Micek Music

I am attending the annual Music Teachers Association of CA (MTAC) convention at the Marriott hotel in downtown Oakland this weekend. I couldn't rouse myself from sleep for any of the early presentations this morning. June was a challenging month for me, and now it's July 1st; this convention snuck up on me. I'm going to do my best to glean insights from the weekend's events, despite my fatigue. Here's a summary of the events I attended this afternoon: Meeting the authors of the "Just The Facts" Theory books: - Any parent or student of mine knows that I swear by the "Just The Facts" music theory books. Almost all of my students work from this series of books. They are absolutely the best I have found. A couple months ago I was placing a phone order with them and the woman helping me, Regina, mentioned that they'd have a booth at the MTAC Convention this year. I promised I would come by and meet her then.  I doubt she remembers me from ou...

-- My teaching schedule during the month of July will be fragmented. Please read the following: Monday students :  We'll have 2 lessons in July. We won't be meeting on the July 4th holiday. I'll see you on the 11th and the 18th. We will not meet on the 25th because I will be out of town. Tuesday students :  We'll have 3 lessons in July. I will see you on the 5th, 12th, and 19th. We will not  meet on the 26th because I will be out of town. Thursday students :  We'll have 2 lessons in July. We will not  meet on the 7th because I will be out of town. I will see you on the 14th and the 21st. We will not  meet on the 28th because I will be out of town. Sunday students :  We will have 2 lessons in July. We will not meet on the 3rd, 10th, or 31st. I will see you on the 17th and the 31st. Please contact me if you have any questions! Sorting out the above schedule has required a lot of brain power; I hope I have all the details right. -- July is my first m...

"The Internet might be useful for creating revolution, but all it's creating in the Western world is more passivity, more disconnection. It's a nightmare.  When I was 20 years old in New York City, do you think you walked into a coffee shop and saw 40 people staring at $2,000 purchases all made from the same company? And those are all the artists!  I talk to young musicians now, and they're just happy to be making records that get released. They don't even consider that, in the old days, they could making a living by selling records. They don't even get paid for their work. All that money just goes to Apple and they're happy to just have people going to their shows. It just took two generations for Apple and similar companies to convince artists they don't deserve to get paid and that they should just be grateful for the tools that Apple is providing us to make our work, as if we need them to make our art. It's very, very [messed] up."

This is a project I've wanted to present for awhile now, and I think this summer is the time to make it happen. Here's the short animated film I selected to inaugurate what I hope to be an annual project for my students. Mute the sound and imagine the possibilities: Participating students will compose several short instrumental pieces to accompany the above video. We will work together to record the music and then place the musical cues in the appropriate places, linking sounds to the images. The deadline for completion of this film scoring project will be the end of September.  More information can be provided upon request. This project is not for everyone -- some of my students are too young for this type of work and others won't be able to make the time commitment required -- but those who get onboard will enjoy a unique, rewarding musical challenge. Jesse

I must confess ignorance regarding Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony. I'd never heard the work prior to viewing this concert/documentary film. I'm sure strains of it have passed my ears at some point in years past, but my recollection is foggy. No matter -- Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor of the San Francisco Symphony, is a masterful tour guide to the uninitiated. I hope to see more of the films in his "Keeping Score" series. These are illuminating for both experienced musicians and novices alike. There's something for everyone. Very exciting to witness snippets of the rehearsal process and see the conductor playing piano at home, rehearsing from his weathered score. All the while, M.T.T. is ebullient. His attention to detail in preparing the S.F. Symphony's performance of this symphony is remarkable. Even after the performance has ended he's still thinking about ways he could have elicited more emotive power from the music and from his musicians. This is ...

-- My teaching schedule during the month of June will be uninterrupted. -- June will be my last month teaching on Tuesdays in Fremont. From July going forward I will be teaching on Tuesdays at my home studio in Castro Valley. -- I have a few plans in the works for special Summer activities in my teaching studio. These are still taking shape. I'll reveal them when they are more fully-formed (i.e. soon). -- The  Ear Power  song for the month of June is  "King of Anything" by Sara Bareilles . Download links below. Have a happy month, Jesse

This PBS documentary film tells so many stories. It's a New York story. A story about the quest for fame & wealth. The story of a single father. A story about drug addiction. A story about child entertainers. A story about the crumbling music business. A story about how quick and easy it is to spend a paltry $10,000 record company advance! All these tales are presented in this outstanding film about an up-and-coming rapper named P-Star.  The documentary follows P-Star from age 9-13. She's usually billed as "The youngest girl in the game". Her skills on the mic are undeniable -- we see many scenes of her performing in the studio and on stage. Her father had a career in the music business decades previous and is integrally involved in his daughter's rise. Complicating matters, he is a single parent raising two daughters with no help from their mother. They live in a small apartment in Harlem. "P-Star Rising" is gripping from start to finish. It's...