Music Publishing: Paper or Digital?
Posted by Wendy in General, Publishing on March 11th, 2010
I have had conversations with several of my composer friends about the direction of music publishing in terms of print or digital distribution of music. I know that not only are composers concerned about these things, but music publishers are as well.
My favorite inspirational newspaper, the Wall Street Journal, has a piece entitled Magazines Team Up to Tout the Power of Print that has some interesting perspectives on this point. Of course, a magazine’s competition is online newssources so the issue is slightly different. But certainly these things are related. Just last year the magazine industry was still very concerned that their medium was disappearing due to the popularity of obtaining news from the internet.
But, new figures have come out to show that magazine readership has actually increased by 4.3% in the last 5 years and magazines are launching a multi-million dollar ad campaign about the “power of print.”
One of the five ads that will be run in magazines is displayed on the WSJ online article with a picture of Michael Phelps. I think the last paragraph should be interesting to composers and publishers alike:
What it proves once again is that a new medium doesn’t necessarily displace an existing one. Just as movies didn’t kill radio. Just as TVs didn’t kill movies. An established medium can continue to flourish so long as it offers a unique experience…Which is why people aren’t giving up swimming, just because they also enjoy surfing.
So the question then is, what “unique experience” does a publisher or printed medium offer a musician or teacher? There are obvious answers to this, but I think the forward thinking composer and publisher should ask how else they can offer a “unique experience” to their customer. Surely there are many more creative ways to do this not yet explored in the industry.
How Innovation Happens at 3M (and how it relates to music teaching/publishing)
Posted by Wendy in Creativity, General, Inspiration, Publishing on March 9th, 2010
I love the Wall Street Journal as an unusual source of creative and entrepreneural inspiration. On Monday, March 1st, there was an article entitled, At 3M, Innovation Comes in Tweaks in which CEO George Buckley was interviewed about his company and their innovations and creative processes. Really the whole article is interesting and worth the read, but I love what he said in this part of the interview,
WSJ: How else do you get your people to be creative?
Mr. Buckley: Everybody wants to find out how to can creativity. You can’t. Creativity comes from freedom, not control. We let all the people in the R&D community spend 15% of their time researching whatever they like.
Now, I have heard of several companies allowing their employees to spend a small percentage of their time researching their own interests with remarkable results (Google for one). It only makes sense that people are most excited about projects that interest them and in which they have vested interests.
How does that relate to the world of music teaching?
Well, I wonder what would happen if we as teachers allowed our students to spend a certain percentage of their practice time and their music selection on music that they love and pick themselves? Several years ago, I had a 9th grader who was talented but was just about to quit piano his mother told me. We worked out a deal where he could chose up yo 50% of his pieces for that year and I would choose the remaining 50%. He could spend half of his time on music he loved as long as he spent half of his time on the music I assigned. This was the only way we got through that year, but I’m so excited to say that he is now a senior and has developed into quite the musician! He continues to study music that he loves, but it is often music that I have picked now that his tastes have developed. We spent a good deal of time in his 9th and 1oth grade years on Broadway music, church music, holiday music, etc., but it was well worth it as his love of music just grew by leaps and bounds.
I wonder how this could relate and encourage more innovation in the composing/publishing world as well?
Strengths (a note from Chopin)
Posted by Wendy in Composing, Creativity, Inspiration on March 8th, 2010
This is Lesson #6 in the pages that most spoke to me in What Matters Now. While there is a lot of truth to this little adage, I don’t know that I would completely discount the importance of working on our weaknesses. Especially for a young composer, it’s helpful to identify weaknesses and strive to improve them since one does not always know their strengths. Young composers need to “outfit their arsenol” of techniques. But, I do understand the point being made here since doing what you are good at will certainly produce more in the area of your strength. Before sharing this little tidbit from the What Matter Now series, I’d like to share some thoughts from someone who has a bit more clout in the musical world.
In my reading of Aaron Copland’s Music and Imagination, part of the Charles Eliot Norton lecture series from Harvard, I found an interesting passage about Frederick Chopin. It seems Chopin’s friends tried over and over again to get him to broaden his portfolio by writing for other instruments and groupings. From a letter to one of his friends, we can hear his thoughts on the matter:
I know my limitations, and I know I would make a fool of myself if I tried to climb too high without having the ability to do it. They plague me to death, urging me to write symphonies and operas, and they want me to be everything in one, a Polish Rossinni and a Mozart and a Beethoven. But, I just laugh under my breath and think to myself that one must start from small things. Im only a pianist, and if I’m worth anything this is good too…I think it’s better to do only a little but to do that as well as possible, rather than try to do all things and do them poorly.
Should you need a bit more encouragement in this area, here is the little adage from the What Matter Now series that made me think of that great Chopin quote.
Lesson #1 Passion (page 51)
Lesson #2 Knowing (page 78)
Lesson #3 Change (page 50)
Lesson #4 Connected (Page 12)
Lesson #5 Productivity (Page 68)
Lesson #6 Strengths (Page 22)
Music Education Blog Carnival
Posted by Wendy in General, General Music, Piano Teaching on March 4th, 2010
The Music Education Blog Carnival is a collection of interesting articles posted by music education bloggers. Each month (except for the summer months) a music ed blogger volunteers to host the “event” on their site. They then parse through submissions and then post relevant music education articles at the beginning of the next month along with annotations about its content and usefulness. The Blog Carnival took a vacation in the last year and has now re-emerged. One of my articles on teaching form has been included in this month’s collection. You may also find a number of useful articles for your own class, studio, and musical development. This month’s collection is hosted by Dr. Joseph Pisano of mustech.com. Visit this month’s carnival.
