Bringing Music into the Common Core Fold

Interesting article about a Chicago Public Schools ESL teacher's approach to teaching language concepts through music.

CPS Teacher to Record Curriculum-Based Rock Album

The Greatest by Anthony Tommasini

Here's an interesting project by Anthony Tommasini, classical music critic for the New York Times.

And here are a handful of his webisodes.  

Good stuff all around.  Enjoy.  

Gustavo Dudamel

Lately I've been watching conductors do their thing on the podium.  It's almost cliche to say that Gustavo Dudamel is your favorite conductor.  One characteristic of his conducting that cannot be argued is the raw emotion he exudes.  Here's a 60 Minutes segment on the conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic:

Gustavo Dudamel on 60 Minutes

Larry Livingston

I had the great fortune in rehearsing and performing Mahler's 5th Symphony under the tutelage of Maestro Livingston at the Idyllwild Arts Festival in Southern California.

Larry Livingston is a brilliant being.  Here are a couple of interviews with him:

Larry Livingston Interview with Artist House Music

Larry Livingston Interview from the Music for All Festival

Muxtape Shut Down...There Goes My Grand Plan

Hey Folks...

Did you hear? Muxtape has finally been "snubbed" by the RIAA. What a great resource Muxtape was for resurrecting the art of the mixtape in this new age of mp3s and streaming audio. Hopefully the RIAA and Muxtape will come to some agreeable terms. I'm fairly certain the RIAA will recognize the validity of Muxtape and understand that it may do them some good.

There goes my grand plan for using Muxtape this year in the classroom. Has anyone out there used it for classroom purposes? If so, I'd like to hear what you were doing.

Enjoy Being...

Measure for Measure: New York Times Blog on Songwriting

Hey Folks...

I stumbled upon this New York Times blog entitled "Measure for Measure" via Andrew Bird's website.

I've taken the liberty of cutting and pasting an excerpt from the blog to give you all a glimpse of its objective.

About The Blog:

With music now available with a single, offhand click, it's easy to forget that songs are not born whole, polished and ready to play. They are created by artists who draw on some combination of craft, skill and inspiration. In the coming weeks, the contributors to this blog -- all accomplished songwriters -- will pull back the curtain on the creative process as they write about their work on a song in the making.

Other songwriters are featured in the "Measure for Measure" blog including Darrell Brown, Rosanne Cash, Peter Holsapple, and Suzanne Vega.

What a great resource for getting into the heads of gifted songwriters. I think this blog is a must read for any high school general music classroom.

What do you think?

As for Andrew Bird...

If you have not heard of Andrew Bird, I strongly encourage you to check him out. He's a classically trained violinist turned songwriter. Andrew has a penchant for making the violin an integral piece of his indie rock sound. In his "Measure for Measure" blog, Andrew eloquently walks his readers through some of his music writing processes.

One last thing...For any of you who read my blogs, I tend to give nods to the great city -- Chicago -- I have resided in since day 1. I take great pride in the fact that Wilco's loft is in Albany Park and that Andrew Bird drew inspiration from trips to the Garfield Park Conservatory and the Field Museum. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, read through Andrew's blog.

Enjoy Being...

Go Cubbies!!! And...Am I actually rooting on the White Sox??? Heck Yeah!!! A Windy City Classic in October???!!!

IMSLP IS UP AND RUNNING

Hey All...

Finally got to checking back to see if IMSLP is up and running. Sure enough it is. Up for some score studying???

Enjoy Being...