Audiolife

AAUDIOLIFE ISSUE 1 SPRING 2012

The World of Music Beyond the Norm

Albums, Albums, Albums

As more ablums and artists, arise, we have to crtitic them

Interview: Tim Girardot, a high-class Pianist

ITunes: how is it saving old tunes?

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Table of Contents 6 Top 5 Albums of Today By Oscar Ortuno

8 Austin Music Plays On and On By Evan Williams

10 Gossip By Mason Crowell

13 Were The Beatles Better off Together Or Apart By Oscar Ortuno

14 A New Voice Calls By Mason Crowell

16 Records Survive in iTunes By Michael Foelker

19 Best To Worst : Band Instruments By Michael Foelker

21 The End of All Our Ears By Evan Williams

22 Lee Duffy Helps Songwriters Find Their Place By Mason Crowell

24 Album Reviews By Evan Williams

27 Behind the Music By Oscar Ortuno

28 Struck A Chord By Michael Foelker

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The purpose of this magazine is tell people about every-thing from the making of music to the people who lis-ten to it. This magazine would inform people about the technology of music and the music, bands, and concerts that use that equipment. I hope you enjoy reading this magazine

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Evan Williams Oscar Ortuno

Mason Crowell Michael Foelker


Evan: Born in West Philidelphia. Raised on music and drug money, this young hooligan went from living in slums to rollin’ in the deeeeeep cash. After gaining a million rubes in Inida, he moved to Massachusetts to work as a janitor at a college. But, he became troubled because he sometimes feels like he’s smarter than most of the students. Out of pure coinstadence, he became friends with Ben Affleck during his time there. He then decided to move to beverly hills and film a sit-com about his life as a playboy, millionare, and genius.

Oscar: A 15 year old guy who enjoys playing sports like Ultimate Frisbee, An outstanding fan of the Bea-tles who also raves to tribal. He plays guitar and sometimes plays the Beatles. Own two Husky dogs, whom he walks everyday, and loves with all his heart.

Mason: I’m a music fan, creator, and admirer. I play several instruments and have and ever various musi-cal taste. I am also a singer-songwriter, using a guitar as my main instrument. I believe in the prosperity of genuine music and indorse the spread of the underground to the masses. Open-mindedness is the basis of my being and dogma.

Michael: Growing up in the big city of Austin, he was introduced to so many forms of art. One of these being music. He’s been surrounded by music all of his life, from jazz to classical, which influenced most of his actions and choices. He began playing piano at the age of 5 and still continues to play to this day. For most of his life, he’s played piano. Nine years of musical education, which improved knowledge of the musical aspect of the world. He enjoys listening to music, which led him to listening to quality music with quality head-phones and technologies.

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Top 5 Albums of Today 5.Up All Night By One DirectionEven though they barely started this new band has impressed the country with the hit song “ What Makes You Beautiful. People give this album 4 out 5 stars.

4. New Life By Monica She diserces 4th top album of today because of her sining and becaue of her gospil singing that inspires many people. People give this album 4 out 5 stars.

3. Pink Friday: Roman Reload By Nicki Minaj After she maid her last album “Pink Friday” many people across the nation we iager to get there hands on her new album and many of her songs were great hits. People give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.

2. 21 By Adele This album is albulm is still in the top list because of her great sining and her songs. Even thought this album is still old people still give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.


Top 5 Albums of Today 1.Tuskegee By Lionel RichieIn this album it has many great songs. With every song that Lionel Richie sings he shares his genius with many other artis like Blake Shelton, Jason Aldean, Darius Rucker, and many more. People give this album 4,5 stars out of 5 and thats why it diserves to be number 1 in today’s music.

