Category: Music Lecture & Seminar Topics

Various topics Gary Powell presents to organizations.

Cheat Fear Now!

by Gary Powell

In the next five minutes, I want to change your mind: I want to challenge your long-held conceptions of the performing arts and music education. I realize that asking for a paradigm shift in how we perceive the arts is tricky business. But I no longer risk anything when I tell you that there is a lot of unmovable concrete holding up our academic institutions. And on top of that concrete, with a broader perspective of what education is and who should bring it, there does exist the upside of greater prosperity by way of building an effective network of like-minded individuals…and willing institutions.

The shift will have been successful when education and opportunity conspire to meet and greet your greatest aspiration. If you can imagine a spark – your spark like no other spark – then you can imagine your future in this new world, one that can become inspired in a single moment. Only then can someone else join you in it. What is holding you back in moving your dreams file into the more active aspirations folder? Forget that worn-out unrequited-silent-genius model. It never really worked; take Van Gogh for example and keep both your ears.

Every gig you play for free is ladened with fear. Which means that every empty seat you see in a theater or concert hall, conversely, is an opportunity for your insight to cheat fear. Cheat it now. But, insight to what? The first thing to do is to introduce your work to chance. Chance has more to do with us than we thought. Within that idea of power living inside a single moment, chance can change our lives forever. A college education is a huge collection of these moments when we become enmeshed with scholars, mentors and that not-to-be-discounted chance that move us toward discovering our uniqueness and becoming it.

Outside of the fear model there are more opportunities now within the arts than ever in recorded history – we just need new models in education and new inclusive models in business to mine the gold in order to experience a personal and sustainable prosperity within this new, yet undeveloped construct. When aspirations and aptitude, existing business models and curriculum, are all in concert together, they make a powerful formula for creating successful lives: purposeful and self-directed.

The problem is that stock prices in aspiration have been dropping semester by semester, year after year, decade after decade. The individual student’s aptitude, not meeting the existing academic criteria, is harder and harder for the institution to even recognize. Business models within the recording arts have taken to the smoky back room while ivory tower curricula is stuck in the nineteenth century. Here, we must all agree to not make fear the basis of our relationships, otherwise fear and predictability is all that will be engendered.

If we educators look more deeply into our students’ experiences, mine their aptitudes, inspire their aspirations, and stretch curricula to include all forms of music and entrepreneurship in the arts, universities will have more than the usual ten former students performing at the fundraiser event in praise of their university. They will add ten a year, then twenty and eventually… your school will need a bigger concert hall. And… your school will deserve it – all because of you the student, and you the professor, and you the administrator for the collaborative effort you have each engendered.

Photo is the Old Main Building at Sam Houston State University.
I started my professional career sitting in that green grass with guitar in hand.

A Pre-Lecture Invitation / Freshman Music Class UGS 302

The University of Texas at Austin

by Gary Powell

Before we go forth into the world wielding our grand visions, there is some personal housekeeping to be done. Otherwise, our grandest vision will drip onto the world as tepid back-flow from someone else’s previously held ideas. But, you say “I know what I want and how I want to change the world.” Well, for a moment let’s look at you and try to understand how many institutions you have been associated and with some living below your awareness. Answer the questions below, then add up how many “yes” answers you accumulate. Read below to assess your score.

1. Were you born a human? (if so add ten yes marks)
2. Were you born a boy?
3. Were you born a girl?
4. Were you raised by both parents?
5. Were you raised by your father only? (if so add two yes marks)
6. Were you raised by your mother only? (if so add two yes marks)
7. Were you raised by your grandparents?
7. Were you raised by a grandfather? (if so add two yes marks)
8. Were you raised by a grandmother? (if so add two yes marks)
9. Were you raised within a state or any other system for child services? (if so add four yes marks)
10. Were you raised by wolves?
11. Did you go to kindergarten?
12. Did you go to pre-school?
13. Did you go to elementary school?
14. Did you go to middle school?
15. Did you go to high school?
16. Did you date in high school?
17. Did you not date in high school?
18. Are you in college? (Add one yes mark for every year spent in undergraduate college)
(Add two yes marks for every year spent in graduate school)
19. Have you ever suffered unfair consequences for your behavior?
20. Have you ever felt betrayed?
21. Have you even betrayed a friend or family member?
22. Have you ever joined a civic, scholastic, religious or professional organization? (Add three yes marks for each one per year)
23. Did you ever believe in Santa Claus? (Add 10 yes marks if true.)
24. Can you name members of any current or past rock and roll bands? (Add one yes mark per name.)
25. Can you explain your wardrobe or “look” using reason?
26. Are you wearing fall or winter boots when it’s still 87 degrees outside? (Add 5 yes marks if true.)
27. Have you ever used an excuse to avoid a party or commitment you didn’t want to attend?

