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We first 'met' Troy Layman "virtually" in 2011. He had begun using The Kore Series and was inquiring about how to tune his saxophone.  Since then we've seen and heard his progress as he periodically checks in and sends us video updates. I asked if he would like to be featured in a blog and he agreed to answer my questions. I hope his story is inspiration to all of our users and to anyone of any age who thinks they may want to start learning music - enjoy!
Tell us a little about you and what made you start learning music at this point in your life?

I'm about a week away from my 42nd birthday. I have a wonderful wife and very advanced daughter who is 21 months old. They are my pride and joy. My profession is communications, and I have been working for the US Army Corps of Engineers in that role for about 12 years.  I enjoy hobbies such as computer games, shooting pool, Tae Kwon Do, riding motorcycles, playing chess, and my wife and I hope to start scuba diving lessons in the next few months!

Growing up, my family wasn't into music so I didn't have that much push to get into music myself, but I started playing the cornet (bass trumpet) when I was 10 years old. I only played for a few months before I lost interest and started spending time outside climbing trees and whatever instead of practicing.  I'm not sure exactly what sparked my interest to get back into music at this point in my life, but I remember watching Britain’s Got Talent and watching Julian Smith (my age) play the sax, and playing the sax for his daughter who is about my daughters age, so that may have been part of it. 

I was also looking for something special that I could do and enjoy and maybe share with other people. It's a little philosophical, but I feel something that can be enjoyed in most cases should be shared. I don't see myself playing in a band really, but I could see me playing at some weddings or special events for fun. I was on vacation the first week of September 2011, and the day we were leaving I told my wife Jessica that I was considering picking up an instrument of some sort. I have a very deep voice but I don't like how I sound singing. The only song I sing is for my daughter; it's by the Oak Ridge Boys called "Dream On". The words are perfect for a dad to sing to a baby girl.

I joked with my wife that I didn't want to be able to play and sing. When Jessica asked what I wanted to play, I wasn't really sure, but out of all the instruments that fit that description, the saxophone was the one that really piqued my interest the most. Once we were home from vacation I did a lot of web searching, listening to instruments and confirmed the saxophone was the instrument I wanted to play. 

I had originally set my mind on a soprano saxophone, but trying to locate a rental soprano with a trustworthy brand name was difficult since I didn't know which names were quality and which were only good for wall decorations. By this time I had signed up for the online classes with the Dallas School of Music and armed with some knowledge that Eugene Cantera shared, I rented an alto sax from Music and Arts. Since then I've been progressing at a slow pace, trying (probably too hard) to play the songs proficiently before moving to the next set of songs and lessons.

What is your biggest challenge in learning an instrument so far?

My biggest challenge overall so far was controlling the reed and stopping squeaks. The first several months I was beating myself up because my horn sounded like someone was assaulting a gaggle of geese from all of the squawks and chirps! I haven't 'mastered' it yet, but I seldom hear those bad sounds now. My current challenge is working with rhythms that include a mixture of 8th and quarter notes and rests. When I play along with the melody and background I can play them proficiently, but when I see the notes and rests in a new piece of music, I have trouble getting the timing correct on my own.

What do you find most fun about using the DLP Kore Series?

I enjoy the amount of music in each lesson for the students to practice before moving on to the next lesson. I've found that the Bits and Pieces and New Twists songs are usually not much of a challenge, but the Putting it all Together songs have a few spots that continue to trip me up and actually make me work for a few days to get all of the notes to sound acceptable. I'm my own worst critic, so I tend to really practice problem songs until I run them into the ground and get them right.

What can we do better to help your learning?

I have seen several people that are new saxophonists on forums looking for free songs, and the more experienced players often chastise them for not wanting to pay for the sheet music to a song. I think the reason new players are looking for free songs is they don't know what songs they could actually play at their current skill level and don't want to purchase a lot of songs only to find they are too hard and get frustrated. Perhaps DLP could provide a few song titles that people should be able to play at the end of each lesson or every couple of lessons to keep it interesting? For example, I found the sheet music and downloaded the background track to "Lily Was Here" by Dave Stewart and Candy Dufler. It's a too advanced for me at the moment, but I really enjoy the tune. Another tune I see a lot of new players asking for is "Careless Whisper". I don't mind paying for sheet music; I'm just not sure what is in my skill level to play.