By Oscar Ortuno

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Why Austin Will Never Stop Producing Young Bands and Why It’s So Easy to Start One

Austin Music Plays On and OnBY Evan Williams

F inding bands in Austin is as easy as finding cabs in New York. They’re always

there, will always be there, and will never stop blasting your ear holes. And be you buzzed or dizzy, just stopping to listen will ensure you that Austin is truly the Live Music Capital of the World. People from around the world come to play and listen to all the types of music that Austin has to offer. For larger tour-ing bands, that time comes around September during The Austin City Limits Music Festival(because the town is put on lock down for that weekend). But during the outra-geous week of spring break and South By South West, small bands

and poor people crawl out their homes wielding guitars, sharpened drumsticks, and shields to over-throw the English Arm-- I mean to overtake the fortress of loud speakers that is the official “South By.” And with young bands pop-ping out of garages or old bands returning home after a tour, there is no night in any other city that can compare to nights in Austin As the number of people drop-ping their lives and picking up a guitar is rising, it’s getting hard-er to compete for a gig. But that doesn’t stop all those teenagers and old timers from getting up there and entertaining people. Just check the back of a copy of The

Austin Chronicle and you can find over a hundred bands, waiting to play at bars, restaurants and cafes, or you can track a band or city on soundkick.com to see where they are playing next or whats playing in your city. And that’s why it’s so easy to find music on any night and why we dominate other cities in live music. But that’s another topic. Right now I want to touch on why its so easy to kick start a band here than it is in other large cities, or in the small ones. The answer: hipster-ness. I know it is most likely not a word, but it’s true. People in Austin seem to come straight

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What Kot meant by this is that so many large bands came and tore up Austin, but the festival is really about all the young and rising bands that might soon be-come the next big thing. that might soon become the next big thing. To conclude this piece, the rea-son Austin is such a good city for bands to prosper is because of its people. We are comforting to bands and are always eager to find new ones. So next time yo are looking for a city to live in, or wondering where you should tour, think Austin, The blue dot in the red sea.

Picture fromQuote from Greg Kot in

“SXSW 2012: It’s a wrap” article on

www.39online.comGuitar from Author (Evan

Williams)

of bands entertain their customers. Some will be rappers that are new and popular and some will be in-die rock bands,.Long story short, there’s a lot of music playing in a lot of places. Thus, kids start creating their own group of hooligans and soon you have bands like Spoon, Bob Schneider, Patty Griffin, The Skunks, SPEAK, or Schmillion. To quote Greg Kot from the Hous-ton CW 39, recapping the “SXSW 2012”.

“But mostly this was about the 2,000 bands or artists who aren’t Springsteen, the up-and-comers who could be next in line to make life-changing music.”

from the organic side of L.A., ad-mit it. We search for that new or ob-scure band that sounds good or has a good theme. And that’s easiest to do with a young and innocent group of kids. Part of that has to do with our hangout spots. In larger cities, music venues tend to be more for the upper class, or people willing to spend over 10 bucks for a drink. In small towns, the farmers or “country folk” populate those zones, and they side less with the punk or up beat music that young people produce and more with the calming country rhymes that, personally, destroy my hearing tubes. But Austin’s bars are different. Places like Mohawk, Spi-derhouse, Emos, Stubbs, or Sixth Street in general, let a large variety

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BY Mason Crowell


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“I have never seen anything like it. Nor heard any noise to ap-proximate the cease-less, frantic, hysteri-cal scream which met the Beatles when they took the stage after what seemed a hun-dred years of earlier acts.”

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Were The Beatles Better off Together Or Apart?

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After 12 years of fame and glory in the sixties, The Beatles are still one of the

most popular and recognized bands today. They were just four teenag-ers that wanted make it big. In 1963 they first performed in the United Stated and swept the nation. They drove people mad with their music. Nobody could match them. They were the best band in the world. But at the end fame and glory can be shattered. In 1969 the band decided to go their separate ways and pursue solo careers. Today people still can’t forget about the Beatles. Paul McCart-ney and Ringo Starr are still alive. Could they possibly come back to-gether and start again? Many people think that they should still be to-gether and others say that they were better off working separately after they broke up. Many articles say that The Beatles should have stayed together longer. They had amazing an start and they should have had an amazing ending together. But after nonstop concerts and back to back tours who wouldn’t be tired? That’s what John Lennon felt. He was sick and tired of spending long hours without rest. Back when The Beatles were on top most of the world was in love with their music. “ I Want To Hold Your Hand” was released on Octo-ber 17th, 1963. It reached number one in the US and UK charts. Lat-er they went on to make millions. When The Beatles were together the band earned $360,000.00 for

