. When these songs are played back, PianoSoft physically plays the piano, moving the keys and pedals to reproduce the original performance. It’s like having a professional pianist in your home!

Tutorial videos from Link-to-Learn

Learn how to operate your Disklavier ENSPIRE with these online Link-to-Learn QuickStart videos and product guides that take you step-by-step through the features and functions of your instrument, including numerous musical demonstrations. They offer you an exciting, interactive learning experience and cover a variety of musical topics such as “How To Play Chords,” “How To Play Keyboard” and more — everything you need to find your true music-making potential.

32 GB USB flash drive

You can never have enough storage! Included is a USB flash drive with a whopping 32 gigabytes of space to store your favorite downloaded songs or recordings.

Bluetooth® adapter with audio cable

This small, unobtrusive adapter allows you to quickly and easily connect your smart device via Bluetooth for wireless DisklavierTV viewing.

Magnetic cord cover

This stylish magnetic cover with self-adhesive backing enables you to hide all connected cables on the inside of one of the piano legs.

Getting Started

To get started, simply go to yamaha.io.gifts. There, you’ll find clickable links to redeem your free 3-month subscription to Piano Radio and DisklavierTV, choose and download your free PianoSoft album, and watch the Link-to-Learn ENSPIRE video guides. Also available on this page are handy FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) and a “Contact Us” form if you have any further questions or need additional help.

 

A screenshot.
Rock concert seen from the rear of the audience.

10 Best Live Albums to Own on Vinyl

Written by Jeff Dorgay on . Posted in Vinyl.

Even if you can’t get out to a concert, a great live album by your favorite artist can bring a lot of excitement to your living room, especially when you listen to it on vinyl, and over a quality audio system. Just make sure your turntable is on a stable rack or shelf, so you can really crank it up!

Here are 10 of the very best live albums of all time. For that extra bit of realism when listening, fire up a “lighter” app on your smartphone and wave your hands high in the air.

1. Alive! – Kiss

After three relatively tame studio LPs, with their career in a tailspin, Kiss took the bold leap of releasing a double live album, consisting of performances from their Dressed to Kill tour in the summer of 1975. After years of controversy, the group came clean in the early 2000s and admitted that the recording was heavily massaged in the studio. Regardless of whether this is a pure live record or not (many other bands would follow this model in years to come), there’s no question that Alive! captures the Kiss vibe better than any other recording out there. Far from an audiophile pressing, the vinyl version is slightly compressed … but, on the other hand, that means you can turn it up that much louder.

2. Miles of Aisles – Joni Mitchell

Where Kiss’ Alive! couldn’t be more raw, Joni Mitchell’s first live recording feels like a cross between a studio session and an intimate coffeehouse performance, though most of these tracks are taken from shows at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles in 1974. Part of the allure of this album comes from her backing band, the LA Express, who consisted of some of the best studio jazz cats at the time. The vinyl version is open, airy and delicate, and the sparse bits of audience applause are so well blended, on a great system, you’ll feel as if you’re really there. As a bonus, Mitchell’s voice never sounded better.

3. At Budokan – Cheap Trick

This record is one of the most densely packed 42 minutes and 27 seconds in power pop history. And, reminiscent of ’60s-era Beatlemania, the band’s hyper-energetic performances are delivered over a wall of screaming Japanese fans. Much like Kiss, Cheap Trick muddled around the Midwest for years, building a strong live following, yet having modest record sales. That all changed at the close of 1978 when At Budokan was released in Japan. It wouldn’t make it to America until February of 1979, but by then rabid Trick fans had already found a way to get their hands on the album. Decades before the internet, this record went viral from one record collector sharing it with another. Ah, the joys of vinyl.

4. Frampton Comes Alive – Peter Frampton

This seminal recording captures Peter Frampton at the peak of his popularity and musical prowess, and shortly after its release in 1976, it became the best-selling live album of all time. Regardless of your age, you probably know most of the songs, which are still in heavy rotation on classic rock stations today. The recording quality is stellar, and the performances spot on — so good, in fact, that Frampton would never equal this level of sales and radio play again. It’s a truly timeless rock classic.

5. Stop Making Sense – Talking Heads

Punk, power pop and new wave would steamroll over the heavy rock that dominated live venues at the end of the ’70s, and so the ’80s brought a more stripped-down approach to live performance. There’s no better example than Stop Making Sense. This 1984 live set is both theatrical and intimate at the same time. Featuring a big band riffing behind lead singer David Byrne’s memorable oversized suit, the Heads romp through 19 songs, but on vinyl, you’ll only get to hear nine of them (all that would fit on a single disc). All the tracks are high-energy from beginning to end and capture a sense of abandon that Talking Heads studio records do not. Check out the concert film of the same title (available on several streaming services) to add an additional dimension to your understanding of this influential band.

6. Home of the Brave – Laurie Anderson

A true pioneer of electronic music and perhaps the woman that defined the term “performance artist,” Laurie Anderson’s Home of the Brave is a hybrid, with five of the eight tracks captured live. Keeping the groove the same, and the recording quality high throughout, they blend right in with the three studio tracks. She’s accompanied on this album by an all-star lineup of backing musicians, all in service of Anderson, her clear violin and voice synthesizers. It’s art school music at its best.

7. Performing This Week – Live at Ronnie Scotts – Jeff Beck

Jeff Beck has been tearing up arenas for decades, with a number of live albums to his credit, but this one, recorded at Ronnie Scotts club in London in November of 2007 is the most enticing snapshot of this guitar hero yet. It features a number of classic tracks spanning a large cross-section of his discography, and the performance is tight and dynamic. There isn’t a note out of place, and the recording beautifully captures the acoustic environment of this nightclub setting.

8. Unplugged – Nirvana

Nirvana’s Unplugged is probably the record most associated with the long-running MTV series of the same name. It’s been reported that Cobain was having a tough time with the producers of the show, yet managed to do the entire Unplugged performance in one take. Sadly, it ended up being the band’s final recording before the world lost lead singer Kurt Cobain. In addition to being an incredibly rich recording, the way Nirvana’s normally hard-driving songs translate to a slower, acoustic pace reveals another facet of this band’s talent. Who knows where Nirvana might have gone after this?

9. Unplugged – Jay-Z

Jay-Z’s collaboration with the Roots took the Unplugged concept to another level. The extraordinary skills of all parties involved makes for a record that nearly defies genre, and the combination of beats, jazz riffs, and Jay-Z’s ability to shift gears smoother than a Bentley makes for a hip-hop masterpiece. To everyone that ever uttered the words “hip-hop isn’t really music,” consider yourself schooled. This is as good as it gets.

10. Homecoming: The Live Album – Beyoncé

Capturing Beyoncé’s 2018 Coachella performance, Homecoming is the biggest-sounding record on our list. The sheer amount of musical power cut into these grooves almost demands to be turned up loud. Really loud. This record is so dynamic it will push your music system to its limit … and if you have subwoofers, Homecoming will put them to the test. The range of style presented here is mind-bending and, of course, Beyoncé’s range takes no prisoners. It’s almost as if she’s channeling Ella Fitzgerald, Diana Ross and Aretha Franklin simultaneously, while putting her own spin on it in real time.

 

Check out these turntables from Yamaha.

Yamaha Products at 2022 NAMM

Written by Yamaha Corporation of America on . Posted in Gearguide.

It’s NAMM time again! Can’t make this year’s show in person? Here are some of the hottest new products that Yamaha will be displaying on the show floor.

CFX Grand Piano

Beautiful grand piano with lid open.

Yamaha has been making pianos for over a century, and striving to continually improve the artistic experience through feedback from the world’s most acclaimed pianists. The new Yamaha CFX is the culmination of that quest — a handcrafted concert grand piano that melds tradition and innovation, built by master craftsmen who understand the delicate balance between absolute precision and the human touch.

The carefully hand-selected materials that go into every CFX work together to create richness in every note, with astonishing projection. Only the finest beech and mahogany woods are chosen to give the rim a warm, deep sound quality. State-of-the-art A.R.E. technology (Acoustic Resonance Enhancement) reduces moisture content to impart an aged character that suppresses damping for clean vibrations, and an innovative joint method brings expertly seasoned woods together for smooth, resonant tone. Each CFX soundboard is fashioned from the top one percent of European spruce, chosen for its ability to transform string vibrations into beautiful sound. The shape of the crown has been refined to add a deeper mid-bass tonality, and the width, height and position of the sound ribs has been modified to increase dynamic range. The bass strings are hand-wound; the highest-quality felt is used for the hammers; even the frame is hand-molded and sand casted. From gentle pianissimo to powerful fortissimo, the CFX provides an extraordinarily responsive touch, furthering the connection between player and piano.

Second-Generation Revstar

Rows of colorful electric guitars.

Initially launched in 2015, Revstar® was the first new electric guitar series from Yamaha in more than a decade, drawing on the company’s heritage in both electric guitar and motorcycle design. The second-generation Revstar guitars being shown at NAMM fine-tune that concept with enhanced playability, versatility and tone.

All feature chambered bodies developed with the signature Yamaha Acoustic Design process to precisely shape tone and increase resonance while lowering weight and optimizing balance. They also boast a new neck profile and are available in a number of ultra-cool racing-inspired finishes — there are even left-handed models to choose from. Revstar Standard and Professional models come with either humbuckers or P90-style single-coil pickups and have unique five-way pickup selector circuitry that offers a new twist on classic “in-between” sounds, along with a Focus Switch — a passive boost function that evokes the sound of overwound pickups. If you’re a player interested in classic style with modern upgrades, you’ll definitely want to check out these great new guitars.

DTX8 / DTX10 Series Electronic Drum Kits

A hybrid acoustic and electronic drum kit.

The new DTX8 Series and flagship DTX10 Series electronic drum kits offer a perfect blend of functionality and playability, giving drummers the ideal instrument for rehearsal, recording and live performance. DTX8 Series kits are ideal for drummers looking for a combination of high-quality sounds and versatility. DTX10 Series kits are designed for drummers who demand the very best in performance capability and durability.

DTX8 and DTX10 Series kits are available in two stunning finishes — Real Wood and Black Forest — and offer two playing surface options: two-ply mesh heads from Remo that boast outstanding resilience and can be tuned to fit the drummer’s desired tension, or Textured Cellular Silicone (TCS) heads that offer a surface that will never loosen, along with a more natural response and rebound similar to an acoustic drum. The DTX8 Series utilizes the DTX-PRO module, while the DTX10 Series is powered by the new DTX-PROX module. Both modules offer the same tone generator and feature high-resolution samples professionally recorded in world-renowned studios, along with unique features such as a real-time Kit Modifier that allows major tonal change and inspires creativity with the twist of a knob. In addition, the DTX-PROX has a “Live Set” function that allows drummers to freely arrange and set various kits, tempos and audio files for backing tracks, as well as seven LED rotary faders that can be used to instantly change instrument parameters such as altering the tuning of the snare or muffling the kick. Both the DTX8 and DTX10 are compatible with the free iOS/Android™ Rec’n’Share app that allows drummers to practice along to songs in their library, record video, and easily share their performances without leaving the drum throne.

Cubase 12

Screenshot.

Whatever you need, Cubase helps you to reach your full creative potential. From Hollywood blockbuster composers and Billboard Hot 100 producers to keen beginners, the world of music production has long trusted the comprehensive feature set, straightforward tools and unrivaled sound of this acclaimed DAW music production software.

NAMM attendees will have an opportunity to explore the many new features and workflow enhancements offered by the latest release: Cubase 12. These include everything from new effects and advanced editing tools to improved audio-to-MIDI and expanded MIDI Remote integration, making it easy to add MIDI controllers to your music production setup, with auto-detection of your device and mapping of all available controls. The Scale Assistant in VariAudio makes pitch editing a breeze, while the Audio to MIDI Chords feature allows Cubase to instantly analyze any recorded audo and derive the chord progression for you automatically, blurring the borders between audio and MIDI so you can focus on the music instead of the technology. With Cubase 12, you’ll find composing, recording, and mixing even more rewarding than ever before.

YTR-8335IIRKG-LN Xeno Trumpet

Golden trumpet seen in profile.

NAMM will also see the debut of the YTR-8335IIRKG-LN Xeno B-flat trumpet — an instrument that speaks to players looking to create new musical moments. Trumpeters aspiring to stand out from the crowd will find it to be just as unique as they are.

Closeup of the engraving on the bell of the trumpet.

The YTR-8335IIRKG-LN continues what has become a tradition of limited-edition wind instrument models created by Yamaha to celebrate and inspire music-makers. This particular model offers several distinctive features, including a proprietary cryogenic acoustic treatment, a durable clear lacquer finish, a medium-large 0.459″ bore and a reversed main tuning slide. The unique “Kangakki” engraving on the bell means “wind instrument” in Japanese — a historical reference that balances with the instrument’s modern design and construction.

See you at next year’s NAMM — and remember, if you can’t make the show in person, you can always catch the highlights here!

 

For more information about these and other great Yamaha music products, click here.

Guitarist playing acoustic guitar.

Recording Acoustic Instruments, Part 2

Written by Mike Levine on . Posted in Recording.

In Part 1 of this three-part series, we addressed some fundamental issues regarding mic selection and placement. Here in Part 2, we’ll expand on that theme and offer specific tips for recording plucked stringed instruments such as guitar and acoustic bass, as well as bowed strings. (In Part 3, we’ll cover piano, percussion and wind instruments.)

Ensemble Recording vs. Solo Instruments

As discussed in Part 1, a critical factor in determining how to approach capturing the sound of any acoustic instrument is whether you’re recording one musician at a time, or several in the same room. If the former, you can concentrate on getting the full sound of the instrument, which can be difficult when you have to worry about bleed from other sound sources.

Omnidirectional (“omni”) microphones, which pick up sound from all around, are a good choice when recording one instrument at a time since they often deliver a more accurate sonic picture than you’ll attain by simply pointing a directional mic at one spot. They’re also not subject to the proximity effect (as described in Part 1), so you can position them closer to the instrument without getting an artificial boost in the bottom end.

But if you’re recording an ensemble of several musicians playing together, you’ll probably need to limit yourself to directional mics like cardioids and position the players as far apart as possible. The good news is that, because cardioid mics pick up sound mostly from in front and reject sound coming from behind, facing the mics directly opposite one another (as shown below) can significantly reduce leakage.

Diagram of two microphones facing opposite directions.
Face cardioid mics opposite to reduce leakage.

Recording Acoustic Guitar

In most cases, you’ll be able to capture the sound of acoustic guitar with a single condenser mic. If you have several available, experiment to see which one sounds best. A small-diaphragm condenser will tend to pick up transients a bit better and thus yield a brighter sound with more attack, while a large-diaphragm model will deliver a fuller sound with more low end, so your choice of which to use is largely down to the musical content.

Start by aiming the mic where the neck meets the body, and place it roughly 9 to 15 inches away from the instrument:

Acoustic guitar with target emblem highlighting specific area of lower part of neck.
To record acoustic guitar, start by aiming the mic here.

If the guitar is the featured instrument, or the only instrument in the song — for example, if you’re recording a simple guitar / vocal demo — you may want to experiment with stereo miking to give it a more expansive sound. In Part 1, we mentioned the XY miking technique, which provides a stereo image without phase issues and is pretty easy to set up, although it works best when you have a pair of matching mics:

Diagram showing two microphones' heads overlapping each other.
The XY configuration.

You might also consider trying an ORTF configuration; this is another two-mic technique that yields an even wider image, though, again, it works best when using a matched pair of mics. Space the mic capsules about 6-3/4 inches apart and angle them at about 110 degrees:

Two microphones pointed partially away from each other.
The ORTF configuration.

With both XY and ORTF, start by placing the mics about a foot back, then experiment by moving them closer in or slightly further away.

If you have two mics that are not matched (i.e., different makes or models), try a “spaced pair” method instead: aim one mic at the guitar body a few inches past and slightly below the bridge and another where the body and neck meet.

Acoustic guitar with two target emblems over certain locations.
A starting point for aiming the mics in a spaced pair configuration.

This will give you a more expansive stereo image, but be sure to follow the 3:1 rule (as described in Part 1) to avoid phase problems.

You can take a similar approach with other plucked stringed instruments such as mandolin. Again, use your best condenser mic, preferably one with a small diaphragm. Start by aiming it where the body and neck meet, angling the mic slightly toward the higher strings. Try different distances from about three to 12 inches and see which sounds best. The closer you place the mic, the more present it will sound; the further back, the more ambient.

When recording banjo, you’ll need to aim the mic somewhere on the head because that’s what creates the tone. If the player uses fingerpicks (as any bluegrass banjoist will), make sure not to aim it too close to the player’s hand because you’ll capture too many pick noises.

Recording Upright Bass

It can be challenging to successfully record a plucked upright bass, such as for jazz or bluegrass. That’s because it’s such a large instrument, the sound comes from more than one place. The trick is to get a good blend between the very low frequencies coming from the body of the instrument and the sounds coming from the strings as the bass is being plucked, which are in a much higher frequency range. Without a good amount of the latter, you’re likely to get results that are overly bassy and lack definition.

Double bass. The musician playing contrabass musical instrument on black background.
On upright bass, the goal is to capture the right blend of lows and highs.

Start by placing a large-diaphragm condenser about a foot or so back from the bridge, then begin moving it around as the bassist plays while you monitor the sound carefully on headphones. If you can’t get a good enough blend by moving the mic around, consider using a second mic (a large or small-diaphragm condenser) closer to where the neck and body meet. Here, you’re not going for stereo; instead, you want to blend in those higher frequencies with the primary mic signal so that the bass will have some transient energy to cut through. Again, make sure to observe the 3:1 rule to avoid phase problems.

Bowed Strings

When you’re dealing with a bowed instrument like a violin, viola, cello or bowed upright bass, the goal is to capture a blend of the resonant tone from the body with just a little bit of the scraping of the bow on the strings. You need to go easy on the latter or the sound will be too scratchy, but you also need some of those higher frequency components for articulation purposes.

Man playing the cello. Classical music.
With bowed strings, the goal is to blend the resonance of the instrument’s body with a little of the bowing sound.

Try using a condenser with a cardioid pattern. For instruments that have a lot of low-frequency information (such as cello and upright bass), choose a large-diaphragm condenser because those kinds of mics are better at reproducing rich bottom end.

Place the mic three feet above and in front of the instrument, and aim it where the bow meets the strings, then experiment with different distances. If you’re having trouble getting a good sound, the problem could partially be due to room acoustics, so try putting the player in a different part of the room and see if that helps. When bleed is a concern in ensemble situations, you’ll have to move the mic closer or consider using a quality clip-on condenser mic that attaches behind the bridge.

Remember: These descriptions are simply guidelines. They can work well as starting points, but you should always feel free to experiment. As always, a lot depends on the quality of the instrument and the microphones, as well as the musicianship of the player and the acoustics of the room.

Click here for Part 3, in which we discuss how best to record piano, percussion and wind instruments.

 

Check out our other Recording Basics postings.

Springfield High School students playing the ukulele

Case Study: Develop a Guitar and Ukulele Elective for High School

Written by Mark Stanford on . Posted in Case Studies.

Curricular guitar and ukulele courses have gained traction in both elementary and secondary education, and for good reason! Traditional ensembles (band, orchestra and choir) still play a vital role in music education, but guitar and ukulele instruction help us engage a wider range of students in the joys and benefits of making music.

Additionally, the instruments are fairly affordable and can be used to easily connect our students to music that is more relevant to them.

I hope the story about our guitar and ukulele elective at Springfield High School can help you develop a similar program at your school.

Developing the Course

Although I developed the curriculum and premiered this course at Springfield High, I cannot take credit for introducing the idea or getting it approved. My predecessor, Kevin Cooper, and my colleague, Mike Zubert, were inspired by the success of guitar courses at a local district, and they worked together to develop the concept of a guitar and ukulele class.

ukulele3 Stanford pointingA proposal of the course was given to the building principal at the time, Dr. Joseph Hepp, a multi-instrumentalist in his own right, and reviewed by our district curriculum coordinators. After they approved it, the elective was added to the course offerings during course selection.

I realize that not everyone who presents such an idea to their administration will receive the type of initial interest and support that we were lucky enough to get. I encourage you to talk with your building administration about the formal process for introducing a new course. In some districts it may be as simple as getting building approval, where others may require it to be heard by the school board or a school board curriculum committee. Be patient! Sometimes these processes can take months or years.

When presenting the idea for the course, I recommend having answers to the following questions (I have provided some sample answers to help):

  • Why is guitar and ukulele instruction important to your curriculum, students and school?
    • Guitar and Ukulele instruction will help us engage a wider range of students in music learning and performance beyond our traditional ensembles. With so much relevant content and easily accessible instruments, a guitar and ukulele course can help us create a more inclusive music learning environment. Students will leave the class with a musical skillset that enables them to continue to play and perform beyond high school, leading to a more fulfilling life.
  • How will the class fit into the current schedule? Does it replace another elective? Will you need additional staffing to cover the elective?
    • This class will replace our music appreciation class, which has seen declining enrollment over the past four years. It can fit into the same period slots as that elective and will not need additional staffing as the same teachers are certified to teach this new course.
  • What type of supplies (instruments) will you need? How much will they cost? How will they be paid for?
    • Depending on how we structure the class, we can buy about 30 high-quality student level guitars for $6,600 or ukuleles for $3,300. We would also need to purchase some textbooks, which will cost approximately $350 total. We were hoping to split the cost between our department budget, building budget and curriculum budget.

It was predetermined that this course would be a one-semester (half-credit) elective for beginning guitar/ukulele players, available to any student in grades 9-12. Like all classes in the building, the class runs for approximately 50 minutes every day. The course is restricted to 24 seats per section.  Our first year we ran 2 sections and we are now running 4 sections yearly.

Curriculum and Instruction

guitar2 Stanford two studentsOnce the course was approved, I began to write and design the curriculum as well as a scope and sequence for the course. I decided that students would spend half of the semester on ukulele and then transition to guitar. I wanted all my students to walk away with a skillset where they could continue learning, playing and enjoying music on guitar and ukulele beyond the class. Thanks to discussions and input from my colleagues, I determined that I wanted students to be able to meet two primary goals:

  1. Read and play simple melodies using “traditional” notation.
  2. Perform common harmonies and harmonic progressions from various types of notation (such as chord charts, tab, etc.) and by rote.

Teaching students to read traditional notation is greatly valued within our music department. Additionally, I knew that providing students with basic music literacy and theory skills would allow them to engage in a wider range of music enjoyment beyond high school. My goal in designing this specific element of the curriculum was for students to use these skills in music reading or singing at civic events, at places of worship and socially, as well as in career settings like early childhood education.

In order to develop students’ technique and musical literacy skills, I investigated various method books. After talking with several music educators who teach individual or group guitar/ukulele instruction, I settled on the “Alfred’s Basic Guitar Method” book series. The text effectively sequences the technique and music literacy through original, classical and folk melodies. Additionally, I liked that the book has a nearly equivalent version for ukulele that would allow for a smooth transition between quarters.

Daily class time is allotted for students to practice these exercises and receive direct feedback from me as I float around the classroom. Students then either perform the selection individually in class or record it into our learning management system for assessment. The class is designed so students complete about three to five melodies a week.

Although I have used the Alfred text since beginning the course, there are many other great options to use for teaching both traditional notation, as well as tablature, and harmony that may better suit your program. Some popular ones are the “Master the Ukulele,” “Hal Leonard Ukulele Method Book,” “Hal Leonard Guitar Method Book,” “Mel Bay’s Complete Method for Modern Guitar” and “First Year Guitar: Hands-on Training.”  Talk to local guitar/ukulele teachers about what they use.

Stanford studentsWhen it came to teaching common harmonies and progressions on the instrument, it was more difficult to find text and resources that met the needs of the class. While there are several popular methods for teaching harmony, few would effectively work for guitar and ukulele. For this reason, I ended up creating most of my own original resources (slideshows and handouts) to teach harmonies and chords with the aid of online resources such as UltimateGuitar.com, Fender Play and the many channels on youtube.com, including Marty Music, Swift Lessons, Guitar Lessons 365, The Ukulele Teacher and Ukulele Cheats.

I designed this portion of the course so students could learn common progressions, such as the blues, and chords (I, IV, V, ii, vi) in common keys (C, G, D, A, E). I picked an appropriately challenging selection in each key that could act as a vehicle for learning these chords and progressions. When students switch instruments after the first quarter, they relearn the previous selection in that key and also learn a new, slightly more challenging one. The blues progression is particularly enjoyable as students get to learn about the history of the blues and even write and harmonize along with an original blues composition!

As I developed this curriculum, I consistently referred back to my state learning standards as well as the NAFME standards for harmonizing instruments to make sure my curriculum aligned.

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Securing Instruments

ukulele4 two studentsAlong with the curricular support for the class, our district supported the purchase of a set of guitars and ukuleles through building and curriculum budgets. As the program expanded, we were able to use a combination of our department budget and curriculum budget to expand our inventory. Every student is assigned a guitar and ukulele during the course that they can use in class and take home as needed. If you are unable to secure a district budget funding source, I highly encourage looking into other options. It’s possible that districts may be able to use Title 1 or Title IV-A federal funds to secure instruments if the program meets the requirements. Right now, districts may also be able to use ESSER funds to expand music programing, depending on how they wrote their ESSER funding plan.

I know several educators who have been able to secure ukuleles and guitars using federal funds over the past several years. Plenty of resources about the funds and music education are available online, especially through the National Association for Music Education (NAfME). Along with these federal funding sources you can also investigate local grants or crowdfunding. In our district, we have an education foundation, The Springfield Area Education Foundation, that can issue grants to make purchases for classroom sets of instruments.

Reception

guitar3This guitar and ukulele elective has become extremely popular in our building! Last year, we ran six sections of the course taught by one other teacher and me and engaged approximately students in meaningful music making! One of the most surprising and rewarding pieces of feedback I received from students is how much they value being able to learn traditional music notation in high school!

Many students purchased their own guitar or ukulele at the end of the course and came back to show me what they have been learning or working on! I have even had several staff members and administrators talk with me about purchasing a guitar and ukulele for themselves. Several have even joined us in class!

If you have questions about starting your own guitar and ukulele program or would like to learn more about Springfield’s elective, please reach out to me at mark.stanford@ssdcougars.org.

Daily Diet of Fundamentals

Written by Jarrett Lipman on . Posted in Teaching Tips. 1 Comment on Daily Diet of Fundamentals

A musician’s daily diet or daily drill provides all the necessary basics for performing on an instrument successfully. While it’s not a perfect formula, at Claudia Taylor Johnson High School, we stick to our daily drill in the same way that we brush our teeth or get dressed for school each day — we make it a part of our routine.

Like a balanced nutritional diet, we work on fundamental exercises each day that strengthen the skills our students need to achieve a high level of performance. In the earlier parts of contest preparation, we invest more time on fundamentals and less on practicing contest literature. The time focused on fundamentals allows students to develop skills that will make learning the music easier and address weaknesses in our ensemble.

clock unsplashFundamentals include all elements of the daily diet for the contest literature, including rhythm training, ear training, breathing exercises, buzzing for brass, long tones, lip flexibilities, harmonic slurs, articulation exercises, range builders, dynamic control exercises, scales, chorales, tuning sequences and more.

If a contest is in March or April, you will likely begin preparing in January. Here is a suggested structure:

    • In January, spend 60% of rehearsal time on fundamentals, 40% on music.
    • In February, spend 40% of rehearsal time on fundamentals, 60% on music.
    • In March and April, spend 20% of rehearsal time on fundamentals, 80% on music.

The table below shows how to split time during a 40-, 60-, and 80-minute class period on fundamentals vs. music and how that time should shift over the course of content preparation.


Class Length
January (60% — 40%)
February (40% — 60%)
March-April (20%— 80%)
40 minutes 24 fundamentals, 16 music 16 fundamentals, 24 music 8 fundamentals, 32 music
60 minutes 36 fundamentals, 24 music 24 fundamentals, 36 music 12 fundamentals, 48 music
80 minutes 48 fundamentals, 32 music 32 fundamentals, 48 music 16 fundamentals, 64 music

At the end of the day, “right notes and rhythms” go a long way toward a magical musical performance. If students do not have enough time to practice the music during class, they certainly will not be successful during the performance. In general, students practice more efficiently when a teacher structures it, so class rehearsal time becomes critical.

Investing in fundamental skills early on during contest preparation will make working on the music more accessible. Additionally, if you spend time warming-up each day, consider that time as fundamental skill development more than just a warm-up for the day. Long tones can help develop listening skills side-to-side and learning to play with a beautiful sound. Scales help develop students’ sensitivity to matching style and articulation side-to-side and section-to-section, rather than just learning individual notes. The directors who use fundamental warm-ups to develop ensemble skills and not only individual skills will find that their groups begin to take on a resonance and uniformity of sound that enhances all of the music your students perform together.

Daily Drill Essentials

With so many possible uses of fundamentals time, it is easy to get overwhelmed and wonder what to cover in a day. To avoid randomness in our warm-ups or skipping over an essential part of a musician’s diet, we insist on a few things in our fundamentals each day:

    • Breathing
    • Singing
    • Long tone
    • Lip slur brass/Harmonic slur woodwinds (or woodwinds can do a technique accompaniment)
    • Articulation exercise

bari saxIf we only have time for a very short warm-up, it must include a sustained long-tone exercise: a Remington/interval study or major/minor scales. It also must include a lip slur exercise for brass (either a soft, slow slur or something quick) and a harmonic slur for woodwinds. Sometimes we will have our woodwinds play a fast finger/technical exercise while the brass plays slurs for efficiency. And finally, the daily drill must include something to work tonguing and style. This could be multiple tonguing, fast tonguing or even learning to control accents, tenutos, staccatos or other styles students will need to succeed.

You might consider a breathing sequence that students perform every day — like in four out four, in four out eight, in two out eight, in one out eight at different tempos — rather than just creating something different each day. Additionally, singing can be as basic as a single note or five notes of a scale. Ultimately, we use breathing and singing to develop those skills in a vacuum and raise a student’s awareness about how they feel when they take a proper breath and how something sounds when it is in tune. If students can learn to think about how they feel or how they want something in the room to sound, it increases the chances that they will do this more when they start to perform music.

With additional time, you might explore advanced exercises, including dynamic control exercises, pitch bends for brass, range builders, or other rhythm and ear training exercises. A more extended fundamentals period provides more options. When you need the basics, prioritize the daily drill that works best. And remember, students become easily distracted outside the band class, so it is better to organize their daily drill/warm-up than leaving it in their own hands. If you do it as part of your class routine, you’ll know it is getting done properly.

Long tones or slurs first? I have had great brass teachers weigh in on this debate. Many believe that flow studies and slurs should be done first to move around on the instrument early in the warm-up. Others say that long tones done before slurs will enable fluidity for the day. Ultimately, you can try both or consider mixing it up. At Claudia Taylor Johnson, we have flipped back and forth over the years. Currently, we are in a “flexibility and fluidity first phase,” and we are choosing to do moving slurs early in the warm-up before our sustained exercises.

Daily Drill Must Support Your Contest Program

winds ensemble2While we don’t try to “teach to the test” at Claudia Taylor Johnson, we structure our fundamentals/daily drill to address the skills needed for our performers to play our contest program at a high level. If we know that we are working on Borodin’s “Polovtsian Dances” and a lot of the piece is in the key of concert A major, then we will structure our daily drill with a lot of exercises and chorales in that tonal/key center. Band students spend a lot of time in the keys of concert Bb, Eb, F or Ab major, so playing in A major takes them out of their comfort zones. Working long tone patterns and articulation exercises in A makes the uncomfortable more normal for students. They learn tuning tendencies on their instruments and how to control “bad notes” during fundamentals, making it easier when they work through challenges in their music.

Another example, if you are working on Sousa’s “The Black Horse Troop,” you would be wise to practice daily drill rhythmic patterns in 6/8. You could do long tones or scales using rhythmic patterns from the march to help develop both counting and articulation skills. Anytime you can transfer complex rhythms from your contest literature into your fundamentals, you double the time your students develop those skills to achieve success.

Using time in class each day to address fundamental skill concerns will improve your ensemble’s performance. Like a sports car that requires daily maintenance and fine-tuning or the human body that needs a balanced diet to live a healthy life, your band will thrive with the proper daily drill that addresses your performers’ needs. A basic structure can still look different each day to avoid your fundamentals from becoming monotonous and tedious. Your students will improve over time by working on skills and not just their contest literature.

Adam Tindler playing a grand piano.

Empowered Expression: An Interview with Adam Tendler

Written by Yamaha Corporation of America on . Posted in Artists.

Man in black t-shirt and jeans smiling for camera.

Adam Tendler has always made it a point to challenge himself, beginning with his first attempts at learning classical piano as an adolescent, and continuing in his current ambitious goals as an adult. He has become nationally renowned for his willingness to give performances in thought-provoking locations such as cemeteries, chapels and public parks — as well as for his drive to bring the genre of contemporary classical music to the masses and further its acceptance in the mainstream. Launching his career by embarking on a courageous mission to perform in all 50 states (a personal and professional adventure he details in his book 88 by 50), Tendler now collaborates with the top names in modern classical, as well as with artists outside the genre, to introduce new first-time listeners to this complex form of music.

Adam recently spoke with Yamaha about how he continues to challenge himself to this day — both professionally as well as personally — to express his emotions through music.

Unusual and Unique Spaces

“I think I’ve always been drawn to presenting programs in unusual or unique spaces,” Adam says. “Sometimes it has been because of necessity, just because that’s what I had to work with at that time, and we could get a piano there.

“Playing Liszt in the Green-Wood cemetery catacombs (in Brooklyn, New York) was a huge risk and a huge experiment because it was a very long program, a very intense program, and we truly were in catacombs surrounded by souls — we were amongst the dead, and it was a very spiritual program,” he recalls.

“And to the very last second, it was unknown how this was going to work – if this was going work. But I really wanted to see how that music would activate in that space. I had this faith that it was going to be really cool and really powerful, and that combination of really cool and really powerful has guided me into playing different programs in unusual spaces, whether it’s in the catacombs or in nightclubs, or in galleries. When you take music out of the standard concert hall and put it in new spaces, that music can spark and activate in a different way, and it can reach a broader spectrum of listeners, which is always a goal of mine too.”

