Volume 19: January/February 2008

Welcome to Music's Future!

"The absolute transformation of everything that we ever thought about music will take place within ten years, and nothing is going to be able to stop it. I see absolutely no point in pretending it's not going to happen .... Music itself is going to become like running water or electricity ...... so, it's like, just take advantage of these last few years because none of this is ever going to happen again ..... It's terribly exciting. But on the other hand, it doesn't matter if you think it's exciting or not; it's going to happen...."

Us: What We're All About

The pace of change in the music and music education industries is accelerating. While music, and, in particular, music education, has always been subject to a constant state of change, the rate at which change is now occurring is, quite simply, unprecedented. As Kevin Kelly has reflected in his recent ruminations on the source of music in the future:

"The invention of the piano 300 years ago centered Western music on the keyboard. Electricity's arrival in the late 19th century enabled the duplication of performances and, later, the amplification of instruments. With digitization, the pace of upheaval has further accelerated. Digital file-sharing technologies -- Napster and its offspring -- are now undermining the established economics of music. And everything we know about digital technologies suggests that Napster is only the beginning."

The Future of Music is an e-zine dedicated to following and reporting on the people, places and things responsible for the enormous changes that are occurring in the music and music education industries. It is published bi-monthly and contains links to pieces authored by thought leaders in the music and music education industry in which they share their perspectives on where music/music education is headed. It also contains items of current interest to industry participants and outside observers, as well as interviews with the some of the more prominent members of the music/music education industries.     We hope you have fun reading, thinking about, and discussing what you find on the pages of our e-zine with others, both within and outside the industry. Also, if you're so inclined, feel free to drop us a line relating to anything you see here. You can reach us at comments@musicfutures.biz.

(NOTE:    The Future of Music is dedicated to following the people, places and things that are changing the face of music and music education. We believe that, as the world changes and becomes more "open", value will accrete to those most willing to share. Consequently, except for those articles or materials authored by, or belonging to, third parties, there are no usage restrictions with respect to this site. If you want to give us credit for the origination of an article or other material of interest, great.   If not, don't sweat it!)

People

Chris Salter: The Wizard Behind "Piano Wizard"

Hal Christopher Salter is a visionary who has taken his initial idea ("Piano Wizard") from a napkin, designed and built a prototype of it, raised the money in a tough capital market to create the supporting organization (Allegro Multimedia) and turned the original idea into an enterprise with revenues, substantial channel partners (including Mattel's Fisher-Price toy business, among others) and a significant market presence. In the process, he managed to assemble a world-class management team and achieved, with very little capital and on a shoestring budget, an enormous number of essential business milestones in record time. Today, Allegro Multimedia is an industry leader in musical video game technology and products.

While he now has degrees in Linguistics and Music from SIU Carbondale and UCLA, respectively, he first learned music as an adult. His travels have ranged over 5 continents and 23 different countries. He is fluent in 4 languages, including conversational Japanese and Setswana. As part of his travels, he spent a year in Botswana with the Peace Corps, taught ESL in Japan, and spent more than five years studying music-learning processes in Brazil, under the auspices of the Organization of American States Fellowship program as part of his Master's thesis at UCLA. It was during this stay in Brazil, while engaged in studies comparing the way we learn language to the way we learn music, that he experienced significant breakthroughs and insights that lead to the design of Piano Wizard.

Bringing his wife Eliana to the U.S. 8 years ago, he abandoned his academic pursuits and entered the world of software sales, first with Quarterdeck and then with his own company. During this time, he took this company from a startup with an $8,000 initial capital investment to one grossing over $1,000,000 in revenues in less than 14 months by selling via demonstration at computer shows.

For the last 5 years, Chris has been building Allegro Multimedia, learning to apply the principles of music creation and cooperation in business. Chris has come to know that nothing great can ever be accomplished alone, and has learned how to build teams and conduct business cooperatively in a way that adds value to the world without the need to step on someone else in the process. For Chris, looking at business from a creative problem solving perspective has made it surprisingly rewarding and fun.

Since Chris never learned music as a child, when he decided to study it at college it was for personal and spiritual reasons. He never expected to turn his passion into a career or business. But because he was an adult, he questioned the music education system in the U.S. and the ways that music was being taught at the time. In the process, he realized that musical notation is more of a barrier in the beginning than a help, yet it is a tool that needs to be eventually mastered. From his perspective, the problem was simply the existence of "too many sacred cows" in music education. Consequently, thinking outside the box, he created Piano Wizard to help get all of us there. He believes that, in the end, as Bach said, "we just need to hit the right note at the right time". His video music teaching process helps everyone do just that.