their first American tour. When the band separated they made almost the same money as solo artists as they did when they were together as a group. When it came to their music they were original and touched the heart of people. They had amazing songs like “Please Please Me”, “All My Loving”, and “In My Life.” Nobody could sing as well as them. The ge-niuses behind their music were John Lennon and Paul McCartney. They were very creative But John and Paul were not the only ones with great ideas. Ringo and George also contributed ideas to their mu-sic. In February, 2012 I went around asking people in Austin and many people still remember The Beatles, and they still think that they are still one of greatest bands that ever lived. Many people think that the band should had stayed together.

I believe The Beatles should have stayed together. They would have made more money together, written better songs together, and nobody would have been able to match them. Whether they got back together or not, they will al-ways be remembered as one of the greatest bands in history.

The Beatles

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A N e w V o i c e C a l l s

of the musician and not a major label. The market has ruled out speculative record labels in their attempts to put out what people might listen to. Now the market is about to determine whether musicians can use new tech-nology to handle economics on their own or not

By Mason Crowell

The traditional music marketing system based on the concept of music

and artist as a product is slowly dying. This antiquated system is being replaced with rapidly emerging technologies and the Internet where anyone can create music and make it public without the support and unwanted influ-ences of a major label. An art-ist’s opportunities are no longer exclusively tied to a major record labels’ whims and predictions of what will become popular based on marketing studies and focus groups. The World Wide Web be-comes a portal to a truly open and democratic means to allow more talented musicians to be heard. Far too often, record labels have squandered the genius of prolific musicians by deciding what was to be produced and how it was going to be produced before the songwriters could produce it. The goal of the star-making machinery of the industry was to make music that would sell to the masses. An experienced musician in the industry, David Byrne, for-mer band member of The Talking Heads, said big labels constricted his artistic potential, saying, “I’ve had creative freedom, and I’ve been pressured to make hits.” This marketing strategy is bound to fail with an imbalance between talent, producers, and consumers.

Major record labels have been going out of business or have been sold due to their diminishing mar-keting attempts. For example, The Irish Times reported that EMI’s recorded music division would be absorbed into Universal Music Group. Soon, there will be few ma-jor labels left, all the righteous vic-tims of proactive departure from the muscic industry. This is all the better for the new wave of music production. With computers and recording innovations, the art of music production can be left to the musicians. The means of produc-tion are now in the hands of the people. Apple, Inc. is including Garageband in all of Apple’s new computers, and even on its mobile devices, like iPads. Musicians no longer need outlets to third par-ties to cover expensive production costs. Music can be produced and distributed on the Internet to an open market from the comfort of a sofa at home. Music can be unprofessionally published on sites like Sound Cloud where any sound file can be added for prospec-tive listening in a short uploading process. With musicians staying true to their art and making their music available without the complications of a profoundly intricate music in-dustry, there will be a revival of the music market. The responsibility of spreading music will solely be that

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Records Survive in iTunesiTunes, preserving records and old music since 2001

If you’re one of the 240 million plus people who own an iPod, then you probably know about

iTunes and how it works. What you may not know is how the creators of iTunes revolutionized the industry of music by getting rid of the incon-venience of going to a traditional music retailer to buy music and eliminating the nuisance of buying

a whole album just to hear that one song you love. Traditional music stores were the common way of get-ting music a decade ago. Now many people prefer to buy songs over the internet via iTunes. Going to a music store, like Wa-terloo Records in Austin, instead of buying songs from iTunes would be very inconvenient. You first have

“Records are dinosaurs.”

