Thomas J. West Music

The following article is a guest post from Elaine Hirsch, who has contributed to TJWmusic.com on several previous occasions.

New software and the rise of the Internet have made it easier than ever for artists to earn money with their music while gaining an audience and improving their sound. There are many online tools now available to music...

I love when things like this happen.

Out of the blue on Twitter, I get a message from Dave Frank, a jazz pianist from New York City, inviting me to his new online jazz master class on YouTube. It's a 54 minute tribute to his teacher, famed jazz pianist and jazz educator Lennie Tristano, including two...

As I go along in this human experience, I grow continually convinced that our attitudes have a direct effect on what we end up experiencing.

There are many and varied definitions of the word "attitude" in its various contexts. My current working definition of "attitude...

One of my favorite people to follow in the blogosphere is Seth Godin. His blog is one of the most widely read in the English language worldwide. He is the master of the succinct, communicating more meaning in fewer words than just about anyone else I have ever seen. His blog posts average about 150 to 200 words. Try saying something meaningful in 200 words or less - it's not e...

While many of us in the U.S. enjoyed the Colmbus Day holiday yesterday, the folks behind the scenes in Tokyo for Theta Music Trainer were rolling out a big update package. Five new games, new training courses, and inproved...

Yesterday, I spent about five hours visiting the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. (and about seven hours on a bus with 40 middle school kids). Our field trip to the museum is in conjunction with this year's theme for our Integrated Arts curriculum, "The Art of the Native American".

For me, it was a profound and humbling experience. I think our students got s...

Today, I was introduced to what apparently is a very well-used web-based service that has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal. Thumbtack matches service providers with clients, primarily at the local level.

Service providers create a pro...

Over the past year, new professional learning networks for music educators have sprung up and are revolutionizing the way music teachers communicate. Here is an update on which networks are seeing the most use and have the best resources available:

After about a month on Google Plus, there are definitely some features that get the thumbs up from me.

Easily Connect With Your Tribe

Google uses Twitter-like following procedures, making it much easier to connect with people with similar interests. At the same time, the "inc...

Yesteday, the computer-user website MakeUseOf posted a news article entitled Dropbox Accidentally Drops Passwords for Four Hours. In it, they explain that Dropbox lost password protection for 1% of their user...