(Want to read more about Chris and his company, Allegro Multimedia? Check out the company's website (which has lots of fun and cool offerings for both adults and children) at www.allegrorainbow.com. Also, here are two different interviews with Chris, one from a couple of years ago for the magazine, The Escapist, and the other, more recent, with Phaedra Boinodiris at WomenGamers.com. Happy reading!)

Places

Berklee College of Music: Teaching Musical Innovation in Boston's Back Bay

Founded in 1945 by Lawrence Berk, the Berklee College of Music was originally named Schillinger House of Music, after Lawrence Berk's teacher Joseph Schillinger. At the time of its founding, almost all music schools focused primarily on classical music. The original mission of Berklee was to provide formal training in jazz, rock, and other contemporary music not available at other music schools, highlighting the Schillinger System of musical harmony and composition. After expansion of the school's curriculum in 1954, Berk changed the name to Berklee School of Music after his son Lee Berk and as a pun on the name of the famous University of California, Berkeley (even today, the two schools are often misunderstood to be affiliated or part of the same institution). When the school received its accreditation, the name was changed to Berklee College of Music in 1973. Lee Berk never formally studied music, instead focusing on Business and Real Estate Law, however his daughter Lucy Berk is an alumna of the college.

Today, the Berklee College of Music is the world's largest independent music college and one of the premier institutions worldwide for the study of contemporary music. The college's 3,800 students and 460 faculty members interact in an environment designed to provide a thoroughly comprehensive learning experience. In addition to the progressive musical instruction curriculum, the course of study at the institution includes identifying for the students all of the opportunities and challenges presented by a career in the contemporary music industry.

Located in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, Berklee assists students in developing musical competencies in such areas as composition, performance and recording/production. In addition, the school emphasis includes teaching the students the importance of developing discernment and wisdom in making the informed business decisions necessary for a successful career in music.

In addition to its academic mission, since its founding the college has been actively involved in various outreach programs whose purpose has been to foster international understanding through the medium of contemporary music. Young musicians come to Berklee from every corner of the earth to study music, and as a result, Berklee is uniquely international in its outlook. Of all U.S. colleges and universities, Berklee has the largest percentage of undergraduate students from outside the U.S. — 26 percent — representing more than 70 countries.

In its program for matriculated students, Berklee offers courses of study toward a fully accredited four-year baccalaureate degree or diploma. The curriculum includes majors in such fields as Performance, Composition, Music Production and Engineering, Film Scoring, Music Business/Management, Music Synthesis, and Music Education. The college inaugurated a new Music Therapy major in the fall of 1996.

As important as the academic curriculum is, the social networking opportunities available to successful graduates of the Berklee programs are even more impressive. Many Berklee alumni are prominent music industry professionals, including producer/arranger Quincy Jones; rock singer/songwriter Melissa Etheridge; Steely Dan leader Donald Fagen; producer and Atlantic Recording Studios VP Arif Mardin; jazz vibraphonist Gary Burton; singer/songwriter Patty Larkin; guitarist John Scofield; Living Colour drummer Will Calhoun; singer/songwriter Bruce Cockburn; film composer Alan Silvestri; guitarist and Tonight Show bandleader Kevin Eubanks; singer/songwriter Paula Cole; and jazz saxophonist/composer Branford Marsalis.

(For more information about the Berklee College of Music and their various academic programs, both online and off, visit their websites at http://www.berklee.edu/ and http://www.berkleemusic.com/. We think you'll find the variety of their course offerings, both web-based and traditional, very impressive.)

Things

Korg MicroKorg Synthesizer: Fun in a Box

It's tiny, it's cute, it's cheap, it runs off 6xAA batteries and its a real synthesizer! What's not to like?

Introduced in late 2002, the MicroKorg is fun in a box, with mini keys and plastic clip-on gooseneck microphone for the vocoder. This Korg invention is a very cool and retro-looking version of the MS2000 analog modelling synthesizer. This compact keyboard is designed for portability and is incredibily compact. But inside the MicroKorg is the exact same synthesis engine and sounds found in the killer MS2000 and MS2000R synthesizers.

