Latch Music's Ezine #39
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* "The Zine" content is contributed by Dave Latchaw and colleagues who use the Internet to promote their musical projects. You can check out previous issues at "The Zine" Archives.
- Article: "Never Stop Being A Student" by Dave Latchaw
- Guest Artist: Donna Sevcovic - Teaching and playing energy.
- Featured Web Site: NoneRadio.com
- Featured Web Video: Adrian Belew
- CD Pick: Peter Gabriel "Up"
Never Stop Being A Student
by Dave Latchaw
Teaching is not for everyone, but for those who have the patience, they get the reward of helping someone with their musical journey, and they also have an opportunity to keep improving their own abilities. All aspects of teaching music can help sharpen one's own musical skills. The more an educator maintains the idea of being a student themselves, the more they can get out of their teaching situations. It is up to the teacher whether they make the educational situation routine and mundane, or if they bring a great level of enthusiasm towards learning.
The right attitude for teaching is very important. Patience is a necessary ingredient, but it doesn't come naturally for many people. I think it's easier to stay patient when I remember that the more times and ways I have to explain and demonstrate any aspect of music, the more connected I stay to my own abilities. It doesn't matter whether you are explaining the finer points of being expressive to a student, or simply how to find middle C. If one can't explain a musical concept many times, and in many ways to a student or group of students without freaking out, teaching may be not the right thing for you! Having the ability to be patient and help a student break down their musical problems into manageable chunks helps the student be patient with themselves too. Just having the ability to break down a musical problem and the patience to tackle it can make one a better musician. The more times an educator explains how to handle a musical dilemma, the easier it should become for them to sort out their own musical problems.
Realizing that not all students learn in the same manner, and being willing to think "out of the teaching box" to connect with a student or a class, will make any educational situation more rewarding for all involved. The more ways you have to teach any given concept, the better you will be at teaching it, and doing that concept yourself. Even if the concept is somewhat natural for you, repetition of teaching that concept in a multitude of ways can enhance your own musical ability. Rather than being burned out or on auto pilot when teaching, it is all down to the music teacher to utilize the teaching time in a positive way for all. For example, if you are working on sight-reading rhythms with a student, use examples that you have to sight read also. (Hopefully it will be easy for you!) Helping the student get more proficient at sight-reading can help you stay sharp on your own sight-reading chops. If the student doesn't get concept #1, then you need to come up with concept #2, #3, #4, and so on. The more ideas you have to be a better sight-reader (or any aspect of music), the more people you'll be able to reach, and you'll have expanded your own brain power at the same time.
Teaching Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star or Giant Steps can both be rewarding for the educator. It is up to the educator to have a balanced attitude. Okay, Giant Steps has all the fun challenges that go with improvising over interesting chord changes, and Twinkle doesn't. When teaching music that isn't personally challenging, it really helps to come up with ways to make it interesting for you to teach. Try doing things like playing along with the students on an instrument you do not normally play, or work on your singing harmony while the student is playing. Being engaged, motivated, and proactive while teaching music can increase your musical chops, and remember, students are very perceptive of whether teachers are keen or not about what they teach. The more inspired the teaching is, the more inspired the learning will be. The educator that enjoys teaching and is engaged with the more basic aspects of music can inspire students to evolve into musicians that will have motivation to learn the more challenging aspects of music. Then you can work on things that are more sophisticated.
The educator who hasn't stopped being a student will create more successful situations as an educator. If you are keen about expanding your musical chops it will carry over into your teaching. We all know too many bad music teachers, so if you teach, be keen. Teach by example and be a student yourself. Besides helping your students, your chops will get better too!
Donna Sevcovic
#1 Who are your musical influences, and how did they inspire you to pursue music playing and teaching?
My musical influences are fairly wide ranging, from Jimi Hendrix, Doobie Brothers, Kansas, Yes, and Aerosmith to musical theater (Camelot, The King and I, Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar, etc. with West Side Story being my favorite) to opera (I was in the Opera Club for a time in my high school in the NYC area-Carmen was my favorite) to classical (especially the Russian composers, Copland, and Ives). I started to listen to jazz post-college, first to smooth jazz, and then to big band jazz. My favorites are still the masters (Davis, Coltrane, Gillespie) with small group emphasis.
#2 What challenges do music and other art programs face in this day of budget cuts, and how should they deal with these challenges?
We are taking away the things that make us human-the arts-and emphasizing only the facts and figures. The first things that are cut when money gets tight are the things that aren't on the ISTEP test. We are reducing the value of children to a test measurement. We won't realize what we have lost until it is too late for an entire generation of kids. The powers-that-be are so convinced that the low test scores and underachievement of our students are solely the fault of public education; Johnny can't read because teachers haven't taught them how. What society has to realize is that students have to value education and come to school ready to learn. So many students only value their activities, such as sports and other extracurriculars, and don't see why they have to learn things that don't pertain to their immediate lives (as defined by their peer groups). Kids are so busy outside of school that they don't have time to do their homework, and many parents are too busy to notice or too quick to criticize their teachers for low grades. Until we hold parents and students accountable for learning as well as the public schools, we won't see a change. And by cutting back funding to schools, we are only making the problem worse. Today's newspaper talked about reducing recess for elementary school students as a way to raise test scores while teachers and bus drivers bemoan the resulting "antsy"-ness of students. What will we cut next, lunch? Arts educators have to publicize the importance of arts education in the development of the whole child. That is, if there are any arts educators left to fight the battle.
