What Music Means to Me

The premise of this podcast is that there are all sorts of connections between music and life. In each episode I have shared observations about some of these connections. The idea of making connections between music and life, of being a musician whose musical life is integrated into his broader life, is something I learned from my teacher and mentor, Dr. Ken Laudermilch. In the preface to his very excellent book, An Understandable Approach to Musical Expression, Ken explains that his goal is “to identify musical concepts that enhance or beautify our music making. It is, in a very real sense, a search for truth.” I don’t think it is an exaggeration that truth about life can be seen in music.

In other episodes of this podcast, we've discussed life lessons that music can teach us. In this episode, we take a look at two more important character lessons one can learn from studying and playing music. One of these, the value of contributing your efforts to something bigger than yourself, may seem obvious considering that a lot of musical experiences come from participating in an ensemble like band or chorus. The other “music lesson” that we’ll look at, the benefits of delayed gratification, may not be so obvious at first, and yet studying music is particularly well-suited to delivering this lesson in a subtle but compelling way.

Many people compare music to a language. You may have even heard a music teacher say to you in school, “Music is an international language all people can understand.” Of course more recent multicultural studies reveal that the music to which these teachers are referring – Western, tonal music – is actually a European idiom expressed in a nomenclature that developed around the year 1,000 especially in Italy. Just as an author uses words, grammar, metaphors, and more to create a novel, a composer uses the language of music - notes, rhythms, and more - to create a piece of music. When we say that a composer "writes" music, we assume he or she is using some musical vocabulary and that in writing the music, he or she is trying to communicate something. Let’s take a closer look at the communicative power of the language of music!

When you hear the term “classical music” you probably think of any serious art music played by orchestras, string quartets, pianists, or any other concert performers….and you’d be right since that is one common use of the word. But…more correctly Classical music (with a capital C) refers to music written in Europe during a musical style period that lasted from approximately 1750 through 1825 or 1830. From this Classical period emerged the works of composers such as Franz Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig von Beethoven.

In this episode of What Music Means to Me I’ll attempt to tackle one of the toughest musical concepts to explain: the difference between modal and tonal music. Around 500 B.C. Pythagoras wrote about various modes and by 500 A.D. Pope Gregory the Great was compiling church plainsong, which we call Gregorian chant, written in these modes. By the Baroque period and on up through the Romantic period, church and concert art composers shifted to the major-minor tonal system more-or-less exclusively. The shift from the modes of Gregorian chant to the tonal system in place by the 18th-century is quite a story!

No one likes “busy work”. And nothing seems more like busy work than copying. When I was in grade school corporal punishment – or spanking – was still administered occasionally by a building principal, but more often a wayward student was sentenced to copy a corrective phrase over and over, sometimes into the hundreds of times. More recently, teachers have been encouraged to avoid busy work and find more constructive ways to train their students. But is it possible that a mundane chore like copying could hold unseen benefits for the music student? Let me share a few reasons I believe the answer is YES.

In this episode of What Music Means to Me, we’ll look at the concept of musical fusion, the idea of combining elements of two or more musical traditions to create a new, unique sound in music.

One thing I am sure of: the music of one’s youth makes a lasting impression. What you listen to, especially in your formative years, is more than just nostalgic. I believe it helps define who you are, and who you are becoming. I know it did with me. In this episode of “What Music Means to Me” I want to share some of my magical moments of music listening mostly from my high school years. Certainly high school is well beyond what many consider the “formative years”, and yet I do believe the music we listen to during adolescence leaves an indelible mark on our nature.

Long time followers of this podcast know that when all the leaves on the trees here in the Northeast have just about fallen, when temperatures drop, and when Thanksgiving and Christmas are in our sights, that the students in my fall Music Production class at Parkland High School have been hard at work on producing their annual holiday album, “Parkland: A Season for Giving.” As always, the kids select a charity to donate proceeds from the sale of the CD. This year that charity is AUTISM SPEAKS, an organization helping with Autism awareness, science, and advocacy efforts. Please take 8 and a half minutes to check out a sampling of tracks on the 2013 "Season for Giving" album. To further support our project, visit our blog, www.reverbnation/parklandaseasonforgiving2013, which has sound clips, music videos, links to our facebook page, and info about ordering the CD online.

I view every single moment I have with my students as precious! Whether it’s the half hour, “small-group” lessons I have with beginning instrumentalists, the sectional lessons I have with my second-year players, or the longer rehearsals I have with the entire band, there’s always so much to accomplish and no time to waste. Nonetheless I still believe it’s worth taking the time to establish the habit of warming up at the start of individual, small group, or large ensemble meetings.