Adam Tindler playing a grand piano.

88 by 50 Tour

The 88 by 50 Tour was an ambitious project that Adam embarked on right after graduating from college. The goal: Play a professional piano concert in all 50 states. It took Adam almost a year to complete.

“In essence, [it was a way] to try to teach myself how to perform,” he says, reflecting back on the origins of the undertaking. “I really felt like the stage was the classroom I needed. If I wanted to be a performer, I needed to be on stage a lot more because by the time I left music school, I had become kind of a nervous wreck as a performer.

“I wanted as much time on stage as possible,” Tendler continues. “I wanted to put myself in unusual places. I wanted to play modern music, and finally, there was this element of, I am not comfortable with who I am. Maybe by the end of this gauntlet of 50 states, I’ll have enough courage to come out.

“Everyone I knew was preparing me to be okay with it not working. Everyone said, ‘You know, if you just do 10, even that’s okay,’” he remembers. “I was like, I really want to do this, but I had no planning. I earned all my own money, and worked construction and taught piano lessons, and saved it all. It was very much a grassroots situation. As I was on the road, I would book more and more shows, finding places through search engines and calling them and seeing who would say yes.

“But there was a trajectory of coming out [too]. From the beginning, [when] a presenter said to me, ‘You don’t have a closet, you have a vault,’ to midway through the tour, falling in love with somebody, and having this relationship.”

By the time he got to state 50, it had been a year, and to Tendler’s way of thinking, he still didn’t really have a career. “I didn’t know if I had a national presence and I still was in the closet,” he remembers. “It was this interesting thing: I felt profoundly different, and yet I realized at the end of this project, all I really had was myself.

“It was like, well, I need to start to be honest about who I am. I found myself as a performer, and in a way, had come out as a performer. … I felt like I [could finally] say to people, now I am a pianist. That was the last thing I needed to do: to learn to be comfortable with my sexual identity. Even to this day, I struggle with that notion. Is it such a big deal, who I love? Is it anyone’s business? But at the same time, it was such a point of agony to have to hide such a powerful and deep part of myself, a part that fuels my music-making.”

A Fortress and a Vessel

Coming from a musical family of two generations of pianists, Adam received instruction at an early age, but it wasn’t until his high school years that he started to devote more time to the craft — often as an escape from the pain of being bullied by classmates.

“I was six and a half when I first started playing piano,” Tendler says. “In my hometown in Vermont there were two piano teachers. One was my grandfather and the other was his competitor. My mother, in the boldest move I could ever imagine, put me with his competitor, and I don’t know if he ever forgave her!”

Adam Tendler playing a Yamaha grand piano on a darkened stage.

“[It was when] I started to discover music by Chopin and Rachmaninoff [in high school], that something sort of clicked with me, and this does actually have to do with being gay. I was bullied a lot, growing up, for my voice and just how I acted. I was ‘accused,’ for lack of a better word, of being gay before I even really knew what that meant. I had no clue what everyone was talking about,” he recalls with a laugh, “but I knew they were making fun of me and teasing me about it.”

Fortunately, Tendler began to find that he could express himself at the piano in a way that was safe. “Somehow playing the piano created a fortress around me,” he says. “It was a fortress that could protect me, but it was also a vessel in which I could escape from being bullied.”

Musical Influences

The background of modern American classical music comprises a range of people from different backgrounds, including composers such as Aaron Copland and John Cage, who hid their sexual identities as it was not an accepted norm of their era. The dissonant music of these composers reflected how Adam felt during his adolescent years. He includes their work in many of his performances today

“With a composer like Copeland or Cage, or Robert Palmers,” Tendler explains, “I can resonate with them on a personal level, because of their sexual identity, even if they didn’t make that part of their identity the forefront of their music at all. The truth of the matter is that, [for] most of my career, neither did I. When I did the 50-state tour, I was still in the closet. I thought the tour was going to solve that for me and somehow make me so courageous and brave that I was going to come out, but I was battling that stuff all the time.

“I love the raw dissonant energy of modern music,” he says. “The decision to write dissonance — to commit that to the page and to commit it to a performer to have to play notes that grind against each other — was something I admired. I felt like I was dissonant to my environment; I felt like I wasn’t belonging in my environment. I think that became a big part of why I started to gravitate toward that music, because it felt like the only way in which I could actually resist and rebel.

 

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Adam Tendler collaborating with artist Dev Hynes (@devhynes), also known as Blood Orange, for a series of performances including one for the Brooklyn Music Academy (BAM).

Advice for Young LGBTQ+

“I think I would tell that young person to not wait,” says Tendler. “They don’t have to wait until they’re in their mid- to late twenties, like I did, to embrace and be honest about who they are. The personal risks I thought I was facing, I had built them up in my head. The truth is that, on the other side of that honesty is a community and a family of other queer people who are so happy for you, for any young person who’s coming out.

“There is a whole culture, world and community rich with amazing people who are there to support them, [so they should] avoid underestimating the people around them. I really underestimated the people around me. [I felt] that I was going to be rejected and cast off, and it was just not the case. I was completely embraced.

“It might not be true for everybody, but the honesty, integrity, bravery and courage to come out and be honest about who they are will be admired by the people around them.”

 

Learn more about Adam Tendler at www.adamtendler.com.

Teenager playing a clarinet in a school band.

Here’s What to Look for When Buying a Clarinet Mouthpiece

Written by Jake Uitti on . Posted in Woodwinds.

The clarinet is one of the more versatile woodwind instruments. It’s found in symphony orchestras and small ensembles, and used in a wide range of musical genres, from symphonies to jazz, not to mention klezmer music, where it serves as the featured instrument.

But what is it that makes a clarinet sound like a clarinet? Well, while the instrument’s inner shape has a great impact on its tone, so too does its mouthpiece. That’s because the mouthpiece, which houses the clarinet’s reed, is integral to producing sound. To make music, the mouthpiece is placed into the player’s mouth and blown into, which vibrates the reed and creates notes via the instrument’s keys. The mouthpiece’s size and shape can dramatically affect that process.

You may think that you should just stick with the mouthpiece that came with your clarinet, but that’s not always the best option. Certain mouthpieces can be more difficult to play than others, and, depending on the materials they’re made from, can create a darker or brighter sound. And of course, quality counts: It’s important to choose a mouthpiece made by a reputable manufacturer. Saving a few dollars may cost more in headaches down the line.

In this article, we’ll tell you what you need to know so you can buy the right clarinet mouthpiece for you.

FIRST THINGS FIRST

As a first step, you want to make sure there are no chips or scratches on the mouthpiece you’re considering purchasing — something that’s especially important when buying used mouthpieces.

You also need to be aware of reed placement, which can have an impact on the sound your instrument makes. The clarinet uses a single reed, and these come in varying degrees of “hardness,” which is generally indicated on a scale from one (softest) through five (hardest), although the numbering system can vary between brands.

The exact placement of the reed is set by adjusting the ligature, which is a piece of metal, rubber or other material that holds the reed to the mouthpiece. Generally, the reed performs best when its tip is lined up flush with the tip of the clarinet mouthpiece. If the reed is placed too far below the mouthpiece’s tip, it may “cave in” on itself, causing a brittle sound … or there may be no sound at all! If the reed is placed too far above the tip of the mouthpiece, it can feel stiffer or harder, making the instrument more difficult to play. The sound will also be diminished in terms of volume or can seem fuzzier.

MOUTHPIECE MATERIALS

Clarinet mouthpieces are made of a variety of materials, including rubber, plastic, crystal, glass, wood, ivory or even metal. In general, the softer the material, the darker the sound; the harder the material, the brighter the sound.

There are two varieties of Yamaha clarinet mouthpieces. They have a similar design but utilize different materials. The company’s Standard Series mouthpieces are made of sturdy phenol resin (plastic), while their Custom Series models are sculpted out of a high-quality hard rubber called ebonite, which offers a deep resonance and tonal qualities similar to those of natural wood. Standard Series mouthpieces are designed to be easier for beginners to play; Custom Series mouthpieces provide more experienced players with an extra degree of control. For more information, click here.

SIZE AND SHAPE

There are a number of aspects to the way a mouthpiece plays and sounds. Two crucial ones are the inner chamber shape — literally the shape inside the mouthpiece — and the facing length and the size of the rails. Bear in mind that these elements aren’t always reflected in the model number and are instead determined more by the brand or series of mouthpieces.

External size, however, is not a big factor. According to Matt Kerns, Yamaha Marketing Manager, Winds & Strings Accessories, “You may find minor differences in the size and shape from brand to brand, but it’s usually just cosmetic. It’s what’s inside that counts!”

Kerns adds, “This assumes, of course, that the mouthpiece is for the correct instrument — there are different sizes of clarinet instruments, like alto clarinet, bass clarinet and so on, and each of these will have a different specific size mouthpiece.”

4C Alto Clarinet Mouthpiece 1684 X 1920
Yamaha 4C alto clarinet mouthpiece.

4C Bass Clarinet 1684 X 1920
Yamaha 4C bass clarinet mouthpiece.

OPEN VERSUS CLOSED

Another major factor is whether the tip — that is, where the reed meets the end of the mouthpiece — is classified as being open or closed. “The size of the opening at the tip affects the ease and quality of tone production,” says Kerns. “The narrower the tip is, the harder the reed has to be.”

It’s for this reason that beginners should choose a mouthpiece with a medium-sized tip opening, which, according to Kerns, will work well with a medium-hard reed. And experimenting with reed firmness is important each time a player gets a new mouthpiece. Yamaha clarinet mouthpieces range from 3C to 6C, with the 3C having the smallest (that is, most closed) tip opening and the 6C having the largest or widest opening.

3C Clarinet Mouthpiece 1440 X 1790
Yamaha 3C.

6C Clarinet Mouthpiece 1440 X 1790
Yamaha 6C.

“A more open tip can use a softer reed and produce a more powerful sound,” Kerns explains, “while a more closed tip may need a stiffer reed and will produce a more controlled sound.”

BEGINNERS VS. ADVANCED

For beginning clarinet players, it’s generally best to get a middle-of-the-road mouthpiece. For example, the Yamaha 4C is designed specifically to make it easier for a beginner to get started and sound good right away. “More advanced mouthpieces may need more physical strength in the embouchure — that is, the muscles around the mouth,” says Kerns.

A clarinet mouthpiece.
Yamaha Standard Series 4C.

As a reference, the 4C has a medium-small tip opening and works well with reeds in the 2 – 3 strength range, while the 5C has a moderately open tip that allows a player with a stronger embouchure to produce a bigger and fuller sound. These can be paired with stiffer reeds. The Custom Series 4CM has a tight tip opening that pairs well with stiff reeds to provide maximum control.

Closeup of clarinet mouthpiece.
Yamaha Custom Series 4CM.

CORK

A final note for discerning customers, says Kerns, is to take notice of the cork at the bottom of the mouthpiece. “It can and likely will wear out over time just from regular use,” he explains. “However, a good repair shop can replace the cork so that the mouthpiece can continue to be used.” So, whether determining the right mouthpiece or the right cork replacement for the right mouthpiece, choose wisely!

 

Check out the Yamaha “Choosing the Best Clarinet Mouthpiece” website.

Tropical beach scene.

10 Best Summer Vacation Movies to Watch at Home

Written by Tara Mahadevan on . Posted in TV & Movies.

With the heat just around the corner, it’s time to reach for those lighter summer films to enjoy with family and friends. Here’s a list of the 10 movies you should check out for those relaxing summer nights.

1. National Lampoon’s Vacation

Road trips are a summer theme — and in 1983’s National Lampoon’s Vacation, the Griswold family makes their way from Illinois to the California amusement park Walley World. However, mishaps follow Clark (Chevy Chase), Ellen (Beverly D’Angelo) and their two children along the way, especially after Clark meets a stunning woman in a sports car. Things begin to unravel when the Griswolds’ car experiences issues and someone in the family passes away. Find out where to stream it here.

2. Summer Rental

This laugh-a-minute flick follows Jack Chester (John Candy), a burnt-out air traffic controller who takes his family on a month-long beach vacation that turns out to be anything but relaxing. For starters, they discover that their “luxurious beach home” is actually a run-down lodging — and things rapidly go downhill from there. Find out where to stream it here.

3. Captain Ron

In this 1982 comedy, Martin Harvey (Martin Short) and his wife, daughter and son travel to a Caribbean island after Harvey learns that he inherited a yacht — though the vessel is in by no means shipshape condition. With plans to take the vessel back to Miami, they have to hire someone to sail the boat, which is where Captain Ron (Kurt Russell) comes in … and his playful ways prove to be endless trouble for the Harveys. Find out where to stream it here.

4. A Goofy Movie

If you’re looking for heart-warming nostalgia during your summer vacation, then A Goofy Movie will fill the bill. This 1995 Disney animated film stars the beloved pup Goofy, who plans on taking his son Max on a trip after some trouble at school. Though Max is endlessly embarrassed by his father and doesn’t want to go on the cross-country fishing trip, he eventually caves and the two embark on a trek that brings them closer together. Find out where to stream it here.

5. Dirty Dancing

“Nobody puts Baby in a corner.” That’s the Patrick Swayze line that most people associate with this 1987 romantic drama, but there’s a lot more to this sweet movie as we watch Swayze’s character, Johnny, fall in love with Frances ‘Baby’ Houseman’ (Jennifer Grey) one summer at a Catskill resort. They meet when Johnny — the resort’s dance instructor — recruits Baby as his new dance partner, and he teaches her how to be a professional hoofer. Find out where to stream it here.

5. RV

In an effort to keep his family together, the seriously dysfunctional Bob Munro (Robin Williams) takes his wife and two kids on a road trip to the Colorado Rockies in a motor home, in hopes that they will bond rather than grow apart. However, the cross-country jaunt takes unexpected twists and turns, with the entire family cramped in the same small space for two weeks. Find out where to stream it here.

7. Blue Crush

Surfing is the life for Anne Marie (Kate Bosworth) in this 2002 film, and the same goes for her two friends and younger sister — with whom Anne Marie shares a beach shack. Each day, the girls wake up early so they can catch some morning waves to train for a surf competition … that is, until Anne Marie gets distracted when she falls for a new guy in town, a pro football player on vacation. He soon wins her heart, and she has to find a balance between surfing and love. Find out where to stream it here.

8. Dazed and Confused

Set in 1976, this coming-of-age comedy film is rife with high school stereotypes — the geeks, the stoners and the jocks. But what all those groups have in common is that it’s the last day of school and summer vacation has arrived. That means incessant shenanigans, including house parties and summer flings, with star athlete Randall ‘Pink’ Floyd (Jason London) just trying to figure it out. Find out where to stream it here.

9. Mamma Mia!

This star-studded 2008 musical, based on the music of ABBA, features Amanda Seyfried, Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth, to name just a few. It follows Sophie (Seyfried) and Donna Sheridan (Streep), as they plan the perfect wedding for Sophie on a Greek island. It’s a dream of Sophie’s to be married off by her father at her wedding, but Donna was a single mother who never told Sophie who her biological father was. Hilarity ensues when she invites a few of her mother’s exes to see if anyone fits the bill. Find out where to stream it here.

10. Girls Trip

This 2017 release just may be the ultimate BFF film. It stars Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith and Tiffany Haddish as four best friends who have started to grow apart. Then everyone is invited to New Orleans for a girl’s trip — and as they eat, drink, and dance through the city, they remember why they bonded in the first place. Find out where to stream it here.

 

Want to hear these films at their best? Try listening to them with a sound bar like the easy-to-use Yamaha YAS-109, which has built-in-subwoofers for deep bass, Clear Voice technology for enhanced dialogue clarity and DTS Virtual:X 3D surround sound.

Closeup of someone tuning a 5-string guitar.

5 Tips for Playing 5-String Bass

Written by Michael Gelfand on . Posted in Bass.

A talented bassist can work magic on just a single string, but even if you haven’t actually tried it, you can probably visualize some of the challenges it would present. For one thing, you’d have to adapt your technique to play it well. How would it be different from playing a conventional 4-string bass?

What I want to focus on here is not how to get the most out of one string, but how adding an extra string is conducive to new approaches and invites you to rethink how you play your bass. So, without further ado, here are 5 tips for playing 5-string bass effectively.

1. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE EXTENDED LOW RANGE

I was initially attracted to the 5-string bass by the low B string and how it allowed me to plumb the lower depths of bassdom with notes that weren’t available to me on my 4-string in standard tuning. Sure, a sub-octave effect via a stompbox or a multi-effect processor like the Line 6 HX Stomp XL can synthetically create notes below low E, and a drop-D tuning can enable you to manually detune your E string to an open D — albeit a rather floppy D. But with a 5-string bass, you don’t need an effect or mechanical device to play that low, and your bottom string won’t be sagging either. When I strap on my Yamaha BB735A, I don’t have to worry about plugging into an effect pedal or any add-ons to go low … I just play.

Electric bass guitar.
Yamaha BB735A.

And having all that extra bottom range is only half of the equation: What you do with it is what really matters. When applied tastefully, that newfound low end can be a game-changer in a song. Playing a groove — or even a whole note — a full octave below where I might play it on a 4-string provides a powerful boost to the energy of a chorus or bridge, as demonstrated in the video below. It also creates additional separation for the bass, helping every other instrument find its appropriate slot in the mix.

2. EXPLORE MORE EFFICIENT HAND POSITIONING

Many 5-string players who start out on a 4-string bass are initially thrown off by what seems at the time to be an extra string. But as they acclimate to the new configuration and get comfortable using that low B, they start to consolidate their hand movements on the neck rather than going on long, awkward runs. It’s an economical approach that saves you energy, and also allows you to play the same pattern faster and in more locations on the fretboard, meaning you can opt between wholly different tonal shapes, depending on whether you’re playing in the middle of the fretboard or down toward the nut.

Here’s a video that demonstrates how a 5-string bass makes it easier to play fast runs:

3. MASTER PALM-MUTING AND USING THE B-STRING AS AN ANCHOR

When you use the low B-string with discipline and intent, it has lots to offer … but be forewarned: If your playing gets sloppy, the B-string can become a source of aggravation for you, your bandmates and the sound man or recording engineer. That’s because it’s thick and floppy, so if the meaty part of your thumb accidentally rubs up against it, it can cause a huge distraction via string and fret noise.

The good news is that you can prevent this from happening with either a palm-mute of the B-string while you’re playing other strings, or by using the B-string as a thumb rest (like the one mounted near the neck or middle position pickups on many basses). Either way, be careful not to mute the B-string so fiercely that it gets mashed down against the pickups, which will create an annoying thump that will please neither your bandmates nor your audience.

Here’s a video demonstrating palm muting:

… and here’s one showing you how to use the B-string as a thumb rest (sometimes called thumb anchoring):

4. EXPERIMENT WITH ALTERED TUNINGS

Altered tuning is more synonymous with guitar than bass, but the same rationale applies when it comes to 5-string. By tuning some of your strings outside the typical B-E-A-D-G scheme, you may find it easier to play certain types of chords or patterns (see below), or to find voicings that would be difficult if not impossible to reach in standard tuning. It can also spark some ideas that you might not otherwise have conceived or been able to play.

As an example, check out this video, where I have my BB735A tuned to B-E-G#-B-E:

Some bassists in metal or deathcore bands use altered tunings to create more sludgy menace to their sound, even though the frequencies below low B are difficult for amps and cabinets to reproduce coherently. That said, it’s absolutely worth experimenting with ideas to find new inspiration. That might mean dropping tuning across the board by a half-step, or tuning the B-string up to C. There are no rules, so do what makes you happy (until you start snapping strings, that is).

5. PLAY DOUBLE-STOPS AND CHORDS

Why should guitarists and keyboard have all the fun? I love playing double-stops or triads with pull-offs on 4-string bass, but a 5-string bass lets you play barre chords like a guitarist (keep this in mind when you mess around with altered tunings). It also allows you to be even more creative by using the low-B string to drop the root down a full octave to help put a rock-solid foundation beneath the intervals that you’re playing. It might take some getting used to, but chords can really add an extra dimension to your bass playing, as shown in the video below.

 

Check out this posting for more information about the benefits of playing a 5-string bass.

A Beginner’s Guide to Learning Keyboards with flowkey

Written by Jon Hadusek on . Posted in Keyboard How-to. 3 Comments on A Beginner’s Guide to Learning Keyboards with flowkey

Learning to play piano — or any keyboard instrument, for that matter — may seem like a daunting task at first, but thankfully, the amenities of the modern age can make it much easier than you might think, and at the same time deliver an experience that’s both intuitive and personal.

Yes, there’s an app for that! In fact, there are a wide range of learning apps out there that can take a beginning keyboardist to an intermediate or even advanced level in the comfort of their home. Many of these can complement — or, in some cases, even replace — classroom instruction or a private teacher. These apps are designed to guide newbies through the basics at the player’s own pace, and can also serve as the ultimate practice tool.

In this article, we’ll look at one such app, called flowkey, and show you how it can get you on the road to making music right away.

Getting Started

Before beginning, place your phone, tablet, or laptop near your keyboard or piano so that you can view it easily; this will also allow the app to follow along as you play.

Man playing a small piano with a tablet in front of him displaying an app.

flowkey provides an interactive learning experience by listening to your instrument. Using the built-in microphone on your device (no cables needed), the app can, with great accuracy, detect whether you play the correct notes and chords, then give you feedback. If you are using a digital instrument, you have the option of connecting to flowkey via MIDI or Bluetooth® to enhance the accuracy even more.

After launching flowkey, the “Introduction to the Piano” course is where beginners will want to start:

Screenshot.

Here, you can learn the core basics of posture, hand position and reading sheet music, accompanied with numerous practice exercises. To ease you in, flowkey starts you off playing with just one hand, then the other, before eventually leading to the next beginner-level course: “Playing With Both Hands.” A circle showing your percentage of progress will fill up as you run through the various lessons and tutorial videos.

Screenshot.

Digging In

You can jump around to various courses of different skill levels at any time, so once you’ve mastered the concepts presented in the beginner level courses, you can move onto other lessons and exercises. True to its name, the app presents a gradual flow of concepts so as to not overwhelm those new to keyboards. For example, the “Intermediate Piano Playing” course starts with fingering techniques that allow you to physically reach various notes — integral to performing more complex pieces. From there, you’re given a crash course in sharps and flats, as well as changes of key and time signature. More advanced courses include additional sheet music and scale practice exercises, as well as lessons specific to mastering and improvising chords.

Screenshot.

There’s a lot of content to unpack in flowkey’s “Courses” tab, so it’s important for newer players to approach the tutorials at a measured and gradual pace. Spend time with each lesson until you have grasped the insight at hand and feel comfortable enough to move on. The flowkey course curriculum was designed to support step-by-step progress, so you’ll get the most out of the app if you soak up each lesson sequentially. For example, you’re not going to understand much about time signatures if you can’t read sheet music. As with any autonomous endeavor, you get out what you put in.

Learn to Play Your Favorite Songs

One of the most impressive things about flowkey is its intuitive play-along feature, which allows you to easily learn some of your favorite songs. The app offers a large library of musical pieces, from classical to jazz to film and TV favorites to contemporary pop.

Screenshot.

What’s more, there are multiple tiers of skill for each song and lesson, as denoted by a colored ring: green (Beginner), yellow (Intermediate), red (Advanced) and, in some cases, purple (Pro):

Screenshot.

Say you want to try your hand(s) at Beethoven’s eternal piece “Für Elise.” Simply pick which level of skill you’d prefer by selecting the corresponding color; the app will then launch the interactive song player, where you can play it to your heart’s content. You’ll find that practice does indeed make perfect!

Screenshot.

When you launch a song, flowkey presents a top-down view of the keyboard and a scrolling section of sheet music where you can select various passages to loop if you don’t want to play the song front to back right away. This allows you to master specific portions of songs, such as a difficult solo or chord. From there, you can choose whether to practice right hand notes, left hand notes, or play with both hands. You can also switch to a “Slow Motion” learning mode, which slows down the song’s tempo for easier playing accuracy. A convenient “Wait” mode will pause the song until you’ve hit the correct note, allowing even newbies to keep up, regardless of tempo.

Whether you’re just embarking on your keyboard journey or looking to hone your skills with daily song exercises, flowkey provides hours of learning experiences with lessons, insights and intuitive play-along features. The app’s universal accessibility and large song library make it a worthy option for those looking to learn keyboards or piano from the comfort of their own home … and for a fraction of the price of physical lessons. Settle in at your keyboard, fire up flowkey, and you’ll be dancing your fingers across those ivories in no time!

Check out the video:

 

Photograph © Ben Fuchs, courtesy of flowkey

 

Click here to read the flowkey Complete Beginner’s Guide.

 

From now through March 31, 2025, customers purchasing a qualifying Yamaha digital piano or keyboard get three months of flowkey Premium access. Click here for more information.

elementary school students raising hands and wearing masks

COVID Protocols I Plan to Keep in my Music Class

Written by Tyler Swick on . Posted in Teaching Tips.

Knock on wood — COVID protocols are being rolled back even more as we prepare for the 2023-2024 school year. Although masks are becoming optional, there are some COVID safety rules that I plan to maintain in my music classroom at Robert and Sandy Ellis Elementary School because they create a stronger learning environment where students are conscious of their germs and surroundings.

Hand Washing and Sanitizer

sink sanitizerStudents have been taught to wash their hands after using the bathroom their entire lives, but hand-washing has felt like a new concept recently. The task of taking an entire class of students to wash their hands before music class is too clunky to do every hour. Instead, I have elected to allow students to self-regulate when they need to wash their hands or quickly use hand sanitizer.

Depending on the age of your students, you might prompt with different questions, but I ask my class before they walk in the room if they’ve touched anything so far today that they wouldn’t want to put in their mouths? The question is designed to get a sweeping response that encourages students to wash their hands. I ask the question to open the door for students to choose if they should wash their hands rather than mandating that everyone do so. Giant tubs of hand sanitizer are stationed near tissues, boomwhackers and the door to give students ample opportunity to use it when desired.

Band, orchestra and choir may not have such a high demand for clean hands, but the elementary music classroom sees enough students putting mallets, boomwhackers and shakers in their mouth to encourage the continued practice of cleanliness.

girl ukulele pexelsLess Sharing, More Concentrated Time

Before March 2020, my classroom was a space where students could sample dozens of instruments before promoting up to band, orchestra and choir in 6th grade. When we returned from quarantine, sharing was banned in all classrooms, even if it meant changing your entire curriculum. Most general music classrooms depend on sharing because class sizes are larger than the number of available instruments in a given family.

For example, my 15 ukuleles were each shared by three students who rotated with each ding of the timer. Now that rotating was off the table, I had to commit 15 students to a ukulele at the beginning of class and find other instruments for the remaining students to play. Instead of teaching only ukuleles for an entire lesson, I had to expand my limits to teach ukuleles to 15 students, xylophones to 15 students and hand drums to 10 more at the same time. There were definitely growing pains, but the upside was that students received longer practice times on their instruments and reached proficiency quicker than they did before. This model also allowed me to repeat a lesson with students on different instruments the next week.

Music Lessons Available Online

online lessonWhen my district, Clark County School District, was implementing distance education, music teachers were required to post a new lesson every rotation for students to follow either in class or independently. Though it was quite the chore, creating scores of video lessons and the benefits of keeping them on standby have been wonderful.

My school requires emergency sub plans to be submitted in a red folder so that a substitute has a fighting chance if you’re absent unexpectedly. Having video lessons has allowed me to simply email a link to the substitute with the lovely direction, “Press play.” Students still receive instruction from their qualified music teacher, and the substitute only has to monitor a few students because most of the class will be engaged by your video presence.

Similarly, if you are not assigned a substitute, you can send your video lesson links to the classroom teacher to experience in their classroom or the music room.

Distanced Sit Spots

sit spots

Many music classrooms are blessed with chairs, but I find them to be a space waster especially when you consider how many instruments could take their place. Pre-COVID, I subscribed to a very loose sitting arrangement on the floor that allowed students to choose their own space. Although it created some problems, the success that I enjoyed was reading students’ engagement based on where they sat. Students who chose the far back corner were telegraphing that they didn’t plan to enjoy or participate in class. I could then gauge the efficacy of my lessons based on how my back-row friends were doing. Sometimes they played with their shoes but other times they scooted a little closer and gave it their best effort.

Despite every teacher in the building telling me I’d be happier with arranged seating, I kept my model. Post-COVID, everyone was required to turn in seating charts for their classes, complete with diagrams for contact tracing purposes. Copying the PE teacher, I purchased Velcro sit spots and spaced them out to the district’s liking.

I’m still using the sit spots eight months later. In fact, I’m content to keep this layout for the remainder of my career! The spacing has drastically reduced behaviors that were tied to close proximity. Students are still close enough to communicate but just out of arm’s reach. I now have the option to call small groups by sit-spot color, and I have made red dots an undesired location for repeated behaviors. “Friend, please move to a red dot until you can make better choices,” is a new deterrent.

Computer Lab Time

One of the futuristic solutions during quarantine was to take music classes to websites like Soundtrap, BandLab, Chrome Music Lab and many others that teach music production. Combined, these websites allow students to create melodies, accompaniments, beats and podcasts all from the school’s computer lab or personal Chromebook. Sound production in music education deserves its own article, but here I’ll simply say, “We need it.”

Distance education created an online resource boom that has given the world the highest quality resources we have ever had in the history of music education. I was fortunate enough to attend an elementary school that had a MIDI keyboard lab meant for student music production, but decades later, that school is still one of the only schools to have a keyboard lab in the entire state. Websites like Soundtrap and BandLab allow any school on the planet to forego purchasing hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of physical equipment because their software is compatible with mouse clicks and keyboard strokes. Playing a C major chord is as simple as pressing QET on your QWERTY keyboard.

Exit Procedures

buckets shakers scarves sticks

For the last 12 months, the goal at the end of every music period was to prevent cross contamination from one class to the next. Students knew to collect mallets and sticks they used and place them in a red bucket that would be sprayed down at lunch time. Other items like ukuleles, shakers and drums were wiped down in the final three minutes of class.

These tasks, though tedious, created student ownership that I had not previously witnessed. Before the pandemic, many of the rules in my music classroom were meant to protect the equipment from the students. Now, and for the first time in my career, students were tasked with maintaining the instruments, and they demonstrated a shared commitment to make each instrument last as long as possible. I plan to roll back wiping down every hour, but I want to maintain an “instrument check” before lining up so that students have an opportunity to care for the instruments. “Check the wheel locks, the screws, the strings, the bars, the mallets and put it back where you found it. Sanitizer is by the door on your way out!”

What About You?

Every state has handled the return to the classroom differently. What procedures do you plan to keep? Is there something you unconsciously kept and just realized it? Share your thoughts with me on Instagram @Swicksclassroom or email educators@yamaha.com.

NAMM 2022 Preview: Drums, Percussion and Marching Instruments

Written by Yamaha Corporation of America on . Posted in Drums.

NAMM is back! Here’s a look at some of the many drum, percussion and marching instrument products that Yamaha will be showing at the annual event, which will be held in Anaheim this year from June 3 through June 5.

DTX10 Electronic Drums

The DTX10 Series is the flagship of the Yamaha DTX lineup, combining the functionality of electronic drums with the aesthetic of their acoustic counterparts. Two kits are available: the DTX10K-X, which comes outfitted with TCS (Textured Cellular Silicone) pads, and the DTX10K-M, outfitted with REMO® two-ply mesh heads. Both feature newly designed shells that offer the presence and beauty of authentic acoustic drums, constructed from high-quality birch ply and available in Black Forest or Real Wood finishes. In addition, both utilize a hex rack mounting constructed from a strong, lightweight aluminum alloy, providing tremendous flexibility for positioning while keeping toms and cymbals locked in place throughout a performance or recording session.

Full drum kit.
DTX10K-X in Real Wood finish.

All DTX10 Series kits are powered by the new DTX-PROX module, which provides 14 trigger inputs, 256-note polyphony and the ability to layer up to four sounds per pad. It offers a full gigabyte of WAV ROM, with more than 700 voices and 70 preset kits, plus you can build up to 200 of your own custom user kits. Features include a unique Kit Modifier that allows you to instantly create your desired sound by simply turning Ambience, Compression and Effects knobs, along with a Fader Select knob and seven LED rotary faders for even more extensive editing capability. Plus, with the use of the free Yamaha Rec’n’Share app, you can take videos of your performance and share them without leaving the drum throne.

DTX8 Electronic Drums

DTX8 Series electronic drums provide the same aesthetics as the DTX10 Series, but at a more affordable price point. Two kit options are available: the DTX8K-X, which comes with TCS (Textured Cellular Silicone) pads, and the DTX8K-M, with REMO® two-ply mesh heads.

Full drum kit.
DTX8K-M in Black Forest finish.

The heart of the DTX8 is the DTX-PRO drum module, which comes loaded with hundreds of professionally-sampled sounds and effects, as well as 512 megabytes of WAV ROM. It provides 256-note polyphony and the ability to layer up to four sounds per pad, as well as 14 trigger inputs, a three-knob Kit Modifier for instant sonic tweaking, and a series of built-in training tools designed to allow players of every level to develop their drumming skills.

DTX6 Electronic Drums

DTX6 Series electronic drum kits provide an easy and fun way to practice and learn to play drums. There are three models to choose from — the DTX6K-X, DTX6K2-X and DTX6K3-X (shown below) — all equipped with a DTX-PRO module, as well as kick drum, snare drum, tom and cymbal pads.

Hybrid drum kit seen from above.
DTX6K3-X.

EAD10

At NAMM, Yamaha will be demonstrating the EAD10 Electronic Acoustic Drum Module with mesh head drums and low volume cymbals, mounted on HW-3 lightweight hardware.

Small electronic units.
EAD10 module and sensor unit.

The EAD10 instantly transforms any acoustic drum set into a hybrid kit. Simply mount its sensor unit (which contains a pair of high-quality condenser microphones and a kick drum trigger) on the bass drum hoop. The microphones capture the entire kit, and the kick trigger can play any of the hundreds of drum or percussion sounds built into the EAD10 module. In addition, multi-zone snare and tom trigger inputs on the module can accept the output from a clip-on drum trigger such as the Yamaha DT50S, or from Yamaha XP Series and TP Series drum pads, making it possible to layer electronic sounds with the acoustic sound of the drums, or to expand your acoustic kit with electronic percussion, cymbals or effects.