Photo taken by Leslie Wong. Edited by M

Ichael Foelker

to get there, and then find the mu-sic you like in an array of disorga-nized CD’s and albums, and then wait while other people buy their music in the one register line. Some people may like browsing a music store, but you can also do the same thing on iTunes or Amazon from the comfort of your own home. James Diener, CEO and President of A&M/Octone Records, said that be-cause of iTunes, “no longer did ra-bid fans need to form a line in front of a music store to get their favorite album, then play it once they got home: they could [buy] it at home and listen instantaneously.” Since most people have internet, buying

songs from iTunes is now more of an option than ever. iTunes makes buying music easy and convenient for the customer and charges a rea-sonable price for the whole album or just one song. I prefer iTunes to a music store because I don’t see any reason to go to a store or buy the exact same thing from the comfort your own home. At a music store, buying an album for the one song that a particular person liked could be very annoy-ing and frustrating. This was the only way it could be done in a music store. iTunes changed the game by

This is the inside of an iPod. I photoshpped a record in-side the circular area to make it look like a record player.

BY Michael Foelker


This is a picture of Waterloo Records that I mentioned.

Photo taken by Ray T. Kuhn

making it possible to preview and select which song in the album that you want. Some artists complain of iTunes unbundling the album which in turn diminishes the work. But Bill Werde, editorial director at Billboard, said that it was, “the mu-sic fan that unbundled the album, by…responding to this new way to experience their music.” I think it’s so much better to buy that one song you like instead of buying the whole album, listening to that one song only, and never listening to the other songs, which just get in the way of the other songs you’d like to hear. To me, buying an entire album for one song is a waste of money, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks this. Many people think that iTunes and the other digital music sell-ers are the reason for the closings of the different record megastores, and they’re right. The world is go-

Photo made in Paint by M

ichael Foelker

This is an iPod that I made in Paint. It is a fourth generation iPod hence the camera.

ing digital and one of the costs of living digital is that hardcopies of music, like CD’s and records are old news. “The large retail music store is a dinosaur,” says Tony Belichm a former Virgin employee. As of 2006 and 2009 Tower Records and Virgin Records America closed down their last megastores. I’m never happy to see a music store go down, but I think that is just one of the few costs of living digital.

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I’m sure many will agree that the trombone is an adreneline rushing, eardrum crushing, musical machine. These are great for pep rallies and cool songs.

Tuba rocks the world of bass. With its low frequency notes it leads the songs at football games and at pep rallies. It’s a great instrument for rocking the world of every musician. The snare drum. This instrument leads the band with

its rhythmic tapping of its owner, the percussionist. This keeps the tempo and makes a great sound to jam to, yet they always seem to have egotistical views on everything.

The alto sax is one of the lesser instruments of the band. Yes, this musi-cal tool rules the jazz world, but when it comes to classical, many of the saxophonists squeal and squeak excessively. Though I do give credit to them for being very saxy.

BEST TO WORST:BAND INSTRUMENTS

The trumpet is a wonderfully crafted instrument met with swag at the same time. It’s radiant sound is carried throughout the whole music hall, most likely Carnegie, every time it’s played.

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BY Michael Foelker

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TheRecordBreaking Friendship BY Evan Williams

A small record store in Austin is changing the game


any records from all types of genres can be found at this record shop in a small alley off of South Congress. Friends of Sound this is, a sec-ond hand record shop where it’s easy to buy, sell and trade re-cords with no chance of being disappointed “…we embrace all people and music...” Martin the Owner of the store said. Being in that small alley makes it seem almost impos-sible to find, but that’s only a speed bump to the audiophiles or scavengers that go into the store. Luckily they have a giant sign that hangs over the street. “Sure, I wish we were on the street. But the rent would be so much higher, and people still manage to find us.” He says, and even if they are a little bit of the mainland, Friends of Sound still contributes to the,

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“Cool vibe of the block”

of the SoCo culture. That’s exactly what they do, especially during the week of South By Southwest, where peo-ple fill even the streets of Austin, and Friends of Sound is one of the many reasons. “It is like our “holiday retail

rush”. So, we are always happy for it to come and exhausted once it goes.” Martin says Even with all the people com-ing and going, buying and selling records, learning about rare art-ists. Friends of Sound still man-ages not to run out of records. The store began when Martin’s personal record collection got past a point he couldn’t handle. From there it took off “My collection got to the point, 20,000 Lps, [I realized] that I needed to start selling re-cords to maintain my sanity. I started the record store with 13,000 of my own records.” He said And being second-hand, Martin says that even though it would be easy to grab an amaz-ing collection, “…we strive to provide the best possible music to our customers.” But they make it easy to buy things they crave, with a system that bases the sale on how many copies of the Lp were produced. “Price is determined by sup-ply and demand. The Lps that are $1 were “hits” and produced in mass quantity.” He said So far this system has paid off. on the website Yelp.com, almost every rating has said that Friends of Sound has great prices and