If you have more than 50 points, then you are nearly unconscious with no self-awareness. If you have 12 points or fewer then you were probably raised by wolves and will soon either be in prison or running for congress. Is this a stupid list of questions posing as a sociological study? Of course it is. Did you get the point? If not, the point is this; as individuals we must unveil the hidden agenda of others living within our proximity, circumstance and psychology. We have to become free.

In a discussion of people’s goals, Rae Moses, composer and Head of Choral Music for Carl Fischer Music writes, “Obscurity and poverty never seem to make the list of desired outcomes.” Right, they don’t. So, it’s clear that no one desires to be broke and “just a nobody.” And so two more questions; why do so few achieve the opposite and second, why is obscurity and poverty a rare outcome for most educated people? The answer; most of us are willing to live with obscurity, much more than poverty, so we simply redirect our energies to producing income rather than reaching for our aspirations, however exalted. Second, achieving both fame and riches first requires the ambitious to trespass into someone’s territory, without getting kicked out, to eventually gain invitation for entering a curriculum which has never been taught in school. There is no known path to this new school or we would all be doing it.

Assuming you have broken through the massive life-compressing limitations of how you have been personally compromised and then achieved some manner of self-awareness; here is the question. Given enough time and money and with no worries of supporting oneself, what would you do with your life? And, what would your world look like to others and how would they recognize it? Further, how would others prosper within it?

For further reading: Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development

All Content of Gary Powell’s Site is Licensed Under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License

.

by Gary Powell

Before we go forth into the world wielding our grand visions, there is some personal housekeeping to be done. Otherwise, our grandest vision will drip onto the world as tepid back-flow from someone else’s previously held ideas. But, you say “I know what I want and how I want to change the world.” Well, for a moment let’s look at you and try to understand how many institutions you have been associated and with some living below your awareness. Answer the questions below, then add up how many “yes” answers you accumulate. Read below to assess your score.

1. Were you born a human? (if so add ten yes marks)
2. Were you born a boy?
3. Were you born a girl?
4. Were you raised by both parents?
5. Were you raised by your father only? (if so add two yes marks)
6. Were you raised by your mother only? (if so add two yes marks)
7. Were you raised by your grandparents?
7. Were you raised by a grandfather? (if so add two yes marks)
8. Were you raised by a grandmother? (if so add two yes marks)
9. Were you raised within a state or any other system for child services? (if so add four yes marks)
10. Were you raised by wolves?
11. Did you go to kindergarten?
12. Did you go to pre-school?
13. Did you go to elementary school?
14. Did you go to middle school?
15. Did you go to high school?
16. Did you date in high school?
17. Did you not date in high school?
18. Are you in college? (Add one yes mark for every year spent in undergraduate college)
(Add two yes marks for every year spent in graduate school)
19. Have you ever suffered unfair consequences for your behavior?
20. Have you ever felt betrayed?
21. Have you even betrayed a friend or family member?
22. Have you ever joined a civic, scholastic, religious or professional organization? (Add three yes marks for each one per year)
23. Did you ever believe in Santa Claus? (Add 10 yes marks if true.)
24. Can you name members of any current or past rock and roll bands? (Add one yes mark per name.)
25. Can you explain your wardrobe or “look” using reason?
26. Are you wearing fall or winter boots when it’s still 87 degrees outside? (Add 5 yes marks if true.)
27. Have you ever used an excuse to avoid a party or commitment you didn’t want to attend?

If you have more than 50 points, then you are nearly unconscious with no self-awareness. If you have 12 points or fewer then you were probably raised by wolves and will soon either be in prison or running for congress. Is this a stupid list of questions posing as a sociological study? Of course it is. Did you get the point? If not, the point is this; as individuals we must unveil the hidden agenda of others living within our proximity, circumstance and psychology. We have to become free.

In a discussion of people’s goals, Rae Moses, composer and Head of Choral Music for Carl Fischer Music writes, “Obscurity and poverty never seem to make the list of desired outcomes.” Right, they don’t. So, it’s clear that no one desires to be broke and “just a nobody.” And so two more questions; why do so few achieve the opposite and second, why is obscurity and poverty a rare outcome for most educated people? The answer; most of us are willing to live with obscurity, much more than poverty, so we simply redirect our energies to producing income rather than reaching for our aspirations, however exalted. Second, achieving both fame and riches first requires the ambitious to trespass into someone’s territory, without getting kicked out, to eventually gain invitation for entering a curriculum which has never been taught in school. There is no known path to this new school or we would all be doing it.