PHX Series Drums

Also on display at NAMM will be top-of-the-line PHX Series drum sets — the ultimate musical instrument for drummers, handcrafted by our expert technicians.

Full drum kit.
PHX double bass drum set in Classic Maple finish.

PHX (short for “Phoenix”) drums are highly customizable and available in a wide variety of sizes. They all have hybrid shells made of Brazilian jatoba, North American maple and kapur for maximized attack and sustain while providing plenty of projection and warmth, along with a unique shell mounting and a specially designed hook lug system for a rich fundamental tone. And they look as beautiful as they sound, with your choice of Classic Maple or exotic Burled Ash finishes — even the hook lugs and aluminum die-cast hoops are available in either gold or chrome.

MS-9414 Series Marching Drums

Yamaha will also be showing the new and updated MS-9414 marching snare drum and MS-9414S piccolo marching snare drum.

Tall drum.
MS-9414 marching snare drum.
Short individual drum.
MS-9414S piccolo marching snare drum.

Continuing the legacy of the famed line of SFZ marching snare drums, the redesigned MS-9414 Series was built to satisfy director and player requirements through extensive field testing and evaluations with top DCI and WGI performing groups and artists. The augmented maple shell ensures a warm tone with excellent presence and projection, and additional air holes help produce precise snare articulation without reducing volume. A unique top hoop shape enhances the rimshot sound and reduces drumstick damage, and a new strainer design and knob shape allows quick fine-tuning and consistent snare tension while adjusting. In addition, redesigned hardware reduces weight without compromising tone or durability.

CFM-1414 Concert Field Snare Drum

Also on display will be the new CFM-1414 14-inch deep-body field drum, specially designed for concert performance.

Single tall drum.
CFM-1414 concert field snare drum.

The CFM-1414 utilizes the same type of eight-ply maple shell as the famed CSM Series, popular for its rich resonance and warm tone. Its deep body ensures ample volume and a fat sound, with vent holes and a snare bed that have been modified to enhance “snap” and response.

YPS200 and YMS100 Percussion / Percussion Mallet Stands

Another highlight will be the debut of the YPS200 percussion stand and YMS100 percussion mallet stand.

Xylophone on a stand.
YPS200 percussion stand.
Metal stand with tripod style feet holding a tray of drum mallets.
YMS100 percussion mallet stand.

These versatile and handy accessories have a variety of applications. The YPS200 rolling trap table can be used to hold tuning keys, spare sticks/mallets or small percussion instruments such as triangles, castanets or tambourines — even glockenspiels! The YMS100 is a noiseless mallet stand with a wide height-adjustment range, making it easily accessible to players of all heights.

 

Remember, if you can’t make the show in person, you can always catch the highlights here!

Modern fighter jets zipping across the sky.

The Best Flight Simulator Games with Surround Sound

Written by Jake Uitti on . Posted in Gaming.

You may not ever have the chance to actually sit in the cockpit of a high-performance airplane, but you can approximate the exhilaration by playing flight simulator games — an experience that gets even more realistic and compelling when you connect your gaming console to a surround sound system with a high-quality AV receiver and speakers or sound bar.

Here are some of the best flight simulator games to enjoy in surround sound.

1. GRAND THEFT AUTO 5 (PlayStation®, Xbox™, Windows)

One of the most popular game series in modern history, GTA offers players the chance to drive lots of different cars in lots of different situations … and, in this fifth installment, fly commercial airline planes too. It’s your choice, however, as to whether you want to fly them safely or into mountains; whether you want to land them gently on airport tarmacs or crash land on city streets. With a surround sound system and a good subwoofer, you’ll actually feel what it’s like to graze a bridge before having to eject and land in the harbor below. (Keep your ears out for sirens going off in the distance in all directions — or the next plane following closely behind!) Preview it here.

2. WAR THUNDER (PlayStation, Xbox, Windows)

This realistic war game relies largely on flying, giving you a sense of what it’s like to go into battle as a nation in global warfare. Meaning: bold explosions, deathly vehicle crashes and fiery jet engines whizzing past your ears! You can opt to represent the United States, Germany or the U.S.S.R. as you maneuver your choice of bomber jets or propeller planes … but you need to remain alert at all times, as shooting accuracy and vehicle maneuverability are paramount. In other words, don’t let yourself get surprised by an enemy hot on your tail because the audio is too low! Preview it here.

3. ACE COMBAT 7: SKIES UNKNOWN (PlayStation, Xbox, Windows, VR headsets)

Sound is as important as your flying ability when it comes to this game; in fact, within moments of launching Ace Combat 7, you’ll wonder if you’ve been teleported to an alternate reality. From the left, directions are barked at you regarding your next mission; from the right, radars are beeping frantically. Missiles fly overhead as black clouds of crashing explosions appear from every direction — you can almost hear the heat coming from the engine of your virtual airplane. Preview it here.

4. X-PLANE 11 (Windows, Mac®)

Less a game and more a training program, this title is as realistic as it gets. It features crystal-clear graphics, incredibly detailed cockpit layouts and vivid scenery that accurately depicts the real world. Click each switch to get the engine revving while on the tarmac, or make the necessary adjustments as you cruise at altitude. You also learn the ins and outs of real-life bustling airports; for example, you can fly a commercial airliner out of a virtual LAX and deal with the airport’s “traffic.” With a surround sound system, you can immerse yourself in everything from the roar of wind by your window to the delicate cockpit click-clacks. There are a ton of settings, too, including the option to fly bigger, louder military planes. Preview it here.

5. EAGLE FLIGHT (PlayStation, Windows, VR headsets)

A first-person simulation game set 50 years after human extinction in a post-apocalyptic Paris, France, this inventive title allows you to feel what it’s like to be an eagle (not a plane!), flying through the sky, over buildings, adjusting to the shifting winds and dodging errant leaves. You have to defeat rival squawking animals in order to find the perfect place for your nest and keep your species alive … but to do so, you must stay vigilant and listen for every rustle of a feather in the breeze. Eagle Flight sounds great in standard stereo, but if you plug in a virtual reality headset like the Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest or PlayStation VR, you can experience every moment in stunning surround sound. Preview it here.

6. MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR (Xbox, Windows)

This globe-trotting title allows players to test their piloting skills against challenges of night flying, real-time atmospheric changes and thunderous weather conditions. Enjoy flying anywhere in the world as you maneuver different types of planes and flight models while soaring over vivid landscapes, and do your best to navigate every tree, skyscraper and mountain in your path. The detailed visuals and powerful surround sound elements give you a level of accuracy and realism that makes you want to pack your bags and take a trip. Preview it here.

5 Music Apps and Software that You Should Check Out

Written by Cody Arsenault on . Posted in Teaching Tips.

Musicians know that having the right tools can make all the difference when learning a new concept or practicing your instrument. Whether you’re just starting out or you’re a seasoned pro, there’s no denying that great music software can help take your skills to the next level.

For beginners, there are dozens of apps and websites that can help you learn the basics of music theory and composition. You can find instructions on everything from how to tune your instrument to how to create complex chord progressions. And if you get stuck, there are often video lessons or forums where you can get help from more experienced musicians.

For musicians who are already proficient, technology can still be of great assistance. Software programs can help with things like recording and mixing your music, writing notation for compositions, ear training and so much more.

Not to mention the software programs and music apps that help music educators teach their students with a greater level of engagement and success.

In this blog post, we’ll introduce you to five great music apps and software programs you may not have heard of but should definitely look into. So, if you’re looking for a new way to create music or just want to make sure you’re using the best tools available, read on!

EarMaster1. EarMaster

EarMaster is an app for improving your ear training and sight-singing skills. Ear training is oftentimes a small part of a singing lesson curriculum. However, EarMaster helps train your ear and hone your pitch at a much higher level, no matter which instrument you play.

The app features a variety of exercises that gradually increase in difficulty, ensuring that you can always find a challenge to keep you engaged.

In addition, the rhythm training and sight-singing features will help take your musical skills to a new level.

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2. BandLab

BandLab

BandLab is an online music studio that brings together musicians from around the world. It provides everything you need to record, mix and share your music.

With a simple and intuitive interface, this cloud-based platform puts powerful tools and effects right at your fingertips. And because it is completely accessible in the cloud, you can work together with up to 50 collaborators per project, regardless of where they are located.

BandLab also has “BandLab for Education” to help music educators enhance the learning experience for students. It offers teacher features such as assignment creation capabilities, a grades system and real-time collaboration.

Whether you are working on a new demo, adding a final polish to your latest masterpiece or teaching a classroom of students, BandLab makes it easy to create and share your music with the world.

3. Solfeg

solfeg

Most music educators have had students push back on musical genres that are typically taught in the classroom. Solfeg aims to bring trendy pop music education to the classroom with its intuitive platform.

With Solfeg, educators can do everything from creating music theory and history quizzes to assessing student recordings and seeing overall activity indicators.

All of Solfeg’s 150+ songs are simplified for school usage, include genres like pop, jazz and rock, and can be filtered by levels, chords and rhythm.

The interactive play-along feature makes it easy for students to visualize the percussion section chords, and a piano/vocal melody for each song on the Solfeg platform.

Currently, Solfeg offers content for the ukulele, piano, guitar and singing, however, if that’s something you think your students might be interested in, give Solfeg a try.

Noteflight4. Noteflight Learn

Noteflight Learn provides music educators with a tool that students can use to compose music and get automatic performance assessments.

Thanks to its easy-to-use interface and sharing capabilities, students can access the website from anywhere with an internet connection and get feedback on their pieces.

Noteflight Learn also integrates with Google Classroom and other learning management systems so that you can easily keep track of assignments and performances.

5. SmartMusic

SmartMusic

SmartMusic is a web-based suite of music education tools that allows users to create, practice and perform music with professional accompaniments. It also provides access to sheet music, lessons and resources for music teachers and students.

SmartMusic holds the largest library in the industry with just under 15,000 printable titles so you won’t run out of sheet music any time soon.

It also offers an array of tools for practicing pitch, sight-reading, composing and more.

Training Plan for Your First Year of Teaching

Written by Dr. Cassandra Bechard on . Posted in Teaching Tips.

Congratulations on your new job! Whether you are entering your first year of teaching or first year in a new position, it is an exciting time in your life. Just as athletes train and prepare for big events, teachers also need to prepare for our big event known as the first year.

You have sat through courses, observed teachers and taught lessons of your own. You are ready to put theory into practice, but where do you start?

This article is set up chronologically, beginning with the summer before your first day on the job and ending with the last day of school. I believe in five-year benchmarks throughout a person’s career similar to how several school districts and universities acknowledge their employees. With that in mind, I approach the first year of teaching as training for the next four years. Click on the links below to see how I set up my first year:

Summer: strength training
The first week: 5k
First semester: half marathon
Second semester: full marathon

If you have ever trained for an athletic event, you know the importance of built-in rest days in the schedule. I emphasize rest throughout this first-year training plan because it is imperative to your overall well-being. Take your rest days as seriously as your workdays.

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Year 1 Training Plan

 Timeframe Central Focus Objective
Summer: Strength Training organization Create sustainable organizational systems
First Week of School: 5K building rapport Gain students’ trust
First Semester: Half Marathon music-making Create sustainable daily routines that maximize your time
Winter Break: Rest self-care Reflect and recharge
Second Semester: Full Marathon music-making minimize organizational disruptions to focus on music-making
First Week of Summer Break: Rest reflect How can you effectively change one or two items to make your next year run smoother?

 

 

 

Summer: Strength Training

When training for a large event like a marathon, there are many checkpoints along the way. Many athletes will focus on strength training for several weeks prior to beginning their official marathon training as preventive maintenance. This period strengthens their muscles and reduces the risk of injury further down the line.

Similarly, after accepting a job offer, use the lead time to the start of the school year as preventive maintenance. During this period, you can get a handle on the organizational structure that is currently in place. The ability to physically spend time in your new facilities is important. Take the necessary time to familiarize yourself with inventory items, such as instruments, music, folders, lockers/locks and uniforms.

When you begin to look through your inventory ask yourself these questions:

    1. How are these currently organized?
    2. Where are they stored?
    3. What is the school policy for instrument rental?
    4. Locate all school forms for inventory items.
    5. Are there currently parent or student volunteers who help with uniforms?

Once you have answered those questions, proceed with making the current system work for you. If you find that an organizational overhaul is needed, I strongly encourage you to envision or create the new structure in a manner that is teachable. Delegate the larger tasks to student leaders or parent volunteers in order to spend your time and efforts on students and music-making.

calendar pexelsThe calendar for the upcoming school year has likely already been set. Make sure to map out your year, start by adding the following events to your work calendar:

    • Concert Band concerts/events
    • Jazz Band concerts/events
    • Pep Band events
    • Marching Band events
    • Travel (is it one trip per year?)
    • Annual fundraisers
    • Annual recruitment tours
    • Parent Organization meetings

Highlight all events that require travel, such as festivals, and check with the school administrative assistant about the procedure for bus requests. How many weeks prior to the event do you need to submit bus requests? Add those deadlines to your calendar! Once you have the calendar organized, send an email to parents and students introducing yourself and the important dates for the upcoming school year.

looking through music pexelsOnce you have your calendar mapped out, you will have a better idea of when your first public performance will be and with which ensemble(s). You can begin to think about programming music. To keep it simple, try to find programs from the past three years of concerts to give you an idea of what music the ensemble(s) have performed. This gained insight can guide you toward a difficulty level. Rosters of your classes will also help you estimate expected instrumentation. From there begin pulling music from your library that is comparable to the previous year’s concert programs. I also encourage teachers to pull music that is on the easier side for sight reading at the beginning of the year. This helps to build confidence for the ensemble and for you to focus on musicianship versus notes and rhythms from day one.

While most of this prep work can be done in solitary, keep in mind that athletes rarely train alone, they have coaches and peers who they can go to for advice. Similarly, seek advice and mentorship early. One of the first connections that I encourage you to make is with the administrative assistants and custodial staff. These people are the lifelines at every school. They know who you need to contact for any given scenario, where you can find information and how to approach specific people. Keep in mind that these people are also extremely busy, so go to them with a well-formulated question or set up a meeting with them and bring several questions. They will appreciate that you are respectful of their time and have gathered your questions together.

Also, take time to meet the counselors at your school. Ask them questions about how the registration process of classes works and where music classes fit in the process. What classes are offered concurrently with your courses? Gather all the information that you can before the school year begins.

journaling outdoors pexelsNow that you have spent time getting to know your inventory, calendar and creating your important support system within the school, make sure to reach out to your mentor and colleagues outside of your school. The true secret to success is having a support system that might include friends you graduated college with or past teachers who you now call your friends. Connect regularly with the people who will listen and offer advice when asked.

The final step of this summer period is to reflect and dream. Take time to write down your why. Why do you want to work at this specific school? What goals do you have? Dream big! Write down your five-year goals first. What do you hope to accomplish by year five on the job? Do you want the program to have experienced a certain amount of growth or performed at a specific venue? Write them down as well as benchmarks to hit along the path to success.

Forbes released an article in 2017 titled “11 Powerful Traits of Successful Leaders” and the fifth trait mentioned is “Setting Clear Goals and Persisting in Achieving Them.” Students want to be part of something bigger than themselves. Having big dreams and goals to chase creates a culture of excellence for your program. Do not skip this all-important step of your summer prep.


The First Week: 5K

The first week of the school year is fast and furious. This is when you will appreciate your summer prep work. Each year your first week of school will become more efficient.

Here is what I have learned over the years. The first day of school sets the tone. Have as much as possible ready to hand out on day one. Line up instruments with rental contracts along the walls and put student folders in assigned slots. Inside their folder, students can find their assigned locker number and lock combination if it is school provided.

On day one, this can be a simple process. When you are ready to share the information, simply project on the screen folder slot assignments and have students pick up their labeled instrument in exchange for the signed paperwork. This all takes a good amount of prep work, but the result is a clean handling of inventory. Once you have distributed the inventory, the rest of the week can be spent making music and building community. Spend time with appropriate warm-up/technique books and sheet music. Make music as much as possible and keep the room filled with positive energy, so students know that it is going to be a great year!

 

The First Semester: Half Marathon

Remember the calendar that you created during the summer? Make sure to consistently use it, and you won’t miss important deadlines, such as bus requests! This semester will fly by, so create daily and weekly habits that will enhance your work/life balance.

email phone pexelsSet boundaries with your work email. After a certain time at night, you are no longer on the job and all incoming emails can be read and responded to the next workday. The earlier you set these boundaries the better — parents and students will learn your communication habits. Stay strong when someone becomes upset that you did not immediately respond to an email that they composed at 11:00 p.m. Politely respond during your regular work hours and thank them for their patience.

Create routines for yourself and your program. Have a consistent routine for lesson planning, class structure, daily email correspondence, weekly/biweekly email newsletters for parents, and planned time for yourself. During the first year, it’s not a bad idea to hang a chore chart by your desk and physically check off each daily task. You can find hundreds of templates for these online. A chore chart can help you stay focused each day on the task at hand, maximizing your down time. The more organized and focused you are at work, the easier it is to “leave work at work” and strike a greater work-life balance.

While you figure out your routines and how to balance work with your personal life, make sure to give yourself space to reflect often. How are your ensembles progressing musically? Are you establishing a good rapport with your students? Check in with the goals you set prior to school starting — does anything need to be revised now that you are living in the job? Touch base with your support system. Send texts to your friends and laugh regularly.

Winter Break: Rest Days

Take your rest seriously, unplug from the job over winter break. Go into your email settings and set up the automatic out-of-office reply that lets people know that you value their correspondence and will respond after school resumes. The last step is to delete your email app from your phone, if you have it installed. Enjoy, you earned this break!

 

Second Semester: Full Marathon

During the first semester, you created a foundation to build on. You have routines in place that work for you. Throughout the second semester consistently reflect and evaluate what specific parts of your job are creating friction. Continue to smooth out any administrative tasks that are distracting you from the most important part of the job: your students.

This is an ongoing process in the job, so give yourself time and grace. Accept that you will make mistakes and own them when they happen.

Begin planning for the next academic year while finishing out this one. What events were great and should continue? Is there anything that could be left out next year?

Check in with your goals and create a trajectory for your program that is both positive and sustainable. Remember that you are not alone, continue to lean on your support system.

Summer Break: Reflect and Rest

woman park bench pexels

During the first week of summer break, go someplace off campus and reflect on your year. Choose a place that will allow you the space to think clearly and write down your thoughts. Bring a journal or laptop and write down everything that went well.

What are some areas of opportunity for improvement? Write down a few actionable steps to aid in improvement. Is there anything you can remove from the job? Or is there an area where you can continue to hone your daily routine in order to maximize your downtime?

After you have reflected, give yourself time to rest. Set the automated email reply and unplug for a good chunk of time.

Congratulations, you have completed your first year of teaching!

The Basics of Stride Piano

Written by Jerry Kovarsky on . Posted in Keyboard How-to. 1 Comment on The Basics of Stride Piano

Stride piano is a highly rhythmic style of playing that originated during the ragtime era of the early 20th century and eventually developed into an entirely new way of performing. Some of the principle innovators included James P. Johnson, Willie “The Lion” Smith and Fats Waller. Later practitioners included Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson and Dick Wellstood. You can find many dazzling examples of their playing on YouTube (just search for the term “stride piano”).

Often played at very fast tempos, it’s a great way for pianists to show off their skills (especially their left-hand technique), but mastering stride piano can take years. You can, however, incorporate the basics into your playing fairly easily. In this article we’ll show you how.

A Simplified Approach

The key aspect of stride piano playing is its use of a bass note followed by a chord voicing above it, like this:

Musical annotation.

In this basic example, for each chord, you play the root, followed by a simple triad voicing. Then you play the fifth of the chord, followed again by the triad. It will take some practice to do this cleanly: as always, take it slow and get used to the distances your hand has to go between the bass notes and the chords.

Here’s a variation that does less alternating between bass note and chord; instead, it uses passing tones (notes in-between chord tones) on the fourth beat of each measure to lead into the root of the next chord:

Musical annotation.

This approach will lend a bit of an old-time feel to your playing. It also works nicely when used with bluesy and rock and roll licks, or for adding a country boogie feel, as in these examples:

Musical annotation.
Musical annotation.

A Modified Approach for Playing Ballads

A simplified version of this concept can be used to create a full, but very easy to play left-hand accompaniment that’s perfect for many slower-tempo situations, like ballads. As you can hear in this next audio clip, you should use the sustain pedal, pressing it down after the root note so it keeps on ringing while you play the chord voicing; then release the pedal just before playing the next measure, again using it to connect the bass note to the chord that follows.

Musical annotation.

To make things a little more interesting, try adding some passing tones on beat four to lead into the next chord, like this:

Musical annotation.

This next example varies the rhythm of the passing tones for a more flowing feel:

Musical annotation.

Alternatively, you can play the root, followed by the fifth of each chord, before playing the chord voicing:

Musical annotation.

Taking that idea one step further, try this approach, where the left hand plays the root, fifth and then the tenth (that is, the third played an octave higher) in a gentle arpeggio. As you can hear, this produces a very full sound:

Musical annotation.

Putting The Hands Together

The next step is to add a melody line with the right hand. The basic root-only left-hand accompaniment looks and sounds like this:

Musical annotation.

Here’s that same melody line with a little more movement in the left-hand accompaniment:

Musical annotation.

Here’s a different melody line, played over a more complex left-hand accompaniment for a very flowing feel:

Musical annotation.

And here it is with a root-followed-by-fifth left-hand accompaniment:

Musical annotation.

Finally, here’s the root, fifth, then tenth idea underpinning that same melody:

Musical annotation.

Try Another Time Signature

This style of accompaniment also works nicely in 3/4 time (waltz feel). Let’s wrap things up with some examples of how you can adapt stride accompaniments to that time signature.

Musical annotation.
Musical annotation.
Musical annotation.
Musical annotation.
All audio played on a Yamaha P-515

Check out our other Well-Rounded Keyboardist postings.

 

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Closeup of someone's hand as they play a traditional string instrument.

Musical Instruments Across Asia and the Pacific Islands

Written by Allan Zheng on . Posted in History.

Music plays an intrinsic role in Asian and Pacific Islander culture. In fact, some of the oldest musical instruments in the world come from the region: Chinese Jiahu gǔdí flutes, for example, or Vietnamese lithophones (rocks that are struck to produce musical notes). Music is also an important part of connecting Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to their history and background.

In celebration of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, here’s a list of some instruments that help showcase the range of musical practices and traditions of the AAPI community.

Stringed Instruments

Guzheng/Zheng

The guzheng (sometimes called a “zheng”) is a 21-string plucked zither with adjustable bridges that originated in China in roughly 200 B.C.. It has a large, resonant soundboard and is tuned to a major pentatonic scale. Guzheng players often wear fingerpicks on one or both hands. Historically, the guzheng has been seen as an instrument of the people used for entertainment and pleasure, but today it has an extensive repertoire as a solo instrument and has been integrated into the Chinese orchestra. The guzheng is related to the Mongolian yatag, Vietnamese dan tranh, Korean ajaeng and Japanese koto (see below).

Closeup of a person's hands plucking the strings of a many stringed instrument.

Here’s a video of sisters (and premier players) Yuan Li and Yuan Sha performing the classic guzheng song “Spring on Xiang River.” For an introduction to the instrument, check out this video.

Koto

The koto is a plucked zither with movable bridges derived from the Chinese guzheng. It most usually has 13 strings, but 17-string koto are also common. Koto strings are generally plucked using three fingerpicks worn on the first three fingers of the right hand. Although the koto has been a part of the gagaku court orchestra since the 8th century, perhaps the most important influence on its development was Yatsuhashi Kengyo (1614–1685), known as the “Father of Modern Koto.” He was a gifted blind musician who changed the tuning of the instrument and greatly expanded the repertoire of koto songs. During the Japanese American incarceration during World War II, the koto, among other Japanese musical instruments, was taught and performed as one way of resisting assimilation. In the United States, the koto is a way for Japanese Americans to maintain connections to their heritage.

Closeup of a woman in kimono with a long rectangular stringed instrument across her lap. She is playing the strings with her right hand.

Looking for an online lesson? Watch this video, or click here to experience Kasumi Watanabe’s moving performance of the popular koto song “Sakura.”

Pipa

This four-stringed, pear-shaped lute has origins along the Silk Road in Persia and India, and found popularity in China. Over time, the pipa transitioned from its place in the courts to become associated with women and the middle class in China, and has been featured in several contemporary Western compositions such as Ghost Opera (1994) by Chinese-American composer Tan Dun, who won an Oscar for his score to the movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.

Woman in traditional dress holding a wooden stringed instrument.

Check out this video for more information about the instrument, and be sure to watch this video of virtuoso Jiaju Shen performing the difficult pipa composition “Ambush From All Sides,” written over two thousand years ago!

Erhu

The erhu is a two-stringed spike fiddle introduced to the Han Chinese around the 11th century, with roots in the northwest and southwest regions of China as well as Persia. Historically, the erhu was a folk instrument, but in recent years it has become adopted by many of the Chinese elite. The erhu is fretless and does not have a fingerboard. It’s played with a bow that is held in-between the strings, and tension in the bow hair must be carefully adjusted by the musician.

Elderly man with long beard in traditional dress sitting in a plaza playing a stringed instrument with a bow.

Check out this video introduction to the erhu, or click here to watch erhu player Wenqing Zhao perform the popular song “Autumn Moon Over the Han Palace.”

Saung

This arched harp has 13 silk strings that are plucked by the musician. Its origins can be traced back to the southeastern coast of India as early as 500 A.D., but today the saung is considered the national musical instrument of Burma/Myanmar. It plays a big role in the refined style of Burmese classical music that accompanies vocalists singing the music of the royal courts (Thachin Gyi, meaning great songs). It also accompanies anyeint, a female solo dance form.

Young woman seen in profile playing a stringed instrument.

Check out this saung solo, or click here to watch Burmese saung player Nei Wah give a Nobel Peace Prize Lecture Musical Performance of the composition “Loving Kindness and the Golden Harp.”

Ukulele

The ukulele, once known as the taro-patch fiddle, is a small guitar instrument introduced by Portuguese emigrants who traveled across Brazil and the Caribbean over to Hawai‘i in the late 1800s. It typically has four strings, but there are six- and eight-string models as well. The ukulele differs from European guitars not just in size but in its construction too, in that it’s traditionally made from Hawai‘ian wood. By the start of the twentieth century, the ukulele had become the most recognizable Indigenous Hawai‘ian instrument, integrated into Hawai‘ian reggae and other Pacific Island musical genres. Today, largely thanks to social media, it’s playing a major role in popular culture the world over.

Closeup of man playing a ukelele.

Click here to learn more about the history of the uke, or check out this cool video of ukulele ace Jake Shimabukuro performing in a variety of musical genres at the 2016 NAMM show.

Kse Diev

The kse diev is a monochord zither with a gourd that rests on the player’s chest. The performer plucks the single string while dampening the string at specific points to sound harmonics. It is used as a part of Cambodian wedding music and ritual ceremonies. Though one of the oldest instruments in the country (with stone inscriptions found at Angkor Wat), it remains a source of Cambodian pride.

A long thin board with single string and attached cup.

Click here for more information about the kse diev, or click here to watch a video about Sok Duch, the last surviving Cambodian Master of the instrument.

Wind Instruments

Daegeum

The daegeum is a large transverse flute with a vibrating membrane used in Korean court music as a part of the samhyon samjuk “three strings, three winds” ensemble. The legend of the daegeum is that King Shimun’s father returned to the mortal world as a dragon. The dragon told the King to cut a special bamboo plant located on a mountain in the Eastern Sea. This special piece of bamboo became the daegeum flute, which was used by the King to prevent calamities. Following cultural revival movements in the 1960s, playing the daegeum has become a marker for Korean cultural identity.

Flute made of bamboo.

Click here to watch how a daegeum is constructed, or check out this performance of traditional Korean music played on the instrument.

Qeej

The Hmong are Indigenous people who are spread across southwest China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar. The qeej (pronounced “kheng”) is a free-reed mouth organ that is said by the Hmong to communicate with the spirit world and is therefore used (as a solo instrument) to perform the funeral repertoire, deeply associated with Hmong poetry and the seven tones of the Hmong language. Rather than making music, players learn to make the qeej speak with the dead and teach the dead how to enter the realm of the sacred. Because of its connection with funerals and death, the qeej had long been treated with suspicion for inviting death into the home. However, as traditions change, studying the qeej has become an assertion of Hmong identity and pride.

A musical pipe made with bamboo and multiple pipes.

Curious to know how a qeej is made? Check out this video, and be sure to watch as musician Chai Lee performs and explains the significance of the instrument.

Percussion Instruments

Taiko

Taiko — a Japanese word that literally translates to “drums” — has its roots in Shinto and Japanese Buddhist ritual practices dating back as far as the sixth century. In common usage, it usually refers to kumi-daiko (taiko ensemble), a practice that was invented in 1951 and continues to expand in both Japan and the U.S., with the popular taiko group Kodō coming into international prominence in recent years. Taiko drums were important for maintaining Japanese American identity during the 1960s, and they remain a strong component of the Asian American political movement as a voice of empowerment for Asian Americans. There are several professional and community taiko organizations across the United States such as the Los Angeles Taiko Institute. Taiko drums are struck with a pair of wooden sticks called bachi. Performers maintain various positions and recite onomatopoetic sounds while playing taiko.

Group of men performing on large traditional drums.

Click here to learn more about the history and evolution of taiko drumming, and be sure to check out these performances by the East LA Taiko and Taiko Center of LA.

Tabla

Tabla are a pair of pitched drums from South Asia that are struck with the palms and fingers. It is used as an accompanying instrument in a wide range of genres, including Hindustani classical music, Sufi devotional music and Bollywood. There are six different styles or lineages of tabla playing: Delhi, Lucknow, Ajrara, Punjab, Farukhabad, and Banaras. Tabla music was popularized, in part, through the pop music fusion introduced by musicians such as Ustad Allarakha Khan Qureshi (popularly known as Alla Rakha) and his son Ustad Zakir Hussain.

Two small wooden drums with raffia wrapping.

Learn the basics of playing tabla in this video, and don’t miss this dynamic (and nearly hour-long!) virtuosic tabla solo performed by Ustad Zakir Hussain.

Gamelan

In the Indonesian language, the word “gamelan” roughly translates to “orchestra,” and just like a Western orchestra, it should not be thought of in terms of its individual instruments (which in the case of gamelan are a collection of mainly percussion instruments, some played by hand, others played by mallets or hammers). Gamelan is an ensemble tradition and therefore people rarely play gamelan alone. Instead, it is a group activity carried out by the community in ritual, ceremonial, celebratory, commercial and competitive events. Gamelan music is also used to accompany dance and theatrical performances. In the United States, Gamelan brings people together to enjoy music making as well as to celebrate the richness of Indonesian culture. There are many community and collegiate ensembles open to musicians and non-musicians alike to participate and learn about gamelan. In December 2021, Gamelan was recognized by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Indonesia.

Group of men in traditional dress playing instruments in a pavilion.

Want to learn about the various instruments of the Javanese Gamelan? Click here. Also be sure to check out this video of the Chicago Balinese Gamelan giving a 2021 performance.

Kulintang

This instrument is part of the gong-chime ensembles of the Southern Philippines that accompany weddings and healing rituals, as well as dance and theatrical performances. Kulintang consist of a series of eight or more horizontally suspended gongs that are struck with mallets. They can be traced back before the arrival of Islam during the 14th century and survived Spanish and American colonization. In the United States, kulintang remains valuable for building community and maintaining the cultural heritage in the Filipino diaspora.

Group playing traditional drums.

Click here to learn how to play kulintang, or watch this performance given by the Palabuniyan Kulintang Ensemble.

In foreground on the grass are a well-used baseball glove with a dirty baseball inside. In background, there are several baseballs laid haphazardly on the grass.

The 12 Best Sports Movies Based on True Stories

Written by Rich Tozzoli on . Posted in TV & Movies.

We all know how exciting watching sports can be. But when you pair up that energy with a great movie, viewed on a big screen TV and enjoyed over a quality surround sound system, you’re really hitting a home run! Here’s a list of twelve of the best sports movies based on real-life stories.

1. King Richard

This biopic made a lot of headlines at the 94th Academy Awards® — though perhaps more for the actions of Will Smith, who stars as Richard Williams, the coach and father of tennis phenom sisters Serena and Venus Williams. Nonetheless, Smith took home the Oscar® for Best Actor, and the American Film Institute named King Richard one of the best movies of 2021. Find out where to stream it here.

2. Rudy

Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger had dreams of playing football at the University of Notre Dame despite not having the money or grades to attend the school, nor the talent or size needed. Yet through sheer determination, he ended up playing the final game of the 1975 season. Rudy tells that story, accompanied by an uplifting score by Jerry Goldsmith, and was the first film made on the campus of Notre Dame since 1940’s Knute Rockne All American. Your subwoofer will allow you to literally feel the roar of the crowd as they chant “Rudy, Rudy!” when he finally steps onto the field. Find out where to stream it here.

3. Remember the Titans

Based on the true story of coach Herman Boone (Denzel Washington), this inspirational film portrays his attempt to integrate a high school football team in Alexandria, Virginia in 1971, in the process overcoming both race issues and emotional clashes. With a great score by Yes guitarist Trevor Rabin and a soundtrack that features songs from Bob Dylan, The Hollies, Marvin Gaye and James Taylor, your speakers will thank you. Find out where to stream it here.

4. 42

Jackie Robinson was, of course, the first Black player in Major League Baseball — not just a superb second baseman, but a hero who had to fight both his temper and other players to make his mark on sports history. The title of this 2013 film starring Chadwick Boseman (with Harrison Ford, Nicole Beharie and Christopher Meloni in supporting roles) is a reference to Robinson’s jersey number, which was retired by all MLB teams in 1997. Find out where to stream it here.

5. A League of Their Own

Directed by Penny Marshall, this hilarious flick stars Tom Hanks, Geena Davis and Madonna in a fictionalized look at the real-life All American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). Not only was the movie selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant,” the soundtrack (by Hans Zimmer) peaked at #159 on the U.S. Billboard 200 in July 1992. Find out where to stream it here.