Groove is one of those extremely important, yet somewhat ambiguous, concepts in music. In this episode of What Music Means to Me we discuss and explore the vital concept of groove!

The term Baroque is used to describe a style of European classical music from around 1600 to 1750. The term, used to describe the visual art of the period as well, means “highly ornate and extravagant in style.” It’s very appropriate since Baroque painting, sculpture, and music are elaborately decorated in their own way – favoring ornamentation and business over simplicity. For me, however, a term I’ve come to rely on to remember lots about Baroque music is CONTRASTS. Listen to found out why!

I’d love to see all my instrumental students stay in band, grow as players, and contribute their talents to our district instrumental program; but realistically there are always a handful of students who quit each year. In this episode of “What Music Means to Me,” I’d like to take a look at some of the factors to consider when trying to decide whether or not a student should continue instrumental music instruction. Maybe you’re a parent of a student in band or strings facing this decision and you’d like some insight, or maybe you’re a younger band or strings teacher dealing with students in this situation yourself and you’d like some perspective. Hopefully I’ll give you some things to help you approach this topic with wisdom and confidence.

Have you ever noticed that performers of certain instruments in band share common, sometimes quirky character traits? If you’re in a band or ever have been, you probably know what I mean. And if you’ve worked with instrumental music students for several decades like I have, you’ve seen these unfortunate stereotypes time and again. In this light-hearted episode of What Music Means to Me we imagine the medical diagnoses of a dozen of these band student idiosyncrasies, in what I am calling A BAND DIRECTOR’S GUIDE TO THE DIAGNOSIS OF STUDENT DISEASES AND CONDITIONS.

There are some very visible examples of classical musicians who get into some pretty silly situations in their personal life. In this episode of What Music Means to Me, which I’m calling “Bad Boys of Classical Music.” I’ve decided to focus on a couple infamous artist-musicians whose excellence in music doesn’t seem to carry over to their personal life!

The date is May 7, 1747. The place is Potsdam, in the Kingdom of Prussia….about 15 miles from the capital city of Berlin. In the newly built summer palace of King Frederick the Great, the day was drawing to a close as it usually did – with an evening concert in the palace’s large music room. This would indeed be a memorable evening of music making. As it turned out the musicians readying their instruments to play that night wouldn’t actually get to perform. But what did transpire led to the creation of one of the most interesting and impressive pieces of music written during the entire era later named “the Baroque.”

In Part 2 of my interview with composer, Robert Sheldon, he continues to share insight into his music for band as well as his feelings about music education and the future of instrumental music in our schools.

In the first episode of What Music Means to Me, back in October of 2007, I mentioned that I intended to do interviews with leaders in the field of music. I ended up making good on that promise in the Spring of 2009 with this interview with composer, Robert Sheldon. The interview brings out some great insights into composer and Sheldon's music. Since the my old podcast host went out of business, I've been meaning to re-post this episode (and a follow-up, "Part 2") here at Podomatic. Robert Sheldon is one of the most performed composers of wind band music today. In addition to his work as Concert Band editor for Alfred Publications, and as conductor of the Prairie Wind Ensemble, he is constantly in demand to write new works for band, and to serve as guest conductor of honor bands all over the country, and indeed the world. In the first part of my discussion with him on January 9, 2009, Sheldon shared some fascinating stories and provided insight into some of his most-loved works for band.

In this episode of What Music Means to Me I want to discuss the significance of Repetition in music. Specifically, we’ll look at how the right mix of repetition and variation of musical ideas – on both a small- and large-scale – contributes to how music is understood by listeners.

This episode of WMM2M is one in a series of episodes I call “Music Lessons.” Aside from the obvious joy and aesthetic pleasure that comes from producing music, and the way music augments intellectual development (often called the “Mozart Effect”) music additionally teaches valuable life lessons to those who formally study it. Stick with studying an instrument and years later you will have learned far more than how to perform some songs. In the “Music Lessons” series I will share some of the lessons music has taught me which, looking back over the years, I appreciate so much. In this installment of my Music Lessons series we look at two very closely-related traits that music teaches: Tenacity and Diligence.

Perfection is a standard that – in almost every case – can never be met. How many lines can really be drawn “perfectly” straight? And for those of us working in the arts, what exactly does “perfect” mean? We'll examine the usefulness of high standards and expectations as applied to music making - and life - in this episode of WHAT MUSIC MEANS TO ME.