#3 What are some of the difficulties of teaching improvisation to Middle School aged children, and what techniques do you use to get improvisational results?
First of all, middle school students are so concerned about what others think of them. They are afraid to make fools of themselves in front of others. Secondly, it is difficult to get students to memorize the scales and chords necessary to sound good. They want a short cut, or a cheat scale to make it easy. Lastly, many students only listen to the jazz that they play in jazz band or combo; preferring pop, rock, hip-hop or rap outside of school.
The first thing we do is discuss the form of the solo section. If we are doing a Latin tune, I might pick a song with a ii V vamp so that they can explore the various possibilities. If we are doing a blues tune, whether Latin or swing, we talk about using the blues scale, the modes relative to the chord progression, or a combination of both. We listen to recorded solos. I demonstrate simple solos using one to three different pitches and have them imitate. We talk about guide tones. We use Band-in-a-Box as a practice tool. We analyze chord and scale relationships.
#4 What has it been like for you and your students to win Down Beat awards?
The first year, as I was finishing up the cd that I was sending to Down Beat, I knew that the kids had played really well. I was satisfied with their effort whether or not they won an award, and I knew that the competition was tough. It came as a wonderful surprise. The second year, I was so proud of that combo because they had come farther in their 3 years than any other group I had worked with, and I couldn't think of a more deserving group to win based on their hard work rather than just sheer musical talent.
#5 What was the experience like for you and your students to perform at the North Texas Jazz Festival at Addison, Texas?
It was simply a dream come true. We had a rather inauspicious beginning, with several of our students missing the plane out of Indianapolis. Once we got there, it was almost a perfect trip. The kids were incredibly well behaved, the festival was beautifully organized, and the performance itself was just icing on the cake. We were winners just to be invited to perform, and the kids won the friendship and respect of older students from around the country.
#6 What have been some of the most surprising comments to you about your award winning Middle School groups after a performance?
Over the years, many people watching the kids perform have assumed that they are playing written solos. I have always enjoyed explaining to them how the students learn to improvise, and that the papers that they carry up to the microphones are simply chord changes.
#7 What was it like having the great Ali Ryerson and Joe Beck work and perform with you and your students?
The best part of having Joe and Ali come out for several years in a row is the relationship they build with the kids. If we had different artists each year, that wouldn't happen. Joe and Ali are so educationally oriented, and really care about the students as individuals. Many of the students continue to correspond to Joe and Ali by email.
#8 How can people find out when and where your groups are performing?
We have a master schedule of events at Memorial Park that covers the big events. The smaller events are scheduled as they come up.
NoneRadio.com
NoneRadio.com, "The Only Good Radio Is None", is founded by Rich Pike. Rich and his neighbor, the brilliant guitarist Mike Keneally, host this very fun weekly Internet radio webcast. Check out NoneRadio's playlist. This is the way radio should be! The radio world would be a better place if you could find such brilliant, diverse music all in one place. At NoneRadio you can hear artists from Johnny Cash to Frank Zappa, or John Coltrane to Neil Young. Check out the variety of artists you can hear on NoneRadio. A cool place for cool music.
Adrian Belew
Adrian is definitely one of those guitar greats who has been a part of a lot of important progressive music such as Frank Zappa, David Byrne, Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, Herbie Hancock, King Crimson, NIN and more. Adrian makes some very fun videos available on his site. Currently his site is using frames, so we can only link to the home page. Once you get to the Adrian Belew home page you will need to click on "DOWNLOADS" at the top of the page, then click on "Video" on the next page. There are a couple of cool Japanese commercials he did for DAIKIN, and I especially like the one where he is playing Dvorak's New World Symphony. Also available are a few videos of his solo projects.
Peter Gabriel
"Up"
"Up" is Peter Gabriel's newest release. The music has the wonderful vibe of the early work Peter Gabriel did with Genesis. "Up" is definitely a CD that has to be listened to more than once to appreciate Gabriel's introspective, sophisticated soulfulness. I am especially taken by "No Way Out" and "The Barry Williams Show", where he takes on Trash Television. The production is an integral part of "Up". The studio has become as important as any instrument in this musical effort. Of course, Peter has assembled a wonderful array of musicians for this sonic world music collage, such artist as Youssou N'Dour, Peter Green, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and The Black Dyke Band. (The Black Dyke Band is the brass group that plays the music for the BBC's popular gardening show, "Ground Force".) Also, there are some of the great artists that have been with Peter Gabriel before - Tony Levin, Manu Katche, David Rhodes, Shankar, David Sancious and more. Give "Up" a listen today.
Tracks for "Up"
- Darkness
- Growing Up
- Sky Blue
- No Way Out
- I Grieve
- The Barry Williams Show
- My Head Sounds Like That
- More Than This
- Signal To Noise
- The Drop
Click here to learn more about "Up"
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