6. Moneyball

Author Michael Lewis’ bestseller Moneyball – The Art Of Winning an Unfair Game has been called “the single most influential baseball book ever.” It took a closeup look at a revolutionary statistical approach to the game adopted in 2002 by the Oakland Athletics and their general manager Billy Beane, portrayed in the movie version by actor Brad Pitt. Filmed at various stadiums, including the Oakland Coliseum and Dodger Stadium, Moneyball garnered six Academy Awards and four Golden Globe® nominations. Your surround speakers will put you right in the stadium when the crowd erupts as Oakland player Scott Hatteberg hits a home run over the right field wall to win an important game. Find out where to stream it here.

7. The Babe

This bio-flick about the legendary Babe Ruth stars John Goodman and explores Ruth’s early life in an orphanage, his stint as a pitcher with the Boston Red Sox and the eventual trade to the New York Yankees, where he transformed into the slugging outfielder considered by many to be the greatest baseball player of all time. To simulate the old-time Yankee Stadium, some of the film was shot at Chicago’s Wrigley Field, where they covered the famous ivy walls to depict the 1932 World Series. There’s plenty of baseball action here, accentuated by a rousing score by Elmer Bernstein. Find out where to stream it here.

8. The Rookie

This compelling 2002 sports drama stars Dennis Quaid as baseball player Jim Morris, who debuted in Major League Baseball at the age of 35. A high school science teacher who was married with three children, Morris eventually ended up pitching for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The complex Carter Burwell musical underpinning to this film will give you a perfect opportunity to put your surround sound system through its paces. Find out where to stream it here.

9. Seabiscuit

Seabiscuit was the winningest racing horse of the early twentieth century, beating the 1937 Triple Crown winner by an astonishing four lengths in a two-horse special at Pimlico. Due to his small size and an inauspicious start to his racing career, he was an unlikely champion that became a symbol of hope to many Americans during the Great Depression … and this 2003 film successfully captures all the emotion and grit of the era, accompanied by the pounding of hooves and an outstanding score from Randy Newman. Find out where to stream it here.

10. Cinderella Man

Produced by Ron Howard, Penny Marshall and Brian Grazer, Cinderella Man stars Russell Crowe as world heavyweight boxing champion James J. Braddock and examines his life story. The movie received three Academy Awards and two Golden Globe nominations and features music by veteran film composer Thomas Newman (cousin of Randy). With a great sound system, you can practically feel the hard-hitting action in the ring when Braddock takes on Corn Griffin and knocks him out. Find out where to stream it here.

11. Rush

Into speed? This fast-moving flick, directed by Ron Howard, centers on a rivalry between two Formula One drivers during the 1976 motor-racing season. Their fiercely revved-up competition — supplemented by an orchestral score from Hans Zimmer and a soundtrack that includes songs from David Bowie, Thin Lizzy and Steve Winwood — will give your surround speakers a real workout. Find out where to stream it here.

12. Hoosiers

With Gene Hackman starring as small-town high school basketball coach Norman Dale, this 1986 classic tells the story of an unlikely team that makes it to the 1954 Indiana State championship game. Dennis Hopper and Barbara Hershey also make appearances and Jerry Goldsmith composed the rousing score for what has been called one of the greatest sports movies of all time, ranked number 13 by the American Film Institute on its 100 Years…100 Cheers: America most inspiring movie list. Find out where to stream it here.

male teacher in front of white board

Your Teacher Identity

Written by Don Stinson on . Posted in Self-Care.

I had an identity crisis during my first few years of teaching. I had to wade through the stressors of a new job, getting an ensemble ready for a performance within days of school starting, and trying to balance a personal life. I had an idea of who I wanted to be, but I wasn’t exactly sure of who I was at that particular moment.

Looking back over 15 years of teaching, here are four major stages I experienced. These stages were vital as I started to form my teacher identity.

    • Stage 1: Imitation
    • Stage 2: Experimentation
    • Stage 3: Doubt
    • Stage 4: Self-Actualization

Stage 1: Imitation

female teacher writing on white board This initial stage can vary depending on your experiences. In your first few years, you might say things that your teachers told you. You might emulate their mannerisms when you conduct or count off a group. You might even dress like your mentors or adopt their sense of humor. None of these things are bad!

Why are we imitating our former music educators and implementing their style and substance into our teaching environment? Part of it is because it’s all we know, especially if we had a great musical experience as a student. The other part is because we are trying to survive those first few years! We would be foolish NOT to use the tools, sayings and procedures we learned.

Yes, we teach what we know, but how we were taught greatly influences how we teach. Did your music teacher bring in candy before every significant performance? Chances are, you are probably doing this. Did your teacher stress out before a concert? You may be doing this as well. If your teacher was calm, you’re probably calm, and if your director had certain sayings, you have probably used them as well.

There will always be parts of the imitation stage that you will keep in your teaching toolbox forever. Your justification and understanding of why may change, but we all know that when you find something that works, you keep doing it.

Stage 2: Experimentation

The early years of a music teacher’s career is like being thrown in the pool with floaties on.  In stage 2, you climb out, dry yourself off  and start dipping your toes in other areas. You attend more conferences, expand your network and begin trying different approaches to teaching and connecting with students. You start to think about how you can approach articulation for a particular piece. The knowledge is out there, but you start thinking, “how can I do this? What is my specific approach? What flavor can I add to my classroom environment and the experience I provide for students?”

Stage 2 is a time of growth and potential. You have just enough experience to be dangerous! During this period, you can get massively better at teaching after just one conversation with an experienced colleague or by trying two or three new approaches. You start to feel more comfortable as a person, and you are putting more of your personality into your teaching. You begin saying, “I’ve done this” instead of “this is what I might do.”

Stage 2 is long and can be a permanent stage for an educator, which is not a bad thing. Everyone is different, but I would expect most educators to begin entering stage 2 as early as the second semester of their first year of teaching to year two or three.

I like to think of stage 2 as a hybrid of imitation and experimentation delivered with your specific personality. This is the time when:

    • You realize that you will never know without trial and error.
    • You expand your horizons — what is uncomfortable for you? How might you get experience in these areas? This often relates to discipline, geographic locations, income level, race, etc. At the same time, advancing skills in one area can help you approach mastery; then, you can transfer these skills over to other areas.
    • Mastery and tunnel vision can be important. But if things change, can you adapt?

From stage 2, you can go in two directions.

Stage 3: Doubt

You get through year one. It was a whirlwind, but you did it. During year two, you gained experience, became familiar with your system and made some mistakes. Things get better.

man in doubt sitting at beachThen, some doubts set in. You may have had some doubts about your career initially, but in this potential stage, the doubts build. You may think:

    • Is this really for me?
    • Is this job important?
    • Why does it seem like it’s easier for others?
    • Why don’t my kids sound like other groups?
    • I’ll never be like my teacher.
    • Education is changing — can I keep up?
    • This isn’t what I signed up for.
    • I’ve tried everything, and nothing is working.

Doubt is not bad! However, the answers to some of these questions may not be what you want to hear. Remember, a lot of good things can come out of doubt if managed well. But dealing with doubt can be a grind.

Getting stuck in this stage long-term can be damaging and may lead to extreme measures. You might see that certain parts of what you do may not line up with your experience. You might go back to stage 1 and do what your teachers did, but it no longer works. You may find that your current situation is truly out of your control. Your options may be to accept and adapt or find a position at another school.

Sometimes we don’t realize that we’re trying to put square pegs in round holes. I tried to teach like my teacher in a setting much different than my school experience. This was frustrating for everyone. Then I tried to teach like him in the environment he taught in. This also did not go well and was a source of extreme frustration. The reality was that while I could certainly take cues from him, I was not him.

Stage 4: Self-Actualization

male teacher writing on white board and pointing with his other handStage 4 is a stage of confidence. It is not an arrival stage; we enter into it as we grow to know our strengths and weaknesses better, and we begin to understand how we operate.

We can work in this stage in tandem with stage 2, with a little bit of stage 1 occasionally appearing.

For me, realizations set in during this stage. I always wanted to be just like my teachers, but I’m not them. I’m the sum of them, combined with who I was as a person.

In short, I found that experiences + imitation + experimentation could equal actualization.

Disclaimer: I cannot speak to anyone older and more experienced than me, but I believe that anyone can go back to previous stages at almost any time and shift in and out of all stages continuously.

Stage 5: ?

I don’t know what’s next. My retirement year is 2038, so I’ll let you know when I find out.

The idea is not to be 100% stagnant at any stage. I certainly have a goal to live in the actualization stage, but I know that I have to leave this “house” every once in a while to see what else is out there. At the same time, living in a constant state of imitation may restrict an authentic sense of satisfaction and autonomy.

The intention is not to create the perfect teacher; it’s to continually identify weaknesses that we can strengthen for a more fulfilling teaching career.

Finding Your Teacher Identity

I had a particular goal since I was 14. I wanted to be the band director at my alma mater. But it was important to find out what else was out there for me. It was essential to confirm that this was what I wanted.

Ted Lega and Don Stinson in December 2016I eventually ended up back where I started at Joliet Central High School, but not before making a few stops along the way. Opportunities knock at various points in our career, and saying “yes” to these small adventures will always give you experience and wisdom (but be careful to make decisions in your best interest).

One of the reasons I wanted to teach at my alma mater was Ted Lega, my high school band director, who passed away in 2021 — a huge loss for me. I have many other mentors, but this important mentor is gone. Recently, one of my students told me that I was their Mr. Lega. I wasn’t ready for this because I still needed my own Mr. Lega.

A large part of my identity was being his student and carrying on his work. That’s still a large part of me, but I’m also the sum of my other mentors and teachers, my experiences, successes, failures, opinions, beliefs, ideals and shortcomings.

So, what will your teacher identity look like? I can’t answer that for you. No one can. You must create your own unique identity.

As for me, well, it took a while to be content with my teacher identity, but it starts with being persistent, insistent and consistent. It’s adapting to the current needs of my students and music education without losing who I am as a person. My identity will likely evolve as my teaching career continues, but for now, I’m happy with my path.

Author playing guitar.

Yamaha Guitars at 2022 NAMM: A Preview

Written by Robbie Calvo on . Posted in Gearguide.

As I write this, we are six weeks, three days, 42 minutes and 16 seconds away from NAMM, but who’s counting? Well, actually, I think a lot of people in the music industry are, and you can be sure they are ready to re-connect and show off their latest products, as well as all the classics that make their brand iconic.

I feel extremely honored to be representing Yamaha at the show again this year, where the focus will be on second-generation Revstar electrics and two new TransAcoustic cutaway models: the FGC-TA and FSC-TA (along with another cool launch I can’t talk about yet!) . As you can imagine, the Yamaha team spends months to organize and prepare every detail for such an important annual presentation. My job is to make their lives easier by being upbeat, willing and prepared. I take my role just as seriously as they do.

I’ll be doing product demonstrations at the booth and will also be on hand to chat with visiting dealers, artists and end users. In addition, there are always lots of industry journalists wandering the show floor looking to film interviews for their media channels (almost inevitably without advance warning!), and I’ll be called upon to do some of those. This generally involves a short introductory product demo, followed by a rundown of the specs and available options. I’ll have to do my homework ahead of time, preparing short pieces of music to play as well as ensuring that I have a solid knowledge of all the Yamaha guitars on display.

There are also several pre-show events that I’ll be involved in, including performing at a reception for the AIMM (Alliance of Independent Music Merchants) network of dealers. This is a great way to solidify friendships, forge new relationships and discuss the latest product strategies in an informal setting. I’m currently preparing my setlist and rehearsing for this two-hour show. I’ll be playing acoustic guitar instead of electric, so I’ll have to adjust my repertoire accordingly and re-balance volumes for backing vocal and percussion loops. The room will be filled with Yamaha executives, sales teams and dealers — many of whom are incredible musicians in their own right. No pressure there!

The day before NAMM opens, final touches are made to the booth display. Guitars and amps are unboxed, tuned, checked over and polished before being placed in a pre-determined location on the show floor. At the same time, artist sound checks will be taking place on the performance stage. I’ll set up my Line 6 Helix rig in the electric guitar section and play through it with various guitars to get a general feel for the tones on tap. It’s a team endeavor, and we are all pulling together to manifest the big picture from those countless hours of planning.

On My Radar

I am sometimes fortunate enough to try out new Yamaha guitars before they launch, but there are still lots of new instruments I’ll get to play for the first time at this year’s NAMM.

The Revstar RSP02T is at the top of my list. I haven’t yet had the chance to play a second-generation Revstar with P90 pickups, and I’m curious to hear how the single-coils work with the five-way pickup selector switch and those out-of-phase tones on positions two and four. I’m sure the focus switch will also interact differently with single-coil pickups than it does with humbuckers.

An electric guitar.
Revstar RSP02T in Sunset Burst.

I’m also looking forward to being able to A/B between Standard and Professional model Revstars to see if I can hear a difference between the two. My two favorite finishes will be in the booth as well: Sunset Burst and Swift Blue. The new color palette is pretty rad, so I’ll be taking lots of pictures for a post-NAMM summary.

An electric guitar.
Revstar RSS02T in Swift Blue.

I was lucky enough to play, record and film the Yamaha FGC-TA TransAcoustic (the “C” in the model number means “cutaway”) for the product launch last year. That’s one amazing guitar, but I’m thinking that the smaller FSC-TA (which has all the same sonic accoutrements such as onboard reverb and chorus, but in a smaller, lighter package) may actually fit my personal playing style better, especially for live performance. I’ll be playing one at the pre-show event and look forward to demonstrating it extensively at the show for acoustic guitar aficionados, so I should have lots of opportunity to find out.

An acoustic guitar with knobs on side of body.
FGC-TA in Black.

Speaking of the FSC-TA, it comes in three distinctive color finishes: Ruby Red, Vintage Tint and Brown Sunburst. I’ll be playing a Brown Sunburst model at the show … and plan on wearing a complementary shirt, along with a big smile!

Acoustic guitar with knobs on side of body.
FSC-TA in Brown Sunburst.

Last but not least, I’m curious to hear the new Line 6 Catalyst combo amplifiers. The 60-watt version packs the same Helix engine features into a smaller package than its larger 100-watt and 200-watt compadres, and seems perfect for the studio and small club dates. I think I may need one!

Guitar speaker.
Line 6 Catalyst 60.

The Video

I thought it would be cool to put together a montage of performances from my studio that feature a variety of guitars that will be at the show. If you’re going to be attending, perhaps it will inspire you to stop by the booth and try out some Yamaha guitars. I think you’ll be impressed!

If you’d like to see full demonstrations and comprehensive reviews of these guitars, you can always check out my YouTube channel and settle in for a while.

The Wrap-Up

There’s a wonderful team spirit that permeates trade show events — not just during the exhibit hours, but in the preparation that goes into making it happen. New contacts are made, old friends come together, lifelong friendships are forged, and music lives on as the conduit and common thread between us all. Look forward to seeing you at NAMM!

Photographs courtesy of the author.

Check out Robbie’s other postings.

flute player at Forney High School

Case Study: See Beyond Disabilities and Find Opportunities to Excel

Written by Cody Newman on . Posted in Case Studies.

On a muggy Texas evening in May 2020 during the height of the pandemic, I sat in the Diffee family’s driveway out in the country with a group of smiling new faces — the Forney (Texas) High School Band boosters.

I had just been named the school’s new Director of Bands, and there was definitely an excitement in the air regarding the band program’s potential in spite of the COVID outbreak happening around us.

Band Director Cody Newman and Micah DiffeeAs we were wrapping up the conversations regarding the logistics of operating the band program and saying our good nights, a special young man rolled up to me in his wheelchair and asked me an important and challenging question.

“Good evening, Mr. Newman,” he said. “My name is Micah, and I would like to be in the marching show next fall.”

I glanced down at Micah Diffee’s wheelchair and asked the first question that came to my mind. “That sounds great, Micah,” I started. “Have you thought about performing in the front ensemble?”

He quickly responded, “Yes sir, I did that last year and didn’t like it. I would like to be on the field with my trumpet friends.”

I didn’t think. I just responded. “Yes, we can do that, Micah.”

I said yes before I could think about how we were going to pull this off. I just knew why we were going to pull this off. The why was Micah.

The Diffee Difference

Micah marching band 2I have found all too often that my first instinct, my first response in any situation is to focus on the problem. This is all too easy to do because whenever you turn on the news, listen to the radio, open your phone, all the world’s problems come flooding in. The daily confrontation of problems is brutal.

That’s why I try to stop myself from fixating on problems every chance I get. Imagine if we taught our students an intentional and consistent approach to avoid focusing on problems and instead giving our attention to the opportunities created by the problem.

After telling Micah that he could be part of the marching band, the staff went into solution mode. Our amazing drill writer and color guard director, Casey Snead, and I met Micah on our turf performance field to see him in action. The goal was to understand how far and how fast he could move at various tempos. It became apparent after just a few minutes that Micah was incredibly strong and agile in his chair. He approached the situation with so much grit and determination — it was inspiring!

Micah’s strength and confidence grew as he participated in daily marching fundamentals with his band friends. His brother built him a trumpet stand that attached to his chair to keep his instrument secure while he was moving. Micah tweaked and refined any choreography that was part of his assignment to not only be possible in his chair, but also artistic and expressive. His efforts were uplifting.

Micah taught me that inside each obstacle lies a solution, sometimes multiple solutions! In fact, we should work to reframe all obstacles as opportunities to excel. What a missed opportunity it would have been had Micah not approached me during my first booster meeting, or if the team of directors focused only on the perceived problems instead of the incredible opportunity to excel we had in Micah.

After Micah had an incredibly successful season on the field, our team of directors celebrated his accomplishments but we also became more introspective. Were there other students in our program who may be missing out due to our fixed mindset?

Supporting Tomoki

Tomoki other soloistsTomoki Miyazaki is a year younger than Micah, an incredible flute player with perfect pitch, and he is legally blind. After hearing him shine as a performer throughout the spring of 2021, we started conversations with Tomoki about doing something he’d never considered — being part of the marching band. With his incredible playing ability in mind, our music arranger designed numerous solo moments for him throughout the 2021 show. The first time we heard him performing with the group, amplified for the world to hear, we knew we had a special performer.  With this excitement came a very unique obstacle.

Tomoki was staged atop a large prop on the front sideline with four other great soloists. They were positioned close to the 30-yard line of the field and 20 yards away from the conductor. Soloists usually take their cues from the conductor — something Tomoki could not do. However, the solution to this obstacle was already being handled by the other soloists who worked with Tomoki. Senior drum major and bassoon soloist, Brittany, and junior clarinetist, Sarah, volunteered to act as Tomoki’s eyes — while standing next to him, they would tap the tempo of the drum major on his shoulder. I was exceptionally proud of this solution because Brittany and Sarah actually identified the obstacle and created their own solution before the directors could intervene!

Isn’t this the true goal that we seek as educators? To teach our students the ability to actively solve a challenge and then to have the leadership and ownership of their performance to engage in the solution with confidence.

Tomok playing fluteMicah black and white

Accepting Opportunities to Excel

Micah and Tomoki definitely grabbed the attention of audiences around the marching band community, so much so that they were asked to talk about their participation in marching band  on The Marching Roundtable Podcast with Tim Hinton. Micah was also featured in an interview with John Pollard at the Texas UIL State Championships in 2020.

All this attention is certainly warranted and fun for these young men, but the behind-the-scenes story is the real achievement and a testament to always look for and accept opportunities to excel. Here are just a few of these opportunities that we experienced at Forney High thanks to Micah, Tomoki and the entire marching band.

  • Hearing Micah and Tomoki talk about feeling accepted as a real contributor to the group
  • Experiencing the crowd go wild as these young men performed before thousands of fans throughout Texas
  • Watching as another student in a wheelchair asked Micah with a spark of excitement and curiosity in her voice about the possibilities of her own participation in marching band at her home school
  • Seeing the proud smiles on their parents’ faces as their students embraced friends after a successful performance

And perhaps my biggest hope and grandest dream from this entire turn of events would be that the students surrounding Micah and Tomoki each day, the fans in the stands and those watching online for years to come, would rethink their initial focus on problems when they come across someone with a perceived disability. Instead, I want them to focus on the solutions to the obstacles and the opportunities to excel that are presented to them in that moment.

Our students are only limited by the constraints we place on them, so let’s all choose opportunity and choose to excel!

female student playing flute

Start a Flute Choir

Written by Aleah Fitzwater on . Posted in Winds.

Are you a band director with so many flutes that you often joke that they’re “a dime a dozen”? Starting a flute choir might be the answer to this problem.

Flutes are one of the most flexible musical instruments in your band. The soprano flute’s range alone covers more than three octaves. Add in some lower-range harmony flutes, such as alto and bass flutes, and that range can be increased even more.

Flute choirs can help balance your band’s pyramid of sound and provide extracurricular music opportunities that engage your students while promoting your ensembles as a whole. This specialized ensemble can play scores that were originally designed for full orchestras, choirs or wind ensembles, which is nothing short of amazing! Plus, you only need a handful of flutists — six or more — to get started.

Buying Instruments

piccoloI’ll be honest, flute choirs can be expensive — alto and bass flutes have pretty high price tags. Most of the information below is about the lower-range harmony flutes because many schools have a selection or easy access to higher-range melody flutes (piccolos and soprano flutes).

Once you stock your closet with harmony flutes, you’ll be able to play band pieces with small flute choirs as well. This means that your band can now perform dozens of gorgeous contemporary pieces that would otherwise be off limits. The mysterious “Frozen Cathedral” by John Mackey features alto and bass flute solos. Another excellent piece for winds with harmony flutes is “Kings Go Forth” by Edward Gregson for symphonic wind band.

To get your flute choir started, you will need:

  • 1 Piccolo
  • 3 Soprano flutes
  • at least 2 Alto flutes
  • at least 2 Bass flutes

female playing fluteThis 8-person setup will be enough to get you going.

If you have a well-established band, you won’t need to purchase many sopranos or piccolos. And while there is such a thing as a flute d’amour (a flute between the soprano and the alto), this flute’s range will be covered by the combination of soprano and alto flutes, so it isn’t necessary.

The two lowest harmony flutes are the contra-alto (an octave below the alto) and the contrabass flute. If you have a very large group interested in joining the flute choir, consider getting one more low voice — I recommend the contra-alto, which looks surprisingly like a contrabass clarinet (you can listen to one here). This instrument is very pricey — most start at $20,000 — so if you are set on getting one, prepare for a lot of fundraising.

Curved vs. Straight Headjoints

curved head jointMost flutes come with the option of a curved headjoint. While this is often an adjustment made on soprano flutes for younger students, having a curved headjoint becomes increasingly more common as the flute gets lower. Watch flutist Gina Luciani weigh the pros and cons of straight and curved headjoints.

As Luciani mentions, curved headjoints allow students with smaller hands and shorter fingers to reach all the keys with ease. A curved headjoint also changes where the heaviest part of the flute is, meaning that it shifts most of the weight toward the player’s face, whereas with a straight headjoint, more weight is in the middle of the instrument, near the player’s arms.

Do a trial of different harmony flutes to best determine which type of alto or bass flute — and which headjoint — will best suit your students.

Harmony Flute Accessories

bass fluteThumb Rests: I recommend thumb rests for bass and heavier flutes. Bass flutes often have metal thumb or hand rests that help players balance the extra weight. These are especially handy for students who will be playing for a long period of time but do not plan on playing with a stand.

Bass Flute Stand: If you are adding a bass flute to your ensemble, get a stand. These flutes weigh approximately 5 pounds, which is twice the weight of an alto.

Woodwind Stand: Having a few woodwind stands with pegs for soprano flutes and piccolos with also help out flute doublers.

Harmony Flute Materials

Don’t shy away from all nickel harmony flutes. Solid-silver alto and bass flutes simply aren’t within most school’s budgets. Here are three common types of materials that you will see in harmony flutes.

Copper Alloy: These flutes have a warm and brilliant sound. They are typically made with 70% to 85% copper and have a silver lip plate.

Nickel Silver: This material is an alloy of silver, zinc and nickel. Alto flutes are commonly made of solid nickel silver. This material produces a dark timbre. Oftentimes, nickel silver flutes are silver plated, which better protects against corrosion, but they are usually more expensive. The lip-plate is the most important part to protect against wear, so if you plan on getting a nickel silver flute, try to get one with a silver-plated lip-plate or headjoint.

Black Nickel: This material is used in jazz saxophones, but you can also find it in flutes! Black nickel is simply a plating on the outside of an instrument that makes it look darker. While many woodwind aficionados will claim that lacquer makes a huge difference in the sound, I believe the internal build of the instrument to be much more important.

Ways to Make Ends Meet

Even entry-level harmony flutes are not very economical. The lower in range you go means there is more tubing, and thus, the higher the price. Here are some tips on how to make a flute choir without having to drain the band boosters’ account:

  • Recruit string members from the orchestra: Instead of purchasing lower-range harmony flutes, have double bass and cellos cover the lowest parts. Of course, by adding strings, your ensemble won’t be a true flute choir, but you will still have an extremely unique chamber ensemble with a beautiful sound
  • Get second-hand instruments: You might find alto flutes and sometimes even bass flutes on Facebook pages designed for classical flute players, such as Flutes for Sale or The Flute Classifieds.
  • Arrange the music yourself or have your upperclassmen try their hand at composition: After-school chamber ensembles are the perfect space to start experimenting. If you know a senior who plans to major in music education or composition, have them take the reins and try arranging or composing a piece for the choir. Specialty chamber music can get expensive. Since it is for educational purposes, you can arrange otherwise copyrighted material and perform it with your flute choir.
Modern living room with TV showing movie with a focus on someone using a turntable.

10 Best Turntable Moments in the Movies

Written by Tara Mahadevan on . Posted in TV & Movies.

Turntables have made many appearances in films, sometimes even playing a crucial role in the plot, or to the development of central characters.

Surprised? Don’t be. Here are 10 of the best turntable moments in movies.

1. Shawshank Redemption – Opera Scene

In this compelling 1994 drama, Tim Robbins plays Andy Dufresne, a banker who’s incarcerated for a crime he didn’t commit. After years of writing to the state, he’s finally sent crates full of books and records. The delight from the unexpected delivery prompts Andy to lock himself in the warden’s office, where he plays Mozart’s Duettino-Sull’aria — and then broadcasts the aria over the prison’s PA system. As the music plays, all the inmates stop to listen, as Andy gives them a moment of hope and freedom. Check it out here.

2. Good Morning Vietnam – It’s Alright

This 1987 anti-war film stars Robin Williams as Adrian Cronauer, an irreverent, wise-cracking DJ for the Armed Forces Radio Service who is on the brink of having a nervous breakdown. The pounding tones of Adam Faith’s single “It’s Alright” serves as the soundtrack to this riveting scene, with Cronauer tossing records around the control room as he himself begins to spin out of control. Check it out here.

3. A Clockwork Orange – Beethoven’s Ninth

This Stanley Kubrick masterpiece presents a bleak glimpse into the future as we follow the wild adventures and musings of Alex (Malcolm McDowell), a criminal with a keen interest in classical music, particularly Beethoven. His love for the composer is exhibited in this scene, where Alex plays the 9th Symphony (Second Movement) as his inner monologue runs amuck. (True, he’s playing it from what appears to be an early DAT tape, but a garish turntable sits front and center in his onscreen audio system.) Violent and gruesome images follow — a study in contrast to the beautiful musical underpinning. Check it out here.

4. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade – Bath Scene

What’s a bath without a record playing? In this scene, Dr. Elsa Schneider (Alison Doody) is listening to a phonograph recording of Benny Goodman’s swing jazz tune “You’re a Sweet Little Headache” while supposedly running a bath. However, it’s actually a cover for a raid on Indiana Jones’ (Harrison Ford) room in a search for the Grail Diary. At this point in the movie, Jones doesn’t yet know that he and Elsa aren’t on the same side — and the pair kiss. Check it out here.

5. Mars Attacks – Indian Love Call

Grandma Florence Norris’ (Sylvia Sidney) record player is the only thing stopping the aliens from taking over the earth. In this hilarious scene, Florence is listening to Slim Whitman’s album Indian Love Call through headphones; however, as the Martians attack, her headphones become unplugged. It’s at this moment when the aliens’ heads begin exploding, and the world is safe once again. Check it out here.

6. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Medication Time

In this classic 1975 adaptation of the Ken Kesey novel of the same name, a young Jack Nicholson plays R.P. McMurphy, a new patient at a mental institution. One particular day, McMurphy finds the classical music that the nurses play while giving out medication to be insufferable. He asks Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher, who plays the role with just the right amount of self-righteous sadism) to turn it down and she declines … and in a way that’s so patronizing, we can almost sense the battle of wills that’s about to unfold. Check it out here.

7. Almost Famous – “One Day, You’ll Be Cool”

The record player plays a pivotal role in Almost Famous — largely because William Miller’s (Patrick Fugit) mother doesn’t allow her children to listen to music in the house. Feeling suffocated, William’s big sister moves out, telling her brother “one day, you’ll be cool” and leaving him her collection of vinyl LPs, along with a note urging him to listen to the Who’s Tommy because it will let him see his “entire future.” Sure enough, the moment William puts the album on his turntable is the moment he falls in love with rock music. Check it out here.

8. Ghost World – “Devil Got My Woman”

After graduating from high school, Enid (Thora Birch) is trying to figure out what to do with her life. She meets vinyl enthusiast Seymour (Steve Buscemi) at a garage sale, and buys a blues record — Skip James’ “Devil Got My Woman” — from him. Later, she finally gets around to putting it on her turntable … and has an epiphany as she listens to it over and over again. Check it out here.

9. The Mechanic – Car Bomb

He’s a bit of a recluse, but the one mainstay in assassin Arthur Bishop’s (Jason Statham) life is his turntable, which becomes a vital part of his routine. Every time Bishop finishes a job, he goes home and plays a record to unwind. His favorite? Franz Schubert’s Piano Trio No. 2 in E Flat Major — a gentle piece of music that serves to underscore a particularly violent hit. Check it out here.

10. The Royal Tenenbaums – Tent Scene

In The Royal Tenenbaums, the turntable is part of the story from the outset, something that adopted daughter Margot Tenenbaum (Gwyneth Paltrow) turns to for solace and comfort. In this pivotal scene, she and her brother Richie (Luke Wilson) listen to the Rolling Stones song “She Smiled Sweetly” as they have an intimate conversation and reveal their love for each other. Check it out here.

Young woman resting her chin on her hand while looking out a train window.

Never a Dull Moment

Written by Shelly Peiken on . Posted in Creativity.

I recently decided to take the train to meet some of my high school gal pals for lunch. It would be about an hour of travel.

As I got ready to leave, I wondered, should I take my tablet so I could read my book? Does it have enough juice? Where is my charger? Should I bring a portable power bank in case the battery runs low? Hmm.

I could just listen to music on my phone. But is it charged? Oh and … don’t forget earbuds. And are they charged?

You know the drill.

So much mental energy expended on making sure I had the technology necessary to stay connected en-route because heaven forbid I should be …. bored!

Then I had this thought: What if I brought nothing? What if I just looked out the window and watched the world go by? The train runs right by my high school. There are songs inside those memories. Songs I’ll never write if I’m doom-scrolling social media.

Instead of taking the risk of being bored, why not just see what boredom leads to?

Quote from David Bowie: "I don't know where I am going, but I promise it won't be boring".

“I don’t know where I am going, but I promise it won’t be boring,” David Bowie once told a concert audience — a quote that was used as the lead-in to a an article by BBC journalist Clare Thorp about the connection between boredom and creativity. Thorp asserts that it’s when we’re in the state of boredom that we are the most creative — our minds are unoccupied and available for ideas to find us. I can attest to it.

I like to think of myself as a super-busy driven woman. It’s rare when I’m idle. And when I do find myself in pause mode, I’m uncomfortable. Like it’s a waste of time unless I’m getting something done — crossing off tasks from my to-do list. But I’ve come to learn that this kind of thinking is counterproductive.

Two years ago, many creators were reduced to twiddling thumbs and counting months. But as time went by, many of us reconnected with our creativity in ways we hadn’t before. From doing nothing and despairing, we segued into writing musicals. We designed apps. Three of my friends started and finished novels. We embraced the downtime and even came to enjoy it. We came to the realization that silence and stillness was conducive to creativity.

Author Margaret Atwood has spoken of this idea through the lens of birdwatching: “Watching birds takes you out of yourself. It’s a flow state. Writing ideas come in sideways during such states.”

That flow state for me is gardening … even though I can’t make a gardenia bloom to save my life. But my anything-but-green thumb knows that when I’m doing garden work, I’m at peace. My mind makes room. I listen to music and I hear key changes and close-knit harmonies that I consider implementing in the future. Time flies when I’m nurturing my lemon tree. When the sun goes down, there’s a sense of replenishment and calm. Our minds need to rest, just as our bodies need to sleep, to recharge, just like technology.

When my daughter was a child, she used to complain from the backseat of the car that she (too) was bored. “When will we get there?” she asked over and over again. I remember asking my mother the same question, expecting her to save me … from boredom.

Think about what state you were in when you had your last eureka moment. Were you in the shower? Driving? Shopping? Whatever it was, I bet you were doing something without a creative agenda.

No, boredom isn’t something to be avoided at all costs. It’s really a gift. And if I ever sense another dull moment knocking on my door, you can be sure I’ll welcome it in.

 

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View of a flat screen tv in a modern living room.

How to Turn Off Motion Smoothing on Your TV

Written by Mike Levine on . Posted in Audio How-to.

Imagine this: You’ve just laid out big bucks for a new TV with all the bells and whistles. You get it home, set it up, and decide to celebrate by watching your favorite classic action movie. But when you turn it on, the picture quality looks more like a soap opera.

What gives?

No, it’s not a defect in your TV. To make your movie look more like it does at a theater, all you have to do is change a single setting in the TV’s preferences. However, the mode you need to adjust has different names, depending on the manufacturer. For the purposes of this article, we’ll refer to it generically as “motion smoothing.”