Assuming you have broken through the massive life-compressing limitations of how you have been personally compromised and then achieved some manner of self-awareness; here is the question. Given enough time and money and with no worries of supporting oneself, what would you do with your life? And, what would your world look like to others and how would they recognize it? Further, how would others prosper within it?

For further reading: Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development

All Content of Gary Powell’s Site is Licensed Under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License

.

Einstein, Bruner and Rand on Art and Life

by Gary Powell

Below I quote three astute observations from icons working in divergent disciplines on the importance of the individual, our creativity, life’s possibilities and how we relate to music; physicist Albert Einstein, psychologist Jerome Bruno and philosopher Ayn Rand bring the gift of perspective and importance to what we do daily as composers, musicians, performers, entrepreneurs and as humans.


Albert“The really valuable thing in the pageant of human life seems to me not the political state, but the creative, sentient individual, the personality; it alone creates the noble and the sublime, while the herd as such remains dull in thought and dull in feeling.” – ALBERT EINSTEIN

 

Jerome… A new breed of developmental theory is likely to arise… Its central technical concern will be how to create in the young an appreciation of the fact that many worlds are possible, that meaning and reality are created and not discovered, that negotiation is the art of constructing new meaning by which individuals can regulate their relations with each other.” – JEROME BRUNER, from Actual Minds, Possible Worlds (The Jerusalem-Harvard Lectures)

 

Ayn“The nature of musical perception has not been discovered because the key to the secret of music is physiological—it lies in the nature of the process by which man perceives sounds—and the answer would require the joint effort of a physiologist, a psychologist and a philosopher.” – AYN RAND, A Manifesto

 

 

All Content of Gary Powell’s Site is Licensed Under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License

.

by Gary Powell

Below I quote three astute observations from icons working in divergent disciplines on the importance of the individual, our creativity, life’s possibilities and how we relate to music; physicist Albert Einstein, psychologist Jerome Bruno and philosopher Ayn Rand bring the gift of perspective and importance to what we do daily as composers, musicians, performers, entrepreneurs and as humans.


Albert“The really valuable thing in the pageant of human life seems to me not the political state, but the creative, sentient individual, the personality; it alone creates the noble and the sublime, while the herd as such remains dull in thought and dull in feeling.” – ALBERT EINSTEIN

 

Jerome… A new breed of developmental theory is likely to arise… Its central technical concern will be how to create in the young an appreciation of the fact that many worlds are possible, that meaning and reality are created and not discovered, that negotiation is the art of constructing new meaning by which individuals can regulate their relations with each other.” – JEROME BRUNER, from Actual Minds, Possible Worlds (The Jerusalem-Harvard Lectures)

 

Ayn“The nature of musical perception has not been discovered because the key to the secret of music is physiological—it lies in the nature of the process by which man perceives sounds—and the answer would require the joint effort of a physiologist, a psychologist and a philosopher.” – AYN RAND, A Manifesto

 

 

All Content of Gary Powell’s Site is Licensed Under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License

.

The Color of Key

by Gary Powell

Emma Kate Tsai, an often contributor to my site, has posed this excellent question regarding the perceived color of tonal centers:

I have to write a research paper on music and how it collaborates with another art. I’m reading this new novel about a guy who can hear the tonality of people. I talked to my prof about it and she said that a lot of composers think people have “tonality”, in other words, certain keys are uplifting, others are somber. What do you think? – Emma Kate Tsai

color of key

Yes Emma, composers have always talked about the idea that the key of E Minor does not “feel” the same as Eb Minor even though they are only a half-step apart. There is often agreement that tonal centers on black keys have a darker tone than tonal centers on white keys. It’s possible that this perceived audio difference is more visual, and even tactile as well, in that the pianists’ fingering shifts deeper into the keyboard when playing black keys. As an antidote to this, I encourage myself to compose in all keys to eliminate compositional patterns that one develops when playing only in Bb Major, for instance. If a songwriter or composer does notice that she prefers certain tonal centers or keys, like I mentioned, it may be more about muscle memory, which comes from familiarity with chord voicing in certain keys, than about any measurable or even perceived auditory color differences. I do hold, however unreliable the science is, that we can and do perceive a difference in the tonal nature of the keys we choose to play in.

