A response to the idea of garage bands being the future model of music-making

Let's face it - we have twinks coming in and getting popular through their parents' money and Youtube. We're getting used to the idea, this classic model of the teacher/mentor/parent/hired gun doing everything for the student and the student getting full credit for it, as it were. It's high time that the student be told "Here's a guitar. Here's how you hold it, and this is a strumming motion ... and a picking motion. You're on your own from here."

Granted, that's a bit off topic, but i got minimal help from Mr. M------ for working with Garageband, compared to how much i ultimately learned on my own.

If we are to let students grow in their potential, they need to be given the tools, the basic information, and be told "let's see what you can do within a given amount of time." Essentially, the garage rock band setting is just this - where the players play off of (or for) each other to test sounds, see what they learn, and find what else they can do. If the student needs help, of course it's a good idea to step in and teach, if necessary, new techniques and ways to do things a little bit easier. The idea of a teacher/apprentice relationship in the group is necessary in order to pass on ideas, but this can be accomplished without the direct aid (perhaps, rather, the supervision?) of a music educator. To borrow from Lucy Green, the idea of a teacher/apprentice relationship between peers is possible, no matter if a completely formal or casual practice, in various jam sessions and rehearsals (2002, p. 76). The basic problem in the classroom, when instructing about music, is that we, as educators, restrict the definition of music. To quote Edgard Varese, music is nothing more than "organized sound" and it needs to be truly recognized as such. Even if we don't like a particular genre, the fact is that music is relative. To quote Westerlund's article and summary of Green's research, "popular musicians make apposite descriptions of their classical instrumental lessons, reminding music educators how controlled, progressively proceeding learning can be experienced as alienating" (2006). In other words, sometimes spontaneity is the answer. But that spontaneity needs to generate ideas - otherwise, it won't work.

What if we allowed orchestra members to do a jam session?
What's possible if we let the choir sing what they will and tell them to actively listen to other ideas?

We might have more influences from popular music if that happens, but sometimes it's better to create a fusion of organized sounds. But in order for that to happen, educators need to first CREATE an environment that will allow spontaneity and creativity - perhaps new instruments or tech. More sources to work with. Whatever works!


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Far as getting a new computer to make music, i'm still HILARIOUSLY short of that goal. : / Still looking for a ruddy JOB.

And yet i'm listening to more acid (genre) music to find more sounds to work with. The BNR Trax release "Super Acid" has provided some ideas and a lot of them are good. Heck, spoke to a friend recently about trying to do a live version of "Never Stop" by Gonzales (you may have heard of it as "That annoying song you heard so many times on the Apple commercials," but Apple's video/sound editors do major injustice to the song, which is a work in slight phasing and Terry Riley-isms) with the local high school orchestra and our computers. i think it'd be fun. Speaking of looking into things that might work (see above), i find it hilarious that i got that particular riff from "YMCA" stuck in my head as a workable idea. Dammit, it's stuck there now.