great people. With the stores contents, Friends of Sound is known for containing records that are rare and hard to stumble upon. Whether it's a small time rapper, an old singer, or an extinct band, chances are you’ll find it there. “We pride ourselves on hav-ing items available that few and sometimes no other retailers will have.” Martin said In the end, this record store a high-quality find. With gnarly people, sick collections and smooth listening.

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oft music drifts outside the Mockingbird Café like a cool breeze. Inside, Lee Duffy, president of the Austin Songwriters Group (ASG), hands out lyric sheets to 20 musicians who sit in a circle with guitars at their sides. A tall, thin blonde, Duffy glides across the hard-wood floor with the poise and grace of a ballet dancer. She in-troduces the next brave soul who’s willing to reveal his heartstrings through his latest song. When the music fades, the listeners write their comments on the lyric sheet, then discuss their suggestions with the anxious songwriter. These tal-ents gather at the Song Doctor ses-sions every Tuesday night at the Mockingbird Café. This is where Duffy has created a sacred place that has given a voice to budding musicians. But this is only one of several events she organizes where songwriters of all ages can perform and get feedback from profession-als in the music industry.A part of her mission, she also co-ordinates the annual Songwriters’ Symposium that attracts commer-cial music business representa-tives from Nashville, Los Angeles and New York who come to Austin looking for the next big hit. Duffy invites successful, award-winning local and Nashville songwriters to hold sessions that teach people how to write a commercial song that gets played on the radio, how

to pitch to a publisher, how to im-prove performance, how to finance and market projects, and what goes on behind the scenes in the music industry. Other sessions include song critiques, mentoring, and song circles.Duffy, a singer and a songwriter in her own right who has performed and recorded with musical genius-es Willie Nelson and Merle Hag-gard, saw the need for this type of event many years ago. Speaking in a golden-toned voice as smooth as silk, she explained her motivation for establishing the Annual Song-writers’ Symposium, now in its tenth year.“People write songs for a variety of reasons,” she said. “Some do it for the money, some do it for therapy and some do it because they ‘have to.’”Austin may have the reputation for being the “Live Music Capital of the World,” but Duffy says the city lacked an event where songwriters could gather in an informal, inti-mate setting and learn from experi-enced professionals.“We needed a camp for songwrit-ers because there is absolutely no industry in Austin. If you’re going to be a songwriter, you need to be where the industry is. If you’re not living in Nashville or L.A., you have to be there every month of six weeks to meet with industry repre-sentatives on a one-on-one basis, so

when you call them it won’t be like a cold call. We just want songwrit-ers to have every opportunity and access to outlets for their songs,” she explained.Duffy regrets that songwriters in Texas have no representation from national music publishers BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC.“NO one out there is looking for artists. The only music industry we have in Austin makes their liv-ing off of the artists, like managers, promoters and booking agents,” she said.Duffy solved that problem by call-ing some established songwriters that she’d known for years, such as Kimmie Rhodes, Sonny Throck-morton, Will Sexton, Bill and Ruth Carter, and Jim Photoglo. She also invited several Nashville publish-ers to come and teach classes.”At the end of the day of classes and showcases, we’d have pickin’ parties that lasted through the night. The first year we had 40 people at the Symposium. We had almost as many instructors as we had attend-ees. This year, we had well over 200 attendees,” she said.Although Duffy began her profes-sional singing career in 1975 as the lead vocalist for the Geezinslaw Brothers and her own band, The Leonard Mitchell Band, which of-ten had gigs at the Armadillo World Headquarters, she left that life once she had kids. Because she never