Studies show that people with perfect pitch hear the character of a pitch instead of what we generally assume; that they are simply hearing the frequency. This is one argument to support the idea different keys do indeed express a unique tonal color or quality. Much of my knowledge on the related topic of perfect pitch comes from my old friend Rae Moses, another frequent contributor to my site. Rae is the Director of Choral Music for Carl Fischer Music and a concert pianist who has perfect pitch. I hope Rae will add his take on this topic with a comment below.

“The fingers tend to be a little bit predictable unless led by the brain.” Brian May, Guitarist for Queen – As an aside, in 2007, Brian May received his PhD in Astrophysics.

I truly suspect that these tonal preferences are born from a mix of an unmeasured sense or feeling, a simple habit, or the shape of an individual’s hand, or a player’s eye sight, or that the piano stool was too low when we were young, making the flat keys harder to reach. We are indeed complex beings.

Helpful? Copy, Paste, then Tweet it!
How does the “Color of Key” effect what we hear and why do we prefer to play in one key over another? http://tinyurl.com/89dtz3

All Content of Gary Powell’s Site is Licensed Under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License

.

by Gary Powell

Emma Kate Tsai, an often contributor to my site, has posed this excellent question regarding the perceived color of tonal centers:

I have to write a research paper on music and how it collaborates with another art. I’m reading this new novel about a guy who can hear the tonality of people. I talked to my prof about it and she said that a lot of composers think people have “tonality”, in other words, certain keys are uplifting, others are somber. What do you think? – Emma Kate Tsai

color of key

Yes Emma, composers have always talked about the idea that the key of E Minor does not “feel” the same as Eb Minor even though they are only a half-step apart. There is often agreement that tonal centers on black keys have a darker tone than tonal centers on white keys. It’s possible that this perceived audio difference is more visual, and even tactile as well, in that the pianists’ fingering shifts deeper into the keyboard when playing black keys. As an antidote to this, I encourage myself to compose in all keys to eliminate compositional patterns that one develops when playing only in Bb Major, for instance. If a songwriter or composer does notice that she prefers certain tonal centers or keys, like I mentioned, it may be more about muscle memory, which comes from familiarity with chord voicing in certain keys, than about any measurable or even perceived auditory color differences. I do hold, however unreliable the science is, that we can and do perceive a difference in the tonal nature of the keys we choose to play in.

Studies show that people with perfect pitch hear the character of a pitch instead of what we generally assume; that they are simply hearing the frequency. This is one argument to support the idea different keys do indeed express a unique tonal color or quality. Much of my knowledge on the related topic of perfect pitch comes from my old friend Rae Moses, another frequent contributor to my site. Rae is the Director of Choral Music for Carl Fischer Music and a concert pianist who has perfect pitch. I hope Rae will add his take on this topic with a comment below.

“The fingers tend to be a little bit predictable unless led by the brain.” Brian May, Guitarist for Queen – As an aside, in 2007, Brian May received his PhD in Astrophysics.

I truly suspect that these tonal preferences are born from a mix of an unmeasured sense or feeling, a simple habit, or the shape of an individual’s hand, or a player’s eye sight, or that the piano stool was too low when we were young, making the flat keys harder to reach. We are indeed complex beings.

Helpful? Copy, Paste, then Tweet it!
How does the “Color of Key” effect what we hear and why do we prefer to play in one key over another? http://tinyurl.com/89dtz3

All Content of Gary Powell’s Site is Licensed Under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License

.

Vocal Performance Master Class


DeSales University with Dennis Razze

by Gary Powell
Dennis Razze, musical theatre specialist at DeSales University, has invited me to present a vocal master class on campus this March 24-25, 2007. This post is an invitation to you, the students, and me to get to know one another before the workshop. I want to hear your comments, suggestions, aspirations, experiences or questions before I just show up pretending to be brilliant.

We, as singers, all bring incredible vocal diversity to performing opportunities. Many directors and producers miss the very thing that is unique about your instrument. Even though that certainly affects you, there’s not much you can do about it. The question to ask yourself, however, is whether of not your talent or vocal aptitude matches your aspirations. The stage performer will likely prosper with volume. The singer-songwriter will often prosper with vocal intimacy. The recording artist will likely prosper with agility. The successful career as a session singer will often be determined by your ear more than your voice.

I’m making two points here: One, that many times we define singing careers too narrowly, and second, we make choices based on ego and desire rather than aptitude and skill.