Frame Up

TV manufacturers invented motion smoothing to handle the visual discrepancy between movies and your TV set. As you probably know, a film or video consists of multiple single images that go by really fast to create the effect of motion. Have you ever seen one of those old-time flipbooks? Each page features a single image that varies slightly from the one before, but when you flip through them quickly, it looks like motion.

Videos are shot at various speeds, including 30 frames per second (FPS) and 29.97 FPS; however, most films and many TV shows have long been shot at 24 FPS, which gives content a slightly flickering, cinematic look. (The exception is daytime soap operas, which are often shot directly to video at 60 FPS, giving the impression that everything is either somehow too fluid or is moving in slow motion — an effect called “hyperrealism.”)

TVs have much higher refresh rates — typically 60 Hertz (Hz), 120 Hz or greater. The refresh rate is a measurement of how many times your TV reconstructs the image in one second, so it’s the TV equivalent of frames per second.

If you’re watching a 24 FPS movie on a TV, the discrepancy between the FPS of the content and the TV’s refresh rate creates blurring — also known as “judder” — especially when there’s rapid motion on the screen. TV manufacturers created motion smoothing to address this mismatch. The idea is that as a movie is playing, the TV analyzes the onscreen movement and creates additional frames to match the refresh rate based on what it thinks they would look like. The result is less blurring.

Motion smoothing can work well if the motion in the movie scene is linear and predictable — for example, a roller coaster going up or down. But if the movement is more random, it’s much harder for your TV to make an educated guess about what to include in the frame, which can result in visual distortion, also known as artifacts. The reduced amount of flicker causes 24 FPS content to look like a video shot at a higher frame rate — something known as the “Soap Opera Effect.” Click here for a video that demonstrates why it’s not desirable when watching movies.

Cruise Control

Motion smoothing’s impact on 24 FPS movies and TV shows is not only unpopular with viewers, but with many movie directors too. After all, their whole world revolves around creating a particular look and feel in their films. When a director’s carefully shot movie looks like a cheap soap opera when viewed on a TV set (where much of today’s movie watching occurs), it makes them mad. It’s enough of an issue that several high-profile directors like Christopher Nolan and Martin Scorsese — as well as actors such as Tom Cruise — have asked the public to turn motion smoothing off when they watch movies.

The blowback from the film industry over motion smoothing motivated a group of manufacturers, content producers, studios and technology companies to form an organization called the UHD Alliance in 2019. The Alliance’s main purpose is to urge TV manufacturers to include a comprehensive setting on their products called “Filmmaker Mode” (FMM) so that viewers can watch movies with TV settings optimized for the cinematic experience … which includes motion smoothing being turned off.

It took a while for Filmmaker Mode to catch on, but it’s getting more widespread. According to a recent article in the Hollywood Reporter, “Filmmaker Mode is now available in all-new LG and Samsung TVs as well as select models from Hisense, Panasonic, Philips/TP Vision and Skyworth; projectors from LG, Samsung, Benq and Hisense; and services including Kaleidescape and Prime Video (the first streaming platform to automatically implement Filmmaker Mode for Prime on LG TVs).”

How To Turn Motion Smoothing Off

Although Filmmaker Mode is a heartening development, many people own TVs that don’t include it, instead offering a single control to turn motion smoothing on or off. If your TV falls into that category, simply use the list below to identify the name for motion smoothing that your TV manufacturer uses, then use its remote to navigate to the advanced picture settings menu (where it’s most usually found) and turn it off. (The links provide specific instructions for each manufacturer.)

Without the Soap Opera Effect, you may see more blurring during action sequences, but at least The Godfather will no longer look like The Young and the Restless. Happy viewing!

Pierz Healy band performing in gym

Case Study: In this Rural Town, Band is Family

Written by Savy Leiser on . Posted in Case Studies.

Every fall, band director Joel Pohland starts fielding the same question — “When is jazz night?” — from excited members of his community in Pierz, Minnesota. Even though jazz night, which takes place in April, may be at least six months away, it’s still on everyone’s mind.

Now going into its fifth year, jazz night started as a two-hour concert featuring performances by the jazz band from Pierz Healy High School, where Pohland is the band director. Profits from ticket sales benefit the school’s music department, and the event has become one of Pohland’s favorite fundraisers.

In 2020, jazz night was canceled because of the pandemic, so the community was more than thrilled about the return of the performance in 2021. Indoor events were still considered unsafe, so Pohland took jazz night outdoors. This decision became one of the event’s strongest assets. Attendees brought lawn chairs and coolers to the event, and at the end of the night, audience members requested that Pohland hold the event outside the following year as well.

Pohland latched onto that idea and decided to expand upon it. “The 2022 jazz night was held at our golf course, and a local community group provided food,” he says. “Our FFA (Future Farmers of America) team sold ice cream to raise money. Now jazz night has turned into a community event.”

Pierz Healy band on stage The students have fallen in love with the event, too. “I have students who will buy a suit just for jazz night. They get all dressed up, and they’re super pumped,” Pohland says. “It’s turned into way more than I could ever have imagined.”

Jazz night is one of many ways that Pohland gets the Pierz community involved with his school’s music program. He acknowledges that community involvement is one of the keys to growing a strong music department in a rural area.

Pierz Healy High enrolls less than 600 students, but the music program boasts a concert band, symphonic band, two jazz bands, a musical pit band and a pep band. Through fostering an environment of trust and innovation, Pohland creates a big musical impact in this small town.

Music in the Family

One of the keys to building a successful music program in a rural area is to create a tight-knit community and foster familial bonds among teachers and students. For Pohland, this family connection was second nature, as music has long been a part of this family.

Pohland’s father and brother are also band directors. After graduating from Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, where his father teaches (and where Pohland met his wife, Kaitlin), Pohland sought advice from his own family as he ventured into the world of band directing.

“We all talk once or twice a week,” he says. “We run music by each other and talk about what’s working or what’s not working. The problems I go through, my brother, who’s the band director at New Prague High School, has been through because he’s taught for longer than I have.”

Often, these regular conversations lead to improved experiences for all three directors. “[When] we come across something new, we share it, so when [another one of us] inevitably runs into it, we have some background on it,” Pohland says. “We talk about a new piece of music, a new travel experience, a new festival that we’re planning on participating in, playing the national anthem at a Minnesota Twins game and much more.”

Family in Music

PierzHealy ensemble concertblackHaving open, honest conversations isn’t only beneficial with his own family. Pohland has also found that building personal connections with students helps the program gain a sense of camaraderie. He says that one of the keys to building a trusting relationship with students includes “sharing my stories — sharing why I’m passionate, why I’m energetic about music.”

This may include discussions of off-topic hobbies and interests because the key is to show genuine interest in one another as people. “I love to golf, I love to run, I love to travel, so I share those things with my students,” Pohland says. “Building connections goes beyond just music connections.”

Major life events have also strengthened Pohland’s bond with his students. “My wife and I just adopted a child,” he says. “I shared that entire journey with my students because it was important to me. My students became invested in our story, and they felt like they were part of it.”

While these topics are not related to music class, they go a long way toward building rapport with students. “If you can find ways to connect with students about their personal lives, it’s so much easier to go, ‘Hey, now I need this for us in band. I need us to really step up,’” Pohland says.

As a result, students are often eager to help and more likely to take initiative with tasks like setting up before concerts. The program also has a stronger impact on students’ lives. “If you want it to feel like a family, you have to run it like a family,” Pohland says. “I found that it really works here because we live in a small community, and we have a lot of family connections.”

Building a musical family is a natural step for the students at Pierz Healy, many of whom are literally related. For example, one of the school’s jazz bands has 23 students, with 17 of them related to another student in some way, whether as a sibling or a cousin.

These family connections make for fun photos at school concerts. “We do a mass band concert [with] 300 students performing,” Pohland says. “It was so cool because afterward you see 5th graders to our seniors come together for these giant family pictures.”

Small-Town Challenges

Pierz Healy High School ensemble performingWhile a close-knit musical family may sound like a dream come true, maintaining a music program in a small, rural town comes with its own unique challenges. Some students may struggle to make it to every rehearsal when they have other commitments at home like working on their parents’ farm. Other students may struggle to get to rehearsal on time when driving to school takes 30 minutes or when Minnesota weather rears its destructive head.

Solving these problems requires careful scheduling, coordination and communication. For example, due to other conflicting school activities, Pohland holds jazz band rehearsals at 7 a.m. before school starts. “I have students who live 30 minutes away. They’re leaving their house at 6:15,” Pohland says. “On a night when there’s weather, I have to think about [making] sure students are safe.”

To ensure safety, Pohland offers an open line of communication to his students. He asks that students send him a message if they’re planning to be late and emphasizes that it’s more important to drive safely than to arrive to rehearsal on time.

He also regularly converses with coaches, teachers and leaders of other activities to ensure students get to participate in everything. “We’re limited in numbers. The student body wants to be a part of everything, which is so cool,” Pohland says. “I love that our football captains, the members of the speech team, our drama department, all those kids are in music. It’s something I take a lot of pride in.”

Having overachieving students is definitely a point of pride, but it’s also often a source of scheduling conflicts. “The biggest thing is flexibility and communication,” Pohland says. “We have students who are athletes, and sometimes they’ll shoot me a message the night before saying, ‘Hey, I forgot we have a morning practice. I won’t be at jazz band.’ If I need something, I’ll say, ‘We need to have this jazz rehearsal, can you let your coach know?’”

Pohland often works with coaches directly to coordinate schedules that alternate each side’s give-and-take. “Communication usually fixes everything,” he says.

Reaching Out in a Rural Community

PierzHealyBand GymCommunication goes hand in hand with community outreach. One of the benefits of building a music program in a small community is the ability to get students directly involved with community performances.

In Pierz, the pep band is a community staple. While many people think pep bands are just for football and basketball seasons, Pohland has expanded the Pierz Healy pep band’s reach by having them perform for an array of sporting events, including football, volleyball, tennis, cross country, and both boys’ and girls’ basketball. “We have students who are really enthusiastic about pep band,” Pohland says. “I love pep band. I love being at games. That comes back to building relationships.”

While directing the pep band, Pohland loves when he sees some of his band students competing as athletes on the field or court. “I can say, ‘Nice job at your game last night,’ and they’re excited that I was there.”

Pohland also loves organizing community performances around the holiday season. Every year, the school’s jazz band plays holiday music for residents at local nursing homes. “It’s so heartwarming,” Pohland says. “The students feel amazing, and we get to perform for people who might not have a visitor. This music brings joy to their hearts.”

Viewing music as a universal source for joy and human connection is at the heart of Pierz Healy’s success. By using his town’s small size to his advantage, Pohland has taken his young musicians from merely an ensemble to something much stronger: a family.

Eisenhower High School ensemble performance

Case Study: Tips to Home Grow a High-Quality Music Program

Written by Dr. Justin Antos, Ph.D., NBCT on . Posted in Case Studies.

Every day, I feel blessed to go to work, excited to make music with my students. These kids are some of the most humble, diligent and talented young people from some of the most selfless and genuine families I have ever met. There is no group of students I would rather teach or no community in which I would rather serve … but my job is sometimes far from perfect.

Having taught for the last 13 years in a Title I school with next to no feeder system and where the vast majority of the student population is low income, we lack many resources that exist in schools in more affluent communities. Despite some of these obstacles, we have built a thriving instrumental music department. When I began teaching at Dwight D. Eisenhower High School in 2009, I inherited a band program of just over 40 students. Today, that program has turned into three curricular bands, two curricular orchestras, several extracurricular ensembles and a guitar program, now serving more than 300 students.

One aspect of our growth that makes me particularly proud is that most students in our music program begin learning their instrument once they enroll in high school. Some students enter with previous musical experience from their elementary general music classes, but most begin their musical training with me. While I do not claim to be an expert on anything, I wanted to a share a few tips that I have found to be most successful throughout my experiences in home growing a high-quality music program.

Tip #1: Kids Won’t Invest in Learning Music Until They Invest in You

making faces pexelsYou cannot be a wallflower music teacher and expect kids to flock to your class. Be bubbly and personable. Show kids that you are committed to them and that you see and hear them. Make them laugh. Truth be told, I gauge my effectiveness each day based on whether I can get my students to laugh.

One thing I learned from teaching in a post-pandemic landscape is that compassion must come before curriculum. When building a program of first-time instrumentalists, it is imperative that students associate music with positivity. Anyone who has taught beginners knows all too well that some of the sounds kids produce on their instruments are, shall we say — interesting. Embrace it. There will be time for remediation. After all, the more interesting the sound, the higher the potential for observable growth.

Tip #2: Do Instrument Demonstrations Justice!

Imagine you are at a car dealership. You know you want to drive something new off the lot, but you have no idea where to begin. You see sport cars and luxury sedans with the latest upgrades and accessories. A salesperson approaches you and in a confident tone says, “Let’s go for a drive.” He grabs the keys, tells you to hop in and as the car pulls out of the lot, the transmission lets out a deafening grind. The car bumps and jostles. It revs and slows. At this point, you are trying not to get sick! Sure, the car could be a lemon. More than likely, though, the salesperson doesn’t know how to drive a stick shift.

When it comes to attracting beginner instrumentalists, a quality demonstration of proper technique, beautiful tone quality and recognizable melodies on each instrument will significantly help students visualize their potential for success. As a gigging percussionist, I feel extremely confident performing a four-mallet marimba or drum set solo for my students. I might even throw in some stick tricks! However, ask me to demonstrate that same level of proficiency and confidence on a flute solo, and I would instantly become that car salesman who couldn’t drive a stick shift.

female student violinWhile I recognize there is enormous value in practicing instruments outside your primary instrument, as an ensemble director, I simply do not have the time to devote to preparing quality demonstrations on a variety of instruments. Instead, I call upon my colleagues, music major friends from college or, in some cases, former or current students to showcase their talents on various instruments.

If your school does not have a budget to pay for these individuals, try not to worry. Throughout the years, I have paid for countless demonstrations with pizza and beer or have exchanged services where I demonstrate percussion for my colleagues’ groups free of charge. At the end of the day, your kids will get inspired to pick up an instrument that speaks to them by hearing quality live music all while you get to hang out with your friends!

If you work in a small town or rural area, or do not have access to musician friends or colleagues from other schools, community colleges, area universities or the United States Army Field Band feature some outstanding videos of their musicians demonstrating various band instruments on YouTube.

The Berlin Philharmonic’s Digital Concert Hall is my favorite resource for all things orchestra. While they charge an annual subscription fee, you can register for a free trial in the days leading up to your instrument demonstration that gives viewers access to a robust library of content including solo demonstrations and biographies, high-resolution multi-cam angles of decades’ worth of performances under the world’s most iconic conductors, and concert livestreams.

Tip #3: Start Playing Chamber Music as Soon as Possible.

Eisenhower ensemble performanceUnison playing in an ensemble is necessary when students first begin learning a musical instrument. Because novice students’ audiation and tone production are developing, it helps to have everyone play the same melody together for reference. Additionally, playing in unison helps alleviate some of the anxiety students might experience from playing something incorrectly or thinking they sound bad. After all, how many of us sing more quietly in the car once the radio is turned down?

However, too much reliance on unison playing does little to enhance independent musicianship. Students can fall through the cracks rather inconspicuously and mislead you into thinking they understand the concepts because they can demonstrate the skills. Unfortunately, the two are mutually exclusive and both need to be assessed regularly for true learning to take place — especially with beginners at the high school level.

Chamber music takes the necessary elements of a fully orchestrated composition and distills them into individual parts. Each part, whether it is part of a duet, trio or larger chamber ensemble, is required to produce an authentic realization of the composer’s intent. Performing chamber music has myriad benefits for beginners:

  • It teaches students about balance and blend immediately.
  • It places responsibility on members to learn their individual part.
  • It helps teachers assess whether students understand musical concepts and can demonstrate the necessary skills since everyone’s part is different.
  • It diversifies programming and adds breadth to each concert.
  • Best of all, it helps students enter more advanced ensembles with a greater sense of confidence and musical awareness.

Remember, no one is expecting your beginning group to read Mozart’s “Gran Partita.” Performing easy flex arrangements or even creating your own eight-bar duets or trios based on where your students are in their method books will do the trick. I assist my students with writing their own chamber pieces all the time. Remember, the first five pitches of a scale contain enough substance to imply tonic, subdominant and dominant harmony. My advice: If your kids can play through a fifth exhibiting good fundamentals, they can (and should) play chamber music.

Tip #4: Set Everyone Up for Success.

Eisenhower marching bandIf you are tasked with developing beginner instrumentalists to eventually feed your top ensemble(s), promote students based on their demonstration of mastery, NOT on the instrument they play. As someone who spends the majority of his day teaching band classes, I know this can be a tough pill to swallow. Remember though, our role as music educators is NOT to teach a piece of music, but to teach musical concepts and skills. The pieces we program are simply vehicles to determine the extent to which students understand and can demonstrate these musical concepts and skills. This is why your learning objectives and success criteria based on the standards found in your curriculum are so important!

Over my last 14 years of teaching, there have been years when my top ensemble did not have a tuba player. Just this past year, over a quarter of my top band consisted of alto saxophone players. I have had some years when my top ensemble had 60 members, and some years where I had 20. Yet in each of these examples, my groups still performed nationally, still earned Division I ratings at festivals, still received praise and exceptional feedback from clinicians, and still demonstrated an exceptionally high level of musicianship in performance at community concerts, parades and fundraisers.

Did I have to get creative with my programming? Sure. Did I have to rewrite parts and cross-cue lines of music to fit my ensemble? Absolutely. But at the end of the day, I rest easy knowing a successful performance is on the horizon because every kid can hang. When you use standardized criteria to form your ensembles, you set your students up for an experience tailored to both their strengths and their learning needs.

Tip #5: Celebrate the Little Victories … and Often!

Eisenhower mariachiMost ensemble directors have a social media account for their music programs. This is a terrific way to share your students’ accolades with the world. That said, don’t devote the bulk of your social media posts to celebrating only the achievements of your top ensemble(s). Earning a superior rating at a festival is great news worth celebrating — but so is the first time your beginning brass students learn how to buzz! When every student feels celebrated in your program, word travels fast.

Sharing what your kids are doing in class is a great way to create some buzz about your program. Something simple like a class photo with the caption, “Look who learned how to slur today in orchestra!” communicates to parents and other stakeholders that their kids are learning valuable content in a curricular setting.

All great teachers realize that every single student can make an impact, but the most outstanding educators are the ones who help their students demonstrate that impact. Every student, whether they are introverted or extroverted, analytical or artistic, brings an asset to your program. The journey is helping students discover what that asset might be and then using it to benefit everyone in the room.

If you know that a particular student excels in a certain facet of performance, empower that student to help run a sectional that day. If a student has a magnetic personality, empower that student to help you recruit for your program. Approach each student with an asset-based mindset and celebrate them frequently. The more you cultivate their abilities, the fewer liabilities you will encounter.

Tennessee State University's harp ensemble

Case Study: “Grow Your Own” Program Increases Access and Eliminates Barriers

Written by Dr. Robert Bryant on . Posted in Case Studies.

I am the music education coordinator at Tennessee State University (TSU), a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in Nashville. I oversee the curricular development, instructional delivery, staffing, clinical placement and academic advising for our vocal and instrumental music education students. Annually, we prepare nearly 200 music majors for careers in music, and we offer a variety of degree pathways with several concentrations.

TSU harp ensembleThe music department at Tennessee State University has a rich legacy and a storied history. From our world-famous Aristocrat of Bands marching band to our broad range of music offerings that include everything from modern band to harp ensemble, we both appreciate our traditions while finding new ways to innovate in our programs.

In the fall of 2020, the Tennessee Department of Education awarded our “Grow Your Own” educator preparation program a $2 million grant in efforts to increase access and remove barriers to the teaching profession. With this award, we have revitalized our program in several ways. While we were doing everything we could as an HBCU to help diversify the teacher pipeline within our region, the newly acquired funding has accelerated our work in ways we could have only dreamed of previously. The following initiatives and enhancements detail the work we have been doing in recent years to give our students a world-class music teacher preparation experience.

Global Student Support Services Lab

Our student support lab is the centerpiece of all programming for our educator preparation program. Through the lab, we can provide regular intensive tutorials and mock exams for the Praxis Core (which measures skills in reading, writing and mathematics deemed to be essential for all teacher candidates) and Praxis Subject Assessments (which measure general and subject-specific teaching skills and knowledge). These exams, along with the edTPA (a performance-based, subject-specific assessment), are required for teacher licensure in Tennessee.

Because many of our students are first-generation college students and rely significantly on federal student aid to finance their education, it can be problematic for our students to pay for these tests. We offer fee waivers for students to take their Praxis tests. We also include the costs for edTPA in the total costs of registering for their student teaching course. Since we have been offering these financial incentives, more students have attended the tutorial sessions, received waivers and passed their tests on their first attempt.

Black male teacher pexels

Minority Male Educator Initiative

A comprehensive body of research highlights the need for more minority male teachers in public schools. As an HBCU, we take pride in our commitment to improve the lives of traditionally underserved communities. In our music program, we tend to attract a larger than average number of minority males who are interested in the teaching profession.

My goal is to retain as many of them in the major as possible. With the minority male educator initiative, we have partnered with Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools and paired more than 20 of our minority male education majors with mentor teachers currently in the field who are also minority male teachers. This program has become very popular since its inception in the spring of 2021. It has built a vibrant community of male educators who are empowered and passionate about giving back and helping the next generation of music teachers.

Minority Teaching Fellows Program

One of the most profound ways that we have helped more students remain in the education program is by providing additional funding for school. With the “Grow Your Own” grant we received, we have been able to provide scholarships up to $5,000 per academic year for any minority education major who commits to teaching in the state of Tennessee for one year.

To receive the award, a music education major must submit an application form, maintain a 2.5 GPA and attend school full time (12 credit hours per semester). The award is renewable for each year they are in the program. This program has been immensely impactful in boosting our retention and graduation rates. Prior to this program, we were losing more than 50% of our music education majors within their first two years of study. Many of them were leaving school simply because they did not have adequate funding to pay for college. With these scholarships, we have seen our graduation rate increase by almost 20%. Also, our overall enrollment in the music education program has grown by more than 25% since the fall of 2020 when students began to take advantage of the scholarship opportunity. We hope to be able to increase the scholarship amount in future years.

Curriculum Innovation

Apple LabWith the “Grow Your Own” funds, we have enhanced our curricula in numerous ways. We now offer a Praxis review course, which provides students with a formal class setting that prepares them to pass both the Praxis Core test, as well as the content-specific Praxis Music test.

We have also upgraded our computer labs with Mac computer stations that include industry-standard software. Additionally, we have expanded our music library to include resources and test preparation materials for our department’s major field assessment, Praxis tests and edTPA performance portfolio resources.

Our next initiative is to update our music education laboratory class to include better equipment, instruments, technology and resources that students can use as they complete their field observation hours and student teaching.

International Education

globe pexels pixabay

Though our department was engaged in several activities long before the pandemic, the grant has allowed us to greatly bolster the financial support we can offer for study abroad and cultural exchange programs. Our department sends contingents of students to Colombia, Turkey, Europe, South Africa and East Asia annually. During the pandemic, we could not travel abroad, but we found an opportunity in Soliya Connect, a virtual cultural exchange program that brings together college students from the United States, North Africa and the Middle East for online discussions in real-time.

My music education majors gain significant cultural competency through the international programs we offer, and now that we are able to travel abroad again, we can offer our students more grants for studying internationally.

Together We Grow

Through the Tennessee Department of Education’s $2 million “Grow Your Own” grant, we have been able to take advantage of opportunities and provide resources to our students that were previously unattainable. We can now truly “grow our own” and prepare our students for a career in music education.

For those of you who may be having difficulty finding resources for your programs, I encourage you to reach out to your community partners, the business community and your state and local representatives. At TSU, we challenged our local and state officials to “put their money where their mouth is.” And while the funds do not make up for the numerous inequities that continue to persist in our education system, we now have evidence that all our stakeholders are invested in providing an equitable educational experience for all students.

Guitarist playing acoustic guitar.

Recording Acoustic Instruments, Part 1

Written by Mike Levine on . Posted in Recording. 3 Comments on Recording Acoustic Instruments, Part 1

One of the more challenging aspects of producing music in a home studio is recording acoustic instruments. Without the acoustic treatment and expensive gear you find in a commercial studio, it requires effort and experimentation to get high-quality results.

In the first of this three-part series, we’ll cover some critical concepts; in Part 2 and Part 3, we’ll give you some specific recommendations for how to mic various instruments.

Microphone Options

Let’s start by looking at the different types of microphones available. Condenser mics, which require an external power supply (48 volts of phantom power), are the best all-around choice for recording because they most accurately pick up detail and are especially good at responding to transients — the initial peak of a sound wave.

Condensers fall into two categories: small-diaphragm (sometimes also referred to as “pencil” mics) and large-diaphragm. Small-diaphragm models are particularly good for capturing high-frequency content such as the attack of a pick on a guitar, or a stick striking a cymbal. However, large-diaphragm condensers are better at capturing the sound of instruments that produce a wide range of frequencies, including lots of mids and lows … which is one reason they’re also the preferred type of mic for recording vocals. If you’re only going to get one mic for your studio, a large-diaphragm condenser is the most versatile and therefore your best option.

Closeup of microphone on stand.
A small-diaphragm condenser mic.
Close-up of gray microphone on red background.
A large-diaphragm condenser mic.

Dynamic mics are less sensitive than condensers, so they deliver lower-level signals than similarly placed condenser mics. They are rugged and come in a variety of sizes and shapes, plus they can handle loud sounds without overloading, which is why they are often used for live performance; however, they generally don’t capture as much high-end detail as condensers. That makes dynamic mics less desirable for recording applications, although they are often used on drums and for certain wind instruments.

Four different types of microphones seen in closeup.
Dynamic mics come in a variety of sizes and shapes.

Ribbon mics don’t capture the high-end as accurately as condensers, but they impart a warm tone that can be highly pleasing when used on the right source. However, good quality ribbon mics are generally more expensive than equivalent condensers or dynamics and tend to be somewhat fragile.

A Pattern of Capture

Every mic exhibits a particular polar pattern — a measure of its directionality. A mic with a cardioid polar pattern picks up mainly from the front and rejects sound from the back and sides. Two variations, hypercardioid and supercardioid, are even more directional but pick up a little more from behind. All the variations of the cardioid pattern are referred to as unidirectional mics. You generally want a mic with a unidirectional pattern if you’re pointing it directly at a source.

Omnidirectional (“omni”) mics pick up equally from all around. Most ribbon mics have a bi-directional figure-8 polar pattern, meaning that they pick up equally from the front and back but reject sound from the sides. Many condenser mics offer multiple patterns so you can change them from cardioid to omni to figure-8 with the flip of a switch, making them quite versatile.

Diagram.
Polar patterns define a mic’s directionality.

The Proximity Effect

An important concept to understand about miking is the proximity effect that occurs with unidirectional or figure-8 mics, which causes increased bass response as they are placed closer to the source. You’ve probably experienced the proximity effect with vocal mics. When you put your mouth right up to the mic, your voice gets bassier. (Radio DJs often use this to make their voices sound bigger and more authoritative.)

Although you won’t notice it as much on instruments, it does factor in when deciding on mic placement. Mics with an omnidirectional pattern exhibit virtually no proximity effect, which is something you can use to your advantage in certain situations.

Finding The Sweet Spot

Microphone placement is probably the most critical aspect to successfully recording acoustic instruments. Just putting a mic in front of the source is not enough. You want to find the “sweet spot” — the place where the mic will capture the sound of the instrument with the greatest accuracy.

Finding the sweet spot can be as simple as walking around and listening to the instrument as it is being played — you may be amazed at how different it sounds up close versus a few inches (or feet) away. All you have to do then is to place a microphone where it sounds best. However, if the goal is to record yourself playing the instrument, that’s obviously impossible. A better method is to gain an understanding of how the instrument creates sound. That knowledge will inform you about where to start placing the mic. Some instruments sound fuller if you move the mic back a little. If you put a mic quite close to one of those instruments, you might not be getting the complete sonic picture. On many instruments (most notably, acoustic piano), the sound emanates from their entire body.

You also must consider the circumstances of the session and the acoustics of the room you’re recording in. If there are multiple musicians playing in the same room simultaneously, for example, you’ll have to mic instruments more closely in order to minimize bleed (the sound of other instruments coming into the microphones). This will have the (perhaps unintended) consequence of giving you more direct sound — that is the actual sound of the instrument.

Diagram.
With the mic up close, you get primarily direct sound.

Conversely, moving a mic further back means that you’ll be capturing less direct sound from the instrument and more of the reflected sound coming from the waves bouncing around the room. If the acoustics are favorable, a little room sound can be good. However, in an acoustically challenged room (like one that’s overly boomy or reverberant), the further back you place the mic, the more it will pick up the not-so-desirable room sound.

Diagram.
The further back you put the mic, the more room sound you get.

What Are You Going For?

Last but by no means least, you also need to consider the instrument’s role in the song arrangement and its sonic characteristics — for example, if it’s playing long sustained notes or short accents, or whether the guitarist is playing with a pick or with their fingers.

Let’s say you’re overdubbing an acoustic guitar that’s strumming chords underneath a dense arrangement of many other instruments and vocals. Because it will be serving as a rhythm component and mixed relatively low, you may want to approach it differently than if it’s the only (or the featured) instrument supporting the vocal.

In the case of a strumming guitar, your goal would be to capture the guitar’s mids and highs clearly and cleanly because those are the frequencies that will cut through a full mix. But if a guitar (or piano) is the sole instrument in an arrangement, or part of a duo or trio of instruments without drums — and thus featured more prominently — you’ll want to record a more full-frequency sound. In that situation, you also might consider recording the instrument in stereo.

Doubleheader

Unless you have a purpose-built stereo mic, stereo miking requires two microphones, preferably of the same type. Placement is tricky when you have more than one mic on the same source, and it can create phase problems if you don’t follow specific rules of physics. That’s because, depending on the distance of the mics to the source, the sound of one mic can arrive sooner than the sound coming from the other.

When the timing of the waves on the two tracks is not synchronized, they’re considered out of phase. When that happens, it creates a phenomenon called comb filtering, in which the waves interfere with each other and degrade the sound quality when played back together, particularly when listened to in mono.

One way to avoid phase issues when using two mics on a source is to observe what’s called the 3-to-1 Rule: Make sure that the distance between the microphones is at least three times greater than the distance of each mic to the source.

Diagram.
The 3-1 Rule.

For example, suppose you’re recording an acoustic guitar, and you have one mic aimed behind the bridge and one at the 12th fret, with both mics 10 inches from the guitar. To follow the 3:1 Rule, you’d need to make sure that they were at least 30 inches apart.

There are actually many different stereo miking techniques, the simplest of which is the X-Y method, often used when recording acoustic guitar. A little online research will give you information about other methods, such as A-B, Mid-Side (M-S) and ORTF.

 

Check out Part 2: Miking strategies for various instruments.

 

Check out our other Recording Basics postings.

music students at Metlakatla High School

Case Study: Providing Space for Practice

Written by Savy Leiser on . Posted in Case Studies.

In 2018, Amanda Schoolland moved to the small community of Metlakatla, Alaska, to be the music director at Metlakatla High School. Although she was new to the area, she noticed that many of her students faced a similar issue as those at her former schools in Colorado — a lack of time or space to practice at home.

Regardless of location, Schoolland’s solution has been the same: Keep the band room open longer. “I make the band room available every day after school,” she says. “It’s not utilized every day, but it is available. It’s marked in my office hours as one hour, but I’ve been known to stay two or three hours if students are really getting into the music.”

Like with any skill, practicing music leads to progress. Since making the effort to provide students with a practice space, Schoolland has noticed students becoming more confident, and, in the case of her program at Metlakatla, exponential membership growth. “When I arrived at Metlakatla, I had four students in the middle school band and six in the high school band,” she says. “My high school band now has 15 students this year, so we’ve more than doubled the program. In middle school, we have about 20, so we’ve quintupled the program!”

Providing that space for her students has led to increased trust and confidence. “The extra practice time fed into building relationships with students,” she says. “They became more confident, and as their confidence grew, other students saw their confidence and were drawn to it. It became a snowball effect.”

An Open Door to the Band Room

Madi Smith practices the trombone. Schoolland first created her open-door band room policy while working at an inner-city school in Colorado. Many of her low-income students struggled with the logistical side of practicing their instruments, such as transporting their instruments to and from school or not having space at home to practice. “I had one student who lived in their car,” she says. “He couldn’t practice trombone in his back seat. That’s where the idea of keeping the band room open after school took root — from the knowledge that not every kid has a safe place to practice outside of school.”

After moving to Alaska, Schoolland made the band room accessible for one hour after school Monday through Friday. She allowed students to come in casually and practice whatever they wanted. “Any student could come by. If they wanted to play piano for the first time, or if they wanted to practice their band instrument, or even if they wanted to try a different instrument, they would have an opportunity to do that in a safe space,” she says.

In Metlakatla, the middle school and high school each have less than 100 total students. Because the community is so small, most students wear many hats. The band members and jocks are often one and the same. “They’re involved in everything,” Schoolland says. “I noticed they were having trouble coming after school when their sports schedule conflicted.”

To solve this dilemma, Schoolland worked with students to get them some practice time during the school day. Students have an independent practice period, which is like a study hall, every day. “Students would ask their independent practice teacher if they could come to the band room and practice during that time,” Schoolland says.

Building Trust and Confidence

Tricia Lindsey teaches Kendall Booth how to play the saxophoneA growing music program requires mutual trust between students and teachers if it’s going to thrive and flourish. Getting students motivated to practice during their free periods or after school also requires that they gain self-confidence in their own musical abilities.

Building a trusting relationship with her students is Schoolland’s top priority. “[Playing music] exposes students,” she says. “We’re literally putting ourselves out there every time we make a sound. Mistakes are things to be overcome and fixed.”

Schoolland explains that students must feel safe to make mistakes during rehearsal and practice time. To create that safe atmosphere, she regularly calls out her own mistakes and shows students how she fixes them. “I resort to humor quite a bit in my classroom,” she says. “Students know that when I make a mistake, I can laugh about it and correct it. I am constantly telling kids, ‘I’m sorry. That was my mistake. Let me show you how I’m going to fix it.’”