Lee Duffy Helps Songwriters Find Their Place

Deep in the Soul Of

BY Mason Crowell

S

Austin


considered herself as a musician, letting go of that life for her chil-dren was worth it to her.“I raised my kids and if you do a good job, they leave,” she laughs. She saw her children succeed and her martial artist husband go from brown belt to 7th-degree black belt. “It seemed like everybody had pro-gressed except me,” said Duffy.She made a wish list of 10 things she wanted to do, such as perform-ing at Willie Nelson’s Fourth of July picnic, which she had done 10 years before. She also wished she could be in Willie’s studio, have a weekly gig, play with Floyd Domino and Gabe Rhodes, write her own songs and record her own CD.“I was just trying to figure out what I was going to do with myself again so I made that list and within eight months, all ten of them came true,” she said.This moment was her revival. It was

imminent and led to her way per-forming again. She let serendipity be her guide.“One day I was singing one of my songs and Gabe Rhodes said, ’Whose song is that?’ And I said I had made it up and he said, ‘That’s a great song, Lee. That’s a commer-cial song!’”Not long after, she was playing a weekly gig at the Texicalli Grill when a friend caught her act and invited her to play at Willie Nel-

son’s picnic concert. Another night, someone made her another offer that was right off her wish list—to re-cord with someone famous. She got to sing harmony and perform one of her original songs on the album, “Gunslingers,” with Will Sexton and Stephen Doster. They picked her song to be their radio single.But Duffy wasn’t in the commer-cial music business only for her-self. She wanted to be of service to other musicians and songwriters. So she became involved in the Austin Songwriters Group and the Song Doctor sessions, both are devoted to teaching others how to fine-tune their songwriting. During the Song Doctor sessions, songwriters per-form for experienced and successful musicians and attendees who cri-tique their songs and performance more honestly than would family or friends.“Song Doctor nights are my favor-

ite thing because artists can get some real feedback and you get a chance to see what kind of emotions the song will bring up for others,” she said. There’s something about having 25 artists play in a little room where people can really lis-ten because nobody is sell-ing beer or making noise.”This group is known for being supportive, caring, and respectful of each oth-er’s work. Duffy assures newcomers that, “There’s

nobody here who is go-ing to blow somebody’s

light out to make them self seem brighter.”Duffy has succeeded in her mission to serve songwriters and musi-cians of all ages, but she’d not finished yet. She’s always thinking of ways to encourage young talent and has been thinking about offering a weekly Sat-urday session to high

school students or younger who’d like to be involved in creating an original musical. Duffy envisions young set designers, songwriters,performers, scriptwriters, costume designers and other creative types meeting to produce and perform their own musical. And if anyone can make dreams come true, it’s Lee Duffy. If you’re interested in pro-ducing an original musical, or would like more information about the Austin Songwriters Group or to contact Duffy, go to www.austin-songwritersgroup.com or call 512-698-4237. The free Song Doctor sessions meet every Tuesday night from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Mockingbird Café, 3800 Woodbury, Austin, 78704.

The Mockingbird Cafe where the songwriters meet. Leee Duffy Pictured Below

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Album Reviews

Well Done indeed Action Bronson. With a voice like Ghostface Killah, Bronson makes one mean, lean, rapping piece. This album has quality lyrics and retro beats blended well. Bron-son seems to be going HAM the whole time.

Well Done The OF Tape Vol. 2You might say Odd Future is just a bunch of hooligans rapping about rape, drugs and messing with people. Guess what, thats exactly what it is. And its working for them. On this album some songs are great and other times they’re annoy-ing.

By Le Sera, it sort of sounds like the kind of mu-sic you spin as you relax. Very calm and peaceful. Best song i beleive to be “Please Be My Third Eye”.

Sees the LightWild Flag, the first album from the band Wild flag, an all girl rock group. If you like loud girls and kick-ass guitar then this is your album

Wild Flag

It’s calm, smooth, and leaves with a relaxing silence.

A Wasteland Companion

41 tracks in 69 1/2 minutes. Featuring almost 40 people such as indie rappers, Myspace MC’s, one liners, ect. With awesome beats and great lyrics it deserves an Oscar.