Duly noted Troy - we actually have something called 'Additional Repertoire" in the works but have not unveiled it as of yet. We also have a brand new format coming out in a month or two which will make navigation a little easier and  it will also include real time chat with other users and educators.  Keep up the great work!
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Invasion of the Metronomes photo by Jim Hulme
Twitter rocks!  Can we all agree? The other evening I chimed in on a stream (OK, I may have barged in...) about using metronomes in practice and with music students.  Before long there were several #musiced people following the discussion, adding their two cents in, and even cheering the rest of us on.  After a hearty "twittersation" (thanks @hickey_kim for using that term) I decided to throw out the idea of creating a collective blog post with each of us adding our thoughts. This is the end result.
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Eugene Cantera @DLP_DSM I use our own curriculum with most of my students and it has a built in click-track with play-alongs so they get used to playing with and hearing a solid pulse from the very beginning. 

Some students however are easily distracted or they have not reached a level of musicianship that allows them to concentrate on staying in time with a background or metronome. In these cases a physical exercise like counting and clapping or tapping in time will often help. If they still struggle I might even tap on their back or arm so they get a sense of internalizing the steady pulse. 

Many students dislike playing with the metronome.  I can't tell you how many times I've heard "That thing just screws me up!".  Too funny.  Other students are uncannily inaccurate or completely oblivious to the metronome, so they have work to do just to get to a point of being able to focus on the metronome and time.  In these cases I try to make it a positive rather than a negative.  When they hear me say  "now you're ready for the metronome", they know they have successfully conquered other musical concepts and can now focus on playing in time or gradually speeding things up to a desired tempo. 

The metronome can really be a friend when the musician is ready to use it. I remember working with the metronome and playing scales in college and when my sister heard me play after a few months, she said "Wow, you're getting really good!".  I realized her comment was due in large part to my new-found ability to play quickly and in strict time.  The metronome paid off!
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Erica Sipes @ericasipes To start off, I want to protect myself from a barrage of comments, tweets, and e-mails by saying that I do like metronomes.  My metronome is, in fact, my friend...most of the time.  But...

I see metronomes as really good crutches but not as a permanent fix.  Here's why...  

Crutches don't fix anything.  They are a tool - they support one while healing from a broken bone or a sprained ankle.  But what usually happens before we even get to the crutches?   A doctor is seen, x-rays taken and carefully examined. Sometimes the bones are reset or pinned together and a cast or bandages are strategically wound around the injured appendage.  Now the crutches can effectively come into play for what they are - tools to help us get around while our body is healing.

I take a look to see if I really understand mathematically what's supposed to be happening.  It can be so tempting to 'guess', to try and magically fit all those black notes into a given beat.  All it takes is about 2 minutes to do the math and considering the fact that such comprehension is permanent and secure, I'm willing to spend the time.  I should also add that I am not shy about marking beats in the score or writing out subdivisions about the problem rhythm in order to see how everything lines up.  

The next step is to conduct while singing the music. My main focus is just getting the rhythm lined up with my conducting. Once I can conduct and sing I then move on to playing the music while counting out loud.  For these last two steps it is crucial that I choose a tempo that allows me to do the exercises without altering the tempo and without stopping.  

After doing this type of rhythmic examination I feel ready to add the metronome.  In all honesty, since using the above steps religiously for the past few years, I have not felt the need to use one as much.  The way I see it is that I have essentially turned myself into my own metronome.  If I can conduct, if I can count out loud while playing, the rhythm and the pulse are clearly a part of me.  

To return to my tweet that started all this musing, here's another way of looking at it: Metronomes can be helpful tools, but only after going to the doctor first and getting everything set just right.  Then, and only then, can the musical breaks really be fixed.  
Visit Erica here to read the entire post.  
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Janet Bordeaux @janetbxyz  I find myself in the midst of a diverse group of musicians who are active on twitter. We are composers and performers, students and teachers, amateurs and pros. Recently a conversation about metronomes caught my attention, which led to this collaboration of blogs on the subject.

I fall in the category of amateur. I am also a student and a composer. For this reason, I will tackle the emotional end of metronome use and leave the technical aspects of metronome use to the teachers and pro's to talk about.

My metronome is a source of love and hate; a tool that helps, or a beast to appease. I have been playing flute now for eight years, and was in my 50's when I started so it's quite a different experience than the child student.