Practicing During Quarantine

One of the program’s biggest challenges arose when COVID-19 spread in 2020. Schools everywhere shut down, and Metlakatla was no exception. As the world tried to figure out what to make of the new virus, the school regularly shut down, went virtual and then reopened.

These constant changes made practicing music difficult for many students. “During COVID, we were in and out of school,” Schoolland says. “Kids were having trouble practicing at home. They’d go home, and school would be canceled for a month. They didn’t have their instruments.”

Kalleigh Miller and Kendall Booth at MusicFestBeing a small community worked in Metlakatla’s favor. “We literally know where everyone lives,” Schoolland says. “When we were shut down for more than a couple days at a time, staff members from the school volunteered to help deliver instruments. We were able to get instruments in kids’ hands pretty quickly.”

Once students had their instruments, though, new problems arose once again. Students who struggled to practice at their own houses pre-COVID had the same challenges during quarantine, but no school band room to utilize. Schoolland recalls, “A lot of kids said, ‘Well, I’m staying at my auntie’s house right now, and she has a newborn. Where can I practice?’”

This led Schoolland and her students to come up with some ingenious solutions. Schoolland signed up for MusicFirst to use its virtual practice platform, which allowed students to submit modified versions of practice assignments.

For example, some students just practiced fingerings if they weren’t allowed to make noise at home, and some students sang their parts. “During those times, they got really creative,” Schoolland says.

Amelia Miller, Tyanna Williams and Avienda Cook practice a Tsimshian song.

Juggling it All

In addition to running Metlakatla’s middle school and high school bands, Schoolland teaches computer coding. Juggling a full day of classes and rehearsals with her signature open band room after school, which can run for three hours, requires a mix of passion and organization.

Schoolland doesn’t stay late to keep the band room open every day because she feels obligated to — she wants to be there. “I love my job. I love spending time with my students,” she says.

Additionally, staying organized is key. Schoolland says, “Making lists, that’s how I keep up on my to-do stuff — I’m constantly making lists!”

The biggest factor, though, is a commitment to your work, or as Schoolland calls it, being “all-in” on her job. “I moved to Alaska to work at this school. I feel like it’s my calling,” she says. “

Lakeshore Elementary School student playing the trumpet

Case Study: Grassroots Funding Through Social Media and Contests

Written by Christine Ngeo Katzman on . Posted in Case Studies.

When Heather Taylor became the band director at Lakeshore Elementary School in Rochester, New York, in 2018, she had an $80 annual budget.

“That’s literally less than $1 a kid,” says Taylor who teaches about 140 students in 4th and 5th grades out of 420 students overall in grades 3 to 5. Each band student participates in a full concert ensemble for two days before school and receives small group instrumental lessons once per week during the school day.

Norah Farley wearing medal and holding band pin Instead of lamenting on the small budget, Taylor went to work to find outside funding and has received nearly $20,000 in donations in the past four years.

Taylor had spent the prior nine years moving around Greece Central School District — teaching general music, special education music, instrumental lessons, band and choir to preschool through 12th grade — before landing her dream job at Lakeshore.

“As hard as it was to be in so many different positions in [seven] different buildings, it did help narrow my focus [to find] where my passion was,” Taylor says. “Now that I’m in an elementary setting, I know that this is my niche where I do my best work. I’m starting kids on their musical journey. … I find elementary school to be a much more community-centered learning environment. … [Students] are very eager to learn to make music.”

Community Building

Taylor’s initial priority at Lakeshore was to secure quality instruments. “The equipment I had was in really bad shape — literally duct-taped together — and somebody had written all over the drumheads,” she says. “I had no trumpets, no saxophones and just a few flutes and clarinets.”

Austin McInnis and Tochi Ugochukwu playing saxWhile the school provides students with the larger and more expensive instruments, such as French horns, baritones, tubas and oboes, families are typically expected to rent more popular and smaller instruments like flutes, clarinets and saxophones. However, Taylor says that situation created equity and balance problems.

“It’s difficult to [balance the instrumentation] if I don’t have an instrument, and people can’t go rent,” Taylor says. “I didn’t want students’ home situations to prevent them from participating in music.”

At Lakeshore, 100% of students receive free or reduced lunch. Lakeshore is a designated Community School that provides additional services such as district-level before- and after-school childcare, after-school clubs, mental health services and partnerships with local food and clothing donation centers.

To help level the playing field for all prospective and current musicians, Taylor sought grassroots funding opportunities. She found the school budgeting approval process to be long and arduous. “There’s no part of being in music that isn’t expensive,” she says.

Waiting for funding, equipment and materials using traditional methods wasn’t working, so Taylor sought out unique funding opportunities.

Soliciting funds through external organizations proved to be easier than expected. Through some internet searching, Taylor discovered that the local grocery chain Wegmans supported the community in a variety of ways and welcomed donation and sponsorship requests. Taylor submitted a request for $1,300 to buy instruments and was approved.

From there, Taylor found more businesses, such as additional grocery chains, banks and bigger businesses, that had community development webpages with easy submission processes.

Taylor has since been able to receive enough funds to purchase at least a few of every type of instrument for students to borrow.

#ClearTheList and DonorsChoose

The more that Taylor became involved with community giving organizations, the more that she began following groups, individuals and initiatives through social media. A viral movement called #ClearTheList started by Texas elementary teacher Courtney Jones in 2019 encouraged teachers to create supply wish lists, often through Amazon, for community members to fulfill them. When the movement hit Twitter and became a not-for-profit foundation, it exploded even more.

Charlee Bentley playing mallet percussion instrument Taylor initiated her wish list with requests for mouthpieces, reeds, neck straps, valve oil, cork grease and lessons books. She would always attach a picture of her with the students. “Having an action photo with kids playing instruments tended to grab people’s attention,” she says.

She later added more expensive instruments and equipment, such as a flute, percussion accessories, an amplifier and an office chair. She noticed a tweet from Chip Gaines from the television series “Fixer Upper” that encouraged his followers to help people for the holidays in December 2019. Taylor reached out to him and received a message back through Twitter from his assistant who purchased everything from her wish list. “That’s the first time that my list was cleared,” Taylor says.

T-Mobile also saw one of Taylor’s wish lists and cleared it.

Taylor makes sure to actively thank her donors and to tag them in social media, if possible. To show appreciation to Gaines, she filmed a thank-you video of her students opening the new items and posted it online. “[Chip] liked it, and he might have retweeted it,” she says. “Always thank your donors … because then they’re more likely to [give again]. I always try to have pictures or show through social media that my stuff is being used … by a current student, so they know that they made this positive impact.”

Liam Jerge plays the trumpet with bell cover.Taylor is also active with DonorsChoose and has found a network of music-specific philanthropists with the group Music Makes Our Students Smarter Giving Page (run by retired Indiana music teacher Ellie Henry), which is active on Facebook and Twitter. “I’ve never had a project not get funded … if I tag them in it,” she says.

On DonorsChoose, Taylor focuses on campaigns that have more specific purposes, such as requesting a document camera to teach during COVID, light-up drumsticks to use for cardio drumming, a music stand storage cart, end-of-year awards and instrument repair tools. Taylor says that she keeps most projects under $500, so that they’re more likely to be funded.

Through the years, Taylor has received approximately $10,000 in products from #ClearTheList and at least $5,000 to $10,000 in items from DonorsChoose. “Altogether, I’ve had 16 projects completed [on DonorsChoose] since August 2020.

Taylor advises educators to follow as many people, organizations and companies as possible, even those that are not directly related to their field. For example, Taylor follows science companies and won a projector for submitting a music lesson plan about the Olympic fanfare. “You never know if they’re willing to help,” she says. “Some oddball thing that has nothing to do with music got me a projector for my classroom when I didn’t have one.”

Nationally Recognized, Locally Loved

For all her efforts to enhance her classroom and support her students, Taylor has become a nationally recognized teacher.

The organization EdIncites recognized Taylor as one of 50 #FeelGoodFriday educators around the country in 2020 and was the runner-up for its #FeelGood2020 Educator of the Year contest.  “I was the only music teacher on the featured list,” she says.

Lyla Herzog with music teacher Heather TaylorOf greater impact, Taylor was the Eastern Division recipient of the 2021 Dr. William P. Foster Project Community Development Awards and was recognized at The Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference. The contest is organized by the Music Education Alliance, a consortium comprised of Music for All, the National Band Association and the College Band Directors National Association to create best practices, mentorship and awards for music educators. Taylor received her award in person thanks to her school district that fully funded the trip. As part of the award, Taylor received access to clinicians, free software and prizes from various music industry companies to help her classroom. “I’m very honored that I was selected,” Taylor says. “It opened my whole world to more people and more opportunities.”

In addition, Taylor was recognized as one of the Yamaha “40 Under 40” outstanding young music educators in 2022. And Taylor has received additional local awards. Within her own circles, Taylor has become a celebrity. In a 2022 teacher development day, Taylor led a session for approximately 30 music teachers in the district about how to get community grants.

Taylor finds that the awards and accolades make her visible to prospective students. “Every single 3rd grader knows my name and knows that I teach band,” she says. “In the hallways, I say, ‘Hi’ to them; I interact with them. For them to see or hear that I’ve won [these] award[s] is just another way to bring recognition to band.”

In addition, the district shared her awards on social media, and her alma mater Nazareth College in Pittsford, New York, interviewed her for an article. Taylor’s ties to Nazareth is strong. Every semester, she presents her seminar on how to get community grants to aspiring music education majors at Nazareth. “I’ve been very grateful for how nice everyone has been,” Taylor says. “It’s been very humbling. If this in any way helps my [students], that’s what I want it for.”

Student Impact

Indeed, having quality supplies and more resources have made a huge impact on the morale of her students. “They’re going to be way more invested to have a shiny saxophone versus a broken, rusted instrument held together with duct tape,” Taylor says. “The parents are thankful that they have a teacher who is getting their kids what they need and making sure that we have a successful program.”

Lakeshore Elementary band performing at Rochester Red Wings game Taylor says that her biggest recruitment methods are the fun activities within the program itself. Her 5th-grade band students learn “The Star-Spangled Banner” and perform at a Rochester Red Wings minor league baseball game. “It’s a lot of work for a one-minute song, but I feel like it makes the most impact on my program,” she says. “It’s the thing they remember the most. … Just providing something outside of the traditional concert experience helps get some of [the students] to stay in the program or gets them excited to play their instrument.”

Taylor’s biggest piece of advice is to not be afraid to ask for help. While she has received a lot of support, she has also been denied. She makes sure to document all her applications and results. “Sometimes I understand how embarrassing or defeating it can be to ask for help,” she says. “You do a lot of work writing the [requests], and it doesn’t always pan out, but you never know when it will. … I document everything [and] reuse the same verbiage. … I’m very grateful that there are so many people in the world who want to support the arts.”

Yamaha DX7 music synthesizer as seen from above keyboard.

History of the Synthesizer, Part 2

Written by Jerry Kovarsky on . Posted in Synthesizers. 1 Comment on History of the Synthesizer, Part 2

In Part 1 of this two-part series, we explored the origins of audio synthesis. Those early synths were almost entirely of the analog variety — that is, they created sounds with the use of electronic components such as vacuum tubes and transistors.

Over the last half-century, the focus has instead been almost entirely on digital synthesis, where sounds are created from mathematical representations of audio waveforms; in essence, modern-day synthesizers are highly specialized computers. Here in Part 2, we’ll explore their more recent forebears and describe several key technologies that lie at the heart of today’s synths.

Additive and Wavetable Synthesizers

The dawn of the 1980s saw the release of the second-generation New England Digital Synclavier II, which added a simple FM structure (see below) and a 32-track sequencer, making it a full-blown production workstation … albeit a very expensive one. At around the same time, the Italian company Crumar released the GDS Digital Synthesizer, building on work done by designer Hal Alles at Bell Labs, followed two years later by the Synergy, an additive synth that was favored by composer Wendy Carlos for decades.

German musician and inventor Wolfgang Palm’s pioneering work in wavetable synthesis saw fruition with the release of the PPG Wave in 1981. This digital technology used groups of single-cycle waveforms stored in a lookup table, which could be played back, or swept through in real time for a very signature sound. In 1985, the U.S. company Ensoniq released a wavetable synthesizer called the ESQ-1, which used static waveforms and an analog filter to produce a distinctive tonality. The following year, Sequential offered a novel approach to manipulating single-cycle waveforms with the Prophet VS, which used a joystick or other modulators (such as forward/backward looping envelopes) to cross-fade between four waveforms at a time.

Clearly, progress was being made in refining digital synthesis … but it was a different technology altogether that would cause a cataclysmic shift in the industry.

FM Synthesis

Since the mid-1960s, composer and electronic musician John Chowning had been experimenting with ways to shift sound around in a 3-dimensional space. One eventful night in the autumn of 1967, he discovered that modulating one computer-generated waveform with another at high frequency rates (much faster than traditional LFO-based vibrato) produced a timbral shift. His explorations of this technique led to the birth of FM (Frequency Modulation) synthesis. Yamaha licensed and continued developing the technology with Chowning’s help, first implementing it in two preset synthesizers, the GS1 and GS2, both released in 1981.

Print ad.
Contemporaneous ads for the Yamaha GS1 and GS2.

Over the next two years, Yamaha completed development of a voice architecture and user interface for programming FM, and, in 1983 debuted the DX7, which quickly became the best-selling synthesizer of all time.

View of Yamaha DX7 music synthesizer as viewed from above.
Yamaha DX7.

In addition to its velocity- and aftertouch-sensitive keyboard and 16-note polyphony (both radical innovations for the time), the level of timbral complexity and editing capability it provided was unparalleled, giving the DX7 universal appeal to musicians, composers and sound designers the world over. The genie was at last out of the bottle: digital synthesis became the mainstream.

The time was ripe for a technology that would tie it all together, and that would come with …

The Birth of MIDI

The concept of MIDI (an acronym for Musical Instrument Digital Interface) was first announced to the world in 1981 and within a few short years it was adopted by all major synthesizer manufacturers. It was a revolutionary technology that allowed digital instruments — even if they were made by different, competing manufacturers — to communicate with each other in real time using a simple computer language transmitted and received over a single bi-directional cable.

MIDI has grown and evolved over the years, and is today a universal standard for tying synthesizers and computers together — a technology that has even garnered a Grammy® Technical Achievement Award. Its widespread acceptance did much to accelerate the growth of the synthesizer industry throughout the ’80s and beyond, and helped spawn new musical genres such as electronic dance music (EDM), techno, house and synth-pop.

Sampling Comes to the Forefront

As described in Part 1, the CMI Fairlight, introduced in 1979, was the first instrument to use the term “sampling.” Three years later, the Fairlight Series II would improve on the sampling technology and add a sequencing system. It was expensive but successful, and featured prominently in many recordings of the era, including those by Peter Gabriel, Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Trevor Horn and Jan Hammer.

A more affordable sampling keyboard was released in 1981: the E-mu Systems Emulator, which was capable of recording brief snippets of sounds that were then stored on floppy disk. It was followed in 1984 with the Emulator II, which also saw widespread use in many recordings of the era. The Kurzweil K250 was one of the first keyboard instruments capable of storing sampled sounds into instantly accessible ROM (Read Only Memory), albeit very short ones. But its ability to reproduce the sound of acoustic instruments with great accuracy was heralded, and the system grew in both features and specs throughout the decade.

Other sampling instruments of the ’80s worthy of note include the Ensoniq Mirage and the hugely popular range of Akai S-Series samplers — especially the S1000, which found particular acceptance among the growing number of musicians who were recording in bedrooms the world over, making it one of the most omnipresent samplers of the ’80s.

Over the next few decades, sampling technology would improve by leaps and bounds, moving from 12-bit to 16-bit to 24-bit resolution, with higher and higher sampling rates (44.1 kHz to 48 kHz to today’s standard of 96 kHz), along with more available RAM memory for the storage of sounds.

Sampling and Synthesis Converge

Despite the limitation of needing fast processors and large amounts of memory in which to store data, sampling offered one major advantage: it could easily recreate the complex transients and timbres that were difficult to achieve via synthesis. Roland first came up with the idea of combining both approaches with their D-50, introduced in 1987. Here, sampled attack transients were layered with (or cross-faded into) longer waveforms created with traditional subtractive synthesis methods that employ filters to remove unwanted overtones. The addition of comprehensive onboard digital effects, including reverb, helped to glue the sounds together, and the D-50 soon achieved a great deal of popularity. 1988 saw the release of the Korg M1, which was a completely sample-based instrument with effects and a sequencer. A year later, Yamaha started combining FM and sampled waveforms (commonly called PCM — Pulse Code Memory), first in their SY77, followed by the more advanced SY99 in 1991.

A view of the Yamaha SY77 synthesizer from above.
Yamaha SY77.

More Digital Technologies are Explored

Not all companies utilized PCM as the basis for their oscillator waveforms. Casio CZ Series synths (including the very popular, and very inexpensive CZ-101) built upon FM but used a slightly different type of modulation technology called phase modulation. Kawai chose to explore additive synthesis, first releasing the K5 in 1985, followed by the more advanced K5000W workstation (which combined synthesis, effects and sequencing) in 1996.

Korg further developed the principles first explored on the Prophet VS with their 1990 Wavestation synthesizer, which added a new way of moving through disparate waveforms called wave sequencing. As the instrument cycled through a list (sequence), the waveforms could either be crossfaded from one to the next or could be hard-switched to create distinctive rhythmic figures.

Physical modeling was a technology that had been explored in academia for a number of years, but it first came to market with the 1994 release of the Yamaha VL1. This was a form of digital synthesis that used high-speed digital signal processing (DSP) to recreate the properties and timbral characteristics of known acoustic and physical objects, such as a blown tube, a plucked string, a struck membrane, etc.

Yamaha VL1 synthesizer as seen from above.
Yamaha VL1.

Other companies soon followed. The Korg Prophecy, introduced in 1995, added modeled analog synthesis, bringing new science to the sound and methods of an older form of synthesis. That same year, Swedish manufacturer Clavia released a modeled analog (more commonly called virtual analog) instrument: the Nord Lead. The company has continued to develop and refine the concept throughout the years, as have many others, including Roland with their JP-8000 (1996), Yamaha with their AN1x (1997), the German company Access Music with their Access Virus (1998), and Korg with their Z1 (which was released in 1997 and offered multiple forms of modeling), followed three years later by the MS2000.

Given the faster processors and cheaper memory that became available starting in the 1990s — a trend that continues today — it was perhaps inevitable that all these technologies would converge. Yamaha, for example, created a very powerful multi-technology platform for their EX5, released in 1998 (the “EX” stood for Extended Synthesis). This forward-looking instrument combined FM, AWM (Advanced Wave Memory, a form of PCM), virtual analog, physical modeling, and a new type of DSP the company called FDSP (Formulated Digital Signal Processing). Click here for an extensive description of all these processes, and the ways they interacted with one another.

Yamaha EX5 synthesizer as seen from above.
Yamaha EX5.

Many of the most successful keyboards of the 2000s have followed this “multi-synthesizer” concept. Roland merged PCM and modeling in their Fantom-G series of instruments, and Korg combined many different forms of synthesis in their OASYS and Kronos keyboards. Kurzweil introduced a type of DSP-based synthesis in their K2000 series instruments that was akin to the modular synth designs of old, allowing the user to configure building blocks of sound-producing and modifying functions — including virtual analog and FM — in almost unlimited ways.

Another trend of 21st century synthesizers is their ability to house physical add-on boards. Examples include the Korg Triton Series and the Yamaha MOTIF (the successor to the EX), which offered plug-in boards that added extra synthesis capabilities.

Yamaha Motif music synthesizer as seen from above.
Yamaha MOTIF.

The current Yamaha flagship keyboard synth is MONTAGE M, which combines the most advanced implementation of FM along with extremely powerful PCM-based synthesis.

Yamaha MONTAGE  M.

Software Synthesis

Most digital technologies are created and developed on computers, so it was logical that synthesis would follow. In 1997, a company called Seer Systems released the world’s first commercial software synthesizer — a program called Reality, which combined PCM, wavetable, FM, additive and physical modeling. That same year, German software company Steinberg created the VST (Virtual Studio Technology) standard, which integrated software synthesizers into digital audio workstation software.

Software synthesis continued to grow as computers became more powerful, and today it is integral part of most DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) software products such as Steinberg Cubase. It’s also the area where many cutting-edge developments are first introduced, including new forms of synthesis such as granular, where samples are split into small pieces of very short duration that can be layered on top of each other, playing at different speeds, phases, volume, and frequency, among other parameters. Other popular software synth products focus on the physical modeling of electro-mechanical keyboards such as the tonewheel organ and the electric piano.

Old Becomes New (Again)

In recent years, analog keyboards and modular gear have had a major resurgence. Back in 1996, a company called Doepfler Electronics developed a small format for analog modules called Eurorack — a format that thrives today, fed by a large community of boutique developers. Moog Music and Sequential have resurrected some of their historic designs, as have Roland and Oberheim, and Korg has even re-released a few of ARP’s most beloved products.

Today the past lives side-by-side with the future, and there has never been a more active and flourishing environment for cool ways to make new sounds and perform with cutting-edge synthesizer products.

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Spotlight on Steinberg Dorico 4

Written by Mike Levine on . Posted in Recording.

Dorico is Steinberg’s professional music notation and composition software. It provides a powerful means for creating everything from simple lead sheets and small ensemble arrangements to full-blown orchestral scores, and is available in three versions for Mac® and Windows computers (Dorico Pro, Dorico Elements and the free Dorico SE), as well as a free version for iPad®.

Let’s take a look at some of the main new features offered by the 2022 release of version 4.

Intelligent MIDI Transcription

Whether you’re using the Smart MIDI import features or recording a part from a MIDI controller, Dorico 4 automatically separates your melodies, bass lines and inner textures, making the transcription process much faster. As a result, the time it takes to turn a recording into a usable notated part has been dramatically reduced.

More Input Options

Three new on-screen instruments make note input fast and easy. These include a virtual keyboard, a guitar fretboard for inputting tablature, and drum pads for adding percussion. All three are touch-enabled for Windows computers and tablets with touchscreens, allowing you to input notes with your fingers.

Screenshot of app showing written music above and virtual keyboard with keys compressed below.
The keyboard input panel.

MIDI Key Editor

Dorico 4 provides a dedicated MIDI Key Editor that lets you fine-tune performance-related MIDI data such as dynamics, velocities and continuous controllers, making it easy to create realistic-sounding mockups and rehearsal tracks. It also continuously mirrors what’s in the score in the Music Area, always staying in sync so you never get lost.

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The MIDI Key Editor.

Redesigned Play Mode and Mixer

Speaking of the Dorico 4 Key Editor, it’s now available in the newly revamped Play Mode and includes a dedicated Track Inspector that lets you add insert effects on individual tracks, change instrument routing and adjust a volume fader for the selected track. Steinberg also completely rebuilt Dorico 4’s Mixer, and you can now open it in the Lower Zone or as a completely separate window.

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The Track Inspector and redesigned mixer.

Jumping-Off Point

A new Jump Bar lets you access any Dorico command right from your computer keyboard. Simply type “J” and then start typing the name of the command you want; when you hit Return, Dorico will list any that match. You can also use the Jump Bar’s “Go To” tab to navigate to any page or rehearsal mark in your project.

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The Jump Bar provides navigation directly from your computer keyboard.

Insert Scopes

Insert Scopes gives you more options for inserting or removing music without altering what comes after it. This is accomplished by allowing you to set a location in the Flow; any subsequent notes and rhythms will be unaffected by your changes. Four Scopes are available: Voice, which only affects selected voices; Player, which affects only the Instruments and Voices of the selected Player; Global, which affects all Players in the Flow; and Global Adjustment Of Current Bar, which lets you shorten or lengthen a selected measure for all Players in the Flow.

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Insert Scope options.

Easy Melodic and Rhythmic Transformations

Transformation functions allow you to accomplish a variety of common operations for both pitches and rhythms, and they have been significantly enhanced in Dorico 4. You can now choose from seven different pitch transformation options, including Invert Pitches, Reverse Pitches, Reverse and Invert Pitches, Rotate Pitches, Map Pitches, Map Scale, and Repeat Pitches. Rhythm transformation options include Reverse and Rotate. The All Category covers Pitches and Rhythms together and includes Reverse Pitches and Rhythms, Reverse and Invert Pitches and Reverse Rhythms, and Rotate Pitches and Rhythms.

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Pitch and rhythmic Transformations offer time-saving shortcuts.

MIDI Import Gets Smarter

The new Smart MIDI import feature in Dorico Pro and Elements enables you to greatly streamline your workflow. In the past, importing complex orchestral music in MIDI format often required hours of copying, pasting and renaming to ensure the different parts were on the correct staves and correctly labeled. The Smart MIDI import feature intelligently interprets MIDI data during import, thus speeding up and simplifying the import process appreciably.

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Smart MIDI import features.

More and Better Meters

The Pro and Elements versions of Dorico 4 include Steinberg’s SuperVision multi-meter and audio analyzer plug-in — the same one found in Cubase 12 and WaveLab 11. This extremely flexible tool lets you choose from 27 different meter types, including Loudness, VU and Phase. You can open up to nine meters at a time inside SuperVision’s interface and freely configure their placement.

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SuperVision offers multiple meters in custom configurations.

Dongle-Free Existence

If you’re using one of the three Mac- or Windows-compatible versions of Dorico 4, the dongle is now history, thanks to Steinberg’s new Identity-Based License Management system, which allows you to sign on (on up to three different computers) without needing a USB-eLicenser.

Seamless Silicon Support

Last but not least, Dorico 4 runs natively on the new Macs that feature Apple’s M1 chips — the first pro-level notation and composition program to do so. Some of the benefits of running Dorico 4 on an M1 Mac include significantly faster editing operations than Intel-powered Macs and improved energy efficiency.

teacher playing piano with elementary school students singing

Consider Context: Make the Invisible Visible

Written by Katie O'Hara LaBrie on . Posted in Teaching Tips.

In her memoir “Becoming,” Michelle Obama writes, “Even if we didn’t know the context, we were instructed to remember that context existed. Everyone on earth, they’d tell us, was carrying around an unseen history, and that alone deserved some tolerance.”

This idea of context spoke to me because of my background having grown up with an “invisible illness.” I can say from personal experience that we never really know what’s going on in a person’s mind or body or day — the context of their lives.

Many people look at me and assume that I’m a normal healthy adult, but sometimes I may be suffering physical pain or dizziness that you can’t see. Similarly, a student in your class may have just received some news about a family member, had a disagreement with their best friend or failed a test in the class before yours. When students arrive in your class for orchestra, band, choir or music, you don’t truly know the context of where that student is coming from in that particular moment.

When we enter a rehearsal, we need to find ways to become one entity. This can be very difficult when everyone has a different context for why they are there, what they want to get out of the rehearsal, or even what they can physically or mentally get out of the rehearsal. If you have students who need some extra TLC on any given day, consider the following four concepts.

1. Make Music

male playing violinOne of the most obvious ways to reach students is through the act of making music. Often, we get stuck in the nuts and bolts of rehearsals or stress of prepping for a concert, but it’s essential to take a step back and make sure to spend time each day when students (and you) revel in the joy of music.

Consider playing recordings as they enter class to help get them centered, or letting them play Richard Meyer’s “Dragonhunter” straight through just for fun as a warmup. Sometimes, a simple reminder of the beauty of what you are doing and sharing your passion for creating music can rub off on your students. For many, this is the only class where they can relax. Music can have a dual purpose — to engage students and to distract them from the stresses of the day.

2. Change It Up

Sometimes a student, the whole class or even you just need a distraction. It could be as simple as turning on the latest YouTube or TikTok video to break things up and provide some comic and/or musical relief. Or, do something unexpected like shuffling seat assignments so students aren’t next to the same partner or instrument. Another option: Take a quick trip to the front office to give an impromptu concert.

Try ending rehearsal by playing “hide the bow” (or drumstick), which is essentially a game of “hot and cold” where you hide a student’s bow and the others use forte and piano dynamics to help the student find it. I’ve even taken a class of stressed-out high schoolers outside to play red rover just to remind them that it’s OK for kids to be kids. Of course, we are in class to make music, but we are also in class to create experiences, bond and share joy with one another.

3. Take a Break

Every now and then, we all need a moment. Sometimes it may be obvious — a student is crying or asks to leave the room. However, there are other situations where it might not be clear. For example, students might be acting out or misbehaving because there is something else going on. Give them a water break, offer an ear or use school counselors as resources to help them if needed.

Alternately, instead of a break, distract students with an activity. Engage them in the lesson in a special way or give them a chance to lead the warmup. Do something to allow them to shine and let the weight of their worries disappear for a little while.

chocolate unsplash4. Always Have Chocolate

Chocolate contains serotonin, which helps control mood and generally makes people happy. If a middle schooler is having meltdown (which tends to happen from time to time), I always offer a small piece of chocolate (or an allergy-friendly food item). It’s a nice gesture to show I care, and it always makes them smile — even if just for a second. Whether they take the candy or not, I found that over time, students started confiding in me more, which helped make the invisible visible.

The Big Picture

class singing teacher pianoMusic educators often need to take a breath and consider the context of a situation. It’s easy during concert season to get caught up in the nitty gritty of the technical aspects of the music or the details of an upcoming performance. As a young teacher, I used to get frustrated at students who forgot their bow tie for our state assessment. But I learned to remind myself that 1) we are all human, 2) there may be important context as to why that student did not have their bow tie, 3) it’s not the end of the world and 4) always pack extra bow ties. These apply during concert season but it’s important to have similar reminders for daily rehearsals.

As music teachers, we are lucky to have the privilege of working with students for several years in a row. We encourage them through their elementary years, help protect them in the middle years, and watch them develop from young kids to young adults during high school. Yes, our primary goal is to make music, but we are here for so much more, which is achieved in part by remembering that there is context to every interaction. You may never know the exact context of what’s going on in a student’s life but knowing that it’s there is a huge step forward in connecting with each young musician.

adults in class

Reboot and Invest in Yourself and Your Program

Written by Glen Schneider on . Posted in Teaching Tips.

Being a music educator is all about investing — investing in yourself, your students and your program. I’ve heard from many teachers that they feel exhausted, overwhelmed and less motivated this school year. And who can blame them? We’ve been through a lot these last two years!

However, I’ve also seen some teachers who are on fire! They are trying new things, staying positive and enjoying what they do each and every day. I’d like to offer three suggestions based on the idea of investing.

Focus on Long-Term Gains

plant in hand pexelsThere’s a mentality that we have to “get back to normal” now that COVID-19 is abating (fingers crossed). All music educators suffered playing through the pandemic, losing some great players and seeing a reduction in participation. It’s essential to remember that the work you are doing right now each and every day will probably see a return in several years, not in a few weeks. Like the stock market performance over the past 100 years, we need to be visionaries and focus on the next 10, 25 and 100 years of music education.

So, slow down and make a positive and meaningful experience that your students will remember for their entire lives. Your CURRENT students are the music parents of the FUTURE. Music class isn’t a race to perfect a piece of music, it’s an investment.

Buy Low, Sell High

adult class unsplashIf you have lost some motivation or feel frustrated about your job, you are experiencing a low point — it happens to all of us. This is precisely the time to find some extra time and resources and make an investment for YOURSELF. I recommend taking a professional development class. I teach online classes at VanderCook College of Music, and I assure you that there is a relevant, thought-provoking course for you that will light a fire in your musical soul. Check out VanderCook’s courses.

There is nothing like interacting with a topic that is important to your music program and challenging yourself to do better alongside other music teachers. You’re probably thinking that spending more time on your job can NOT be the answer, but truly, if you are looking to come up and out of the pandemic with a continued passion for music education, you must allow yourself more opportunity to sharpen your mind. Besides taking a class, consider attending a conference or simply meet up with a mentor. No matter what you decide to do, this is a great time to invest in you!

Seek Advice and Share!

Great investors share ideas and numbers, they talk about the market, and they aren’t afraid to ask for help. I recommend that you do the same.

Music teachers tend to keep to ourselves a lot. It’s easy to stay in our corner of the building and keep busy with the thousands of items on our to-do lists. Like the previous suggestion, we need to interact with more people who do what we do.

4 women collaborating pexelsIf you feel like you need help in a particular area, don’t be afraid to ask for help. There are countless online groups that you could consult, or you can reach out to your local music educators association. Another great resource is your local music store/supplier who likely knows great people for you to connect with, but you have to ask!

I suggest making this year the year you bolster up your team! Everyone needs a team of reliable, trustworthy, knowledgeable and passionate people to get them through life. You, as a music educator, are a leader in your community. Great leaders are team players. You need a team! As this school year is coming to a close, focus on building a team for the future — a team full of members who you can learn from and share your great ideas with.

Reach out to me at gschneider@vandercook.edu if you need any guidance. I’d love to connect with you.

Conductor conducting an orchestra.

20 Best Movie Scores of the Last 20 Years

Written by Rich Tozzoli on . Posted in TV & Movies.

Behold the power of a great movie score: it takes a picture to new heights and lights up your living room in untold ways, especially when listened to on a quality audio system.

Here we explore 20 of the best movie scores of the last 20 years. If you haven’t yet enjoyed these epic films, what are you waiting for?

The Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King (2003)

Based on the third volume of J.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, this blockbuster film features a compelling score by Howard Shore, performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. It won no fewer than 11 Academy Awards®, and deservedly so. Find out where to stream it here.

Pirates of the Caribbean – The Curse of The Black Pearl (2003)

This 2003 fantasy stars Johnny Depp as the pirate Jack Sparrow and was the first in the Pirates of the Caribbean series. The swashbuckling score was composed by Klaus Bedelt, with Hans Zimmer serving as music producer. Find out where to stream it here.

The Painted Veil (2006)

The gentle musical underpinning to this film set in the 1920s was composed by Alexandre Desplat and performed by Chinese pianist Lang Lang, earning Desplat a Golden Globe® Award for Best Original Score. The French composer went on to win another Golden Globe Award, plus an Oscar®, for The Shape of Water in 2018. Find out where to stream The Painted Veil here.

