Two Takes – Entrepreneurship and Michelle Obama’s Speech

My class brings current blog posts and/or articles to debate, 3 on Tuesday and 3 on Thursday.  In the clips below first Mackenna and I discuss the perception of what an entrepreneur is from an article by David Cutler, author of the soon to be released Savvy Musician.  Then 3 of them on Tuesday brought in an article about Michelle Obama’s speech given in Pittsburgh about the arts.  We kind of disagreed on what the impact will be, or if there will be any at all….

Continue Reading

Needing a Band(age)

My Audience Connection class is in full swing and below I post my first sound clip of the semester.  Lawren read a blog post by Molly Sheridan (Mind the Gap) about a school band t-shirt that “created” an uproar.  Darwin is turning in his…now where did he go exactly?…….

Continue Reading

Book Review – The Savvy Musician by Dr David Cutler

So you want to be a musician? and Are There Too Many Musicians? These are two questions asked in the introduction by Dr David Cutler author of the soon to be released book The Savvy Musician. With doom and gloom seemingly around every corner for the arts, this book is a like a GPS for musicians to find an alternative route, one that wont just bring a check whilst biding ones time waiting for a “regular job” to appear.  No, David goes so far as to suggest that alternatives can help the art form itself become relevant!   My neck is sore from all the nodding I was doing whilst reading this, and so I decided to write my first ever book review……..

Continue Reading

Back to School Special!!!

Next week my class The Audience Connection starts up again and like last year it will be podcast and I will post highlights at Houndbite.  This class deals with current affairs in the arts world and so just like last year, I am asking for topic requests.  Either send one as a comment on this post or send me an email.  I will post highlights from these discussions.  Below is a clip from one of last year’s requested topics…..

Continue Reading

How about Savvy Music Schools?

The Savvy Musician, a book by Dr. David Cutler comes out in November.   There is some publicity being generated about the book’s upcoming release and the potential impact it might have on those musicians seeking careers in non traditional venues.  I haven’t read it (advanced copies are available) but an article about it raises some questions for me as to the motives of schools that think that entrepreneurship is the answer for musicians who are not finding work in “traditional” musical settings.  The potential problem in music schools creating stand alone entrepreneurship programs, is that it treats it a little like alternative medicine…..i.e not taking it seriously

Continue Reading

In order to move forward, first you must “retreat”….plus handing the keys to the musicians!

We had Drew here this week for the purpose of beginning the process to re-structure our organization to be ready for the future.  Being that we are in a strong position and not in crisis makes this the perfect time for that process.  In other words, rather than waiting for the fires to start, we are attempting to make ourselves fire proof!  There were two retreats and many meetings.  I am going to let Drew extrapolate on his visit here and instead focus on his chat with myself and one of our  musicians about a program that I hope will be repeated everywhere!…..

Continue Reading