This vocal workshop will serve you best if we work together to make sure you are being wise in assessing where you are most likely to prosper: The stage, the artist, the studio? Learning the capacities of your own instrument is great fun if you have an investigative mind and are up for the challenge.

We all know that almost any voice can make it as a recording artist, right? This is an excellent chance for you to get a very real assessment to help determine where each of you might have the best chance of finding an audience. This vocal master class will be the the polar opposite from that typical American Idol non-constructive-ego-driven-television-nonsense. Hopefully, we will simply identify a path where you might prosper while giving you the skills to further your development in accordance with your very own individual aptitude, psychology, resources and work ethic. I’m guessing this may ALL hook back up with your audition experiences, although beit with a wider net offering you a broader perspective of what effective singing sounds like…..for YOU!

So, be bold here. Engage me now, before I show up. First, you will need to subscribe with the button at the top right of the page. (If your browser is Explorer, the sidebar navigation panel may be shoved to the very bottom of the page.) Then, post your comments, questions or concerns below. If you prefer to keep your communication private, then click on “Meet and Greet Gary Powell” and you’ll find a form for sending me a private e-mail. Also, you will find much information within this professional weblog which should be helpful. Look around, check out the other singers who work in my studio and get involved if you like.

The format and schedule for classes will be forthcoming after I hear from you and work it all out with Mr. Razze, respecting your existing academic responsibilities. I have created a quick online survey which might help me understand who you are. I hope you will participate. (The Survey is Now Closed)

DeSales University Survey

Also, please feel free to also share your wisdom or concerns in the comment field below regarding whatever vocal or music business issues you have.

All Content of Gary Powell’s Site is Licensed Under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License

.

The Shiver Quiver Chill and Thrill

by Gary Powell

I Found My Thrill On Blueberrry Hill10,000 Maniacs Quote

MUSIC is the only art form that vibrates, resonates, oscillates, pulsates and thumps. This sonic thing makes it our most palpable art form. No other art shakes one’s booty quite the same.

Songwriters work in lyrics, harmony and melody. Composers work in all that plus texture, color, voicings, doublings, sections, combinations of sections and a thousand other devices and nuances. Even with the legacy of attention focused on these compositional elements, there is nothing quite as exciting as having your chest GET POUNDED. We feel music. Literally.

There is method in balancing the elements of sound production and the mastery of that sound is ultimately what a musician does. Singers study tone and placement and every instrument has sonic qualites needing to be either enhanced, disguised or masked. The recording discipline of audio engineering has much to teach us about these audio relationships and especially that of sound and its effects on the human body. There is a scientific language which helps explain this relationship. It has a vocabulary rarely utilized by practicing composers or players. It’s the language of the audio ENGINEER.

Gary Powell Quote

(Copyright 2005 Jesmax Music, BMI)

Lecture Level and Requirements


Here’s the answer to the question “What happened to all the great songs?” This is the history of popular music as influenced by war and peace, recording technology and the boom box. Can be adapted for any level secondary and above. Inclusive of non-musicians.

All Content of Gary Powell’s Site is Licensed Under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License

.

by Gary Powell

I Found My Thrill On Blueberrry Hill10,000 Maniacs Quote

MUSIC is the only art form that vibrates, resonates, oscillates, pulsates and thumps. This sonic thing makes it our most palpable art form. No other art shakes one’s booty quite the same.

Songwriters work in lyrics, harmony and melody. Composers work in all that plus texture, color, voicings, doublings, sections, combinations of sections and a thousand other devices and nuances. Even with the legacy of attention focused on these compositional elements, there is nothing quite as exciting as having your chest GET POUNDED. We feel music. Literally.

There is method in balancing the elements of sound production and the mastery of that sound is ultimately what a musician does. Singers study tone and placement and every instrument has sonic qualites needing to be either enhanced, disguised or masked. The recording discipline of audio engineering has much to teach us about these audio relationships and especially that of sound and its effects on the human body. There is a scientific language which helps explain this relationship. It has a vocabulary rarely utilized by practicing composers or players. It’s the language of the audio ENGINEER.

Gary Powell Quote

(Copyright 2005 Jesmax Music, BMI)

Lecture Level and Requirements


Here’s the answer to the question “What happened to all the great songs?” This is the history of popular music as influenced by war and peace, recording technology and the boom box. Can be adapted for any level secondary and above. Inclusive of non-musicians.

All Content of Gary Powell’s Site is Licensed Under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License

.