There Will Be Blood (2007)

This movie is loosely based on the Upton Sinclair novel Oil! and stars Daniel Day-Lewis as an oil man driven by an endless quest for wealth. The unrelenting tension is heightened by a Grammy®-nominated score by Jonny Greenwood of the band Radiohead, recorded at the famed Abbey Road studios in London. Find out where to stream it here.

Atonement (2007)

This romantic war drama is an adaptation of Ian McEwan’s bestselling novel of the same name. Italian composer Dario Marinanelli won an Oscar for Best Original Score and the film was nominated for six others. Find out where to stream it here.

The Dark Knight (2008)

This critically acclaimed superhero flick — the second installment of the Dark Knight Trilogy — stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman. It was nominated for eight Academy Awards and features a powerful, speaker-shaking score from Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard that will test the merit of your subwoofer. An aural highlight: the nine-minute suite that introduces the Joker character, based around only two notes. Find out where to stream it here.

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

This British comedy-drama tells the story of an 18-year old who dreams of escaping the slums of Mumbai by winning a prize on a TV game show. The film won eight Academy Awards, including one for the soundtrack composed by A. R. Rahman. Find out where to stream it here.

The Social Network (2010)

Adapted by Aaron Sorkin from the bestseller The Accidental Billionaires, this film examines the beginnings of the social networking giant Facebook and the lawsuits that swirled around its creation. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (both of Nine Inch Nails fame) composed the soundtrack and won the 2011 Oscar and Golden Globe Best Original Score awards. Find out where to stream it here.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)

This film, the second in the conclusion to the Harry Potter series, is perhaps best known for its epic duel between Harry and his arch-nemesis Voldemort. The accompanying music by Alexandre Desplat was nominated for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards. Find out where to stream it here.

Gravity (2013)

This science fiction thriller stars George Clooney and Sandra Bullock as astronauts that are stranded in space. It received 10 Academy Award nominations and won seven of them, including Best Original Score for composer Steven Price. Included in the music are songs from Hank Williams Jr., Juaaka Lyberth, and Charles Scott with Chelsea Williams. Find out where to stream it here.

The Hateful Eight (2015)

The score for this revisionist American western was written by the legendary Ennio Morricone, who composed over 400 films, including Clint Eastwood’s A Fistful Of Dollars and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Many regard Morricone as one of the greatest film composers of all time, and with good reason. Find out where to stream it here.

The Revenant (2015)

Set in 1823, this western survival drama stars Leonardo DiCaprio and follows a group of trackers through the wild, mountainous Dakotas. The moody, dark score, written by famed synthesist Ryuichi Sakamoto and German electronic composer Ala Noto (with additional music from Bryce Dessner) fits the emotional cinematography perfectly. Interestingly, the movie was ruled ineligible for the Academy Award for Best Original Score in 2016 because the Academy felt it was “assembled from the music of more than one composer.” Find out where to stream it here.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny (2016)

This joint American/Chinese production was directed by Yuen-Woo Ping and written by John Fusco. It’s the sequel to the 2000 film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and features a score from composer Shigeru Umebayashi, who at one point was the bass player in a Japanese new wave rock band called EX. Find out where to stream it here.

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

This sequel to the original Blade Runner (released way back in 1982) stars Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Ana de Armas and Sylvia Hoeks. Composer Benjamin Wallfisch collaborated with Hans Zimmer to handle the music score and the pair made great use of a vintage Yamaha CS-80 analog synthesizer to help evoke the emotions of the era. Find out where to stream it here.

Black Panther (2018)

This Marvel Comics superhero film stars Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa/Black Panther. Score composer Ludwig Goransson went to Africa to conduct research and worked with local musicians to ensure authenticity as he crafted the movie’s powerful musical foundation. There’s also a curated soundtrack produced by Kendrick Lamar. Find out where to stream it here.

The Lion King (2019)

A musical drama directed by John Favreau, The Lion King is a photorealistic computer animation remake of the 1994 film of the same name. Hans Zimmer, who scored the original, returned for this version as well, working in collaboration with Pharell Williams. The movie also features Elton John in a return engagement. Find out where to stream it here.

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Based on the Marvel Comics Avengers superhero team, this explosive film features an A-list cast and an action-packed score from Alan Silvestri that he’s described as having “thunderous percussion and powerful brass.” Find out where to stream it here.

Joker (2019)

This psychological thriller based on DC Comics characters stars Joaquin Phoenix, who gives a tour de force performance as the Joker — a failed clown who creates a dark revolution in Gotham City. The score, composed by Icelandic cellist Hildur Guðnadóttir, snagged an Oscar and a Golden Globe award, and the movie’s soundtrack also includes classic songs such as Steven Sondheim’s “Send In The Clowns” and “White Room,” performed by the legendary British rock trio Cream. Find out where to stream it here.

Soul (2020)

A computer-animated comedy-drama from Disney/Pixar, this engaging flick features the voices of Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey and Phylicia Rashad. It centers on a music teacher (Foxx) who is trying to reunite his soul with his body before getting his big break to become a jazz musician. The original music score was written by 2022 Grammy superstar Jon Batiste, with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of Nine Inch Nails handling the ambient sound. Find out where to stream it here.

Dune (2021)

This critically acclaimed remake of the 1984 science fiction classic features an ensemble cast that includes Timothée Chalamet, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin and Rebecca Ferguson. Shot in Hungary and Jordan, it was scored primarily by Hans Zimmer, who spent a week in the desert to help incorporate its ambiance into the atmospherics of the music. Find out where to stream it here.

Five Tips For Playing Rock and Roll Piano

Written by Jerry Kovarsky on . Posted in Keyboard How-to.

Back in the 1950s, a number of seminal pianists developed the core vocabulary that we use to this day for playing rock and roll music. I’m thinking of people like Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and Fats Domino, whose influence can be heard in the songs and performances of artists like Elton John and Dr. John, as well as contemporary musicians like Ben Folds and Jamie Cullen.

In this article, I’ll give you five tips that will help you learn this style of playing.

1. Rely on Repeated Chords

To match the driving rhythm of the rock and roll drumbeat (hi-hat or cymbal playing eighth notes; kick drum on beats one and three; snare on the two and four), pianists would hammer eighth-note repeated chords in the right hand, like this:

Musical annotation.

Try this foundational exercise slowly at first, using your wrist to slightly pump up and down, then start raising the tempo faster and faster, focusing on keeping your timing precise and unwavering. Pay attention to not tensing up your arm, and be sure to keep your shoulders and neck relaxed as well.

Here’s another example, using a dominant seventh voicing:

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When you apply this technique to a chord progression, be sure to use good voice leading, which means moving to the closest notes possible in order to form the new chord, like this:

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… or this:

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2. Keep Those Figures Moving

Once you’ve mastered the basics, try adding a little melodic movement while still keeping the steady driving rhythm. Here’s one way of doing this:

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This figure just alternates between the fifth and the sixth of the chord (G to A), and is a common approach that both guitarists and keyboardists take when playing rock and roll. In the audio clip, I also added a little syncopation by holding the chord in the middle of the second measure for an extra eighth note.

Alternatively, you can play an inverted F chord instead of just moving the top G in the C chord up to A:

Musical annotation.

As you can hear, I added a little more rhythmic variation, with the syncopation happening between bars 1 and 2, and then moving up to the dominant seventh (the B-flat). There are many ways of tweaking these basic figures, so be sure to experiment.

Instead of just playing constantly repeated chordal figures, you can alternate notes within the chord voicing to make things a little more interesting. The example below is based on the fifth going to the sixth (as in the previous audio clip), but is played in broken chord style, where the notes contained within a chord are played separately, or in small groupings. (An arpeggio is a form of a broken chord.)

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Here’s another approach, played in a more straightforward rhythm:

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And one more common variation:

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3. Add Some Crushed Notes

Technically, a short note preceding the main note you intend to play is called a grace note, but when this is done within a chord or chordal figure, I prefer to use the term crushed note instead, since it seems to quickly get absorbed into the chord that follows.

Crushed notes work really well for rock and roll piano. In the first bar of the example below, the repeated figure is not a full triad, but is instead an octave with the fifth in-between. In the second bar, there’s a quick F-sharp crush note, played by slightly flicking the F-sharp with your second finger just ahead of playing the G chord. In the third bar, the F-sharp is played in place of the G altogether. These kinds of rhythmic additions may be simple, but they add a nice accent that helps put some of the “rock” in rock and roll:

Musical annotation.

To vary those accents, try playing crush notes in different places. You can also apply this technique to the melodic figures discussed in the last section. In the following example, we flick/crush from E-flat into the E for the C triad chords, and then flick/crush from the F-sharp into the G for the C seventh chord:

Musical annotation.

The following example combines a grace note approach (in the beginning of each measure) with a more melodic use of the movement in the middle of the bar:

Musical annotation.

4. Keep the Left-Hand Patterns Simple

Rock and roll piano is characterized by simple left-hand patterns, which contrast nicely with the busier right-hand parts. Here are two of the most common left-hand patterns, using the fifth to sixth figure we discussed earlier:

Musical annotation.

In the first two bars, strong quarter notes serve to define the basic feel; in the next two bars they are doubled up to eighth notes to give the playing a little more drive.

Here’s a similar approach, with the dominant seventh note added:

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You can also choose to play a walking bass line with your left hand, such as this:

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Or you can always opt for this extremely popular walking bass part:

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It’s worth noting that many rock and roll left-hand patterns first came from the boogie-woogie style of piano-playing; for example:

Musical annotation.

5. Put Those Hands Together

Once you’ve decided on the patterns you want to use for each of your hands, you can work on putting them together. As with most piano-related exercises, the key is to start out slowly, increasing the tempo only when you’re feeling comfortable. Here are four possible combinations you might try:

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Bonus: Some Great Performances To Enjoy

Jerry Lee Lewis

Little Richard

Fats Domino

Johnnie Johnson (Chuck Berry)

Dr. John

Leon Russell

Elton John

Chuck Leavell

Billy Powell (Lynrd Skynrd)

 

All audio played on a Yamaha P-515

Check out our other Well-Rounded Keyboardist postings.

 

Click here for more information about Yamaha keyboard instruments.

A Brief Guide to Piano Tonewoods

Written by Jerry Kovarsky on . Posted in Acoustic Pianos.

The acoustic piano is an incredibly complex musical instrument, with thousands of moving and resonating parts. The vast majority of those parts — up to 85% — are made of wood.

Even with the benefit of centuries of design history and refinement, piano makers have the important task of choosing those woods that provide just the right properties and characteristics to deliver a pleasing sound. Let’s take a look at the tonewoods commonly used in pianos, and the reasons why they are selected.

Cross-sectional diagram of a grand piano with specific parts identified and labeled.
Some of the many components in a grand piano.

The Soundboard

By far, the most important part of the piano as it relates to sound is the aptly named soundboard, which is always made of wood. In fact, without a soundboard, you would barely hear anything at all! After a key is depressed and the corresponding hammer strikes the string, the soundboard’s job is to vibrate sympathetically and amplify the sound coming from the strings. For that reason, it’s almost always made from a soft wood. Most piano manufacturers use spruce for their soundboards, but cedar, alder or ash are also sometimes utilized. The main differences in the soundboards used in grand pianos versus upright pianos is their size and shape.

Yamaha has their own lumber mill and processing facility, Kitami Mill, located in Hokkaido, Japan, a region that has the perfect climate for wood treatment. There, the company’s highly skilled artisans inspect and choose only the finest cuts of wood, with only around 10% designated for use as soundboards. Depending on the model, Yamaha uses European, Asian or North American spruce. These woods are chosen because of their pliable nature, which gives them the ability to keep vibrating for a long time, even after the long decay of the struck string dies away. They also slightly attenuate the highest frequencies/harmonics, which helps to produce a warm, pleasing tone.

The wood used for constructing soundboards is first cut into long planks before going through various stages of drying. Typically, it’s air dried for anywhere from six months to two years, then dried further in a kiln. (The kiln in the Yamaha Kitami facility is believed to be the largest in the world.) This process is overseen by experts, who constantly check the wood for moisture and eveness of drying; without this monitoring, the wood may be susceptible to warping and cracking. Once the drying stage is complete, the planks are glued together and joined with wood strips called ribs. These help reinforce the wood and distribute the vibrational energy throughout the case and into the performance space.

Sheets of wood used for a piano soundboard.
A grand piano piano soundboard.

The Bridge

The vibration of the strings are transferred to the soundboard by blocks of wood called the bridge. There are actually two different bridges in a piano: a long bridge for the middle and upper strings, and a shorter one for the bass notes. There are hundreds of pounds of pressure exerted on these bridges by the taut piano strings — especially the very thick bass strings — and withstanding that pressure and transferring the vibrational energy without any loss requires a very dense, hard wood. For that reason, most piano makers use maple, or a mix of maple and beech for their bridges; Yamaha uses hard maple, as it is 25% denser than regular maple.

Wood parts used for the bridge of an upright piano.
Upright piano bridges.

Related to the bridge and strings is the pin block, which holds the pegs that the strings are wound around. Again, hard woods are essential here, and Yamaha uses maple for its density and strength. While most pin blocks use a laminated wood process for increased grip, Yamaha is unique in that they also use threaded pins for improved stability.

The Rim

The body of the piano is called the rim. Because the inner part of the rim (the inner rim) is attached to the soundboard, it effectively acts as an extension of the soundboard, reacting to the vibrations of the strings by bouncing them back — a critical part of the amplification process that has a big impact on the tone of a piano. The outer rim encases the inner rim and soundboard and adds further reflection of the tone, as well as becoming the outer cabinet of the piano after being covered with a final cosmetic wood veneer.

Piano rims are created from 6 to 10 layers of wood that are glued together lengthwise. For a grand piano, those layers are glued and laminated together to make a single long board, which then gets bent into the distinctive grand piano shape. (The process of constructing a grand piano rim is one of the most interesting aspects of the craftsmanship that goes into building a piano.) The process is a bit simpler when making an upright piano. Since the rim shape in those types of pianos is a rectangle, it can be constructed from four thicker blocks fitted together.

Several grand piano rims.
Grand piano rims.

Piano rims are often made of maple and/or maple and mahogany laminate, though sometimes spruce is used. The rims in Yamaha pianos are mostly made of hardwoods such as mahogany or beech, with hard maple and even ash used at times. In some Yamaha grand piano models, the wood is specially aged after traditional drying using a patented A.R.E. process (Acoustic Resonance Enhancement) process, which helps to increase the wood’s resonant qualities as if it were aged for a hundred years or more … but accomplished in a fraction of the time. This type of treatment has been used to improve the sound of guitars and violins, but Yamaha is the first manufacturer to apply it to piano design.

The Keys and Hammers

The types of wood used for piano keys and hammers are particularly important because they provide important tactile, and therefore emotional, feedback to the player. The keys, for example, serve as the main interface between the player and the instrument. They need to provide a good “feel,” which means they must have some mass, and offer just enough resistance to allow the pianist to control the sound, but they also must be light enough to provide very fast repetition response. For similar reasons, the wood used for hammer shanks needs to have a certain amount of elasticity and resonance — something that’s especially noticeable when doing fast repetitions.

A piano craftsman adjusting a hammer on a key assembly.
Adjusting a hammer on a key assembly.

Many manufacturers use fir, sugar pine or bass wood for their piano keys; Yamaha uses Sitka or Japanese spruce — the same wood as is used in the soundboards of certain model pianos. These are more expensive than other woods, but are virtually free from warpage and have an excellent strength-to-weight ratio that provides a fast but durable action.

Light woods such as walnut, mahogany and hornbeam are commonly used for hammers. The lighter the wood, the faster the hammer can accelerate, so in general those kinds of woods are preferred.

A Commitment to Sustainability

Yamaha makes a conscious effort to operate in ways that do no harm to our environment. This sense of personal responsibility permeates every aspect of the company’s design and manufacturing processes. For example, every year their Kitami Mill holds a tree planting festival, adding more Sakhalin spruce to their forest so they can maintain a zero-loss of deforestation. In addition, working with local universities, Yamaha invests in research to help increase the yields per tree of many of the species it uses from around the world. Climate change is, of course, also having a major effect on tree growth and Yamaha is working with suppliers to safeguard the quantity and quality of the woods being grown.

 

Click here for more information about Yamaha grand pianos.

Click here for more information about Yamaha upright pianos.

Click here to locate your local authorized Yamaha piano dealer.

5 Ways to Use Synthesia

Written by Tyler Swick on . Posted in Teaching Tips.

Synthesia is a MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) piano software that visually cues students when to play each key with a series of descending squares. Through color coding, students can see which hand plays each key, while the length of the colored square indicates duration.

The software comes with over 100 royalty-free songs that are categorized by difficulty as well as dozens of scale exercises to promote dexterity. Many of the songs provided match the popular beginning piano method books, allowing for parallel assignments or digital grading if you’re teaching online.

Assessment Modes

Synthesia offers three modes for assessment.

  • “Practice the Melody” waits for the student to press the correct piano key without any concern about the tempo. Students are then scored on how many correct notes they pressed, and if they matched the duration accurately.
  • “Practice the Rhythm” allows students to slow down the tempo but they are judged on their accuracy with the metronome.
  • “Song Recital” judges the accuracy of rhythm, tempo and duration at full speed.

screen shot of boomwhacker video using SynthesiaEach mode can be split into left, right or both hands. The grade is presented in a fraction of correct notes over possible notes and is color-coded for quick visual assessment.

These features are enough to get a student started, but the fun really begins when you import your own MIDI files. If you are creative and like to compose your own etudes, you can create MIDI files using notation programs like Finale, Dorico or Sibelius, load them in Synthesia and have students take assessments that you find to be the most helpful.

Teachers and students can search for MIDI files online for any song that they would like to learn. Every music teacher has been surprised by a sudden song request, such as “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” and a quick internet search for the midi file can get the student playing new material in just a few minutes.

“Free Play” Mode

Synthesia’s “Free Play” mode shows colorful squares ascending out of the pressed keys allowing students to see where the hand was (instead of where the hand should go in the three assessment modes). This is a powerful visual for teaching keyboard in a classroom where students wouldn’t be able to see the teacher’s hands otherwise. Teachers and students are given the ability to play freely with every note represented visually for the rest of the class to track on a smartboard or television. Students can record their “Free Play” as well as multitrack with different sounds, which opens the door to peer collaboration, arranging and composition.

Boomwhacker Drum SeaShanty“Free Play” is a great space to explore the labels that Synthesia offers. Students can choose to have the keys on the screen labeled with the note’s letter, solfege (fixed or movable) or scale degree. The same labels can be applied to the moving squares, allowing students to mix and match. A great way to relate fixed Do and letter names would be to have the keys labeled with letters and the moving squares to be labeled with solfege. Students could then explore the relationship in a low-risk environment.

The coolest feature, in my opinion, is chord recognition. After you press two or more keys at the same time, a chord name appears in the upper left-hand corner. This would have been an invaluable tool for me in my early days of composition and could become an integral part of any theory course.

Creating Online Piano Tutorials

Students who want to learn the latest musical trends flock to YouTube for piano tutorials. YouTubers Patrik Pietschmann, Rousseau and Amosdoll Music combine for over 2 billion views on their piano tutorial channels. Though they each choose different musical content, they all use Synthesia to visually display their performances. By combining real footage of their hands and the visuals from Synthesia, viewers are met with a stunning hybrid performance of acoustic and MIDI elements. Though their success may suggest market saturation, there is a large gap between the beginner and the difficulty level of their content.

That’s where music teachers come in! There is an open market for serial music lessons that aid students in their journey from Alouette to Blue Rhythms. Synthesia is the perfect visualizer of your favorite tips and tricks for the beginning student and your YouTube video may be the perfect next step in a student’s journey. Another motivator might be YouTube’s monetization after you reach 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours.

Body PercussionCreating Classroom Play-Along Videos

Though Synthesia is intended for piano education, there are infinite applications for the falling squares and what actions those squares can trigger. I adapted the falling squares to cue my students when to play their boomwhackers in this video and later had students playing body percussion in this video.

The versatility of Synthesia stems from the visual ability to anticipate a note or an action. Traditional sheet music notation allows the musician to anticipate what happens next when they read from left to right. Synthesia’s approach allows for the same anticipation but from the top to the bottom of the screen.

The piano at the bottom of the screen can be cropped out and replaced with any images of instruments, body percussion or maybe even something I haven’t imagined yet. Once you have an instrumentation in mind, create a MIDI file that reflects when you want those instruments to play. Screen record Synthesia playing your MIDI file using your favorite video editor or OBS, a free screen recorder. Use the video editor to replace the keyboard at the bottom with pictures of your preferred instruments, and let the fun begin!

My experience is that these videos are the fastest way for students to create polyphony in mixed ensembles. On an Orff level, students can combine boomwhackers, xylophones, rhythm sticks, drums and body percussion to create a full ensemble. I playfully challenge you to create something that I haven’t even thought of!

Teaching Piano Virtually

During the COVID-19 quarantine, my private lesson studio went entirely online. I was able to continue supporting students through Synthesia by coaching with the visual aid of “Free Play” and creating custom MIDI files that matched my students’ ability levels. Though some of my students were able to aim a webcam at their keyboards, the others were a USB cable away from being able to show me what they were playing through the Synthesia software. The free version has a time limit on the “Free Play” mode, but it was long enough for student to show me what they were working on, allow me to make comments and start over again. Some of my students’ parents purchased the $29 Synthesia license, but the free software still gave me an advantage in teaching online.


Your Choice

Boomwhacker Metallica

I can sincerely say that Synthesia made teaching a more enjoyable experience during a time when teaching was not so fun. Now that my school district is back in person, I have pivoted to creating engaging videos that wouldn’t be possible without this software. Synthesia has been around for 15 years, but I didn’t find it until I absolutely needed it.

I’ll leave you with this fun fact: The original title for Synthesia was Piano Hero because they were so inspired by the popular video game Guitar Hero.

Share your Synthesia experiences by messaging me @SwicksClassroom on Instagram or email educators@yamaha.com. If you’d like to see more of my play-along content, search Swick’s Classroom on YouTube.

Graphic that looks like the closeup of a label on a vinyl LP. The label is striped in the colors of the Jamaican flag.

10 Reggae Albums You Need to Hear on Vinyl

Written by Tara Mahadevan on . Posted in Vinyl.

With its warm rhythms and distinctive sonic textures, reggae is one of those genres that just sounds better on vinyl. And of course, the enjoyment of vinyl records necessitates a top quality turntable.

Here’s a list — in no particular order — of 10 reggae LPs you have to hear on vinyl.

1. Legend (Deluxe Edition) – Bob Marley and The Wailers

Bob Marley and The Wailers are arguably the most well-known reggae artists of all time. The deluxe version of their 1984 album Legend (released three years after Marley’s death) includes many of the beloved singer’s biggest hits: “No Woman, No Cry,” “Three Little Birds,” “Could You Be Loved” and “Is This Love,” to name just a few, with the shimmering guitars and Marley’s buttery voice sounding even more crisp when you listen on vinyl.

2. The Harder They Come Soundtrack – Various Artists

Singer Jimmy Cliff not only starred in the hit 1972 crime film The Harder They Come, he also performed the title track as well as three other songs. The rest of the soundtrack was rounded out with contributions from other popular Jamaican artists of the time, including Toots and the Maytals, The Melodians, The Slickers, DJ Scotty and Desmond Dekker — in other words, a veritable Who’s Who of reggae. The vinyl release of this pivotal work is a great way for those new to reggae music to immerse themselves in the genre.

3. Funky Kingston – Toots and the Maytals

This album marked a seminal moment for reggae on the world stage, popularizing the genre for the masses. The recording revealed what life was truly like in Jamaica in the early 1970s — both the ups and the downs — and showed that the residents of the tiny island nation chose to celebrate life, no matter what they came up against. One of the album’s standout tracks is “Pressure Drop,” a song about karmic justice — the idea that if you wrong someone, then karma will find its way to you.

4. Marcus Garvey – Burning Spear

Burning Spears’ Marcus Garvey, is another groundbreaking work in reggae music … and a political statement as well. It was named after the legendary Jamaican political activist of the early 20th century, a man who aimed to unify and connect the African diaspora throughout the world. The opening title track is a sobering testament to Garvey, with the guitars and horns almost melancholic as they lament over why the activist has been forgotten — an injustice that the rest of the album serves to rectify by memorializing his legacy and roots.

5. Labour of Love – UB40

Unusually, this fourth studio album from the UK group UB40 was a collection of cover songs, including Neil Diamond’s “Red Red Wine,” all done in a reggae style — a tactic that gave the genre another global boost. In fact, UB40 first heard “Red Red Wine” through reggae singer Tony Tribe, and not Diamond. Their version earned the group their first No. 1 single, so if you want to hear the real deal, be sure to check out the 45 RPM vinyl release.

6. Conquering Lion – Yabby You and The Prophets

Yabby You may not be a household name, but he was another pioneer in reggae. Born Vivian Jackson, he earned his nickname with the title song for this 1975 album, where he sings “Be-you, yabby-yabby-you” repeatedly — a haunting turn of phrase that eventually transforms into a lo-fi chant. Yabby turned to a music career after leaving his family at the age of 12, only to suffer a bout of malnutrition that left him disabled in his late teens and unable to work. Conquering Lion was the result, a project that authentically reflected his day-to-day struggles in Jamaica.

7. Exodus – Bob Marley and The Wailers

Exodus has a much more relaxed sound than Bob Marley and The Wailer’s previous work, relying on themes of religion, politics and sex to tell a story. Recorded in London, England following an assassination attempt on Marley’s life in 1976, this is the album that brought international success to the beloved Jamaican singer/songwriter — not least because it includes a number of his biggest hits, such as the effervescent “Jamming” and “Three Little Birds,” with the latter featuring the catchy “every little thing is gonna be all right” lyric that Marley is perhaps most famous for.

8. Rebirth – Jimmy Cliff

As the name suggests, this 2012 collaboration between reggae veteran Jimmy Cliff and Tim Armstrong, frontman for the punk band Rancid, is meant to be a reawakening of the genre. Sure, there are moments when the pair brazenly combine traditional reggae rhythms with rock — on The Clash’s “Guns of Brixton” and Rancid’s “Ruby Soho,” for example — but there are other moments when Jimmy intuits the textures and styles of his peers like The Wailers and The Sensations. Perhaps the album’s most classic reggae track is “One More,” in which Cliff reflects on what he has to give in this life.

9. Welcome to Jamrock – Damian Marley

Bob Marley’s youngest son Damian carried the torch for his father by stepping into a music career — albeit one with a unique spin — that continued to give a voice to the Jamaican people. Still active today, his take on reggae is a bit more upbeat than his father’s, and rife with hip-hop influences. Welcome to Jamrock, released in 2005, laid the foundation for what has become to be known as reggae fusion. The title track provides a good example of the marriage of the two genres, with Damian’s half-sung, half-spoken vocals flowing in and around a backing track comprised of staccato guitar and sparse drums, anchored by a heavy bass.

10. Distant Relatives – Nas and Damian Marley

Five years later, Damian would collaborate with rapper Nas on Distant Relatives, an album that provided further proof of the younger Marley’s comfort level with hip-hop. It also served to further break the mold on what reggae could be, as the two artists — both of Garvey’s African diaspora — connect in a musical conversation about the discrimination and hardships of their people. The standout song “Patience” is a reminder for us to do just that — a weighty track that sees Damian and Nas urging their listeners to exhibit patience and spread truth.

 

Check out these turntables from Yamaha.

Wylie East High School's Nathan and Asley Dame

Case Study: 8 Keys to Successfully Build Culture through Strategic Planning

Written by Dr. Nathan Dame on . Posted in Case Studies.

Hard work is an essential component of a thriving program, but your plan for how you strategically achieve it can make all the difference. As a doctoral student, I took some courses in human resource management, educational leadership, and policy studies and learned about the importance of a strategic plan.

I decided to craft and implement a strategic plan when I stepped into my current role as the director of choral activities at Wylie East High School in Texas. I was amazed at how easily I incorporated the strategic plan into my program, and I truly believe that this is a fabulous model for music educators to shape their programs.

My model focuses on eight key steps for success, but there are many ways to approach building a program. This is simply what has worked for me, my staff and my students. I share it with you in hopes that some or all of this can inspire reflection and action for you, your students and your program.

Key #1: Be Led from Within to Lead Out — Define, Refine and Articulate Your Mission

The leader must be led from within in order to effectively lead others. Educators should ask themselves: “Why do I do what I do?”

What propels you to inspire others, gives you the fuel during challenging times and keeps you coming back to school each day? Strive to define your philosophy of music education, revisit it often (refining as needed), and articulate it into a mission for your program that serves as the foundation for a logical, grounded and sequential plan.

In the simplest of terms, my philosophy is to inspire all students through a comprehensive choral music program that teaches them to not just be outstanding musicians, but to develop community among one another, all while serving the community in which they live and those with whom they come in contact. This articulated in a mission statement reads:

The Wylie East High School Choral Department is an organization that strives to deliver a choral music education to all students through outstanding musicality, career and community development, and service to the school and community. 

WylieEastChoir2

Key #2: Build Your Army — Strength, Creativity and Inspiration through Numbers

While building a dynamic program begins with you, your ideas and your mission, one person cannot do it all. If you’re a proud Type A personality like me, it’s easy to shoulder all of the responsibility, take the blame when things come up short and enjoy the fruits of your labor when things go well. However, there is an unintended consequence of this do-it-yourself tactic — you will burn out.

Trust me, I learned this lesson the hard way. I used my youthful exuberance and energy to teach and grow a middle school choir program, and while success was plentiful, it became unsustainable and I was exhausted. I was forced into a different approach, which I now see is critical to long-term success: strength in numbers.

Before you dive into the strategic planning process, involve your feeder school directors, student leadership teams, parent boosters and volunteers, and when needed, your campus administration. Ask the difficult questions. What is going well? What needs refining? What goals and visions do they have for the program?

Key #3: Dream Big — Needs Assessments through Optimistic Reality

One of my favorite TV personalities is Dr. Phil with his no-nonsense approach of “getting real.” My students know this about me, and they know that I am unafraid to tell them when we have work to do. I say this because this step can get ugly because it exposes things about your program that are less than desirable. However, approaching this step through optimistic reality can help you frame your thinking away from pure adjudication to that of a dreamer.

Draw two columns in a notebook, and look at your program as a whole. Determine what you like about your program and then ask yourself: “If we could only…”. Based on your responses, create a list of ideal needs for your program and students. Dream big! Some examples that I have used, organized by difficulty, include:

    • Create a new choir logo and branding proposal for marketing purposes
    • Expand the vocal solo collection library
    • Inventory housed equipment for condition, repair or replacement + articulation of needs through capital outlay
    • Maximize existing classroom, office, storage and library space to accommodate large classes
    • Assess budget spending and fundraising to increase campus activity fund, and involve booster clubs to fund offerings for students
    • Upgrade and purchase uniforms for all choirs
    • Imagine, plan, design and articulate needs for a new facility

Key #4: Think of Big Ideas — Set Overarching Strategic Goals.

Plan chalkboardThis step takes time to complete. I like using the Goldilocks approach to get it just right. Think of three BIG ideas that can fuel your plan. One way of thinking about this is to go back to your mission. Generally, your mission can be pared down to three or four big ideas. Use those as the backbone for your overarching goals. For me, they are creating great musicians, developing a community within the program and its ensembles, and to serve others through what we do. Written as strategic goals, they read:

  • Strategic Goal 1: Outstanding Musicality — Develop exemplary musical skills at all choral levels, including tone, timbre, dynamics, etc. in both the individual and choral group settings. Demonstrate through performance(s) and participation/success in competitions.
  • Strategic Goal 2: Career and Community Development — Establish an inclusive environment for all Wylie East High School students through an aligned program of expectations and traditions that is both sustainable and collaborative.
  • Strategic Goal 3: Service to the School and Community — Enhance presence within the school and community through active participation, travel and the “Wylie Way” district character-building connections.

Key #5: Set Different Levels of Goals — Strategic Action through Macro- and Micro-Level Goals.

Now, it’s time to get the hamster in the cage, introduce it to the wheel and let it run! The often-used phrase by Stephen Covey, “begin with the end in mind,” is so appropriate for this “exercise class.”

What does a musician in your program look like after four years? At the end of the year? What do you want your ensemble to sound like? Creating these macro-level (4- and 1-year) goals along with the micro-level goals of how you will achieve them through concerts and lessons will help you craft a logical action plan. Included is a copy of one of my strategic plans that gives the scope of my chosen, measurable and achievable actions. Here’s an example of a goal-setting process:

    • Strategic Goal 1: Outstanding Musicality
      • Subset to Goal 1: Repertoire Selection
        • Macro-Level Goal 1 (1-Year): Students will perform a diverse and comprehensive set of choral literature that spans different genres, time periods and languages, as well as incorporates accompanied and a cappella singing.
          • Micro-Level Goal 1 (Fall Concert): List of repertoire chosen

WyleEastChoir1 boys choir

Key #6: Start the Avalanche — Achieve Success through Quick Wins

A strategic plan can be incredibly valuable, but it also can bog you down in overly theoretical ideas that get you nowhere. One of the best strategies for finding success is to start the avalanche through quick wins.

Essentially, let your students find success and garner enthusiasm through activities that create excitement within the ensemble. Some of our quick-win first-year activities included creating a new choir logo, developing an overarching theme for the year, reorganizing the choir space, assembling and training a choir leadership team, and reimagining our back-to-school events to be more impactful and involve all students. Build these small wins into larger, more visible wins and watch your program thrive.

Key #7: Slow and Steady Wins the Race — Attack  Macro-Level Goals through Objectives and Measures

Your quick wins give you momentum to attack your macro-level goals through the meat of the strategic plan: your objectives and measures. As a program, we attack our macro-level goals through an overall theme. We have used themes such as “Elevate” for increasing musicianship, “Ignite” to build intrinsic motivation and participation, “Odyssey” for navigating the unknown, and “Breaking Ground” for building new foundations.

Before you set out on your objectives and measures, know this: Many music educators are competitive, especially with themselves, but it must be said, there is no perfect plan. You will not hit every goal. You will fall short and that’s okay. Remember to zoom out and look at the progress you are making as a whole rather than the things you miss.

Key #8: Build an Empire — Expand Your Army through Specialization

One of my favorite parts of this process is the ability to specialize in the things in which I excel and delegate other things. Music educators wear many hats, from conductor to accountant, counselor, copy repair technician and more.