Quakers

BY Evan Williams


I’m not going to side with this one, by Torche. To me it sounds like someone pooped the bed, and when I’m listening to it I feel the need to punch things like babies or adorable puppies. But, there are some good guitar solos.

Harmonicraft NootropicsBy the Lower Dens, this album is soft but strong. The vocals resemble Beach House, in that they’re smooth and every word is dragged out. It goes hard

Devin, who i recently stumbled upon, takes music back to the punk and rock era. Romancing has great songs that get you up and going like “Your Mine”. Best if you like loud vocals.

Romancing

E-40 dropped 60 tracks recently on this album, en-suring us that he’s a hungry dragon. Some of tracks are weird (mostly when E-40 isn’t on the mic), but most of them have rhythms that bob your head for you and lyrics that kill. And just look at that cover.

The Block Brochure

Screaming Femals is ex-actly what it sounds like. Some of the songs on this album are bleeding with quality like “Rotten Apple”. Complete with guitar and loud females.

UglyDeath Grips, who i have never heard of till’ this album, is really, really awesome. If you love a deep voice that recks shop and crazy beats that scare you this album is your soulmate.

The Money Store

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Behind the Music

Microphone

By F

lickr


fter a student finished performing his song on his guitar, another student in the class raised his hand and says, “I like your song and if you do some certain things to make your song short people would enjoy it more. Also people would like to listen to it over and over again”. Snyder’s “Songwriting” class is a class at LASA that students use to express themselves and to get credit for the work they have done. Four years ago Snyder wasn’t the teacher of this class, it was previously thought by Matt Kelly. After Matt Kelly left Snyder decided to take over the class. But before he was the songwriting teacher he said, “I brought songwriting from McCallum.” But with class that was based on creativity, students faced many problems. “When they hear they have to perform in front of each other in a couple weeks they mostly drop,” Snyder said, “the class level gets pretty low, and I’m always afraid we’re not going to have enough to make the class and they’ll have to cut the class.” Snyder isn’t just another teacher that offered to take over the class and has to deal with teaching students about songwriting just from a book. Snyder enjoys

teaching the class and likes to help students with their music. “It’s probably the best thing I do all day he said, ” He really enjoys the creativity of all of his students. “I get to hear students make music and watch them play with each other, and the best music comes from teenagers, it always has,” Snyder said, “I’m crazy about my students music crazy , love it. Snyder’s class is based on a three week cycle. Students have two weeks to write their songs and on the last week they perform t songs in front of the class. After a student is done performing his song the rest of the class gives constructive criticism. “They want to see what happens [with their song] and they learn what they did wrong,” Mr. Snyder said. Snyder likes to give his students space and freedom to write any type of song whatever they feel and are inspired by. “The main thing I can do is to give them space and don’t censor it,” he said “They’re not writing songs to impress a teacher there writing songs to express themselves and to communicate with one each other,” said Mr. Snyder. For Snyder, songwriting is art “Students that take wind liking it and once you stick around stick

around and it’s pretty hard core and it works our great”. And for students as well as Mr. Snyder enjoy the class. “It’s a challenge, and I like to be challenged,” said Sandra Carballo ,” It’s really great and it’s something that makes you get up and make something”. For students that need help with their creativity and their songs like Sarah Kuhns, “Songwriting” is the right place to be in. Students at LASA should try songwriting class to show and receive credit for their work they have done. Also first timers that try to go to into the class like me and to see what they do in the class is a great experience. A student said, “ It’s the best class you could ever take,” said Sarah Kuhns.

