1992, 20 Years ago...

- Google did not exist
- The current president of the US, Barack Obama, was a law professor at the University of Chicago
- Super Bowl MVP, Eli Manning, had just turned 11
- Lana Del Ray was 5 years old
- there were no smart phones 
- Princess Diana was still alive
- the term World Wide Web was just starting to be used, but most people had no access to it
- my son, Max, and Parker Cantera (Eugene's son) were born

The Dallas School of Music, Inc. was founded

The world has greatly changed in the past 20 years.  We'd like to think that music education has grown and developed because of our efforts.  We were the first professional music education firm in the world.  What began as Robert Lawrence's thesis project has become a company held up as an example of what is possible, by both educational institutions and other tech companies.

The idea that, "no piece of music is more important than a person" has been embraced by the DFW community.  We are thrilled to still have so many long-term families with us, some that have remained here since the start 20 years ago.  It's also wonderful to see adults that started here as 2 year olds and were part of the DSM family all through their High School time, come back as successful adults who still keep music in their life.  We look forward to seeing many of these DSM old-timers at our 20th Anniversary Concert this Saturday, February 11th.

Our core group, Bob (founder), Tamalyn (founder), myself (1993), Eugene (1994) and Gary (1994) have been together for most of that 20 years.  That is testimony to our dedication and to the tremendous culture and environment that has developed here at DSM/DLP.  It's a rare thing in business or any type of group, to have people continue to work together and get along for that long.  I'm proud to be part of this group, and still look forward to coming in every day.

If you're in the DFW area, please come to the concert this Saturday.  Open House starts at 6 and the concert begins at 7 featuring all of our staff.  It should be a great night of a variety of music.

Thanks to all of you for supporting us and keeping us going for 20 years!  We could not have done this without all of you.

Every DSM and DLP student has a private, secure, virtual workspace.  This is the hub for your music education.  You have access to the entire DSM Staff, who are glad to answer any questions you have regarding playing your instrument or the musical language.  Video and sound files, relating to your education, can be exchanged here. 

Login from the link at www.dsminfo.com.

You should have received information on your username (generally your primary email address) and password when you started at DSM or DLP.  Please use our contact form if you are not sure of either.

Hopefully, one of the first things you notice is that the entire DSM staff is a consultant on YOUR project!

We're all here to help you with your music education.  Submit a question at any time and it immediately goes to all staff members.  You may end up with several replies to your question and a few different ways to solve your problem.  This is not possible with a traditional method book!

At the top right, you can find another way to access your DLP curriculum material, our calendar of events at DSM and our extensive library of videos for all instruments.  These are both videos we have created and ones we have selected as containing good valid information for music learners.  Spend some time with these.  There is a lot of great information and our library is being constantly updated!

If you're a DSM student you will have a project assigned each week.  This is the; WHAT/WHY/HOW for your musical week, also known as an II Doc.  This is always listed as due at your next session, though of course, some assignments may require several weeks to complete.  But, the goals that your teacher assigns should be possible to accomplish in a week.
You'll find all of your II Docs in the Project Tracker of your workspace;

Your assignment for this week, and past weeks, appear in the Project Tracker area.  This is where you can view all of the comments for your "project".  If you hit Reply at the bottom, your comment or question goes directly to your educator.  You can also post a message that will go to all of your consultants.  This is a great place to post any general music questions you have, or questions on the DLP curriculum.

The message area can also be used to share MP3 files or leadsheets/worksheets for your assignemnts.  Simply click on ATTACH FILES to upload or DOWNLOAD FILES to download any files that your teacher attaches.  This is a wonderful way to expand your lesson materials.

Your private virtual workspace is a unique music education tool and is only available through DSM and DLP.  It's personal care and service using 21st century technology.  We're proud to be able to offer this to our students and hope this brief walk through helps you have a better understanding of how this educational tool can be utilized.

Thanks and keep checking back as I delve further into the DLP Series in future blogs.

- Mike