Pitch, Melody, Harmony, Rhythm, Meter, Tempo, Texture, Tone Color, Dynamics...these are often referred to as the Elements of Music. As a composer, all of these serve as building blocks when I craft together a composition. Of all those “elements” of music, I have a favorite! It is, in my opinion, the most “elemental” – or basic – of all the so-called elements. Can you guess which one? It’s RHYTHM. So what about rhythm raises it above all those other worthy elements to become, in my view, a “Meta-Element”? In this episode (a requested reposting of an earlier episode), I explain why.

The idea that we join forces with others to do something bigger than ourselves, and that we might not live to see finished, seems kind of foreign to contemporary sensibilities. Yet we do sometimes have the chance to become a part of something that is larger than ourselves: perhaps our faith or a cause with which we devote ourselves, and we gain a satisfaction that is deep and lasting. Ensemble music can teach us much about this idea! [NOTE: Originally released 10/5/2008, this is a "rebroadcast" of one of my more popular episodes.]

In my last episode, I vaunted the glories of certain types of notes in music called "Non-Harmonic Tones." I shared how I liked the way non-harmonic tones mirror the virtues of diversity and delayed gratification in life. If you haven’t listened to that episode, I hope you will sometime. But one non-harmonic tone that I wanted to set apart for special discussion is called ”Pedal Point.” Pedal Point is a non-chord tone extraordinaire. It lends an exciting air to the music that employs it, and – best of all – it’s so easy to use as a composer. Pedal point can be heard everywhere in music, from medieval chant to Indian folk music to concert art music to pop and rock to virtually every film score in the last 30 years! Find out why I LOVE pedal point in this episode of WHAT MUSIC MEANS TO ME.

In this episode I’d like to talk about a term from the world of music theory….NON-HARMONIC TONES. Non-Harmonic Tones….the phrase sounds so negative, doesn’t it? NON-Harmonic Tones…it’s as if they are outcasts and don’t fit in, somehow they’re different than the other, perhaps more “cool” tones in the song, like they’re not part of a composition’s “in-crowd.” But in fact, Non-Harmonic Tones are some of the coolest, most interesting notes in music. Just what are NON-Harmonic tones, what makes them so compelling, and what can they tell us about the larger world in which we live? [Note: This episode is a rebroadcast of what was Episode 7 before switching podcast hosts.]

Many folks imagine that composers are suddenly struck with a lightning bolt of creativity as they sit at their pianos, enabling them to pour out divinely dispensed notes onto the page. In reality, inspiration plays a much smaller role than you'd think. It's the craft of composition - the nuts and bolts work that transforms a small idea into a cohesive and musically satisfying whole - that takes up the majority of a composer's time and energy. As composer Leonard Bernstein famously quipped, "Inspiration is wonderful when it happens, but the writer must develop an approach for the rest of the time." In this episode, a "fan-requested" rebroadcast of an earlier episode, I break down some of the craftsmen-like decisions at work in my piece, Fantasy On An Old English Air, in an effort to demystify the process of composing music. (NOTE: Fantasy On An Old English Air was originally published by Shawnee Press but is now available as "print-on-demand" from Hal Leonard.)

This podcast is based on my book, USING TECHNOLOGY TO UNLOCK MUSICAL CREATIVITY (Oxford University Press), and deals with pedagogical techniques to free students to create musical content in project-based learning. I'll be presenting on the topic at the SoundTree Institute METOS: Spotlight on Creativity online conference on Jan. 16, 2012. This episode is a rebroadcast of episode 11 from the original What Music Means to Me podcast.

Each year the talented students in my Music Production class at Parkland High School produce a holiday CD to sell in our school/community for charity. This year's CD, called "Parkland: A Season for Giving," will be officially released on Dec. 7 and will raise money to support the Allentown Rescue Mission, helping the homeless. In this episode I share some of the music, and the story behind the songs, from our 6th "Season for Giving" effort. It's a great CD - featuring 11 all new tracks and 12 "greatest hits" tracks from the previous 5 years. If you'd like to support the kids, and our charity, you can buy the CD online by visiting our blog: season4giving.edublogs.org - or the iTunes Store.

On Sunday, October 14, 2007 I posted my first episode of my podcast, WHAT MUSIC MEANS TO ME. With this 44th episode, I'm moving my podcast to Podomatic. The main theme of this podcast is finding intersections between music and life. Back when I started my podcast, I imagined I’d use some episodes to explain my work as a composer – sharing the story behind a commission or other favorite piece. As it turned out, I had so many other stories to tell that I rarely did that, the exception being Episode 19 in which I profiled my concert band piece, Fantasy On An Old English Air. In this episode, I do the same for a recently published piece of mine for concert band, entitled Night Journey.