CMAS and the Apple Distinguished Educator program

I was recently asked to apply to become an Apple Distinguished Educator. Basically the program, which is facilitated by Apple, is a way to connect nationally, and internationally, with like minded educators each of whom are changing the old educational paradigms for the better.  I have no idea if I will be accepted or not, but I very much love the idea behind the ADE program.  My preference for Macs and related products aside, I think the notion of getting teachers like this together - even just helping to put them into contact with each other - is very cool.

On the other hand, funny as this may sound, while I am incredibly proud of what we've created with CMAS, on so many levels getting selected for the ADE program (should that happen) feels a bit like giving credit to the guy who sold you some paper to write your novel on.  Despite all that can be said, and again, I am very proud of all we've done with CMAS - to say nothing of what I feel we can do with it in the future, at the end of the day - and please forgive the ridiculous cliche that this sounds like - it really is the students making it happen.

I've been teaching a long time.  Far longer than I probably want to admit, but in that time I really have learned many things and one of them is that all I can really do is show them that there are opportunities for them to take advantage of.  I cannot make them take advantage, I can only show them what is possible.  They have to actually do the work.  I don't say any of that lightly.  It's just a reality of the gig.    

All that in mind, I put together the required 2 minute video that Apple asks for as part of the selection process.  The end result feels a bit, as I've said in other forums, self-indulgent for my taste, but I think I covered the main points that Apple wants.  Here's a link to the final two minute submission: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nxAL_79aDc

In the end, the really cool thing (beyond some really wonderful comments by some incredible supporters of the program - there were so many more than I could include in this version) is that I found I have the foundation for what I think could be a great, and I think insightful, look into CMAS. I'm hoping to get this longer and, less "me centered" version complete shortly and be able to use it when I do presentations about CMAS and as a way for future/interested students to learn more about what it is we do.

I am also really hopeful to be selected as an ADE so that  I can further my own understanding of what sort of possibilities there are to continue to expand all that CMAS has to offer.  Wish me luck!

In Your Back Yard

This past week, while on a break from teaching (ha!) I had three very cool musical experiences.  Well, actually, there were five, but I will leave for later the discussions about the awesome new preamps in the studio and the massive progress on some very exciting new songs for the CD.  So back to the three I started with...

The first, is actually thanks, yet again, to Michele's Mom's club.  Through her connection to that group I have become friends with another dad in the group, Brock.  Brock is one of the lead teachers at the Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences here in Phoenix.  Needless to say, he is musically on a level I cannot even explain, much less equate myself to - simply, Brock, is a master, in the truest sense of the word.  He's also a very cool person, just generally. Though I had heard of CRAS many times, Brock's tour was the first time I had actually spent time in the facilities.  I have been in many studios, but this was really incredible - especially for an "educational" institution.  The level of skill of the people who attend this school, much less the instructors, is pretty staggering.  This is not your 4th or 5th tier audio specialist getting $20 per hour.  There are so many gold and platinum albums on the walls, earned by CRAS students that they have to rotate them out into storage every few months.  Same goes for the movie posters from all the post production work they have been responsible for.  It was simply mind-numbing to walk through.  The rooms were just full of so many cool audio "toys" I felt like a kid in a candy shop.  This place turns out 48 students, only about 10% or less from Phoenix, every 6 weeks.  It's an intense year for them.  The most telling thing is that there are only something like three places in town that CRAS feels are acceptable for the required internship each student must complete.  Three.  That's a pretty high standard.  Every know and again I meet someone who is clearly so many steps beyond my skill set that I cannot believe I get to call them friend. Brock is definitely in that category.  He's also being kind enough to come speak to my more advanced students about the Conservatory and what the "real" music production world is like.  Very cool.

The second was guest speaking at ASU for some Music Ed. classes (one undergrad, and one grad) about the CMAS program I created, for a prof. friend of mind, Dr. Evan Tobias.  Evan is a brilliant guy, vastly more forward thinking than most people,  and a big fan of what we're doing with CMAS.  The opportunity to talk to some of his students about the program was really quite fun.  It also forced me to really consider how the program's details are presented just generally.  Clearly, I need to address this issue, but I am glad I was at least partially effective as after both classes I found myself talking for quite some time to numerous students about ways to push the music educational envelope.  I'm eager to see what the future holds with ASU.  Evan already sends me several interns/observers each semester, and I am hopeful that we can create a scenario whereby ASU students might be able to work with me directly as CMAS teaching assistants or something similar.

The third was a brief stroll through a local Zia Records store.  It has been a terribly long time since I have been in a record store of any kind.  I get almost all my music, as most people these days. on-line.  The experience of walking amongst all those rows and rows of actual, tangible CDs (no it's still not the same as the days when I could walk through shelves of vinyl LPs, but still) was really cathartic. It was very freeing to just brows, something that you really cannot do with the same kind of feeling to it online.  I plan to do it more often.

It was quite a week.

All or nothing

I had a very interesting conversation with a friend of mine today about how music education is changing. My friend, Evan Tobias, is a Music Education professor at ASU.  For what it is worth, as much as there are people who claim I am a "cutting edge" music educator, Evan has me beat by far.

Anyway, we were talking about how there are all these backwards perceptions of music that seem to permeate educators on all levels, and then these same people seem so shocked when they are forced to come to grips the realities of a changing musical world.  Evan is far more diplomatic than I am, but I could not help but to refer to them as fundamentalists.

We talked about all kinds of permutations, but they all seemed to come down to a single overriding concept:  the notion that music is not, or should not, evolve is ridiculous.  Think about it.  Most music education is solely focused on the music and music techniques that have long since past.  That is not to say they are irrelevant - that kind of thinking actually makes me just as upset (and I think Evan too, though I do not want to speak for him - check his blog to get more specifics from him.)  It's more about this prevailing sense of some music is valid and some is not.  Drives me crazy.

And let's not forget that this goes both ways.  I spend so much time working with my more "contemporary" students on seeing the value of "classical" music to their own work.  A tip if you are ever having to do something like that.  Approach it from the standpoint of the composer's motivation. What was being said with the music? That kind of insight is far more universal than you might think.  Using that approach I have turned a huge number of rock oriented musicians into fairly well versed classical fans.  Frankly once the door to universal musical validity is opened, it seems like a flood gate that cannot be closed.  Also works the other way with more "traditional" students as well.

Evan and I spoke for a quite a bit of time about all this, and basically decided that the musical standards we have all come to know are not the problem.  It's the application of those standards that is the real issue.  By the way, I am fully aware of my bias on this subject - I did, in a very small way, "pioneer" a new type of music education, but still, any time we are deliberately setting limits...well, that just seems so "unmusical" to me, if I can be that cliche.

All music students should learn to view all music as valid.  All of it.  There should certainly be personal preferences and tastes to guide us, but the notion that some is more viable than others is very hard for me to reconcile.

I must confess that our conversation was hardly confrontational as we both hold pretty much the same views on this subject, but to that end, I think Evan's idea of a kind of consortium of like minded thinkers in this area could really help.  I cannot believe he and I are the only ones that think this way.

Lots more from me on this subject, I am sure, in the future.  Stay tuned.