ABehind the Music

BY Oscar Ortuno What goes inside the “Song Writing” class

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evil (or “Debbil” music as native East Texans call it) music blasted throughout the tiny jazz club that night, attracting unwanted atten-tion. Not even ten measures into the band’s next song, every single cop in the entire city sur-rounded the hicktown club. Dripping with sweat, the police shouted through their megaphones for everyone to shut up and get out. Tim Girardot, the band’s drummer, is a long way from where he started playing piano. “I started piano when I was six, because I kept going over and pounding on the thing until my Mom said, You need lessons, so you stop bang-ing on the piano”, he says. Tim Girardot has been playing piano most of his life. He’s had much musical training and tri-als, and throughout his journey he’s had many pleasures and adventures with family and friends. This is his story. Tim says he started out playing John Thopson method books/classical. This is what most people start out playing as a beginning piano player. Players usually get very annoyed and bored with this genre very quickly and would rather move on to another type of mu-sic that’s more interesting, like jazz or rock. “[Classical] was all I played until I was about 12,” Girardot says, “then I was introduced to blues and jazz. I got bored mainly because I couldn’t play well enough to enjoy what I was playing.” One day his brother came home from college and showed him the blues scale. Tim was so into it that he wouldn’t stop playing it, and then his teacher gave him some jazz pieces. Before he was able to play the more interesting type of music, jazz, he first had to have a firm grasp on

BY Michael FoelkerStruck A ChordTim Girardot’s music life in a flash

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classical, which was to his teacher’s liking. “[The music I play now] was a log-ical progression from blues to jazz to funk, and many places in between”, he says, “ I was exposed to a huge variety of music once I got to col-lege, and that pretty much set me on an exploratory path through my life.” The music that he plays now main-ly relates to funk/jazz and some clas-sical. His band named Ugly Elephant plays this sort of style of funk/jazz. This sort of style came from listening to different types of music and ex-panding his range of music greatly. He says, “Heck yes I teach, it beats working!” Aside from being a teacher at Austin School of Music, Tim is also very involved with this local band he formed called Ugly Elephant. “I’m at my happiest when I’m rocking out with my band,” says Gi-rardot. Out on the road with his band, Tim

has had many experiences ranging from good to bad, starting with some of the worst. “With my current band, we played a show at an incredibly creepy club in Houston that not only looked like a carnival had crashed into a vintage costume shop; the place stank of mold and dirty feet”, he remembers. He also he had the misfortune of seeing a 10 foot Cabbage Patch doll, questionable chili, and a dirty hippy who lived at the Houston club. He said he never knew that, “dishes could LURK, but there they were, lurking and stinking in the darkness.” These miscongenialities were just a few inhospitable findings of the club, but there were other times that were better for him. “I played trombone in high school, and once at a UIL competition I made a 1 on my solo, so I played for the big Honors Recital. It was in a huge hall, lots of people,” he said, “I walked out onto stage, got ready to

play, and realized my valve was full. Without thinking, I released the spit ALL over the stage, and didn’t really think about it until I heard the whole crowd say “Ewww!” The funniest part is, the next group to perform was a vocal group, and they formed a semicircle AROUND the pool of grossness!” Funny stories always followed him wherever he went, and there was always some point in his life where music taught him. He remains to play and teach he says , “To remain alive. I literally cannot live without [music].”

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LINKS PAGEMichael Foelker http://www.music123.com/brass-instruments/bach-d180-stradivarius-series-d-trumpet http://www.musiciansfriend.com/brass-instruments/miraphone-m7000l-ambassador-lacquer-eeb-tuba http://www.musiciansfriend.com/brass-instruments/bach-50t3-stradivarius-professional-bass-trombone http://www.musiciansfriend.com/concert-percussion/yamaha-css1455-concert-steel-snare-drum-with-ss745a-stand http://www.musiciansfriend.com/woodwinds/prelude-by-conn-selmer-student-model-alto-saxophone Oscar M http://www.arteyfotografia.com.ar/1823/fotos/13156/ http://www.fotopedia.com/items/flickr-2657548010 http://dimland.blogspot.com/2010_12_01_archive.html http://ja.fotopedia.com/items/flickr-49202739 http://www.fotopedia.com/items/flickr-2645653731 http://hd-wallpaper.co/celebrities/british-boyband-one-direction/ http://theurbandaily.com/1905194/monica-new-life-album-first-listen-new-music/ http://www.karencivil.com/2012/03/16/nicki-minaj-announces-official-tracklisting-for-pink-friday-roman-reloaded/ http://beatwolf.com/news/adele-beats-pink-floyd/ http://gfextra.wordpress.com/2012/03/14/lionel-richie-tuskegee-2012/


Evan Williams

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