My metronome is a merciless taskmaster, tick-tick-ticking and never missing a beat. One little falter of my fingers and I am off the beat--out of sync. And still it just goes on ticking. Pushing me to keep up and in doing so I tense, and miss all the more.

My current focus is the balanced placement of 4 notes fitting into a single beat (16th notes). It is invaluable as a tool to make sure I hold a rest long enough. And don't forget those tricky places where the note is on the half-beat! I have found placing a note between the beats ever so much harder than it seems.

I have two metronomes: a Korg MA-30 and an app on my iPad, "Metronome Plus." The Korg is accurate, easy to tote around, has a visual representation of the swinging lever of a mechanical metronome. It has plenty of options for split beats, leading beats, and an earphone input. The iPad app has all of that, plus an option to change the tone of the beats. Even with several tones to choose from, I find it hard to hear. I am waiting for developers to give me a nice bass tone that I can distinguish from my flute!

Nevertheless, this beast-tool is an invaluable resource for anyone who desires to play an instrument. It is the only means to proper note placement. As a composer, when I put music into notation, I have a reason for every beat and portion of a beat. I don't want the performer to change my rhythmic choices. So I try to perform other composers work with as much accuracy as I can possibly manage.

Bottom line: if you chose to play an instrument, proper note placement is just as important as your tone, air, bowing technique, or fingerings. Yes, the metronome is an unfeeling, relentless little beast. Embrace it, love it, and get beyond the tension. It is your friend.
Visit Janet here and read her entire post.
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Alexis Del Palazzo @sensibleflutist I have students that take right to the metronome and those who don’t (and even those who don't take to it still manage to have a decent sense of rhythmic pulse). I had consistent problems with rhythm as a student myself until my 10th grade year of high school. My private teacher made rhythm a math problem, and it all made sense. Students who are strong in math will understand this and will grasp the concept easily, but there are students who will not understand. Describing rhythms and time signatures like a math problem or equation that must be figured out will be as abstract as the abstract music notation system in front of them. So how do we help those students?

When rhythm is a specific issue the student is dealing with, I take away the instrument. Regardless of the issue a student is having with a particular skill or element of a piece, isolating the element and prioritizing and focusing on the issue at hand is essential to mindful practicing in order to fix the problem. For my young students, one of the first ways I teach them to practice is a series of steps for their one line exercises. They first count and clap the passage, then clap alone and then they try the line on their instrument. Another element that I add is to begin having the students extract measures they still have issues with. The more isolated we can make the problem, the easier it will be inserting back into the whole and the student will begin actively listening to themselves and will be able to identify areas that need improvement.

Given that practicing isn’t something that is really taught, it’s my goal as a teacher to change this. I make sure that when I offer suggestions to a student in their lesson that I make clear that I am making helpful practice method suggestions to them. No one is going to learn a piece well by playing it over and over until they have just the notes and rhythms down. What about tempo? What about phrasing? What about the structure? These are all skills students will learn over time if they stay with their instrument, but the metronome gets us back to the foundational building block of rhythm on which these other elements can then be added.
Visit Alexis here and read her entire post. 
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Kim Hickey ‏ @hickey_kim Apparently there has been debate over the nature of the metronome since its invention.  Beethoven included metronome markings in his music as early as 1817.  Yet Brahms is reported to have said he placed no value in these markings, feeling they inhibited the interpretation. The very birth of the metronome itself is controversial in that Johann Maelzel is often accused of stealing the idea from Dietrich Winkel, who introduced his version an entire year before Maelzel, in 1814.

So, what makes this device so polarizing in people’s views?  There have been those from the beginning who have asserted that using a metronome takes away one’s innate sense of rhythm and ultimately makes for a more stiff, sterile performance.  Let’s start with these arguments...
Many believe that the metronome is a crutch and is overly used; that we are too dependent on it when we should instead develop our own internal sense of rhythm.  The relentless beat of pop music, which is driven by the “click track”*, has put us into a realm of incessant sameness and we are losing musical nuance and rubato.  Rather than thinking in terms of musical phrases, we think in terms of measures.  By becoming overly reliant on the machine, we lose the human component.
 
Where does that leave this debate?  Pretty much where we started.  You, dear reader, must decide for yourself where you stand and use your own good judgment on when to Dr. Beat and when not to Dr. Beat!
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We meet lots of folks via social media. Twitter for example, gives us a chance to observe the pulse of our profession and every now and again, converse or banter with those who have the same or differing viewpoints. Over the past few years we've had  posts featuring Kat Fulton, Lisa Canning, and Patrick Kolhami, all folks we met via social media. 

