Blog
By William Muñoz
Learning scales is one of those aspects of being a musician that you cannot simply avoid. At some point, you will have to learn them and the quicker you start tackling them the better. But why do we need to practice them? The short answer is that they are a fundamental aspect of mastering music and playing a musical instrument.
By Megan Grady
Do you have a student who’s extremely musically or artistically inclined or one who is passionate about pursuing the arts for college and beyond? Does the idea of your child trying to “make it” as an artist worry you? I’m here to unpack the antiquated idea that a career in the arts is a death-sentence on your salary, lifestyle or economic stability/mobility. Sure, it requires a lot of hard work to sustain a life as a musician (or other artist) and there are certain aspects that are far short of perfect, but who’s job is really secure and perfect these days?
By Max Walker
Everyone knows that to gain proficiency in anything, one must practice diligently. This is where we often hear the saying “if you devote ten thousand hours to your craft, you will become a master”. However, while practice is necessary to master any skill, it is not quite as simple as doing anything related to your craft for a vast amount of time. To truly master something, you must not only practice, you must practice right. While there are a multitude of angles for looking at smart practice, I will be covering several categories that have helped shape my own practice routines. These three ‘pillars’ of practice are: consistency, focus, and variety. I hope that this outline might shed some light on mapping out a daily routine, and maintaining it.
By Nathan Straub
Have you ever enjoyed the music that plays during a movie? Do you suddenly have “aha!” moments when you learn that a theme from an old cartoon was actually a legitimate composition (thank you, Looney Tunes!)?
You can thank the Romantic Period for these familiar sensations. The fact is that when most people think of classical music, they are thinking of the symphonies, concertos, operas, and sonatas of the Romantic period. Composers such as Chopin, Wagner, Debussy, Verdi, Puccini, Mahler, Schumann, Schubert, Beethoven (to be discussed a separate time!), and many more composed thousands of pieces still performed around the world.
By Kate MacKenzie
This is an exciting time to be apart of the AWSOM family! In July we rolled out our official Chamber Ensemble Program, which gives our students the opportunity to make music with other students! The possible instrument combinations are endless, and the music written for these groups is quite fun! Each chamber music ensemble will meet once a week with their coach (one of AWSOM's awesome teachers). It is a great way to meet other like-minded musicians, make some fantastic music, and learn in a group atmosphere!
That's why our teachers have taken a moment to answer some questions in between their busy teaching schedules. Read on to learn more about our amazing piano teacher Justin Hansen!
By Kate MacKenzie
One of my favorite composers was an Italian mastermind of the Baroque era, Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741). His beautiful treatment of melodies paired with appeasing Alberti bass and harmonic structure have made him an important figure of music history. Sure, most people fall in love with perhaps his most famous piece, The Four Seasons, but for me it was his Bassoon Concerto in A Minor that started my deep admiration for his music.
By William Muñoz
When I started learning the trumpet one of my goals was to eventually be good enough to play salsa music. After all, growing up in Puerto Rico, that is one of the most popular styles of music and I thought it would be awesome to be in a salsa band. My first trumpet teacher played in many salsa bands, some of which he also directed, additionally, he also performed with the Puerto Rico Symphony and Puerto Rico Philharmonic among other ensembles. I remember that after a few lessons he asked: “why do you want to play the trumpet?” to which I replied: “I want to play salsa.” He then responded: “Well, I am going to teach you how to be a trumpet player, more importantly, I will teach you to be a good musician.”
By John Hart
This skill is essential for music students who want to learn to play music genres such as blues, country, folk, hip, jazz, pop, soul, and gospel music. Instruments such as piano and guitar are commonly used as the musical backbone of these styles because they can sound more than one note at a time. Though sight-reading written notation is an important skill to acquire for any instrument, it is not required for reading chord charts. This skill doesn’t usually take long to learn and gives the budding musician the satisfaction of producing music that is pleasing to the ear within weeks versus the years that it takes to learn to sight-read proficiently.
By Esther Joh
While in modern times standardization has affected the craft of piano building, in the 18th century instruments were still personal works of art. Therefore, pianos differed from town to town and from builder to builder. Although within geographical area craftsmen did influence one another, the distance between two cities as far apart as London and Vienna resulted in the establishing of two distinct schools of piano building: the Viennese and the English. Viennese made by Stein from the early 1770, developed by Anton Walter, who built Mozart's own piano in the early 1780s. English were developed through Backers, a Dutch-born harpsichord maker resident in London, and John Broadwood.