Major/minor Triad Flashcards
Posted by Wendy in Piano Teaching on March 4th, 2010
As your students prepare for state theory tests, you might be interested in the Major/minor Triad Keyboard Flashcards that are available from this site. Each of these cards shows a piano keyboard with the notes of a triad marked. All of the Major and minor triads beginning on any note are included in these cards. You can also print the answers to the flashcards on the backs of the cards. To download these flashcards, visit the Wendy’s Piano Studio / Teaching Resources / Flashcards section of the site. Please note the printing instructions on page 2 of the files.
New Review of Irish Celebration
Posted by Wendy in Music for Teaching, New Music, Piano Teaching on March 3rd, 2010
Natalie has posted a review of my Irish Celebration piece on Music Matters Blog. Thanks, Natalie!
You can buy this piece of sheet music from any of the online music dealers, your local music store, or directly from Hal Leonard. See a “Closer Look” at the music and hear an audio sample on the Hal Leonard site.
Circle of Fifths Worksheets
Posted by Wendy in Piano Teaching, Theory on March 2nd, 2010
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I’ve recently begun to explain to my students how I choose the order of their scales by using the Circle of Fifths. Basically, I just told them that C is zero accidentals (I don’t show them the circle) and that every Perfect 5th up from C adds a sharp and every Perfect 5th down from C adds a flat. When they finish learning a scale, I ask them what the next key would be and make them use this technique to figure it out. Periodically, I ask them, “What key would have 5 sharps?” or “What key would have 3 flats?” etc. This further cements the concept in their mind.
I remember when I was a student and my teacher showed me the circle…it didn’t make much sense to me at the time, so I just disregarded it. However, when several of my students recently told me that they’ve been using my scale order technique to remember key signatures for their theory test , I figured the Circle of Fifths was doing more good than I thought.
I’ve recently found several good theory worksheets for teaching the Circle of Fifths and for giving students the opportunity to draw the corresponding key signatures around the circle.
Worksheet for identifying the key by the number of sharps and flats. (Susan Paradis’ site)
Worksheet for identifying the key by the key signature AND drawing in the key signature
Bass Clef Circle of 5ths (delineates sharp keys, flat keys, and enharmonic keys)
Treble Clef Circle of 5ths (delineates sharp keys, flat keys, and enharmonic keys)
Productivity
Posted by Wendy in Composing, Creativity, Inspiration on March 1st, 2010
This is Lesson #5 in the pages that most spoke to me in What Matters Now. I’ve referenced this one at the beginning of the year when I was making 1 year goals. I love her last line, “Don’t worry about getting things done. Make things happen.” This is great advice for a composer.
Lesson #1 Passion (page 51)
Lesson #2 Knowing (page 78)
Lesson #3 Change (page 50)
Lesson #4 Connected (Page 12)
Lesson #5 Productivity (Page 68)
Why I Love Being a Composer
Posted by Wendy in Composing, Composing as a Career, Piano Teaching on February 24th, 2010
I love hearing from students who have played my pieces! This is the 2nd group of pictures I have received from a student who learned my Twister piece for his recital last year. I had the privilege to hear this student play the piece for me for a state music test and he was magnificent! It was so exciting to hear a performance from a student who was passionate about the piece, tornadoes, and playing the piano. I hope he keeps sending me pictures and perhaps soon I’ll have another piece to share with him at his level, though I’m sure he has advanced significantly by now! Here is the picture he sent me last year.
It is such a privilege to live in 2010 where email and the internet makes connecting with a composer very easy. I hope all students take the time to connect with the composer of a piece that they love. I know that composers are thrilled to be contacted about their pieces.
What a honor it is to have your piece loved by a student. Thanks for sending this!
Music, Meaning, and Morality
Posted by Wendy in Composing, General, General Music on February 24th, 2010
When I was an undergraduate, I was fascinated with the question about whether music had meaning, was moral, and whether it was effective in communicating meaning or morality. I wrote several papers about this, but when I crossed over into the world of composition, this question became even more important to me. I remember my composition professor expressing that music is not terribly effective in communicating a specific idea but rather the effect of that idea, especially on a person’s emotions. Needless to say, this helped me in choosing subjects for composing.
When I was reading Music and Imagination by Aaron Copland, I noticed he tackled this question as well. On the subject of what a listener understands when listening to music, he writes,
Were you absorbed? Was your attention held? That, then, was it; for what you heard were patterns of sounds that represent the central core of the composer’s being–or that aspect of it reflected in the particular work in question. One part of everything he is and knows is implicit in each composer’s single work, and it is that central fact of his being that he hopes he has communicated.
Copland then goes on to tackle the deeper question:
Are you a better person for having heard a great work of art? Are you morally a better person, I mean? In the largest sense, I suppose you are, but in the more immediate sense, I doubt it. I doubt it because I have never seen it demonstrated. What happens is that a masterwork awakens in us reactions of a spiritual order that are already in us, only waiting to be aroused. When Beethoven’s music exhorts us to ‘be noble,’ ‘be compassionate,’ ‘ be strong,’ he awakens moral ideas that are already within us. His music cannot persuade; it makes evident. It does not shape conduct: it is itself the exemplification of a particular way of looking at life. A concert is not a sermon. It is a performance–a reincarnation of a series of ideas implicit in the work of art.
I feel I must let his words speak for themselves. I hope this gives you something to think on this week.