I always say, “it takes a village to raise a choir,” and in this case, it’s about defining roles within your army and empire. I am a proud analyst. I like colored spreadsheets, objectivity and logistics. Having a clear-cut plan helps me to be organized, and then the creativity follows. I am not successful as a “forced creative,” so I have defined my role as the program’s teacher-administrator, and I have shaped my role to fit my strengths. At Wylie East High School, we are blessed with three staff members and in addition to splitting our choral ensembles, we split our administrative duties as well:

  • Nathan and Ashley, choral directors at Wylie East High SchoolMy specialties include communications, financial management, booster club, calendar and facilities, travel arrangements, student leadership and serving as department chair and vertical team lead.
  • My wife and co-director, Ashley Dame, specializes in marketing, social media, service projects, concert logistics and lighting, musical, lesson plan creation and choreography.
  • Our third director, Sara Rond, plays the role of chameleon and handles a variety of tasks, including solo and ensemble, digital learning platforms, attendance and uniforms, to name a few.

While I am, indeed, fortunate to have a three-member staff in place, I have taught in situations where I was the only director with over 300 students as well as working as a split-campus director teaching both middle and high school.

In these circumstances, it is more important than ever to involve parents and student leadership teams to help shoulder responsibilities where appropriate. I successfully delegated several duties, such as helping take attendance in large classes, organizing the music library, managing uniforms, organizing social events, gathering volunteers for trips and managing money through booster clubs.

Being the only director is difficult but getting everything done is possible! Focus on being an advocate and educating administrators and parents about your program’s mission and needs.

Related Benefits of Strategic Planning — Connecting the Dots

One of the best parts of having a strategic plan is seeing its related benefits, particularly in recruitment, retention, leadership and motivation. When directors set up a strategic plan that is well thought out, contains quick wins, and carefully increases rigor and involvement, students will experience success, which encourages them to remain in the program, and they will be your best recruiters.

Recruitment and retention connect strongly to our program’s mission of finding musical success (kids want to be a part of something good), visibility (kids are drawn to programs that they see being successful) and strong relationships with students.

My hope is that students are inspired and motivated by your plan. At first, students find extrinsic motivation through you, your lessons and the plan you have created, but over time, that drive morphs into intrinsic motivation with students finding value in what they are doing each day. It’s a cycle that is fun to watch and well worth the time and efforts spent on the front end of the planning process.

Trust me, it works!

Living room with a variety of electronics but no wiring visible.

Looking to Hide Cables, Cords and Wires? Here’s How.

Written by Yamaha Corporation of America on . Posted in Audio How-to.

Let’s face it: You’re a binge-watcher. There’s nothing you love more than turning the lights down low, settling into a comfy sofa and watching your favorite movies and TV shows. You’ve subscribed to every major streaming service and have carefully selected your audio and video components, so everything sounds and looks great.

There’s only one problem: When you turn the lights back on, your room is a mess, with audio and video cables, power cords and wires everywhere — to and from your TV, game console, streaming device, AV receiver, sound bar, speakers and subwoofer, hanging off of shelves and end tables, perhaps even (gulp!) snaking across the floor.

Surely there has to be a better way!

Turns out that there is. And in this article we’ll give you some tips for making your viewing room look as impressive with the lights switched on as it does when they’re turned way down low.

Take Advantage of Open Spaces

When it comes to hiding cables, the first rule is: Always take full advantage of any available open spaces. If you have an attic above your viewing room or a crawlspace below it, they’re perfect for keeping cabling out of sight. If you’re renting (or if the thought of drilling into ceilings or floors makes you uncomfortable), fear not: just buy some wire covers (sometimes called “cable ducts,” “cable runners,” “cable raceways” or “cable concealers”). These allow you to easily hide a bundle of cables in a neat conduit that can be stuck to a baseboard or wall with adhesive or dual-sided tape — no tools required. Many are even paintable, so they can easily blend into your room décor.

Two images of a television and sound bar interconnected with wires; the image on the left shows the wires hidden by a cover.
Wire covers are simple to install and do a great job of hiding cables.

Use Your Room’s Trim

Trim elements like crown molding and baseboards run around a room, so you should utilize any small gaps they may provide, such as behind the molding or underneath the baseboard. If your home entertainment room does not have either, you can always install foam crown molding or foam baseboard molding and hide wires behind or under them. As with wire covers, many foam moldings are paintable, making them unobtrusive as well as decorative.

Closeup of crown molding along the top of a wall.
Wires can be hidden behind or under crown molding.

Run Flat Wire Under Carpeting

If your viewing room is carpeted or has throw rugs or runners, you can run flat wire underneath them; these won’t create an annoying bump like standard cabling will. Bear in mind that fishing flat wire underneath wall-to-wall carpeting requires the use of specialized tools called fish tape pullers. There are also some super-thin flat speaker wires on the market designed to be affixed to a wall with adhesive. For a smooth finish, just apply some joint compound to integrate the wire into your wall, then sand and paint. As a bonus, this type of wire will even work underneath wallpaper.

Utilize Lighting Coves or Install Light Strips

If your room has a lighting cove or strip lighting, take advantage of these spaces to tuck wire underneath. If not, you can install some adhesive LED light strips (which are very low wattage and often made of heat-resistant materials) and hide wiring under them.

Cable Clips are Great Organizers

Even if you can’t completely hide the wires in your entertainment area, you can at least organize them with the use of handy (and inexpensive) cable clips. As shown in the photo below, these do the important job of bundling wires together, thus minimizing the amount of electronic spaghetti that may be cluttering up your room. Some are even self-adhesive, making it easy to attach them behind your entertainment center, to the backs of tables or underneath existing molding, making your cabling a lot less obtrusive.

Five wires of different colors channeled through a bar style cable clip.
A cable clip keeping wires together.

You Can Never Have Enough VELCRO® or Zip Ties

When it comes to hiding cables, VELCRO wraps and zip ties are your best friend — the installer’s equivalent to duct tape. They come in a variety of lengths and thicknesses and provide an inexpensive and easy way to neatly bundle and manage cables behind cabinets and between shelves. Our advice: stock up on a supply of both. You’ll always find a use for them!

Closeup of hook and loop style wraps around a group of cables.
Velcro wraps make it easy to bundle and manage cables.
Different colors and sizes of cable ties bundle as groups with like sized ties.
Cable ties come in a variety of sizes …
Large bundle of cables with multiple ties keeping them closely bound together much like a rope.
… and can be used to organize even large bundles of cables.
close up of child's hands playing the piano

Apply Music Learning Theory Principles in Your Teaching

Written by Hannah Creviston on . Posted in Teaching Tips.

The beloved television icon, Mr. Rogers said, “Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children, play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.” (Heidi Moore, “Why Play is the Work of Childhood,” Fred Rogers Center, 2014.)

I would venture to guess that we all know that young children actively use all their senses to engage with and learn about the world around them — my 11-month-old puts everything in her mouth for that exact reason. But how do we transfer that idea to the piano lesson?

What is Music Learning Theory?

AnthonyI first became familiar with Music Learning Theory in graduate school at the University of South Carolina. I used the Music Play curriculum to play with children age 5 and under. One of the students who really helped me grow as a human, a musician and a teacher was a boy named Anthony who has autism (pictured to the right). Through my lessons with Anthony, I learned to really listen and react to the musical responses of each child, and I learned to improvise and create my own music based on these responses.

Quite simply put, Music Learning Theory tells us how children learn when they are learning music. Through years of research, Dr. Edwin E. Gordon discovered that we learn music in the same way we learn language and that the best way to develop musical potential (which everyone has!) is through active participation: singing, listening, moving, playing, imitating and creating.

Sidenote: Victor Wooten has a wonderful TED Talk about Music as a Language.

reading pyramidLet’s think about how children learn language. First, they absorb through listening then they babble — nonsense syllables at first and then slowly, through imitation, a real word or two start to emerge. Even when the sounds are unclear, adults or older children give clarity and meaning to those words. Words turn into sentences, and soon, the child is thinking fully through language and holding conversations with other people. After years of practicing how to listen and talk, we then teach the child how to read and write.

We all know the educational guide, “Sound Before Symbol” by Maria Kay. Unfortunately, in music lessons, teachers often rely on a method book to guide the structure and curriculum of a child’s musical journey, thus skipping several steps in the learning process.

Listening

I always use 3/4 meter as an example of what can happen if a child does not have a firm listening foundation. Most songs played on the radio are in 2/4 or 4/4 time, so students generally know the feel of these meters. However, I’m sure you’ve had students who dropped or added a beat in 3/4 without noticing that anything was wrong. Just as young babies learn the natural inflection of their birth language(s), children (and adults) learn their musical language and the natural inflection of a style, meter or composer through listening before trying to play.

During the listening stage, I play patterns or small groups of notes for my students and ask them to identify if my two patterns are the same or different. There is a Music Learning Theory saying: “We know what something is by knowing what it’s not.” (Edwin E. Gordon, “Learning Sequences in Music: Skill, Content, and Patterns,” Chicago: GIA Publications, 2003.)

If the student cannot identify that a pattern in 3/4 sounds different than a pattern in 4/4, they are not ready to move on in the learning sequence.

Movement

I challenge you to listen to any upbeat song by the Beach Boys, Beatles or BTS and try not to move. It’s impossible! And that’s a good thing. Music and movement are meant to be intertwined. I write about this in more detail in “Use Movement to Fix Rhythm,” but I will give an example here.

After my students have listened to many songs in 3/4 meter, I invite them to move while I play a piece in 3/4. If they can keep the macrobeat and microbeats steady, I know that they are audiating in the meter. If they cannot, then I know that they need more time listening.

Improvisation

child playing piano unsplashNext, I give my students a chance to babble or talk on their own and improvise at the piano in 3/4 meter. I will keep the parameters simple: Put both hands on a D pentascale and improvise a piece in 3/4. I usually allow students to play on their own before I add an accompaniment pattern. Again, if my students stay in 3/4, I know they understand and are audiating triple meter. If they are struggling to play with consistent macro- and microbeats, we will spend more time listening and moving.

At this time, I also revisit the same/different game, but now I allow students to be the teacher and ask them to create patterns. Then I will identify if they are the same or different. (Students always love a chance to reverse roles!)

Reading

Depending on the student, I may do some rote, or imitation, teaching before we move on to reading notation. When I transfer to notation, I again go back to my patterns and teach the notes and rhythms in relationship to each other and the keyboard, rather than just focusing on the note or rhythmic value names — see my article, “Note-Naming ≠ Music-Reading.”

Most method books introduce a half note as getting two counts. However, knowing that a half note gets two counts in some meters is a different skill from knowing what that half note will sound like in context.

I believe it is our responsibility to create musicians, not just great piano technicians. Through the tenets of Music Learning Theory, children and adults can expand their musical horizons and come much closer to reaching their full musical potential.

Music Learning Theory reminds me of this famous quote that has been credited to Benjamin Franklin: “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I may remember. Involve me and I learn.”

Closeup of the bridge and knobs on an electric guitar.

Focus on the Focus Switch

Written by Robbie Calvo on . Posted in Guitars How-to. 1 Comment on Focus on the Focus Switch

Every year, musical instrument manufacturers release exciting new innovations in digital technology — things like processors that replicate analog devices with stunning accuracy, or recording interfaces that capture audio at resolutions the human ear can’t even detect.

If anyone had told me a decade ago that I’d completely replace my tube amplifiers with digital emulations of them, I’d say they were crazy! However, some years ago, I started performing live and doing recording sessions with a processor called Helix®. This amazing device from Line 6 provides hundreds of modeled amp/speaker configurations, plus every guitar effect you’ll ever need … all in glorious stereo. I actually think this technology sounds better than anything I’ve ever used before.

Similarly, just when we thought the six-string guitar had reached the pinnacle of its evolution, Yamaha introduced a complete range of TransAcoustic guitars that provide onboard reverb and chorus without the need for an amplifier! Skeptics may call this “sorcery,” but guitar players the world over are basking in the magnificent glow of those ambient acoustic tones.

Early in 2022, the company’s second-generation Revstar electric guitars were unveiled, with three levels of models (Professional, Standard and Element), all featuring acoustically tuned, chambered mahogany bodies. This new technology reduces body weight while increasing musical resonance and sustain. By simply placing your ear on the back of the instrument, you can experience how single notes and chords “blossom” within those chambers.

And the advancements didn’t stop there. Professional and Standard models also got an upgrade in the form of a five-way pickup selector switch. Position one (bridge pickup only), position three (bridge and neck pickups) and position five (neck pickup only) all function as you’d expect. Position two on the selector switch combines the bridge and neck pickups, but slightly delays the output of the opposite pickup to create an extremely desirable “out of phase” sound reminiscent of single-coil guitars. Position four replicates this tonality, but in reverse.

The Focus Switch

As if this wasn’t more than enough “cool” for a new guitar, Yamaha added a pull-pot feature to the tone control of Professional and Standard models called a “focus switch.” This passive circuitry (no battery needed) smooths out the treble frequencies while boosting the lows and mids for a more defined (“focused”) sound.

Closeup of the body of an electric guitar with knob indicated.
The focus switch.

The focus switch can be engaged on all five pickup options, for a total of ten tonal variations on a two-pickup guitar! Yamaha describes the effect of this new innovation as the sound of an overwound pickup. Overwound pickups have a higher output volume and generally find favor with rock guitar players looking for a more aggressive sound. I love how the focus switch enhances every style of music I play, and have found that it gives me a tonality I like without needing to use an outboard equalizer to fine-tune the frequencies.

The Video

Of course, the best way to evaluate and demonstrate the effect of the focus switch is to hear it. For those of you who don’t have access to a second-generation Revstar guitar, I created the video below so you can listen to how it affects the various pickup selections.

Here, I’m playing an RSS20 Standard Revstar through a Line 6 Helix processor. The backing track was recorded using the bridge pickup only, without the focus switch engaged. The solos you see me playing on top use all five pickup selections, and I indicate when I add the focus switch.

In the process of filming the video, I discovered my favorite settings. Position two (out of phase) with the focus switch engaged gave me that harmonically rich lead tone that has become part of my signature sound. The notes sustain with natural compression and start to feedback mildly, adding musical dimension, like a halo glowing around the notes.

Position four (also out of phase) with focus engaged gave me the sweetest of blues rhythm and lead tones. Complex chord voicings remain clear and defined yet take on a warm breadth that just makes you want to keep playing.

Of course, the resonance of the body chambers, along with the pickup selection and the use of the focus switch, are all working together to create these tones. It’s a sum of these parts interacting with the player’s technique that creates such a vibrant palette of world-class guitar tones.

Wood body of an electric guitar with the inner construction (without the electrical elements) visible.
Second-generation Revstar body chambers.

If you’d like to hear more tones using the focus switch, check out this video, and this one, both included in my recent blog posting spotlighting second-generation Revstars. The latter video also demonstrates the effect of the “dry switch” — a bass filter found on Revstar Element models such as the neon yellow RSE20 I’m playing there.

The Wrap-Up

Gone are the days when a guitar player needed racks of gear, walls of amps and a stack of guitars to create the textures and tones needed for a tour or recording session. Portable, programmable effects devices can store all our favorite sounds, and one modern guitar may well be versatile enough to cover almost any genre and musical situation. The challenge for guitar players these days will be keeping our chops up to date, and worthy of this incredible new technology.

Photographs courtesy of the author.

Check out Robbie’s other postings.

orchestra from above

5 Experimental Pieces Every Concert Band Should Play

Written by Aleah Fitzwater on . Posted in Teaching Tips.

What is experimental music? According to Wikipedia, it is a “general label for any music that pushes existing boundaries and genre definitions. Experimental compositional practice is defined broadly by exploratory sensibilities radically opposed to, and questioning of, institutionalized compositional, performing, and aesthetic conventions in music.”

So, just because a piece wasn’t written by a composer from The New York School, a group of artists that actively sought to widen the consciousness of Americans in the 1950s through poetry, art and music, doesn’t mean it isn’t innovative and experimental!

Why Play Experimental Music?

Experimental music teaches students unique and valuable musical skills: Experimental music exposes students to contemporary composing techniques as well as new types of notation and different instruments. While Handel’s “Water Music” is timeless, if we only play classical music from the classical era, our students will never learn techniques from the 20th and 21st centuries. I never learned how to flutter tongue in high school, so when I joined an audition-only wind ensemble in college, I had a bit of a problem. I was a principal flutist who hadn’t learned any extended techniques! Contemporary pieces were quickly something I learned to fear. A small percentage of your students will go on to perform in college, too, so introduce them to extended techniques before they leave your classroom.

orchestra overhead 4TNd3hsW3PM unsplashExperimental music will excite the audience in ways that classical-era pieces simply can’t: My dad isn’t the biggest fan of classical music. So, when one of my ensembles put on a spooky modern Halloween concert instead of a traditional concert with “Danse Macabre,” he couldn’t stop talking about the performance. We played “Voodoo,” a piece for winds that called for singing and flex time.

Every high school band should try out an experimental piece at least once a year. Here are five, which are experimental in either composition or instrumentation, that I find to be educationally valuable. Mix things up and try one! Your students will thank you.

1. “Godzilla Eats Las Vegas” by Eric Whitacre

JW Pepper describes this piece as “Eric Whitacre‘s famous work for concert band” — and it’s true! While many band and orchestra directors know Whitacre for his gorgeous voice leading and chord planing, most people know him for “Godzilla Eats Las Vegas.” The composition, which was commissioned by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 1996, is a sound story of Godzilla. The piece has a wide range of sound effects, from dog barks and chilling vocal “oohs” to bomb-drop sounds performed on flute headjoints. It is truly a wild ride that many bands will enjoy.

While this particular video shows a version of “Godzilla Eats Las Vegas” that is performed with a full choir, you can also assign the vocal parts to the members of your band.

2. “Through the Looking Glass Falls” by Jennifer Jolley

I discovered the work of Jennifer Jolley when I was working at a New Music Festival that she visited as a guest composer. I consider her “Through the Looking Glass Falls” to be experimental because of its unique composition. In some moments, it feels like bleep-blop, and in other moments, it is flowing and smooth. This piece is like water! Flowing, dripping, falling.

“Through the Looking Glass Falls” was based on drawings elementary students made after listening to Ravel’s “Jeux d’eau.” I was lucky enough to see the original drawings alongside the composition during a workshop with Jolley.

This piece is a grade 5, and I recommend it for audition-only bands because it is quite difficult. The piccoloist needs a lot of rhythmic independence. In fact, the whole band will need confidence for this one given its pared-down parts.

Watch the Detroit Symphony Youth Ensemble perform “Through the Looking Glass Falls” in this video.

Another great piece by Jolley is “Motordom.” It is very different in texture and has a lot of forward motion. It was based on a light installation with the same name at the Caltrans headquarters in downtown Los Angeles. Listen to “Motordom” here.

3. “Electricity” by Daniel Bukvich

electric current pexels pixabayThis piece by Daniel Bukvich is a level ME, which makes it accessible to younger bands. “Electricity” is split into three movements: Power, Black-Out and Incandescence.

The thick and raucous percussion at the beginning will get your students excited. But just wait until the end when the cacophonous extended bass technique sounds like a hundred bees or flies or perhaps an electrical current, which would be quite fitting given the composition’s title. But I’ll let you decide!

4. “Country Band March” by Charles Ives

You might be surprised to see a march on the list, but this isn’t just any march. It’s two marches, at the same time!

“Country Band March” is actually a musical joke. It is a parody of performing street musicians who make their fair share of mistakes. The musicians are playing two entirely different pieces, far too close to one another.

Charles Ives composed this piece in 1903. While it is cacophonous, it somehow works. There is also a moment where the band sounds like a train.

While there are no extended techniques in “Country Band March,” it’s definitely not something you hear every day.

5. “Voodoo” by Daniel Bukvich

The creative composer Daniel Bukvich made my list twice! If you are looking for new and innovative compositions, I would highly recommend looking into more of his pieces.

flashlight pexelsAs I mentioned earlier, I didn’t stumble upon “Voodoo” until college. That being said, this work is very accessible for high school bands. Unlike “Electricity,” “Voodoo” best suits mature high school wind ensembles. This piece is based on the African religion Hoodoo, and it’s a treat not only for the ears but also the eyes. The score includes parts for flashlights, which are paired with eerie percussion, whistles, extended techniques in the winds and vocal noises — combined, they create a spooky experience.

Another notable facet of “Voodoo” is that it is written entirely in open score and must be memorized before the performance.

Man working at a soundboard.

Spotlight on Steinberg WaveLab 11

Written by Mike Levine on . Posted in Recording.

With the 2022 release of WaveLab 11, Steinberg added over 40 new features and enhancements to its flagship audio editor. These additions beefed up WaveLab’s already prodigious toolset for mastering, audio for video, podcast production and more. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights, starting with those common to both the Elements and Pro versions.

Clean and Enhance Track Inspector Windows

The new Clean and Enhance windows in the Track Inspector provide convenient real-time processing of individual tracks. Clicking on the Track Effects shortcut brings up two distinct sections: Clean and Enhance, each with on/off buttons and one-knob controls.

The Clean section features three effects: DeHummer, DeNoiser and DeEsser. All have a Reduction knob for controlling the amount of processing, along with a Listen knob for monitoring the part of the signal removed by the effect. The DeHummer offers options for removing 50 or 60 Hz hum, while the DeEsser has a Character Control for differentiating between male and female voices.

The Enhance section offers four more effects: Voice Exciter with Amount and Clarity controls; Reverb with Size and Mix controls; EQ with Low, Mid and High-frequency knobs, as well as a Low Cut filter; and Maximize with an Optimize control.

Screenshot.
The new Clean and Enhance effects.

Multicore Processing

Starting with WaveLab 11, there was support for multicore processors for Audio Montages, making its performance even faster. If you’ve got a session with many tracks, clips and plug-ins, you’ll notice a speed boost if you’re working on a fast computer. The program also can suspend processing on plug-ins when they’re idle, saving CPU resources.

Replace Audio in Video

The version 11 release allowed you to replace part or all of a video’s audio track from within WaveLab, without affecting the video quality. Once you’ve finished editing the audio, you can render the video in its original format.

Direct Podcast Uploads

Also added was a powerful feature to speed up and simplify your workflow when creating and editing podcasts: the ability to upload content directly to directories like Spreaker, Podbean, Soundcloud, Buzzsprout and Castos. WaveLab 11 also includes all the features of Steinberg’s dedicated podcast production software WaveLab Cast.

Simplified Ducking

In podcasts and other productions featuring spoken words, it’s often necessary to duck the music at times to let the voices come through. The new auto-ducking feature in the Audio Montage window allows you to set the voice track (or any other track) as a modulator that will automatically duck another track. Several adjustable parameters allow you to fine-tune the ducking behavior.

Extended Multitrack Support

Support for multi-channel interleaved files was expanded, with WaveLab Pro supporting up to 22.2-channel surround layouts of WAV files, and WaveLab Elements supporting up to 5.1 surround. In both, you can freely create Channel Clusters from two or more channels and process them independently, plus you can open, save and edit multi-channel files just as you can with stereo or mono files; you can also select specific channels to open in external audio editors.

New VST-3 Plug-ins for WaveLab Elements

The Elements version of WaveLab 11 received a VST-3 plug-in infusion from Steinberg, including DeEsser, for getting rid of sibilance on vocals; Expander, for reducing the level of unwanted audio or gating it out; Mix6to2, for downmixing surround mixes to stereo; the self-explanatory Mono to Stereo; and Ping-Pong Delay for stereo delay effects.

Screenshot.
PingPong Delay enables stereo delay effects.

New VST-3 Plug-ins for WaveLab Pro

The processing options in WaveLab Pro 11 were expanded even more, with the addition of seven VST-3 plug-ins. DeReverb allows you to remove ambience from a recording; LinPro is a dithering plug-in featuring the latest technology from MAAT; Frequency 2 is a powerful eight-band equalizer with a switchable dynamic mode on each band; Squasher offers multiband compression — both upward and downward — and features comprehensive sidechain control; Imager allows you to adjust the stereo image of a track or clip in four independent frequency bands; Quadrafuzz V2 is a versatile multiband processor that lets you choose one of five different distortion flavors for each band; and MixConvert V6 enables you to monitor a surround mix in a stereo playback environment.

Screenshot.
Squasher provides multiband upward and downward compression.

Automate Plug-In Parameters with Clip Envelopes

WaveLab Pro 11 gives users the ability to automate VST-3 plug-in parameters using clip envelopes. These are similar to volume and pan envelopes, but are used for controlling effects in an Audio Montage. They can be managed from the Automation Envelope Panel in the Inspector, where you can easily assign them or turn them on and off; you can also text-edit envelope points.

Screenshot.
Adjust effects parameters with clip envelopes.

Track Groups

WaveLab Pro users can also freely assign tracks to Track Groups for added routing and processing flexibility when working on multitrack projects. Each Group resides before the Master or Montage outputs in the signal chain and has independent gain and pan controls; in addition, it can receive its own effects processing. A Track Group Editor lets you name and assign colors to Groups and move them using drag and drop.

Screenshot.
Track Groups provide new routing and processing options.

Track Lanes

Within each track in WaveLab Pro 11, you can now create up to eight lanes in which you can host additional audio clips — a feature that greatly enhances stem creation and is also handy for layering audio for sound design. Each Lane offers independent effects and gain controls and can be muted or soloed. You can also show or hide the Lanes and convert tracks to Lanes or Lanes to tracks.

Screenshot.
Track Lanes allow you to stack clips inside a track.

SuperVision for Audio Analysis

WaveLab Pro 11 includes SuperVision, a highly flexible multi-meter plug-in with 27 different meter types, including Loudness, VU, Phase, Spectrum, Ambisonics and many more. You can open up to nine meters at a time inside SuperVision’s interface and freely configure their placement.

Screenshot.
SuperVision provides extensive metering capabilities.
Someone watching a sunset from a long dock.

On a Clear Day You Can Create Forever

Written by Shelly Peiken on . Posted in Creativity.

You know you’ve got the gene. The DNA. The write stuff. You know this because you’ve witnessed it in yourself before, and once you have it, it doesn’t go anywhere.

But we can get mired into thinking that our creative “stuff” is displaced. Not quite writers block, or a specific song you can’t finish, but rather a temporary malaise or brain fog from, well, two years of being less connected with actual humans or the stress of worrying about when we’ll get back to performing live again. There are unlimited reasons. Life is messy.

Been there, done that. And I’ve learned a few lessons along the way. Here’s a list of things I’ve found that can help burn through the mist and allow you to start seeing clearly again.

1. Don’t give your malaise the power.

Look it in the eye and let it know who it’s dealing with. And then walk away. Do something else. Come back later and ask it if it’s changed its mind. Treat it like a game you played with a high school boyfriend/girlfriend. Tell him/her it’s over. Pretend you mean it. See what happens.

2. Wear something out of character.

Try an outfit that makes you feel like someone you’re not — an actor in someone else’s shoes. Literally. Go to the supermarket in workman’s boots, or to the gym in heels. I realize this sounds silly. But silly is good. Silly loosens us up.

3. Read a novel and try writing something from the main character’s perspective.

This can work especially well if you feel that you have nothing left to write about from your own perspective. The idea that anyone can run out of things to say is preposterous, of course, but remember, this is an exercise, not a way of life!

4. Listen to something out of the ordinary.

I suggest trying a score from an iconic musical because it can elicit all kind of unpredictable emotional responses you didn’t feel beforehand. For example, last summer I heard the LA Philharmonic perform “Somewhere” from West Side Story at the Hollywood Bowl on a beautiful night under the stars. I wept uncontrollably. My friend was concerned. I, on the other hand, was relieved. That’s what music is supposed to do. If I had to write a song on the spot that night, I could have.

5. Flip through old journals.

I have about 50 of them, dating back to when I was 12 years old. Sometimes I come upon a thought and marvel at how intuitive and concise I was back then — wise beyond my years, I like to think — only to conclude that it was because I didn’t have any excessive baggage yet and the naked truth wasn’t obfuscated by self-conscious prose or pressure to write well. Revisiting our innocence connects us with that unguarded honesty that listeners will relate to, perhaps because they’re having trouble accessing their own.

6. Bond with your instrument.

Tell it, swear even, that you’re just flirting — loosening up before a 5K run or vocalizing before a recital. Record yourself as you play (just in case something falls from the sky) and then forget about it. I’m not suggesting that something magical will fall from the sky during these practice sessions because then you’ll expect it to … and that’s exactly what you don’t want.

7. Give yourself a break.

I can tell you with complete assurance that all successful songwriters, composers, lyricists and musicians write appalling songs once in awhile — they just don’t share them with you. (For obvious reasons.) But if they’re your true friend, they should be able to admit this. (Like I am doing here.)

8. Go back and listen to material you’ve written before that made you proud.

Appeal to your intelligence, not to your emotions. Because you know deep down this is temporary. Time can be a frightening four-letter-word because time … well, it takes time! And patience. It’s the cure-all, however, for just about everything. Especially working through the fog. So have faith in it. Don’t stop. Don’t give up. Because on a clear day you can create forever.

 

Check out Shelly’s other postings.

Illustration with a mythical character seen in relief within a fantastical scenescape.

10 Best-Sounding Open World Games

Written by Jake Uitti on . Posted in Gaming. 1 Comment on 10 Best-Sounding Open World Games

For many video gamers, “open world” options are some of the most fulfilling. These titles allow players to freely explore a virtual world by using their instincts as compasses, rather than following a more stringent and traditional side-scrolling, level-oriented map. Open world games give players the ability to work towards their goals in less structured ways, deciding when and where they’d like to act.

Such an approach delivers a great sense of autonomy and self-determination, and can also provide a more satisfying sonic experience, especially when enjoyed on quality headphones, speakers and sound bars. Soundtracks and sound effects can pop up seemingly out of nowhere, making them that much more memorable and tantalizing. Here’s our list of 10 of the open world games that offer the best soundscapes.

1. THE LEGEND OF ZELDA

For those looking to relive their childhoods, hearing every song, enemy, coin acquisition and boomerang throw is crucial in this title. While this game may have originated some 35 years ago, it’s as pleasurable as ever to play (try to do so without dying even once!). Remember that little ditty when you discovered a secret staircase with a candle flame? Remember the sound of a fairy filling your hearts? It’s just not the same on mute (or when listened to on an outdated audio system). Check out the evolution of this series here.

2. TOEJAM & EARL

Here’s another classic, with one of the most beloved bass-driven soundtracks of all time. It’s funky, percussive and will stick in your memory for, well, decades! It’s particularly important to be able to clearly hear every sonic nugget in the later levels, as your protagonists — the three-legged ToeJam or the hefty Earl — attempt to dodge any number of foes on their way to collecting strewn ship pieces on their hopeful way home. Check out the trailer here.

3. HORIZON FORBIDDEN WEST

Looking for a truly cinematic experience? This game delivers. Players are exposed to ambient sounds of the jungle and other unpredictable locales, as well as key bits of dialogue that offer hints at what’s next to come. These are certainly not to be misheard or ignored! To be fully immersed, it’s important to listen to each deep breath, every mosquito buzz and bird chirp. They get your heart pumping and your fingers flying, ready for serious battle. Check out the trailer here.

4. RED DEAD REDEMPTION II

Here’s a game that allows you to hop on your metaphorical horse and explore every inch of the Wild West in the late 1800s. Around every corner, you’ll find yourself walking though sticky mud, getting into saloon fights, crashing through windows and dodging the bullets of six-shooters going off all around you. Nothing about being an outlaw is easy, of course! Check out the trailer here.

5. THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT

Ever wonder what it would be like to move through a world-class painting, with every intricate element coming to life? That’s exactly what happens in this imaginative game, only here those animated objects include the monsters of the land, which you, the Witcher, have to slay. As you ride your steed through the rolling hills, pay attention to the flute music from the townspeople, the songs of birds and the screeches of seemingly unstoppable foes, which include angry warriors and flying griffins — not to mention the gurgle of the water you must swim through to achieve your missions. Check out the trailer here.

6. ELDEN RING

What do spells sound like? That’s what you’ll find out when you play this elaborate game rooted in medieval aesthetics. Claps of thunder, the roar of dragons and the sickening thud of sharpened swords piercing scaled flesh come from all around as you manifest glowing blue magic arrows, galloping horses and a will to survive. Trust me, you won’t want to miss a single note or clash of steel against armor. Check out the trailer here.

7. GENSHIN IMPACT

This anime-style title takes a bit of a cutesier approach than some of the other ones mentioned in this article. Here, the protagonist worries about stomach cramps and can fly with wings that resemble a hang glider. There’s less carnage and more cartoonish fun. But don’t let that mislead you — there’s also plenty of action, from hand-to-hand combat to important conversations and item discovery. Not only does this game’s soundtrack excite, it also puts a smile on your face. Check out the trailer here.

8. ASSASSIN’S CREED VALHALLA

This title is one of several in the vaunted Assassin’s Creed franchise, and it’s also one of the best in the lot (to date, anyway). As the name suggests, the game involves mythology as much as it does a quest for truth and treasure; there’s dancing, combat, dialogue and massive hunts. But there are also spells, blizzards, sailing and swimming in cold, cold waters (so frigid you can see your breath). Transport yourself to this snow-covered adventure and immerse yourself in a world only dreamed of until now. Check out the trailer here.

9. GHOST OF TSUSHIMA

Perhaps the most realistic of all the titles listed here (and that’s saying something), this is as much an exercise in getting your heart pumping as it is a testament to the thrill of victory. Swords slash through armies, gunpowder explodes and horses whinny as blazing fire lights up the darkened sky. For those who want to hear each drop of blood splattering, this is your game! Something is always moving, changing or kicking up dust. Check out the trailer here.

10. GOD OF WAR: RAGNAROK

Like its predecessors in the God of War series, this soon-to-be-released sequel takes place in the world of Norse mythology and features battles with fearsome creatures and gods like Thor and Odin. In those dangerous moments, keeping your senses razor-sharp is imperative. That’s the basis for this video game’s soundscape: Know when your adversary is nearby; discern your enemy’s last breath in the winter chill. Without the ability to take note of each such sonic intricacy, you might as well give up, dead in the metaphorical water. Check out the trailer here.