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Occupy Vienna - The Musician's Version Of Occupy Wall Street

Posted by Thomas J. West on October 15, 2011 at 9:30 AM Comments comments (0)

occupy vienna


There are a lot of very clever pieces of humor circulating social media right now about the Occupy Wall Street protests.  The image on this blog post was one I collected from Facebook this morning. It lampoons the #OWS slogan by stating a similarity in clas...

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Teaching Chord Theory To Secondary Music Performance Ensembles

Posted by Thomas J. West on October 12, 2011 at 7:30 AM Comments comments (0)

compositions


As part of a sequential curriculum in music education, my instrumental music performance students continually learn and practice written music notation. This begins with rote scale and arpeggio study (letter names before notation, learned in circle of fifths order), combined with improvisation on the pentatonic scale.

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A Peek Inside Noteflight Classroom

Posted by Thomas J. West on September 9, 2011 at 2:10 PM Comments comments (0)

noteflight logo


This year, I purchased Noteflight Classroom for my school as part of my professional development goal to create a fully

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The Magic Of Music In Movies

Posted by Thomas J. West on July 3, 2011 at 8:23 AM Comments comments (0)

electronic Music


I often am contacted by website owners who ask me to share their articles with my readership. This particular article is quite appropriate, as it illustrates a modern application of masterful music composition. Take a moment to review 10 Most Masterful Mo...

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Announcement: New Material On The TJWMusic Composition Page

Posted by Thomas J. West on June 25, 2011 at 9:58 AM Comments comments (0)


This past week, a few things happened that created the perfect storm for some original creativity on my part. First, I opened a SoundCloud account. Second, I bought myself a Blue Snowball USB microphone. that combined with Mixcraft5 has led to some original a cappella samples. The new music is embedded on my Compositions page...

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6 Steps For Teaching Music Composition To Secondary Performing Ensemble Students

Posted by Thomas J. West on June 22, 2011 at 7:33 AM Comments comments (0)

compositions

Over this past school year, I have been making a concerted effort to incorporate more music improvisation and composition into the curriculum of my performing music ensembles. Musical creativity is an often-neglected part of traditional public school performing programs because 95% of available class time is spent learning and mastering music for the next publ...

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Music Students Embrace The Joy Of The Creative Process

Posted by Thomas J. West on May 4, 2011 at 4:14 PM Comments comments (0)

compositions


Now that my spring concert is over, my students are spending the remaining time in the final marking period in some really powerful (and essential) musicianship-building activities. We are beginning each class with drills on scales and tonic triad arpeggios. My middle scool students are performing from Ab major through E major for strings, ...

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New Review Article: Value Vocals Quality Contemporary A Cappella Arrangments

Posted by Thomas J. West on April 16, 2011 at 12:03 PM Comments comments (0)

value vocals logo


Contemporary a cappella singing is a hobby of mine. I was weaned on barbershop quartet music - my dad was involved with SPEBSQSA (now the Barbershop Harmony Society) as a singer, arranger, judge, and coach long before I was around. When I went to college, I sang in a 50's doo wop group that, during my ...

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Artistry In The Information Age: Parry Gripp

Posted by Thomas J. West on February 19, 2011 at 9:02 AM Comments comments (0)

Pile of Kittens Cover Art


Since January 1st, 2008, Parry Gripp has been writing and performing one (sometimes two) songs a week and posting them on Parry Gripp dot com. He is the epitome of what I like to call the "21st Century Artist".  With the ability for any person to reach a...

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All feature articles and blog entries are opinions based on Mr. West's personal experiences as a music educator, composer, adjudicator, and clinician. His comments do not reflect positions of the Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School or the Center for Performing and Fine Arts in any way. Mr. West endeavors to express all opinions with the highest degrees of impeccability and integrity.

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