The keyboard's 37 keys are small and almost toy-ish. But they have a firm response and feel natural enough to play. The case is a sturdy plastic and there are wood end-cheeks. There is a plethora of written info on the face of the instrument and reminds one of the old Poly-800 and DW-8000 synths. The five knobs above all this writing initially control the filter cutoff, resonance, envelope attack and release times, and the internal tempo. But they can be assigned to control every other parameter available in real-time. Their assignable functions are what is written below them (hard to read in the dark).

The MicroKorg has 128 Programs organized into 8 categories: Trance, Techno/House, Electronica, DnB Breaks, HipHop/Vintage, Retro, SndFX/Hits, and Vocoder. The sounds are great and inspiring. There is only 4-voice polyphony and only one Program can be played at a time. But as a hands-on, real-time dance machine, this really is all you need...one hand on the keys and the other on the knobs.

The MicroKorg has two oscillators with 71 waveforms (7 simple analog waves + 64 DWGS waveforms from the DW-8000), a multi-mode resonant 12 or 24 dB/oct filter, 8-band vocoder, two ADSR envelopes, 6-pattern arpeggiator, oscillator sync, ring modulation, two MIDI-syncable LFOs, programmable multi-effects, and more! All knobs and buttons send/receive MIDI controller data. External audio can be vocoded and/or processed through the filter, effects and EQ via the included microphone or standard 1/4" stereo inputs. A built-in USB Interface would have been nice for true lap-top portability, but is currently absent. But in its affordable price range, the MicroKorg is an awesome synth for beginners, DJs, and even the pros looking for a compact performance synth with retro style, flexible programing and excellent sounds! It's been used by Air, Atomizer, Bare Naked Ladies, Beck, Prodigy, The Killers, KMFDM, Royksopp, LCD Soundsystem, Jean-Michel Jarre, Nick Rhodes (of Duran Duran) and The Pet Shop Boys.

(For more information on the Korg MicroKorg visit the company's website at http://www.korg.co.jp/. For a 360-degree pictorial representation, visit the Korg section at Musician's Friend.)

Items of Interest

Web Guitar Wizard Revealed at Last

By Virginia Heffernan
Published: August 27, 2006

Eight months ago a mysterious image showed up on YouTube, the video-sharing site that now shows more than 100 million videos a day. A sinewy figure in a swimming-pool-blue T-shirt, his eyes obscured by a beige baseball cap, was playing electric guitar. Sun poured through the window behind him; he played in a yellow haze. The video was called simply "guitar". A black-and-white title card gave the performer's name as "funtwo" .... More

Light Years Into The Future

By Michael Brunton
Published: November 27, 2006

For an artist with a reputation for lofty concepts, ethereal soundscapes and evanescent light shows, Brian Eno's west London studio is a place of reassuring solids. Boxes neatly marked "screws," "measuring tools," "transistors" and "plaster" jostle for wall space with meter upon meter of books, CDs and DVDs. Above a row of keyboards and computers, five boom boxes hang neatly in line. Suspended from the ceiling is .... More

Improvising with Keith Jarrett on 'Piano Jazz'

By Marian McPartland
Published: June 28, 2007

A former child prodigy, Jarrett began his classical piano training at the age of 3. He performed recitals and concerts throughout his childhood, some of which featured some of Jarrett's own compositions. Jarrett threw himself into jazz as a teenager, and attended Berkelee College briefly before moving to New York, where Art Blakey "discovered" the pianist and asked him to join the Jazz Messengers. A gig with Charles Lloyd's .... More

99 Seconds of a One-Woman Choir

By David Browne
Published: June 28, 2007

The muted beat that opens Rose Kemp's "Tiny Flower" is nothing but modern: It sounds like feet crunching in snow, but had it been mixed higher, it might have sounded like something unleashed by hip-hop producer Timbaland. Then, in swoops the voice: a young woman who sounds young and British as she imparts the pure, heartsick ache of a pub-friendly folksinger.

In a development that's bound to make fans of Fairport Convention feel even older than they are, the children of some of the greatest British folk-rockers are now grown-up enough to make records of their own. Eliza Carthy, the daughter of renowned folk guitarist Martin Carthy and his singing wife Norma Waterson, has made a handful of shimmering traditional and pop-folk records; one of the best albums of 2006 was Separate Ways by Teddy Thompson, the offspring of Richard and Linda .... More