Now I bring you April Estep (or as I've known her for the past year or so on Twitter, @MsEstep). April is a high school music teacher, she is an avid tweeter using the #musiced hash-tag, and she also maintains a wordpress blog called I'd Rather Be Tweeting...

I contacted April because she is a music education  'insider' (working in a public school) with a keen interest in reaching 'the other 80%', i.e. those interested in learning music but who do not access band, choir, or orchestra programs in schools. She agreed to answer a few questions for us.  Be sure to show her some love on Twitter and check in on her blog as well!

Q. Tell us a little about yourself, what brought you to be a music teacher?

A. I'm not sure what to tell you about me. (I do much better with specific questions, lol.) I grew up in southern West Virginia and teach in the high school I graduated from. I was a stereotypical band nerd through junior high and high school. I became a music teacher because I loved band so much that I couldn't see myself giving it up.

I am currently teaching grades 7-12. I have a junior high general music class and junior high choir. My high school classes are music appreciation and guitar. I have a small high school choir that meets after school one day a week...even though state policy requires choir be offered in the regular schedule.

Q. How do you use technology in your classroom? Anything on your wish list?

A. Tech is fairly non-existant in my class on a regular basis. But we do get time in the computer lab when we can. My music appreciation classes do composing and mixing and we also do musical autobiographies with movie maker. I also use my iPhone to record and share student work in guitar class.

If I could have any kind of tech, I'd have a class set of iPads with garage band...maybe some macs. Also, unfiltered access to YouTube would be great! :)

Q. How do you think tech has affected music education.  How might it evolve in the future?

I think technology has made a big difference in the way I teach my "other 80" classes. Composing is so much easier and more accessible for students. They can also share their work, like original songs, to a much bigger audience outside my classroom. I love that!

Tech should be impacting all of education. There are people in my building who think tech is destroying creative thought and problem solving (with which I totally disagree). I think tech gives us new ways of thinking and creating that are just as important as the more traditional models of thought.

Q. I sense from your tweets and your blog that you sometimes get frustrated with the administration or administrative parts of being a music teacher. Can you shed some light on that?

A. Yes, I get very frustrated at times.  It may be a touchy-feely Mr. Holland's Opus kind of answer, but music is so important to us as humans yet the powers that be in education think it's unimportant. It's nice to have, but no one really cares if they cancel choir to fit in an extra geometry class.

I also get frustrated among music people who think performing ensembles are the most important music classes.  Another band director in our district actually said to me, "Screw guitar class. I'm not a music teacher, I'm a band director. I'm here to build a band and that's all."

It may sound like I don't think performing groups are important, I do. (Nerdy band kid here, remember?) I just really think music ed. needs to do more to reach ALL students. Instead of seeing a kid that's got a good sense of rhythm and pitch and saying, "you should join band (or choir, or whatever)" we should find out what they want to do and find ways to help them reach their musical goals.

Thanks April, we couldn't have said it any better than that!  Keep up the good fight and hope we will bump into you down the road sometime.  Cheers from all of us @DLP_DSM.
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Today is the official release of Guitar Zero by NYU Professor and 'deep thinker' Gary Marcus. It's the story of how an internationally renowned scientist decided to conquer music, something that had been elusive and mystifying for most of his life, at the age of 38. 

"I had no musical talent whatsoever and at one point was gently told to stop taking recorder lessons when I was younger." That may be a sad commentary on poor teaching more than anything else, but Marcus wanted to know if musicality is something we are born with or can it be developed at any age?

His path included stops at Guitar Hero, Suzuki classes and even a summer camp for budding rockers where he jammed with 11 year-olds in a band called Rush Hour.  He shares his personal challenges with rhythm, theory, and technique and wraps it all in a thoughtful, insightful, and mostly non-academic memoir. 

It's a great read for anyone currently studying (and teaching!) music or wanting to.  And Mr. Marcus' experiences should strike quite a chord with DSM and DLP students. The book also raises some interesting questions about the science of human pleasure and the more basic question, what counts as a life well lived? 

“I might never be Jimi Hendrix... but for a brief moment I could sense what it was like to explore a new musical landscape.” His advice for future learners?  Enjoy the journey and don't fixate on the destination.

Excerpted from the following:garymarcus.combostonglobe.com
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