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.

Enjoy Being...

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...

Pitchfork TV

Know much about Steve Reich? How relevant is the music of Iceland to the music of today? To what degree of influence did the Pixies have on Indie Rock? Want to stay hip to what your students may be listening to?

Well then...

If you're a general music teacher, more appropriately at the high school level, you should definitely check out Pitchfork TV. You'll find here an assortment of music related streaming videos. Of most interest to the music educator is the One Week Only section of the site where full length featured music documentaries are posted each week.

I'm certain there are ways for you to incorporate whatever it is you experience from this site to the classroom. While some of the videos may be deemed "inappropriate," it's up to you to decide how you'll utilize this resource.

BTW, Pitchfork TV comes to you by way of Pitchfork Media, a Chicago-based online music magazine I visit frequently to read up on music news and reviews of albums and performances.

The reviews published on Pitchfork Media are great examples of top notch music journalism. I have used a handful of them in my own class to help students better approach their own writing.

Check out a prior post of mine on the importance of Writing and Speaking Musically.

Be Well...

LP